Filipino resiliency is a myth and always has been

FOR many of us Filipinos, resiliency is a familiar word that we have encountered multiple times throughout our lives. From a stricken family rising from the onslaught of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” and the Taal Volcano eruption, to teachers having to cross rampaging rivers just to deliver their printout modules to underserved students with the closure of public schools amid the pandemic. Headline after headline, story after story — the word “resilient” has emerged as a concept attributed in particular to the Philippines, evolving into the phrase “Filipino resiliency.” We seem to have been accustomed and desensitized to the calamities and disasters that have occurred in our unique geographical situation and current politico-economic state that we never even bother to question why Filipinos have had to be resilient in the first place.

It is a given that the Philippines is a country most prone to natural hazards and the existential risks of climate change, having an average of 20 typhoons pass through it every year, and considering our tectonic location within the Pacific Ring of Fire. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, storm surges, sea-level rise and prolonged droughts all threaten our populous shores and lands. And yet, knowing these predictable threats to our people and state, why do we always seem to share the same ongoing narrative about resilience year after year? Have we learned to be resilient at all or have we been fooled into thinking this way?