 Today, let's talk about self and society in the Philippine context. Allow me to explain to you the objectives of my talk. I would like to explore with you the interaction of the biological, psychological and cultural dimensions of the self in relation to society by understanding the different concepts and perspectives on the role of societal and cultural beliefs, norms and practices in influencing group and individual ideas. We will explore also and try to analyze the different social and cultural constraints and challenges to the promotion of personal agency or individual empowerment and identifying culturally appropriate measures to promote a peaceful and progressive society. Let me start by defining what personal identity is or individual identity. Personal identity is the way in which persons define themselves in terms of their individuality and differences to others. We come out to different markers to define our individuality and this include among others, age, whether we're young or old, sex, whether we're female or male, nationality of course we're all Filipinos, ethnolinguistic identity and religious affiliation. Other than these common or dominant individual markers, we Filipinos also identify ourselves in terms of like disability, some of us have disabilities, in terms of talents, in terms of our ideas and other identifying markers. The way a person sees himself or herself in relation to those around them and what makes them unique are the aspects of personal identity. Part of our personal identity is given to us by birth and this include our sexual characteristics, our nationality and of course genetic history. Other aspects of our personal identity are formed during our early years in life, during the early years of our development and this continue to develop, turning our life as we grow mature, as we make our choices in life and as we build relationships with others. What is human society? Humans generally do not live alone, isolated from each other, instead individuals tend to live in communities with other people related by ethnicity, nationality, religion or some other cultural elements. A human society is a group of people who share a common lifestyle and organization. Human societies can be classified in many different ways depending on who is doing the categorization. Classifying societies has been faced on by historical changes and political, economic as well as cultural developments in communities. For instance, anthropologists have classified societies in terms of hunting, gathering, agricultural, industrial and post-industrial societies. Historians and political scientists on the other hand have classified societies in terms of whether they are pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial or post-independent societies. We also have in literature classifications of societies on whether they are modern as against those which are in the pre-modern states and those which are developed as against those in pre-developed societies. The concept of culture. Culture describes what people develop to enable them to adapt to the world such as language, gestures, tools to enable them to survive and prosper. We also have customs and traditions that define our values and organize social interactions. The concept of culture also includes religious beliefs and rituals, manners of dressing, artistic tradition and music to make symbolic and artistic expression. Culture defines and prescribes the ideal norms, values, patterns of action that individuals should adhere to. Let me talk about some common values and norms of Filipinos. Filipinos are known to have very close family ties. We put premium on smooth interpersonal relations or what we normally call SIR. Filipinos are also known to have a more proprio and malakasang concepto ng hia. Other than this, people around the world also look at us as a very religious group and we're normally characterized as Makadios at Madasalim. Other common cultural values and norms of Filipinos are the concepts of Pakekisama, Pagtutulungan and Pagdadamayan. This is often expressed during times of calamities, hardships and other problems faced by communities. Then there is a lot of intense gathering and cohesiveness among different tribes. People talk about Kapurbinsha kita, Katribu kita, I lagging magsama-sama. How do we acquire these values and become individuals in society? The process is what we call socialization. Socialization includes all the social and cultural processes that enable individuals to develop, learn about their national identity, their sexual identity, their class origin, ethnic background and other forms of identifying markers. But this is always done within the context of societal norms and values in terms of gender identities and sexual relations. The concept of socialization also entails that society assign roles, attitudes, behaviors, characteristics and expectations to individuals based on their sexual or biological differences. So people, if they are males or females, have to adjust according to these prescriptions. I go now to the discussion of ethnic identity. Ethnic identity refers to a person's sense of belonging to an ethnic or what we normally call in the past as tribal groups. Ethnic identity is drawn from the realization that the person's thought, perception, feeling and behavior is consistent with those of other members of that particular ethnic group. What are the different ethnic groups in the Philippines? We have the major ethnolinguistic groups and they are the Tagalogs. They constitute around 28 percent of the total population. We have the Visayans and they include the Sabuanos, the Varais, the Heligaynon, the Longots, the Karaya, Romblonanon and all of them constitute 31.6 percent of our total population. Then anthropologists also tell us that we have minor ethnic groups and they include the Ilocanos, the Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Sambuanganio and other small groups. Our constitution and the Philippine laws have also recognized the existence of indigenous peoples of which there are around 110 all over the Philippines now and they constitute around 14 to 17 million of all Filipinos in our country. We know them as the Ifugaos, the Kalinga, the Hanunos, the Manobos and other tribes. The Philippine constitution and recognition of this diversity and under the framework of national unity and development mandates the Philippine government to recognize, protect, promote and fulfill the rights of all indigenous peoples. Furthermore, Republic Act 8371, also known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to manage the ancestral domains and to become the cornerstone of current national policies for all indigenous peoples. In October 2015, government data also tells us that the Philippine society is organized into different religious groups. The most dominant religious group are the Catholics and they constitute some 80 percent of the total population. 10 percent of our population consists of our Muslim brothers and sisters and 3 percent belong to a wide range of protestant ethnic denominations. Other Christian denominations include the Iglesia Ni Cristo, the Church of the Latter-day Saint, the Aglipayan Church, the Independent Church and other small churches. Allow me now to go to another identifying marker of individuals in society. In this are the concepts of sex and gender. Sex refers to the genetic traits we inherit as individuals. They are physical identity markers of persons. Gender on the other hand refers to constructions of masculinity and femininity. Gender refers to the socially determined values of society. It is learned, gender is learned and can therefore be unlearned. Its meanings are associated with the allocation of power and prestige in society. How do we acquire our characteristics as males and females? This is done through the process of what we call general role socialization. This refers to society's tendency to assign roles, behaviors, characteristics and expectations based on sex with men being considered as the superior sex in our society today mainly because of their stronger physical characteristics. Gender role socialization also connotes the assignment to productive roles and in our society this has often resulted in the unequal relations between women and men. What are the agents of gender role socialization? Many social institutions in our society are implicated in the process of developing men and women males and females into masculine and feminine members of society. The first agent of socialization is of course our family or our household. Many of us are also influenced by our peer groups and friends. The school, the church, media, language and communication and most importantly government and the loss we have in this country are the agents of general socialization. The ideal society that we envision is a society composed of informed enabled individuals. However today we face many challenges to nation-building. One, we have so much political instability brought about by political and religious differences, the presence of rebel groups, religious fundamentalist associations, plan wars or what we normally call in the south and in the north as family feuds. We have a very high incidence of poverty despite efforts of previous governments to address this problem. Discriminatory practices against indigenous communities still prevail. There is the persistence of gender issues. We have incidents of rape, sexual harassment, domestic violence happening every day in our communities. There is also the serious problem of the persistence and neglect, abuse of children, people with disability and other vulnerable groups. There is tensions among ethnic groups. There is peace and order problems like the drug menace, criminality and other problems faced by our communities. We have disasters and calamities every so often that threaten the survival of groups and communities. On the positive side, however, there are many enabling factors for nation-building. We have in our countries laws and administrative policies and programs that now address the problems of poverty and related economic issues. There is the presence of many civil society organizations supporting the development goals of our country. There is the commitment of the country to international and regional covenants and agreements to respect, protect and promote the human rights of individuals, especially the vulnerable and marginalized ones. Most importantly, we as Filipinos still invite many positive values and norms. These are the elements that I believe can make our country move forward to become a peaceful and highly economically progressive country. Thank you very much.