In light of recent events and challenges faced by the Filipino nation, “freedom" has become a

significant concept discussed in all sectors of society. It has been mentioned more than ever
perhaps due to the variety of issues and concerns that haunt the motherland- even extending
to environmental concerns and corruption. The idea of "freedom" might be seen as
insignificant, an abstract concept that is difficult to 'prove, or worse, a topic reserved only for
rhetorical discussions. This notion seems to be valid given the complexities of the social,
cultural, economic, and political aspects of our nation. This is compounded by the fact that the
opportunities to discuss freedom are very rare. “ However, before one dismiss the validity and
practicality of the issue, have we ever asked ourselves the fundamental question? How well do
understand freedom? What if the discussion on freedom is the missing component that would
make our nation great? S.K. Tan opined a concept of "primitive liberty,”which created a
progressive and bountiful period that helped lay down the foundation of different cultures and
belief systems as well as the governments and the laws that regulate the civilization of the
Filipino people. What was it that Magellan and the other conquistadores saw, which provoked
them to enslave a nation of great people?- Magellan, along with the simple premise national
interest, sovereignty, and identity more than the economics of things, can be substantial topics
worth discussing. However, no one would have the absolute capacity and the moral right to
deliberate upon the aforementioned topics unless one understands the essentials of freedom.
“Freedom is not free” is a passage written on the Korean War Memorial located in Washington
DC in the United States. During the Korean War from 1950-1953 a group of Filipino soldiers was
sent to South Korea as part of the United Nations contingent. Arguably, this could be the best
contribution that we could have offered because we were known to be a nation of great
warriors. In fact, Gen.Douglas MacArthur once famously said, “give me ten thousand Filipino
and Iwill conquer the world."MacArthur was really fascinated with the gallantry of our Filipino
soldiers during the World War II and, once again, this characteristic was demonstrated in the
midst of the Korean War.On the border of North and South Korea, there were many
contingents from different countries,including the Philippines,to protect South Korea from
North Korea.When the approximately 70,000 North Korean and Chinese soldiers attacked the
border,some contingents abandoned their post,but not the Filipinos.According to records,there
were about 4,000 members of the Filipino contingent,including non-combatant ones,but all of
them were able to hold the line until the reinforcements came.Gen.Fidel V.Ramos,former
Philippine President,can attest to what happened because he was part of said contingent

Understanding Freedom: An Attempt to Contextualize

The discourse on the indigenization of the social sciences- particularly where anthropology,
psychology, and sociology are concerned-along with the experiences, values, as well as
fundamental and associated ideals, have been in existence for a little over twenty years.
Indigenization was and continues to be a response to what many non-Western social scientists
perceive as the inability of Euro-American social science to constitute a relevant and liberating
discourse in the context of Asian, African, and Latin American societies (Van Bremen et al. ,
2004). This problem is exacerbated by the fact that much of social science literature in this feld,
which tackle the core values and fundamental principles, have been assimilated uncritically
outside of their countries of origin by students, lecturers, researchers, and planners. While the
problem of irrelevance and its concomitant issues raised in the discourse on indigenization had
been recognized by non- Western scholars as early as the beginning of this century, the term
“indigenization” has only become more popular since the 1970s. It could be said that
indigenization is a relatively new term, which addresses a problem that has already been
recognized quite some time ago (Van Bremen et. al., 2004). Throughout much of Asia and
Africa, the formative periods of the various disciplines of the social sciences and the institutions
in which they were taught were initiated and sustained by colonial scholars and administrators
since the eighteenth century. These were also taught by other Europeans-both directly and
indirectly-in vicariously colonized areas. In the Philippines, the first social science to be taught,
history, was introduced as early as in the seventeenth century, with anthropology,economics,
political science, psychology, and sociology emerging during the American colonial period
(Feliciano, 1984). The Philippine system was patterned after the American educational system,
and in the early part of this century, many Filipinos were sent to the United States for graduate
studies, further strengthening the American influence in social science education (Talib and
Cardinal, 2016). Hence, it is important that the discourse(s) on the concepts of ＂
freedom,""nationalism," and “patriotism” (and the like), which are offered through the Filipino
lens, are either weak or rare, present but not substantive. The sacrifices that our ancestors had
to make in the name of freedom, democracy, and peace during the 333 years of Spanish
occupation serve as proof that, indeed, we are a nation of heroes-great people who cherish
these values. The indomitable desire to liberate our country emanates from a deep sense of
“patriotism” and “nationalism.” However, because of the different interests and daily hurdles
that exhaust our energies most of the time, we tend to forget these social values. Now, it is
time that we inculcate in our youth the values that we hold dear in order for them to
appreciate the freedom they are experiencing today-freedom paid by the blood of our
ancestors. Self-identity is an essential aspect of our life. Humans need others not just for the
development of basic functions, but also for the formation of their identity, psychological being,
and self-concept. Cooperation serves an essential role in the evolution of the species, as human
beings maintain and create themselves by living in groups. Even before individuals become
aware of their larger group, they already internalize beliefs and values, adopt a perspective of
life, and learn customs and rituals that characterize their group. In other words, they are
shaped and formed by their connection to other people who share their life space, the people
who raised them, their friends, and/ or those with whom they interact in the business of
everyday life. How human think and feel, as well as their conceptions of themselves, are
formed by their membership in their extended group. The experiences of group living serve as
the basis for the emergence of patriotism. Civic bonds with civic duties towards the nation and
the state have come to be recognized and rated as supreme among individuals' social loyalties.
Patriotism in a nation-state has become a central value. and a otivational force that is
potentially involved in a wide range of important processes, such as political participation,
supportive and critical evaluation of the leadership and relevant policies, political mobilization,
societal conformity and obedience, conflict management and resolution, and even international
trade. Nations are relatively modern inventions, and patriotism is not tied to them. In fact,
patriotism could probably be found in every ethnographic group that had settled on a particular
territory. “Attachment," in this case, is a binding affection between a person and his/her group
and its land. It reflects a positive evaluation of one's emotions toward a group and its territory,
and is expressed in beliefs and feelings that connote love, pride, loyalty, devotion,
commitment, and care. In addition. ＂attachment" implies behaviors that benefit the group. In
a sense, the core definition of patriotism is "attachment by the group members to their group
and the land in which it resides.”

