Many languages… a strong republic!

August used to be called as “Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa.”  I got a text from Prof. Fred Cabuang, spokesman of Save our Languages through Federalism (Solfed) to inform me that Dr. Ricardo Nolasco, Commissioner of the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF) or the Commission on Filipino Language has a new title for August, which is now dubbed “Buwan ng Wika 2007… Maraming Wika, Matatag ng Bansa”. Translated, this means “Many Languages… a Strong Republic!

From this report, it would seem the advocacy of Solfed in the preservation of all other spoken languages has finally been given national recognition by the Philippine government. Solfed is the only NGO with the ideology of preserving languages in this country, including Tagalog which is fast disappearing into “Taglish”. Soon, the people living in the Tagalog-speaking areas that gave us Balagtas won’t understand their own language.  

It is unfortunate that most of us Filipinos do not understand the language issue very well. Little do they know that Tagalog nationalists devised a scheme to use Tagalog as the so-called Filipino, and Pinoys, worn out by years of subjugation under foreign occupiers merely shrugged their shoulders and meekly accepted this thought, without realizing that using Filipino in schools would endanger their own languages and culture and diminish the use of their native tongues.

Tagalog nationalists were victorious when at the height of the euphoria of the EDSA Revolt Presidenta Corazon C. Aquino ordained that henceforth all means of communication by the government would be in Pilipino a.k.a. Tagalog. That Presidential directive broke the proverbial camel’s back and the Province of Cebu then led by Cebu Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña filed a case in court to stop the national government from ramming this order down our throats. This rekindled the passion by Cebuanos for our human right to Freedom of Speech and speak our own native languages.

The Philippine Commonwealth was one of the 50 original founding members of UN in Oct.1945 and thus gets the privilege of signing first all UN resolutions adopted by the General Assembly International Protocols and Declarations like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights General Assembly Res. 217A of Dec.10, 1948. We signed the UN Declaration of Linguistic Rights Article 1, UN Resolution 1514-15 of Dec.1960. UN Res. 47/135 by General Assembly signed on Dec.18,1992 International Convention on Civil and Political Rights under Article 27 UNESCO Covenant in Catalonia, Barcelona on Human Rights, Democracy and Peace. Yet while we signed these international agreements, we failed miserably in preserving or promoting all the languages spoken in this country, pushing only the Tagalog language.

Let me clearly point out that Cebuano is a language separate and distinct from Tagalog. So please don’t ever say that our dialect is Cebuano. Cebuano is a language and its branches are dialects of Cebuano. Many of those unaware often say that Cebuano is a dialect of Pilipino, simply because of sheer ignorance of linguistic issues and our basic right to Free Speech!

Incidentally something very interesting happened at the House of Representatives session the other Tuesday, when Manila Rep. Jaime Lopez stood up to remind both the Lower House and the Senate that there remain legislative issues that should be resolved in connection with the national language. Rep. Lopez then prepared his speech in Filipino a.k.a. Tagalog and was just delivering the first lines of his speech when he was interrupted by irate Visayan-speaking solons led by Rep. Pedro Romualdo (Lakas, Camiguin) asking him to deliver his speech to a language everyone understood.  After a 30-minute debate, Rep. Lopez gave up, ending up delivering his speech in English.

It seems that Congressmen from the Tagalog-speaking regions of Luzon have been in constant verbal tussle with solons from the Visayas and Mindanao over the issue of what medium of speech is acceptable on the floor. While English is the official language recognized under existing House rules, Lopez said Filipino, being the national tongue, should also be accepted. This issue goes to show that even our lawmakers like Rep. Lopez are ignorant of our laws, that a National Language has yet to evolve! Hence the speech in Filipino he delivered was actually a dialect of Tagalog, because that’s what Tagalog nationalists insist is our national language. 

Solfed is calling for adopting Cebuano, Ilonggo, Ilokano also as national languages of the Philippines, questioning why should it only be Tagalog language. Someday this dream of mine would become a reality!

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