Ability Survive. Filipinos have an ability to survive, which is manifested in our capacity for endurance despite difficult times in our ability to get by on so very little. Filipinos make do with what is available in the environment (e.g. eking out a living from a garbage dump). This survival instinct is related to the Filipinos other strengths ----- a basic optimism, flexibility and adaptability, hard work, and a deep faith in God. It is manifested in the millions of Filipinos who bravely live through the harshest economic and social circumstances. Regretfully, one wonders what we might be able to do under better circumstances.
