A Proposal on the national language problem

Title

Creator

Yabes, Leopoldo Y.

Language

English

Year

1968

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

A lecture by Leopoldo Y. Yabes, Professor of University of the Philippines, at the Y.M.C.A., Manila.

This paper presents a novel and interesting; angle on the problem of the Filipino national language.

Fulltext

■ This paper presents a novel and interesting; angle on the problem of the Filipino national langauge. A PROPOSAL ON THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE PROBLEM One curious fact about the national language movement is that, despite the dictatorial methods employed by the ori ginal leaders of the move ment and the tremendous pressure applied by their successors to propagate the national language based on Tagalog over the last three decades since President Que zon’s proclamation of De cember 30, 1937, the national language so based has not as yet found general acceptance among the people in the nonTagalog-speaking areas. And sincfe it has not found accept ance in these areas of the country, the Tagalog-based national language cannot be said to have been useful in the achievement of greater national unity. As a matter of fact it has contributed to more dissension than to har mony on the national scene. Even among the Tagalog speakers themselves, there is no general consensus as to which form of the language — the purist or non-purist — should be propagated as the national language. So in the face of this widespread dissension about the national language, it should be time to re-examine the whole problem thorough ly so that a more satisfactory solution could be arrived at through general consensus. A plebiscite need not be re sorted to obtain the majority opinion; it might give rise to unnecessary acts of hostility between the language groups. A far-seeing and firm states manship, which will reject dictatorial or short-cut pro cesses, should be in a posi tion to show the way to a peaceful and satisfactory solution to the problem. I think that all thinking Filipinos, whatever be their native language, are agreed on the advisability of having 2 Panorama a common language of au tochthonous origin which will eventually be used through out the country. In the ab sence of a language which, from the outset, is acceptable throughout the country, the bone of disagreement for the last three decades has been the implementation of the Constitutional provision to the effect that the Congress was to take steps towards the development and adoption of a national language based on one of the existing native languages. I have done a lot of think ing on the matter and I have come to the conclusion that the most advisable way of im plementing the Constitutional provision is bv means of the Constitution itself. Problems brought about by operation of the Constitution can best be solved by proper amend ment or amendments to the Constitution itself. And since in three years we shall be amending the Constitution through a Constitutional Con vention, it should be wise even this early to consider the matter of a national language. To my way of thinking the most effective way of imple menting the Constitutional provision on national lan guage, as well as the most de mocratic way of achieving national greatness, is to es tablish a federal republic in place of the present Unitarian republic that we now have. Under the proposal, the existing provinces could be regrouped into autonomous states on the basis of the lan guages spoken by the inha bitants. All functions and powers of government exceot those relating to foreign rela tions, citizenship, national defense, currency, immigra tion and customs, are to be exercised by the various states. This scheme of gov ernment, I make bold to pre dict, will be able to achieve and preserve greater national unity and a more viable de mocratic way of life than the Republic under which we are living. Under this proposal the > Tagalog-based national lan guage will continue to be de veloped as the national lan guage of the Republic, with English as a second language which, however, should con tinue as the official language of the Republic until the Ta May 1968 3 galog-based national language has been sufficiently deve loped to serve as an adequate language of government; but the various states are to choose which local languages they are to use within the state, in addition to the Ta galog-based national language and English. This means that along with the ilteratures in the national language and in English, the literatures in the main local languages are to be cultivated and enriched, instead of being discouraged or suppressed as it seems to be the plan of the present leaders of the national lan guage movement. The indifference and some times hostility to the national language movement that one finds ampng speakers of the more important native lan guages may be traced to the ill-concealed intention of the Tagalistas to discourage the development and eventually suppress the various lan guages in order to give way to the exclusive use of Taga log throughout the nation. To these Tagalistas, Tagalog is really the national lan guage, the Constitutional provision about the develop ment and adoption of a na tional language based on one of the existing native lan guages being only a euphe mistic way of warding off op position from the non-Tagalog-speaking Filipinos. The development of the regional languages along with the na tional language based on Tagalog will remove the in difference and weaken the latent opposition to the na tional language movement