What is “Patriotism?” “Patriotism" is defined as “love ofone's country” or one's “country

ofbirth" because it is the land ofone's forefathers. This concept includes the love of country of
one's “naturalization” and a “devotion of one's country." It derives from the Greek word
patriot, which means “fellow countryman" and patrice, which means “fatherland” or “country.”
The term also derives from the word pater, which means “father." A patriot is someone
supports and acts in defense of his/her country and the term generally refers to a concept of
national loyalty. Historically, “patriotism" refers to one's connection to the land of his/her
origin. When political ideologies emerged, the notion of what patriotism meant began to take
on a political connotation. Although the strong feelings toward the land continued and, by
extension, toward the people inhabiting those lands, further developments took place. Customs
and traditions were included in the historical pride. According to Washington Times, there are
two orientations of patriotism: a traditional and postmodern perspective (retrieved from:
https://
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/7/the-patriotism-gap/
on October 11, 2018). Traditionally, patriotism comprises love, loyalty, defense, sacrifice, and
support of one's country. The postmodern conception, however, approaches patriotism from a
subjective, emotional viewpoint leading to love of one's country. Patriotism is considered to
have different meanings according to the history, context, and location. However, it is
universally fundamental to liberty because pride in one's nation-state-and the willingness to
defend it if necessary-is the basis of national independence. Patriotism is the courage of
national self-determination. Johnson (1990) views patriotism as a predisposition to behave
altruistically on behalf of the most comprehensive social system of which an individual is a
member, and emphasizes its inborn nature and independence of short-term incentives and
sanctions. In other words, patriotism consists of acts and beliefs based on securing one's
identity or self-benefits. It is one's “civic devotion" to the state as a political entity while
expressing commitment towards it,thus emphasizes processes of political loyalty and political
commitment to the state.Finally,patriotism can be defined as a person's “identification" with
social values that are anchored in the historical experience and, in the present, on the existence
of a given country. In Maslow's motivational theory,the needs of belongingness, love, and self-
esteem are necessary in one person's life, and patriotism plays a significant part in fulfilling such
needs. Specifically,these are the needs for security,positive identity, effectiveness and control,
and connection to other people. Connection to one's identified group has the potential to
contribute to the satisfaction of each of these needs. Even when chaos and social
disorganization within the group frustrate the basic need for comprehending the world and
one's own place in it, initially individuals tend to turn to the group in the hope that new vision
and comprehension will emerge (Staub & Bar-Tal, 1997). Patriotism is the consequence of the
development of the collective system of meaning, which is determined primarily by social
values and social identification. Patriotism is based on the acquisition of common social values
that are reflected in traditions, rituals, historical events, and other aspects of a collective
system of meaning, which serves as a source of social identity for group members. According to
Reykowski (1997), certain group conditions and individual variables affect feelings of patriotism.
Among group conditions, he includes salient similarities of group members, clear boundaries
between in-groups and out- groups, and the existence of unifying factors. The roots of
patriotism are even deeper than love and pride in the group, they reach even further: the
individual's self-concept and self- identity. The group becomes part of individuals and they
experience themselves as part of the group. As the group often acquires a special status,
something larger, greater, and bigger than individuals-their devotion and service to the group-
can help them take on a selfless quality that they usually do not experience when they act to
promote their own welfare. Their actions on behalf of the group, and even their very, devotion
to the group can be considered a moral, even quasi- religious experience. According to Turner
(1987), once individuals “categorize” themselves as group members, awareness of their
membership becomes part of their self-concept, thereby forming their social identity. The
partial rootedness of individuals' identities in the group is their self-categorization as group
members, and that social identity derives from their membership and their desire to elevate
the group. Their love for the pride in the group, and the group's expectations from them, which
they internalize and experience as an obligation, all fuse together to create a sense of
patriotism. In short, patriotism provides the glue that binds together the individual, the group,
and the territory in which the group resides. In a nutshell, this can also be explained as follows:
“karanasan, kaisipan, kamalayaan, kalayaan at pagiging makabayan.”

