Michael Tan on Filipino resilience: 'True resilience allows people to thrive, not to languish'

In times of crisis, the word "resilience" often comes up when describing the spirit of Filipinos.

Our ability to smile and laugh in the face of hardships has been lauded time and time again, but in recent years, there has been some criticism of this view.

In an episode of "The Howie Severino Podcast," medical anthropologist Michael Tan said the narrative of resilience often ignores the stories behind photos of Filipinos having fun despite their homes getting submerged in flood.

"The most iconic photographs are those taken by foreign journalists. They love to do that," he said. "There's one in Asiaweek many years ago showing a group of men drinking in floodwaters, they set a table up in the floodwaters."

"Do they actually think that speaks of the Filipino? Do you see women drinking with the men? Of course not. They're probably at home saying, 'Ang walang hiyang mister ko, inuubos ang budget sa inom.'"

Tan said what often gets called resilience, such as smiling amid a disaster, is actually "learned helplessness," a term coined by psychologists who studied depression.

"They administered electric shock to dogs and then they found out [that] after a while dogs no longer whined. They just kept quiet. They learned to accept that they were totally helpless," he said.

Like the dogs, Tan said Filipinos have learned to simply accept their situation because they think they cannot do anything to change it.

"'Nandito na eh, sige tanggapin natin,'" he said. "True resilience allows people to thrive, not to languish. The things you see [with Filipinos] is passive acceptance na."

"They languish partly because they'll say, 'Talagang wala na tayong magagawa.' But if we really want to move forward, we do need to develop resilience because what we see is not resilience," he added.

Tan said resilience is when people feel empowered to do something to help their situation.

"Resilience comes when the government and the private sector come together to buffer the impact of disasters. So that people will have time and space to be able to think, 'Anong magagawa natin?'"

—Franchesca Viernes/MGP, GMA News