What They Never Tell You About The Philippines - The Raw Truth

Pea assembles a panel of three Filipinas — Princess, May, and Britney — for a No Holds Barred discussion about the gap between how Filipino culture claims to be and how it actually is. They cover premarital sex, witch doctors, family brainwashing, lying culture, and the toxic dynamics around foreigners, with each woman sharing personal stories and admitting uncomfortable truths about their own families and experiences.

The Philippines claims to be religious, but teen pregnancy and single motherhood are rampant ​

• The panelists acknowledge this generation is "very wild" and premarital sex is normalized despite Catholic teachings
• Princess shares that her cousin got pregnant at age 15 and is now a single mom — and the family treated it as normal
• May explains that Filipino families don't separate boys and girls when sleeping because "they're relatives, they won't do those things" — but mixing genders in shared rooms (since most families don't have separate bedrooms) leads to experimentation
• The panelists acknowledge a taboo topic: incestuous relationships within families produce a significant number of babies, but it's never discussed publicly
• Children lack sex education and treat sex as experimentation — Pea summarizes: "Ding ding, we got a winner, and your prize is taking care of a baby you can't afford"
• Common pattern: have a baby, give it to grandma, go back to partying — "it's like a single life"
• Birth control isn't widely used because teenagers lack sex education and "just do things without thinking about what's going to happen" — parents and grandparents will take care of the baby anyway

Catholicism mixed with witch doctors, voodoo, and animal sacrifice ​

• Princess confirms her family practices animal sacrifice and says when she questioned it, they told her it's tradition passed down from grandparents — "question no more, your parents say you have to do as they say"
• May was taught that sacrificing animals extends your life — "ending a life will give you a long life" — and that illness transfers to the animal instead of the person, like "an exchange of life"
• May shares a vivid personal memory: when she turned seven, they dipped her in animal blood and put the cross sign on her forehead — "apparently for a good life; I guess it worked because I'm having a good life"
• On "barang" (putting a curse on someone for unrequited love): the panelists are skeptical because they haven't experienced it personally, though they know it's widely believed, especially on the neighboring island of Siquijor
• One panelist says she doesn't believe in love potions but does believe in dwarves — based on what she's seen on TV and heard from others
• Pea highlights the pattern: believing things because parents and grandparents say so, not from personal experience

Filipino children are brainwashed into becoming their parents' retirement plan ​

• May was taught from childhood that once you get a job, you must provide for your parents — even after marriage — "until they die"
• When May asked her grandmother why, the answer was: "You won't become who you are without us" — it's framed as repayment for raising you
• Pea pushes back hard: "They had good sex and that's all they had — why you're here. You didn't ask to be here. Isn't it supposed to be their responsibility to take care of you because they had sex and had you?"
• May confirms she challenged this logic with her grandmother in an open conversation, arguing that parents requested a child, not the other way around
• Pea names it directly: "So basically you are the retirement plan" — the panelists agree this is how Filipino children are viewed
• Some parents literally have children specifically as backup retirement — "if you have a kid, they'll think of that one as their investment"

Filipino parents don't say "I love you" — love is shown through actions ​

• All three panelists confirm their parents never or rarely say "I love you"
• Princess says her mother shows love by providing food, shelter, and care — actions over words
• Princess adds she has started expressing love verbally to her own mother, trying to change the pattern
• Filipino parents are "not really vocal about that"

Family closeness is performative — backstabbing is common ​

• The panelists agree that "blood is thicker than water" is just a saying Filipinos don't actually live by
• Relatives become close when they need something — "you are valuable to them when they see you're earning money"
• Family members approach you for loans and favors specifically when they see you're doing well financially

Foreigners are treated as ATMs by Filipino families ​

• Families feel entitled to a foreigner's money when that foreigner is dating their daughter or relative
• The panelists explain the reasoning: Filipinos assume that because the foreigner earns in dollars, "$1 is just nothing to them"
• Family members will directly confront the foreigner for alcohol money, cigarettes, or tuba — without even consulting the Filipina partner
• Extended family demands "pasalubong" (gifts): when one panelist's aunt who married an Australian would video-call, relatives would see items in the background and demand "I want that stuff, I want that"
• Any Filipina dating a foreigner is automatically labeled "sinipit" — slang meaning she escaped poverty because of the foreigner
• Panelists push back: foreigners' cost of living in their own countries is comparable, and the assumption they're millionaires is wrong
• May shares that she cut ties with family members over this mindset when she first dated a foreigner — "I don't like asking money from my partner"
• May was told at age 15 by relatives that she should marry a foreigner "because they can give you a better life" — but as she grew up, she realized foreigners "grind their asses every day just to make money, just the same as me"

Why Filipinos lie so much ​

• Princess admits she lies to protect her reputation and image — "if that's going to damage my reputation, I would totally mask it off"
• The core principle: "the truth doesn't matter, it's what it looks like"
• May was taught to always blame somebody else because "when you admit something wrong, you get punished — and I don't like being punished"
• Britney does "white lies" to avoid conflict — for example, if a friend has a mistress, you keep your mouth shut rather than get involved
• Classic example: when someone asks for directions and you don't know, Filipinos will point with their lips and give a random direction rather than admit they don't know — "so people don't think you're stupid"
• The underlying pattern across all lying: preserving image and avoiding shame matters more than truth
• Being truthful and honest "is not really rewarded here"

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