Stop calling it resilience: The mislabeling of Filipino struggles
On Aug. 1, a television news program reported about the 1 percent tax to be imposed on all remittances sent from the United States to the Philippines starting Jan. 1, 2026, as part of United States President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Although the Department of Finance said this would only have a “minimal” impact on our economy starting next year, this is by no means welcome news to many US-based overseas Filipino workers and their families, who depend largely (or entirely) on the hard-earned money sent to them here.
So it was quite off-putting to see and hear, in that same report, the president of the Chamber of Thrift Banks sounding so nonchalant about the 1 percent remittance tax, saying, “Tayong mga Pilipino naman are so resilient and then makaka-adjust tayo e. (We Filipinos are so resilient and we will be able to adjust.)”
That word again—”resilient”—so casually uttered by a person from a privileged position. It’s another classic example of how someone can (appear to) be so out of touch when it comes to the plight of the struggling Pinoy. While the 1 percent equivalent of a total remittance may just be a pittance to those who have money like Madam president and her ilk, we cannot expect our countless cash-strapped countrymen to be as unbothered by this. How much more should they be expected to stretch their budgets amid the rising cost of basic commodities? Madam president’s peers had better school her on the harsh realities of impoverished Filipinos’ lives and/or advise her to be more prudent in the things she says publicly.
Sometimes I do feel that it would be a good idea to penalize privileged people who utter such remarks publicly by having them swap places with the financially disadvantaged for about a week, to let them actually experience (and not just imagine) the day-to-day hardships that the latter experience, which require them to be “resilient.” This might just be the kind of reality check they need to rid them of their ignorance and callousness.
To quote this paper’s editorial, “Stop romanticizing resilience” (10/27/24): “Resilience is the most abused and overused term to describe what helps Filipinos survive calamities. The word has started to sound like a backhanded compliment because being resilient for many simply implies that it is the only way for them to survive difficult situations in the absence of long-term, sustainable solutions.”
I add my voice to the many who have already spoken up against romanticizing how the poor deal with all kinds of struggles, especially those that are related to money and survival. Flattering others for their resilience in coping with financial struggles may be—on the surface—a sweet thing to do. But when you get down to it, it’s patronizing and unkind, and it really doesn’t help solve anything for them.
When one can’t offer a solution to a problem that others have to endure, please keep your patronizing spiels to yourself. It’s best to just say nothing at all.
Claude Lucas C. Despabiladeras,
claudelucasdespa@gmail.com
