Why do most Filipinos tend to be too sentimental?

JUN MONTEBON, PARAÑAQUE CITY: It’s in the genes and conditioning, too. Verily, we are the combined product of our former colonialists and the current telenovelas.

CARMELA RAMENTO, CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY: When hopelessness strikes, the Pinoy’s sentimentality is at its best as it surrenders everything to God’s infinite mercy and good graces.   

Happy, easygoing people

Rodolfo Talledo, Angeles City: We are easy to shed copious tears in the same manner that we are easy to please and smile. Pinoys are simply light-hearted and easygoing.

Leonard Villa, Batac City: I think the question is misplaced considering that Filipinos are one of the happiest people in the world, as per previous international surveys.

Jayson Biadog, Mandaluyong City: Yes, we are, and it is a good culture that is recognized around the world. That’s why we are considered a happy people. 

Close family ties

Ruben Viray, Antipolo City: Because of close family ties. Parents tend to care so much for their children and their children’s children, with too much emotional attachments rather than reason or thought. Filipino values also tend to border on emotional idealism rather than the truth, due to sensitivity and personal feelings. We also tend to be very onion-skinned and to easily get hurt by criticism and negative comments. Filipinos are God-loving and a very religious people, and sentimentality remains high.

C.B. Manalastas, Manila: Filipinos tend to be too sentimental particularly in dealing with the loss of a loved one. This is mainly due to close family ties and friendship.

Manny Cordeta, Marikina City: It’s almost inherent in every Filipino to be easily overwhelmed by emotion, which is one feature/characteristic that readily distinguishes us from other cultures. I’d attribute this to the majority of us being clannish, as best exemplified during joyous celebrations, i.e. birthdays, nuptials, baptism, etc. Occasionally, long-lost, unseen relatives sort of reunite, in an unlikely, unscheduled sad gathering during wakes of dead kin. It must have been ingrained in the Pinoys’ system that, in the vernacular: “Kadalasan, mababaw ang ating luha”.

Raymar Gurrea, Bacolod City: Kahit na sa anong bagay, likas na masentimiyento ang mga Pinoy. One big proof is family bonding, tight friendships is another.

Ruel Bautista, Laguna: Every Filipino parent has the tendency to be overprotective over their offspring. Add our deep family ties and surely, a sentimental person is produced.

Abelardo Abilay, Laguna: It is almost always about our culture. The question is, how did we become sentimental? It is said that “For where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also.” What are some aspects that Filipinos treasure most? We treasure God, our nation, our families, our friends, and our triumphs. As a result, we tend to hold on to memories and keepsakes. Hence, we are regarded as sentimental or nostalgic. 

Runs through our veins

Elizabeth Oximer, Negros Occidental: We got our intense feelings from our Spanish forebears. We love hard, we hate harder.

Armando Tavera, Las Piñas City: We give value to anything that is important to us. Our forefathers nurtured this trait in us, and it is carried on to this day. 

We lack a good education

Felix Ramento, USA: It is a general reflection of our character as a people, traceable to our customs and traditions, religious beliefs, and level of literacy. People with a higher degree of intelligence and enlightenment tend to be less sentimental, though.

Rey Ibalan, Antipolo City: Grade 4 is the average education of Filipinos, according to a study. People who lack good education tend to be inferior and sentimental.

Louella Brown, Baguio City: Most Filipinos tend to be too sentimental because of poverty, lack of formal education, and an uncertain future. 

Expressive

Robert Young Jr., San Juan: Human beings are sentimental in general. Maybe Filipinos are just more open about expressing their sentiments, like grief, love, happiness, or anger, in public compared with other races. Filipino men are not ashamed to cry in public. Filipino wives are not afraid to scandalize their husbands who commit infidelities. It could be a cultural thing.

Ella Arenas, Pangasinan: Maybe because we are also romantic and expressive of our feelings and we love to reminisce and cherish the beautiful things and memories that we have, something that gives us joy.

