Common Traits
It is difficult to define and ascertain the very core of what it is to be a Filipino. History tells us that the Filipinos as we know now had an untraceable origin. All that we can do now is to determine the common traits that are common to all of the Filipinos. Common traits among Filipinos can be traced throughout its existence, from the pre-colonial era up to the present era that we have now. There is something that is particularly common and at the same time unique from among all of us as oppose to different races from Asia. And from this point of view we can depart and establish in some commonalities what it is to be a Filipino which is unique in particular throughout Asia and in general throughout the world. A. Hospitality
One of the common traits of a Filipino is the word Hospitality. Hospitality comes from the Latin word, “Hospes”meaning “Host”, “guest”, or “stranger”. Hospes is formed from hostis, which means “stranger” or “enemy” which is synonymous to hostility. In a nutshell, Hospitality means welcoming the guest, stranger, or even the enemy into your own house. According to Derrida there two(2) types of hospitality, the first one is Conditional Hospitality, and the second one is the Absolute Hospitality. In the vernacular language, Conditional Hospitality means, you welcome the stranger, guest, or even the hostile within the bounds of condition e.g like they should only sleep in the master bedroom and only sleep in the couch or sala, they cannot go into the bedroom or they should not touch anything. In other words, they are bound to certain restrictions. On the other hand, in contrast to Conditional Hospitality, Absolute hospitality is a form of welcoming the other with open arms up to the point of embracing the other unconditionally. Absolute hospitality knows no boundaries, in fact, welcoming the other might be dangerous because this other’s personality is unascertainable, maybe he is a convict or