by LEO PAZ from the April 22-28 issue of the Philippine News
The term BAYAN can stand for nation, country, or on a smaller scale, a town. Concomitantly, KABABAYAN refers to a townmate or a fellow contryman. A very patriotic admonition is MAHALIN ANG BAYAN (love the motherland").
A related word is BAYANI, meaning "hero." DAKILANG BAYANI SI ANDRES BONIFACIO ("Andres Bonifacio is a noble hero"). SI JOSE RIZAL ANG PAMBANSANG BAYANI NG PILIPINAS (Jose Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines").
The noun also refers to a person who gratuitously helps others in a communal, cooperative endeavor. This is often depicted in art as a group of people helping in carrying and moving a neighbor's bamboo and nipa hut to another location.
When people join together in mutual cooperation or a community development, we call this BAYANIHAN. The act of helping each other in a society is akin to heroism. They apparently even share the same root word: BAYANI. When we lope off the last letter, I, we return to the basic word, BAYAN, or country."
The relationship of the terms appears to be obvious. Town, country, hero, mutual help among members in community heroism. Our ancestors chose their concepts and words well.