Lorenzo Fernandez Jr., Cabanatuan City: Emosyonal talaga ang mga Pilipino. Kung ito’y nalulungkot o umiiyak, napapamura. Kung masaya naman at nakikipagtsismisan o nakikipagtagayan, napapamura. Kung may lindol o tsunami, tinatawag niyang lahat ang mga santo, pero may kasamang mura. Pati mga anak, minumura. Speak wisdom to them, and their immediate reaction is anger, may kasama rin mura. Hay, buhay Pinoy!

Jose Fabello Jr., Cagayan de Oro City: Filipinos in general share in common the penchant for shedding tears. These do not cost anything but are spent more in expressing things we cannot adequately say in words. 

We keep looking back

Manuel Abejero, Pangasinan: The Filipino is like a driver of a dilapidated vehicle. He is moving slowly forward because, most of the time, he is looking at the rear view mirror. Just imagine! The themes of movies and telenovelas that my housemates watch on TV are the same themes and plots I watched even when I was younger, the only difference being the setting and the actors. We have young actors and actresses doing the roles meant for adults. We always dwell on things that are emotional and traditional. Since the majority are more emotional and traditional than logical, we’ve stagnated. Totoong ang taong hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan, hindi makararating sa paroroonan. Pero baka sa kalilingon mo madadalas kang madapa naman sa daan. 

Inferiority complex

Ricardo Tolentino, Laoag City: We are sentimental because we have feelings of self-pity. We think that we are the poorest, even when we are not.

Joel Caluag, Bulacan: Most probably due to colonial mentality, which is still harbored by most Filipinos. Unconsciously, most Pinoys have an inferiority complex towards foreigners. 

Humility

Cris Rivera, Rizal: It is the result of our being a humble lot. Our humility makes us susceptible to emotion, giving more to feeling than logical reasoning. 

Pathetic

Dr. Francis Regalado, Manila: It’s a one-of-a-kind pathetic attitude. Sentimental citizens forever whine about how unfair their lives have been. Well, it may have escaped their notice but life isn’t fair. They should move on, and do what is right. They should be educated, especially the masses, who are too much sentimentally gullible to the woes of corrupt officials, to the extent that they get frequently duped. This is evidenced by our mediocre governance and society. 

Virtue of the working class

Elpidio Que, Vigan: To say that most Filipinos tend to be sentimental is grossly not true. Only a few, who are mostly in the working class, are still sentimental. These are the few that still value the virtues of their forebears of loving and respecting their parents, families and fellowmen, and those who are latched on komiks love stories and telenovelas on television. Most of those in the ruling class are thick-faced, with black hearts, who are callous as vultures to their fellow Filipinos. 

Too much TV

Diony Yap, Bacolod City: It’s because most family members spend too much time watching telenovelas on TV.

Pedro Alagano Sr., Vigan City: It is human nature not only for Filipinos to be sentimental. However, most Pinoys who are too sentimental are influenced by teleserye/nobelas aired by competing TV stations like Kapamilya-ABS-CBN, Kapuso-GMA or Kapatid-TV5, respectively. 

Since time immemorial

Germi Sison, Cabanatuan City: It will entail a long essay to describe Filipino sentimentalism. Filipinos were sentimentalists before the Spaniards came, but even then, there were already hints of hypocrisy and trickery. Filipino sentimentalism was still very much alive when President Manuel Quezon declared a preference for a government run like hell by Filipinos rather than run like heaven by Americans. Though sentimentalism is more of a spiritual value, the disadvantages are stagnation and beliefs founded on hearsay and pagan practices and traditions. If sentimentalism is only going back to the basics of pure spiritual value, we would care less even during times of calamity and upheaval. 

