What Filipino Philosophy Really Meant to Me
By Menelito Mansueto, MA
A few weeks ago, Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc wrote a short piece, “Doing Philosophy in the Philippines: My Take." That article provoked me to write my own with regard to this long controversy surrounding what has since become an issue - the meaning of Filipino Philosophy. After all, nobody has the exclusive authority to interpret what Filipino Philosophy is. Every definition is expected to be influenced by particular biases and cultural prejudice.
In my capacity as a writer, I would also like to share my thoughts regarding this issue. My involvement in Philosophy almost comprised my entire adult life. I began my journey as a seminarian in the SVD in 1998. In my early years in the formation, we woke up, dined, and engaged with religious brothers and priests who happen to be our formators. Bro. Romualdo Abulad was one of them. At that age though, I cannot figure it out his exact contribution to Filipino philosophy. But he was a mentor both intellectually and spiritually.
I have mentioned at the outset that this issue is loaded with bias. I always bear in mind what Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “What every great philosophy so far has been: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir.” As someone who was struck by Bro. Abulad’s brilliance as a scholar and as a spiritual guide, I also was able to witness the limits of his world as an SVD Brother.
When I moved into the higher stage of seminary formation, I met two of Filipino Philosophy’s revered icons: Fr. Leonardo “Nards” Estioko and Fr. Leonardo “Leni” Mercado. I’d like to begin with Fr. Nards Estioko. With wired hairs like Einstein’s, Fr. Nards was a living superstar of philosophy to the seminarians. I think that Peter Singer would be a little ashamed if he got to witness how Estioko had literally lived his life. I believed that Estioko was a living testament of Singer’s “Animal Liberation.” Estioko’s journey to the animal world were all encapsulated in his semi-autobiographical book, “Gone to the Dogs: A Phenomenology of Dogs,” (sold exclusively at the Catholic Trade and the SVD’s Logos Publications). As the Rector of Christ the King Mission Seminary (CKMS) in New Manila, Quezon City, Estioko’s room (both bedroom and office) were literally crowded with dogs and each of these dogs he called them by name. Fr. Estioko graduated from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
As a scholar, Fr. Estioko was also an expert on Philippine education and Heideggerian philosophy. When asked about Filipino Philosophy, Fr. Nards would simply give a cold shoulder and say, “There is not even a German philosophy, there are only German philosophers.” Hearing this, what I had in mind was the other Leonardo – who wrote a dissertation on Filipino Philosophy at UST, and who happened to be his fellow priest in the SVD. We all lived in the same compound. Whereas Fr. Leonardo Mercado was very popular within the philosophy circle, Fr. Estioko’s name was a bit unheard of. This I learned to understand when I began teaching at Metro Manila universities.
Philosophy departments in Metro Manila’s universities are into some form of a competition. To give an example, those who are educated at the Ateneo would naturally brag of their own master – Fr. Roque Ferriols. Fr. Ferriols theorized that we should start from our own unique languages to uncover the social fabric that philosophy is embedded with. Hence, this resulted to a series of publications in Philosophy that is now written in Tagalog or Filipino.
What Ferriols might have missed was that his way of doing philosophy resulted into a great divide between (Luzon) Tagalog-speaking scholars and (Visayas-Mindanao) Bisaya-speaking intellectuals. For instance, a Bisaya scholar Dr. Eddie R. Babor had originally argued about the inadequacy of the Cebuano language as a medium for philosophy due to its very limited vocabulary and unique temperament. To this date, I have not seen a truly scholarly philosophical work written and published in the Bisaya language. Writing in the Bisaya would likewise limit the audience to its regions. Unfortunately, Bisaya scholars also had difficulty following the lexicon of the Tagalog. Therefore, Fr. Ferriols’s concept remains exclusive and applicable only to the Tagalogs.
For us here in Mindanao, we look up to the anthropologist Bro. Carlito Gaspar for his lifelong dedication in working with his mission with the Lumad communities of Mindanao. Bro. Gaspar is not affiliated with any Philosophy department (except perhaps in the Redemptorist seminary), but philosophy scholars admire his efforts to understand the indigenous lifeworld which could be a way to understand the Filipino in the remote mountains very much apart from, and in fact, a victim of the modern and colonial civilization.
Lastly, if there is to be a Bisaya philosopher that I admire, it is no other than Christopher Ryan Maboloc. This guy does not want much reverence or adulation and prefers to be humble by exalting other beings. But in my opinion, he literally carried, against all odds, and put Mindanao philosophy scholars and researchers into the map of Philosophy, as well as being a love guru on social media and a public servant. His influence can be compared to Fr. Michael Moga who has endeavored to strengthen the philosophical fabric of Mindanao.
Before I end this piece, let me say something about the exclusivity of philosophical discourse into academic philosophy. So much so that the quest for a Filipino philosopher puts the limits into the philosophical discipline. But there are great philosophical scholars outside of Philosophy as a discipline. Take as example Rolando B. Tolentino of UP who wrote as early as 2004 the book “Kulturang Mall,” in which he explores the Filipino psyche as confronted by developments brought about by globalization and consumerization. Dr. Tolentino, however, is not egoistically adamant of his influence and presumable place in Filipino critical thought.
And if being a philosopher is measured through citations, I think nothing would compare in terms of familiarity to the songs of Aristotle Pollisco, a.k.a. Gloc-9. For example, the songs “Upuan,” “Sirena,” “Lando,” and “Magda” have truly captured the social realities of the country through the universal medium of music. The songs are of course written poetics applied in a rhythm and is now sang by millions of Filipinos across the country, which is more than the numbers of people who have read a philosophy article written by Scopus-driven scholars.
—Menelito Mansueto, MA