and pave the way to greater national unity and the deve lopment and strengthening of our democratic institutions. One could of course raise the question whether political and cultural decentralization, as proposed in my scheme, would be best for our people. It can be seen that it runs counter to the present poli tical and cultural scheme, which is highly centralized. MY THESIS My thesis is the political and cultural decentralization, which will result in equitable distribution of political power among the more important ethnic groups, would bring about greater national unity 4 Panorama and a more viable democracy. The great problem of a multi ethnic state, such as ours is, is how to distribute political power equitably among the several ethnic groups. Predo minance in the membership in the powerful Senate, which is elected by the whole na tion, has always tilted to wards the Tagalog-speaking Regions. If, as in the United States Senate, each state in the federal Philippine Repub lic will have equal represent ation in the Philippine Senate, then the distribution of poli tical power will have been partly solved. In the House of Representatives, the prin ciple of proportional repre sentation will work as well as in the present scheme, if not more effectively, since the autonomous states will be more vigilant about their re presentation than the existing provinces. SOME PROPOSALS My proposal envisages the amendment of the Constitu tion to provide for the re constitution of the existing provinces into countries and their grouping into ten states namely: (1) North Luzon, (2) Central Luzon, (3) South Luzon, (4) Southeast Luzon, (5) West Visayas, (6) Central Visayas, (7) East Visayas, (8) East Mindanao, (9) Cen tral Mindanao, and (10) West Mindanao. The cities of Ma nila and Quezon City are to be reconstituted into a Fe deral District, which will serve as the capital of the Federal Republic. Since this political reorgan ization is designed to pro mote local autonomy and en courage the development of the cultural heritage of the various ethnic groups, then the regional language and literatures will have to be en riched through the help of the governments of the various states, which are en joined to use the more im portant local languages as official languages within the state. Iloko is the dominant language of North Luzon, with Ibanag as second in im portance; Tagalog is domi nant in Central Luzon, fol lowed by Pampanga, Iloko and Pangasinan; Tagalog is the lone dominant language of South Luzon, while Bi col is of Southeast Luzon. HiliMay 196.8 gaynon dominates West Vi sayas, Sugbohanon the Cen tral Visayas, and Samareno the East Visayas. Likewise Sugbuhanon is dominant in East Mindanao; Magindanao and Maranaw are the leading languages of Central Minda nao, with Hiligaynon and Iloko trailing behind; and l^ausug and Samal are most widespread in West Minda nao and Palawan. With writing in these various languages encouraged by the various state govern ments, along, of course, with the national language which is based on Tagalog, hope is expressed for the flowering of the human imagination throughout the land in the not too distant future. Our democracy will have become more viable with its grass roots strengthened through the exercise of local autono my. Love of and pride in the local or regional community will blend naturally with love of and pride in the national community. It is in the na ture of things for a person to take more interest in the things that are closest to his day-to-day existence than in matters that are remote. Once you have developed his self-respect through local ci vic pride — that is once you have inspired in the Bicolano, the Ilongo, the Cebuano, the Hokano, the Pampangan, the Pangasinan, the Maranao, the Tausug, or feeling of pride in his community repre sented by his autonomous state — you can expect the Filipino citizen in any part of the country to develop a greater love for and loyalty to the bigger community that is the nation. Under this political organ ization and socio-cultural set-up, language movements for purism and anti-pufism, like those of Mr. Gonzalo del Rosario and Mr. Geruncio Lacuesta, will no longer be necessary because the na tional language will follow a natural development. As a second language of the Re public and as an official lan guage for some time, English naturally will ‘continue in fluencing the growth of the national language, in vocabu lary and in grammar. With the various states using their own main languages and 6 Panobama English, the local languages will have a rich opportunity to contribute to the enrich ment of the national lan guage. There wlil no longer be any reason for conflict be tween the local or regional languages and the national language, because the na tional language will have ex tensively borrowed from the regional languages for its own enrichment. When that time comes — may be three to five genera tions from now, that is, if a Federal Republic is set up through a Constitutional amendment — a Dante, a Chaucer, a Luther, a Cervan tes will .appear on the na tional scene to produce a masterpiece or masterpieces in the new language that will mark a significant take off point for the growth of a greater national literature which our posterity will be proud to call its own. — A Lecture by Leopoldo Y. Yabes, Professor, University of the Philippines, at the Y.M.C.A., Manila. ON SAVINGS One of the surest ways to make money is to save money. Savings are the storage batteries of financial power. — Savings & Loan News, 1968 May 1968 7

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