Fruit of our sad past

Ishmael Calata, Parañaque City: We are, indeed, a sentimental people! Many a time has it been spoken of and written about that sentimentalism has been ingrained in our culture as a pathognomonic sign of a sad past in our history, resulting from our having been colonialized by foreign powers. We were, for more than three and a half centuries, maltreated and discriminated against by the Spanish colonialists; for a half century under the Americans who, for part of the time, forbade us even to sing our national anthem; and for more than three years’ occupation by the Japanese imperial army when the nation experienced extreme harsh conditions in life. Although Lupang Hinirang is in a marching tempo, its lyrics give away a dirge that manifests a national sentimental feeling! And so, even today, many of the traditional Filipino kundiman and classical songs composed by our known musicians up to recently lend a sentimental air. Even the fiction by our writers tell of maltreatment and sorrowful situations of the main characters! 

An Asian trait

William Gonzaga, Marikina City: Such characteristics seem to be generally prevalent among Asians, particularly Orientals, which include us, Filipinos. It can be owed to strong family ties, which influence us to stick with relatives and friends come what may. However, the younger generation has imbibed Western culture so much that many of them become less sentimental than we, the fading generation.

Romeo Caubat, Masbate: It can be the loss of an expected income if someone close to us suddenly dies, plus the fact that Oriental people are known to be too sentimental. 

We’re not the only ones

Elmo Cruz, Manila: Not only Filipinos are sentimentalists but also other nationalities. Sentimentalism is associated with idealism and detached from materialism. Most Filipinos, from all levels of social and financial standing, value things even without any monetary equation. They believe and rely upon divine intervention rather than modern technologies. I also have firsthand experiences with many Western people who relive with nostalgia their glorious and sad past. Many Americans describe the difficulties they endured in the last century. They value their friends as treasures worth more than gold as Filipinos sentimentalists do.

Randolph Hallasgo, Misamis Oriental: As long as we have feelings, we tend to become too sentimental, regardless of race. 

Coping with loss

Miguelito Herrera, Cabanatuan City: Simply because many Pinoys shield things or objects which they feel are dear on earth. There’s nothing wrong with it. Being sentimental is one way of coping with a personal loss. 

Faith vs. materialism

Desuel Pardo, Mandaluyong City: Ang mga Pilipino ay madalasalin at dahil dito ay nadarama nila ang kapayapaan at kaayusan sa kabila ng mga kaguluhan at nagbabantang panganib sa kanilang buhay. Sa kanilang pananampalataya sa Diyos ay nakatitiyak sila ng kaligtasan.  

Latched on to memories

Edwin Castillo, Tanauan City: We hold on to things that have a special meaning in our lives since childhood. That is why we let them go with a heavy heart.

Dr. Jose Balcanao, Benguet: Most Filipinos tend to be too sentimental because they give importance or significance to all experiences they encountered in life, from childhood to the age of retirement. They value personal and historical survival through art, literature, music, painting, architecture and other forms of expression. 

Downside

Deo Durante, Camarines Sur: We can’t do away with our culture and being sentimental is part of it. With the advent of new technologies, little by little, we are dragged to a new world of understanding. Although it is good to be sentimental sometimes, this shows our real souls and feelings, as real human beings with a big heart, but not, I suppose, up to the extent of showing grief to sympathize in things which we believe are wrong.

Rene Poder, Manila: It can be harmful if it supersedes reason or if laws are bent or even broken due to sentimentality. 

Right-brained

Kolby Locano, Urdaneta City: The brain has a left lobe, the analytical/logical side, and a right lobe, which they say is the intuitive/perceptive side. Maybe Filipinos have more brain matter on the right side than on the left side? The same reason why we have a majority of sentimentalists and emotionalists na mahilig sa haka-haka (perception), and when the perceived outcome does not happen, they become emotional. 

Views expressed in this section do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The STAR. The STAR does not knowingly publish false information and may not be held liable for the views of readers exercising their right to free expression. The publication also reserves the right to edit contributions to this section as it sees fit. 

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