PUSO: The Filipino way

There are two things that can bring a nation, or any community, together in a passionate display of emotional unity. One is external aggression or invasion of one’s territory from a foreign foe. The other is competition in a sports tournament where a team carries the banner of a nation or a community like a school.

This is not a uniquely Filipino trait since football games between nations have sometimes led to either riots or ecstatic celebrations on the streets of a nation or a city or a school campus. Sports seems to have a way of transforming a crowd, with no visible ties except a sense of being part of the community, into a monolithic group that suddenly becomes emotionally one with its team. It even includes people who do not play the game but simply feel a sense of being one with the community.

Sports has always played an important role in all societies. Even the United Nations considers sports as a vital tool for development and peace. In Ancient Greece, the Olympic Games was started – long before the birth of Christ – as a way of transforming competition between the city states from wars to sports. So all the warring cities, like Athens, Sparta, Thebes and Corinth, would declare a truce during the Games and focus on winning the events and bring glory to their cities.

There are psychologists who believe that sports is critical to a child’s development because it teaches core values such as cooperation, respect for opponents and adherence to playing by the rules while developing a winning attitude. It also improves health and reduces the likelihood of disease. It serves to bridge cultural, social and economic divides.

My son, Roel, and our family driver, Ramil, share a common passion for watching PBA games. I have seen the two of them together in animated discussion after each game of their favorite teams.

The passion of sports fans have been the topic of many movies and books. In spite of his many commitments, his occupations as a writer, editor and creative writing teacher/tutor, Roel finds time to voluntarily write a sports column – Game Reaction – for a website, GoArchers.com. He wrote an essay on sports last year. This is the opening paragraph of that essay:

“Aside from almost every kid having been engaged in one sport or another with talent and skill finally weeding out those who are forced to choose other pursuits in life, there’s something empowering about pinning your own personal hopes and aspirations on the fortunes of a specific team or player. The emotional investment I place on a particular team (personally being a San Antonio Spurs fan since 1990 and a Ginebra faithful since 1986, or being part of a community like with the La Salle teams or on a larger scale the Gilas Pilipinas team) makes you feel like you are an integral part of that team’s success – but also of its failures – simply by zealously rooting for the team and through the degree of fanatical devotion shown. That’s what separates the rabid fan from the causal fair-weather one.”

Last year, on a Saturday, August 10, the Philippine team defeated South Korea and after 36 years earned the right to compete again in the FIBA World Basketball Tournament in Spain. The whole nation cheered because this was more than just a sports victory. This was national pride in a sport that is an integral part of Philippine culture.

But there was an added dimension that makes this whole story full of nationalistic and patriotic pride. It said that in Brazil, soccer is a religion and its team reflects the culture and values of its people. So Brazilian football has been compared to a Mardi Gras or the samba dance on a football field. In the United States, American football is the most popular sport. It has been described as scientific mayhem where one team must literally “destroy” the other team in order to win the game.

And the same is true of Filipino basketball and the Gilas Pilipinas team. They reflect the values that Filipinos treasure. The emotional turning point for me was the decision to go all out and try to beat Argentina, a world basketball powerhouse. There were talks that Coach Reyes should rest his best players, especially Andray Blatche, since there was no chance, supposedly, of beating Argentina. The pragmatic thing to do was to concede that game and accept a “massacre” and prepare for the next two games against Puerto Rico and Senegal. But when the team decided to go all out against Argentina, I told myself that win or lose, this was a team worthy of Filipino pride.

LABAN PILIPINAS is not just a sport slogan. It is the battle cry of a people that always takes pride, full of “Gilas,” never backing down or losing hope even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. It was the battle cry of a Ninoy when he came home knowing that it could lead to his martyrdom but believing that the cause for democracy could be won. It became the cry of millions of people who voted for Corazon Aquino against Marcos and stood their ground, armed only with prayers and courage, against the tanks of the dictator on EDSA in 1986.

It is the story of a small group of Filipino soldiers voluntarily staying in a shipwrecked vessel on the Ayungin Shoals. This in the face of the entire might of the Chinese fleet and constant harassment of their supply ships. And added to this is the constant battle with rats and loneliness. Their only strength is the knowledge that the Filipino people is with them in their struggle to keep the Philippine flag flying in this lonely rampart in the West Philippine Sea.

It is the many tales of Filipino overseas workers who brave the ordeal of working in foreign lands to be able to send their children to schools and provide their families with a life of human dignity. It is these goals and by keeping themselves as a community in foreign lands that they are able to continue their struggle.

This is the spirit that have made many international observers admire the resilience and the speed by which the victims of Typhoon Yolanda were able to get back on their feet and start rebuilding their lives.

This is the same spirit why the Filipino peacekeepers refused to surrender their arms and engaged the Syrian rebels in a seven-hour fire fight. When the UN commander ordered the other UN forces to surrender, the Filipino soldiers decided to escape through the enemy lines in the dead of the night.

LABAN PILIPINAS. We never surrender. This is the Filipino way.  It is called PUSO!

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