BY DR. JOSE MA. EDUARDO P. DACUDAO
WHAT can clearly be implemented is the “auxiliary official languages” provision.
Why? Because unlike the “Filipino” language provision, which pertains to an undefined language that is technically impossible to create satisfactorily without marginalizing and probably killing most of our Philippine languages, our existing Philippine languages are real and clearly defined. Each of them can be taught in our schools and communication systems, even under the present 1987 Constitution in their traditional regions.
This course of action is highly recommended. All that is to be done is to promulgate enabling laws and budget out the funds to do it. The millions of pesos that are being needlessly spent in “developing’”and teaching an impossible “Filipino” language, that does not economically benefit and that culturally harms the non-Tagalog ethnic peoples of the Philippines, could be channeled into such an endeavor.
In brief, channel the funds away from “Filipino” subjects (and the compromised Tagalistas who control them) to the multiple languages project (controlled by patriots that love the cultural diversity of the country).
As a corollary, local governments should enact resolutions and laws that encourage native peoples to advocate the use of traditional languages in their area to outsiders.
To be more concrete, let us take Bacolod City in Negros island as an example. When a Tagalog immigrant in Bacolod tells his native co-workers ‘Tagalogin mo iyan’ (speak it in Tagalog), the Bacoleño should be able to answer back proudly without social mores hampering him, ‘Indi bala ikaw ang angay kag dapat mag-alam sang Hiligaynon?’ (Aren’t you the one supposed to learn Hiligaynon?)’ And when he does this, there should be resolutions and laws that protect him from being language-shamed.
On a more public scale, PUVs, airplanes and boats arriving in and departing from Bacolod, and its piers, airport, and terminals, should by government order or law use Hiligaynon as one of the languages of announcements and instructions, in addition to the usual English.
Don’t be shocked, but this is already being done by minority groups in their native areas in other countries, and I say hurrah to these patriots for standing up for their language rights and right to exist as a people.
On a political level, public officials should be required by government order or law to be able to speak Hiligaynon in Bacolod under the precept ‘If you want to rule or serve us, you have to be one of us’ (perhaps after a reasonable span of time in case said official is an outsider).
Again don’t be shocked; some Republics in the Russian Federation have exactly this provision in their laws, and I say to these patriots good for you, you have the guts to stand up in your own country for your right to exist as a people. Ditto for other cities and towns in the Philippines.
Again it must be mentioned that English, a necessary international language of science, commerce, and diplomacy, an indispensable language that keeps our economy afloat, and that has functioned as a neutral leveling tongue in the Philippines for more than a hundred years, could continue as a lingua franca among Filipinos from different ethnic groups.
(For anti-English Tagalistas and extreme nationalists who doth protest too much, it might be suggested that they should prohibit and prevent their own children and grandchildren from learning any English at all; and not lecture on others that want their children to learn English.)
In stark contrast to the present Philippine condition, many nations of the world (Switzerland for centuries, Belgium since the 1800s, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, India, Vietnam, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, South Africa, and so on since World War II) have begun to abandon the One Nation – One Language policy and have adopted to varying degrees the Multiple Official Languages model.
The imposition of a single language on all peoples of a country is increasingly being seen as a harmful vestige of Jacobin ultra-nationalistic 19th century France, which was in the habit of beheading its non-conforming citizens by the thousands.
Unity in Uniformity or Unity in Diversity? One Nation – One Language or Multiple Official Languages? A Republic of the Tagalog or a Country of and for the Peoples of the Philippines?
We are at a nexus in history. What shall our choice be?/PN
