‘Pinoys have superficial memory of culture’

MANILA, Philippines — The Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) and Sen. Loren Legarda unveiled KWF’s second bantayog wika or language monument to honor indigenous languages and to promote awareness and love for Philippine history and culture.

KWF chairman and National Artist for literature Virgilio Almario lamented that many Filipinos do not see the value of their being Filipinos because of their “shallow memory” of Philippine history and culture.

“Malaking problema nating mga Pilipino ang mababaw na memorya (The big problem with us Filipinos is our shallow memory),” Almario said.

He also noted that many Filipinos lack interest in Philippine culture because they prefer to use English.

“Mas gusto pa nating gumamit ng Ingles kaysa katutubong wika (We prefer using English more than our native language),” he said.

Almario made the comment during the unveiling of the bantayog wika at the Bukidnon State University on Monday. Officials of the Bukidnon provincial government and university witnessed the unveiling of the KWF’s second language monument in Mindanao.

The monument honors the Binukid language spoken by the province’s northern tribes of Higaunon, Bukidnon and Talaandig.

The monument is designed like a huge bamboo where ancient Filipino folklore characters Malakas and Maganda were said to have come from.

It also contains four inscriptions. One inscription has verses from national hero Andres Bonifacio’s poem “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa,” another is written in the country’s ancient writing system called baybayin and the other two are written in native languages.

The KWF aims to build 131 langauge monuments in honor of the number of the country’s ethnic languages.

KWF’s first language monument is in Mati City, Davao Oriental. It honors the Manday’a language.

Other language monuments are erected in the provinces of Antique, Ifugao and Kalinga.

Almario said establishing bantayog wika is the KWF’s “way of celebrating the legacy of our forefathers.”