The world in a barangay: Rethinking home, relationships and security

After living in the Philippines for a year and a half, what has stayed with me most vividly is the different way many Filipinos understand home. For many families, home feels less like a physical structure and more like a living network of relationships.

- By NIE XIAOYANG

It is often defined not by walls but by people — not by a point on the map but by circles of kinship, friendship and local ties.

As a newcomer, I initially imagined “home” in the usual way — an address, a street, a house. But I soon discovered that when many Filipinos talk about going home, they are referring not to a location but to reconnecting with family: visiting a mother, dropping by an aunt’s house or traveling to the province to see cousins.

This relational view also shapes the Filipino notion of “hometown.” For many, a hometown is not defined by its boundaries but by the people who fill it: childhood playmates, church companions, neighbors who share food during fiestas and relatives who return from Manila, Dubai or Riyadh bearing stories and pasalubong.

In an archipelago often struck by typhoons and earthquakes, home becomes something mobile rather than fixed. One family may live by the sea today and rebuild on a hillside tomorrow. Because physical space can be fragile, Filipinos often place their deepest sense of safety in one another — neighbors who help repair shattered roofs, communities that clean the streets together and families who share food in times of crisis.