Disasters as the Catalyst for Bayanihan, Sakop, and Filipino Religiosity

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Mar 3

In an article entitled "Philippines: The Bayanihan spirit lives on during disasters" which is a report from the Government of the Philippines, narrated the local and international assistance received by individuals who were devastated by the typhoon 'Ondoy' (September 26, 2009).

Now, what can we infer from the article above? There are various meanings that can be inferred from the article, but what is immediately seen by the writer is the emergence of the concept of Bayanihan and Sakop in times of disaster, and in this case, a natural one. However, the research aims to show the convergence of Sakop and Filipino Religiosity in the concept of Bayanihan. As such, the writer's observation from the article above does not fit the research at all since the article lacks the religiosity part. But what is essential to the observation is that disasters act as a catalyst for the stronger manifestations of the concept of Bayanihan. So in order to show the convergence, we turn

to a man-made incidental disaster – a recent fire hit last Monday, March 11, 2019. In an article entitled "Fire hits residential area in Barangay Baesa in QC", made by Dona Magsino of GMA News Online, "around 300 houses and 900 families were affected. The cost of damage was estimated to reach P1.5 million"38. Now, a question may emerge in the mind of the reader of this research in the form of "what is so special about this article?" To be direct, the fire hit stated in the article was so close to the writer's house. Only the road where the fire trucks and firefighters positioned to neutralize the raging fire separated and shielded us. The article never told the experiences of the people of our barangay. As such, the writer will narrate a first-hand experience guided by phenomenology to impart and relate it to the concepts Bayanihan, Sakop, and Filipino Religiosity to satisfy the research.

Let us start the narration. The writer was there during the time when the fire was already raging. People were panicking, shouting the name of the Lord in the form of "Diyos ko Lord". As the people continue to panic and shout, the electrical wires suddenly went on fire. The people started to panic, even more, when the wires fell down. The writer almost made contact to the said wires which can cause sudden electric shock, several degrees of skin burn or most probably even death. The writer was separated with his significant other when the wires continue to fell down. She was pushed by the panicking people. But they were reunited in the house of the writer. From the house, the writer saw the fire growing even more. There were explosions, probably from the LPG tanks. As the fire continues to grow, even more, the writer saw the people of his community helping one another when other members are having the difficulty bringing their things outside their houses. The writer also saw people who prayed to the Divine with their rosaries and statues. At that moment, the writer, too, prostrated and pray to the Lord to ask for mercy on the barangay, protection from the fire, and a miracle to stop the fire. After several minutes of anxiously waiting for the fire to subsided, the writer went out of his house to see the actual status of the fire. There, he saw a crazy attempt of the people of the barangay to fill the emptied water tank of the fire truck. The writer asked someone to make sense why were they doing that. The person told the writer that the firefighters were having a shortage of water and it was difficult to find a source to fill their emptied tank. And so, the people started to pass the pails of water coming from several sources to those people are at the top of the mouth of the tank. The writer does not know if they completely filled it but what is certain is that the attempt of the people of the barangay helped the firefighters to exterminate the fire.

This first-hand narration of the writer's experience does not impose that the events with in the narration are absolute since the writer sees the events as how the events were shown to him. Errors in the said narration are bound to happen since the writer is not the only one who saw the event. But with the aide of phenomenology, as stated in the footnote above, the narration becomes legitimate since it was experienced by the writer first hand.

Now, the above narration of the first-hand experience of the writer and his community exhibited strong manifestations of the concept of Bayanihan which in turn acted as a conducere for Sakop and Filipino Religiosity. To understand it better, let us discuss accordingly. First, we start with Sakop. As mentioned earlier, the Filipino with the concept of Sakop "considers the success and welfare of the group as his own fulfillment". This is also true in the case of the writer's experience. Since the people of the barangay needed to save their house and themselves from the fire, they helped the firefighters to extinguish the fire, they acted for the welfare of the barangay and for themselves.

Now, we go to Filipino Religiosity. Previous discussions regarding the view of the Filipino to the Sacred and Profane and God were shown to the writer's narration of the fire hit: the writer's barangay members were praying to the Lord whilst hold to their rosaries and statues. The writer thinks that his fellowmen hold an immanent notion of the sacred since they believe that God's power resides with their rosaries and statues42.

Lastly, we go to the concept of Bayanihan and its role of conducere for Sakop and Filipino Religiosity. As narrated above, the people of the barangay banded together with the task of filling the emptied water tank of the fire truck to help the firefighters to extinguish the fire. Though it may not fully satisfy Imelda's notion of Bayanihan since it lacks the traditional part of kubo transferring, the act itself invoke the spirit of communal unity for "work and cooperation"4was there to achieve a certain goal, and that is the extinguishing of the fire. Now as for the role of conducere, the concept of Bayanihan invoke the Sakop of the people of the barangay to act for the welfare of the barangay. Here, Bayanihan and Sakop can be interchangeable for they share the commonality of acting like one for a certain cause. On the part of Filipino Religiosity, Bayanihan invokes the religiosity within and called for God while holding their rosaries and statues, proving the analysis that Filipinos view God immanently.

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