Filipino Social Thinkers

Historically manifestos and articles regarding the expression of our ancestor's ideas and
aspirations had always been prescnt.This eticles and authors,though arguably scant,are neither
inferior nor fail in the intellectual enterprise.Their writings in one way or the otber contributed
to the awarencss and later to the consciousness of he many if not all Filipinos which challenged
the conventional ideas of submission, od inferiority, of weakness and of false brotherhood by
the foreigners own construction of truths during their time land maybe of our time too). Prior
to the coming of_____Spaniards (and other colonizers) and before the existence of the
Christian and Non-Christian categorization of our ancestors, they were able to come up with a
set of codes/ guidelines of socially relevant teachings. These were enriched by the fusion of
different influences, resulting in an elaborate, almost mystical aspect of doctrine proceeding
through life. Warriors and women were tattooed with distinct designs all over their bodies-a
form of ornamentation to symbolize their status in their community. For some tribes, like the
Matigsalog of Mindanao who wear their statements into a kind of “woven history,” and the
T'boli's of South Cotabato with their Tinalak fabric, these features of daily life can be related to
the spiritual world. In all tribes, there are written and unwritten laws that must be observed
and followed. If the early signs of communism are attributed to Plato's The Republic and
globalization started when tribes begun trading with other kingdoms from around the world,
then there would be no harm in saying that ideas and concepts regarding society are enforced
in the Philippines by. the doctrines of cultures present in every tribe. Way before the coming of
the domineering colonizers,______before our ancestors were forcefully oriented on the
former's way of thinking, we already had our methods of influencing society. By this, I mean to
say that the manifestations of the first socially relevant articles are already present in our
culture. The tattoos, fabrics, weapons,designs, and ornaments (visual arts), music, stories, and
folktales all carry With them a social message that a member of a tribe must be able to
decipher personally or with aid from his/her elders. Every individual was schooled in reading
these encrypted messages,However,these were not yet called "socially relevant fticles"
although this system existed in which one or the other heid he components of our ancestorsi
stey of culture________this era in the Philippine history,For ouestoce Way otceir "articles"
were written in what Iam trying to say
here.is
basically more than just plain behavior and bias (this has nothing to do with bigotry nor docs it
justify it) s also rooted________historical development of a nation forming its saits and
characteristics (ic.,hatangian____pakakakilantan.ignoring these significant socio-cultural
determinants could undermine ng organization's ability to achieve its goals-be it in the public or the
private domain. The contextualization of behavioral understanding is necessary for recognizing what
needs to be done to fully empower the Filipino
professional.In
this way,the professionals can efficiently participate and fulfill their expected functions in an
organization. Let us bear in mind that institutions actually orchestrate collective activities for the
individual stakeholders. Human behavior is an inevitable subject of management, leadership and
institutions; it is also an important element in ensuring the success of an institution's collective
endeavors. Studying the wholeness of the nature of the Filipino personhood is vital in filling the gap
of foreign origin. Enriguez and De Leon,Maceda in music are just some of the distinguished Filipino
authors whose work focused on thoroughly exploring the Filipino's kamalayan at diwa. They
proposed a kind of Filipino psychology that emphasized the need to evaluate how the Filipino
concept of kaalaman at dunong utilized social science (not the other way around). Their concept of
pantayong panananaw refers to our distinct way of actively adopting. the modes of knowledge from
external sources and subjecting the idea into a process of constant recalibration to complement and
suit our needs. Indeed, we are often seen as passive recipients of knowledge from the
West.Nevertheless, their study has shown that the Filipino ingeniously engages with these kinds of
“foreign knowledge,”which De Leon calls “spontaneous creativity," thereby revealing the Filipino
brand of dexterity. The process allows the localization of these ideas,which then find their way to the
daily activities of the common tao and are incorporated into their behaviors.For example, a farmer
would say pilyur instead of "failure."Other examples would be the motorcycle (single) re- engineered
to carry five or more people by craftsmen who only know basic_____________metal work,and the
Jeepney, which is a post-war foken.These examples actually abound in our material culture,which
has aiways been generative even at times of suppression.The apparent conscious (usually
unconscious) indigenization of ideas leads to the orishing of the Filipino way of life and,
ultimately,its endurancr ofa disadvantage_________advantage for us.Hence,the ideologies of
hationalism and patriotism, whicaBere central in the fields of social