r/inthephilippines

I really believe that this is the elephant in the room that no one talks about. Part of the conflict that no one talks about is that both sides failed to comprehend one another's cultural languages, leading to conflict.

Tagalogs are culturally ambiverts. They have two worlds: the extrovert sphere that is intended for their inner sphere (friends and families) and the introvert sphere that is intended for formal settings (bosses, colleagues, strangers, general public, etc.)

Bisaya people on the other hand, are just extroverts. They are confident, talkative, happy go lucky and festive, always partying everywhere they go. Of course, there are individual Bisaya persons who are introverts, but we're talking of cultural extroversion here.

What happened is when there were plenty of Bisaya migrants who migrated in Metro Manila from the 70s through the 90s, they are not aware of the extrovert and introvert spheres of Manileños, and because of that, they have unknowingly violated the public sphere of interaction, where Manileños expect you to be more formal and more reserve. Bisaya, because of their extroversion, often say crude jokes and often tell stories to people that are still not close to them, that leads to Manileños perceiving Bisaya as "papansin", " pabida", "ma-eksena" and "mayabang".

On the other hand, the formal civility that Manileños displayed whenever they are in public was also misread by Bisaya migrants as " arogante", "hawod", " hilas/mapagmataas", etc. and this is exactly how the friction between these two ethnic groups started.

Another thing that cemented the rift between the two is the Bisaya culture of "pataka ug istorya" or saying exaggerated stories to make oneself look good, which is part of Bisaya humor, which Tagalogs and Manileños are not familiar of. For example, a Bisaya person might say "mayaman kami sa probinsiya, sampu ang kotse namin doon, mansyon ang bahay namin, etc." although this statement is exaggerated and probably not true, Manileños often misread and mistook it as "pagmamayabang", " paghahambog", "pagtataas sa sarili", and they were never aware that this thing was meant as a joke, because the Bisaya person never said so, because when two Bisaya are saying these statements, they automatically know that what the other is saying is definitely not true, and therefore, a joke.

So, a big part of this conflict is really due to cultural differences, especially when it comes to cultural introversion/extroversion, and knowing your place whenever you're in public or private.

Yesterday, Inabot kami ng baha as in pumasok na sya sa bahay namin and our house is kasing level lang ng kalsada sa labas and after humupa ng baha we cleaned up na diba. and I was ranting and ranting na "bakit naman ganto? taon-taon tayo binabaha tapos ang flood control nila is nagbubungkal lang ng lupa sa ilog" which worked naman for once lang ata since the year '24 binaha kami and nakalahati bahay namin at nagkasakit pa kami ng kapatid ko. then eto na I was ranting to my parents and sabi ba naman ng father ko masyado daw ako matalino? di ba pwedeng magrant? filipino resiliency should not be celebrated and imaged as is kasi kaya tayo resileint because walang kwenta gobyerno natin. there was an instance pa nga actually na I was planning to watch the SONA but the time get ahead of me at nakatulog ako sa super pagod since I have 6am class and pag gising ko tapos na and na off ako sa sinabi ng mother ko na okay na raw na di ako manood mamaya magaya pa ako sa tito ko (that always attend rallies) na activista and i cut her off by saying na "may masama ba don?" kasi tbf almost lahat ng basic privileges natin is fought in the streets such as the women's right to vote, our public hospitals, and so on and so forth. thats why i felt off

I'll start my statement with I'm aware that there are severe problems in our healthcare system. But that's not what I'm going to talk about today.

I'll start my story with one of our family friends named Ate Mercy, and she had severe issues with her heart and she consulted with a doctor. The doctor adviced that she will be needing a heart bypass surgery. So, we accompanied her and asked many private hospitals around Metro Manila and Cavite with regards to the cost of the procedure. She cannot afford to undergo a heart bypass surgery in any of the private hospitals. It will cost her hundreds of thousands of pesos. Until one day, a doctor from the Parañaque Community Hospital/Ospital ng Parañaque, offered help in her operation. The surgery was done in the Ospital ng Parañaque, and guess what? She incurred ZERO CHARGES in her hospital operation. Nada. Zero. But of course, the oral medicine for her recovery is not free. She has to purchase it. It only cost around ₱1,500-₱2,000, and now she is fully recovered, and forever thankful for the Ospital ng Parañaque for their kindness.

We also have Caviteño friends who have relatives that were confined, have undergone surgery and were treated in Cavite's Kalayaan Hospital, also free of charge. The only thing that's not free is the prescribed medicine needed for the recovery, which costs a few thousand pesos.

In the United States, if you're poor, and you need a major medical surgery, consider yourself dead. Again, if you're living in poverty and you'll need to undergo a major surgery or medical procedure, just consider yourself dead. Calling the ambulance alone costs thousands of dollars, let alone the bill that you will incur due to confinement and the cost of the procedure. Some Americans who are well-off who have undergone major procedures went bankrupt and became impoverished, because of how high their hospital bills are. Yes, there's a monthly deductible health insurance, but most of the time, those don't cover costs for major surgeries and procedures.

The major problem with Philippine healthcare is that, the number of hospitals, health centers, nurses and doctors are disproportionate low with regards to how high the Filipino population is, but those poor people who were able to get treatment, usually gets treatment at no added charge or cost.

If we can only bring up the number of hospitals, health centers, personnel and equipment to balance the ratio between patients and facilities as well as healthcare workers, we would have a very efficient healthcare system.