Filipinos give importance to the house structures. When a couple decides to buy or build a house, old people say that the door should be on the right side and stairs should be straight or turn right to keep the couple loyal to each other.
‘Right’ as a direction is ‘kanan’ in Filipino and ‘right’ as proper is termed ‘tama’. They should be on the right to keep things ‘tama’. The term ‘left’ as a direction in Filipino is ‘kaliwa’, and ‘left’ as a verb (past tense of leave) is ‘iwan’.
When someone becomes unfaithful, they term it as ‘nangaliwa’ from the root word ‘kaliwa’. If doors are on left side and the stairs turn left, old people will say, “dahil nasa kaliwa yan, mangangaliwa yang isa at mang-iiwan” which means because it is on the left, one of them will become unfaithful and will leave the other.
Newly weds in The Philippines therefore often look at this aspect when they look for their first home. Especially, when the opinion of their parents are important to them.
