Abstract

I. Research issue. Filipinos come from different linguistic and cultural traditions. They assert ethnolinguistic origins over national identity. ;This research attempts to identify causes that discourage development of a strong Filipino national identity. It also searches for approaches that encourage its cultivation. ;II. Research approach. This study relied on literature, and analyses of data gathered from conversations with research partners. Three questions were used as guidelines: Who are the Filipinos? How do they identify themselves? What factors influence the way they see themselves? ;To research on "Who is a Filipino?" or "What is a Filipino?" in a bid to refigure Filipino identity is to engage in conversations. Employing participatory research as developed by Herda , and carried out in the critical hermeneutic tradition of Ricoeur this research attempts by way of conversations to clear paths for Filipinos to come to new understandings of their multivocal identity. ;III. Research recommendations. What appears to encourage Filipinos in identifying themselves according to regional origins rather than national identity is their disconnectedness from their national history. Another disincentive to the development of a strong Filipino national identity is the arrogance of cosmopolitanized Filipinos toward their tribal and Islamic brethren. To this day, the various peoples of the country are a melange of uplanders, lowlanders, and sea dwellers. Some still live in tribal societies; most are "modernized" while many live between these two poles. ;The recovery of the narrative of Philippine history from colonial appropriation through a return to, a study of, and the re-interpretation of the thoughts of the forebears of the modern Filipino people in congruence with existing postmodern and postcolonial realities might help strengthen national identity. Here, Ricoeur's three-fold mimesis and critical hermeneutics can be gainfully employed. ;Reconnected to the primordial thought of those who originally imagined the Filipino community, today's Filipinos can indeed refigure a national identity. One oriented toward an honorable and prosperous future