HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!

A great day for the RESISTANCE MOVEMENT: (wow hehe)

Philippine National Anthem in Bisaya

SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Valeriano Avila
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A week ago today, the session at the Cebu City Council started as usual by singing the National Anthem in the Cebuano language or "Nasudnong Awit or Yutang Tabunon" despite the fact that there is a national law that penalizes anyone singing the national anthem in their own native tongues except in Filipino, which as we all know is a not-so-cleverly- disguised Tagalog. But after the National Anthem and the prayer in Cebuano, Presiding Officer Vice-Mayor Michael Rama suggested continuing the session using the Cebuano language in order to clarify all matters.

Thus it was a sort of unique, albeit historic day last week because Cebu City Councilors were speaking their own native tongue in their official session. That the City Council of Cebu defied that law against singing the National Anthem in another tongue other than Tagalog proves our point that that law has become inutile, especially when faced with our Constitutional realities where one of the most basic freedoms our people enjoy is the Freedom of Speech, which means the freedom to speak our native language.

How many times have we said it here before that we Filipinos are very good in making great laws, but we're the worst in implementing such laws? Year 2008 has been declared the International Year of Languages, which was proclaimed by the 61st General Plenary Assembly of the United Nations in their effort to promote "Unity in Diversity and Global Understanding. " This year, the UN is pursuing multilingualism as a means of promoting, protecting and preserving diversity of languages and cultures globally. I have been advocating our right to speak and be educated in our Cebuano language from the first day I became a columnist. Now something like this finally happens, almost like a dream come true!

The Philippines is also a signatory of this UN declaration, hence for a nation of more than a hundred spoken languages, we should be the first to understand the realities that we are a nation of diverse cultures and languages and that one of the most basic of human rights is the Right to Free Speech! Yet our educational policy is killing other Filipino languages.

We Cebuanos have long been proud of our cultural heritage and language; after all, the first people in this archipelago that the Europeans knew were Cebuanos. Oh yes, the Spaniards didn't forget Cebu, as this is where the leader of the Armada de Moluccas Ferdinand Magellan met his death in the hands of Chieftain Lapu-Lapu.

We are also known as the First Christians in this part of Asia. While we embraced Christianity, I would like to believe it was due to the Sto. NiÒo, the statue of the Holy Child Jesus that is so richly decorated and dressed up. Back then, Rajah Humabon and his Queen Juana had their Anitos small wooden idols, hence when Magellan presented them with the Sto. Nino, they immediately embraced it.

Back on our advocacy on language. I won't forget that 22 years ago when President Corazon "Tita" Cory Aquino issued a directive ordering all government offices that official communication in her administration was through the use of the Filipino language. The Province of Cebu then under Gov. Emilio "Lito" Osmena defied that Presidential Directive and filed a case in court to stop that Presidential directive and won.

I remembered Gov. Osmena asking the question, "What is really the Filipino Language, when the reality is, it is 99.9% taken from the Tagalog language?" Since that time, despite a law ordering the singing of the Philippine National Anthem in Filipino, the City of Cebu, the Cebu Provincial Board starts its sessions with the singing of the National Anthem in Cebuano. This includes the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother). Let's hope that in today's session in the City Council, they would continue holding it in Cebuano, today and in the next sessions to come! Mabuhi ang Sugbuanon!

source

emphasis mine - Mr. Avila makes more sense and should be at the opinion page of the Philippine Star but his article is consigned at the back pages in the regional news section where most people don't even bother to read!

PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS HAPPY WITH THIS DEVELOPMENT

1. NON-TAGALOG FILIPINOS (for inspiration 75% of the pop.)
   
2. DIVERSITY LOVING TAGALOGS
3. GROUPS SUCH AS DILA, SOLFED, DILFED AND OTHER PRO-DIVERSITY INSTITUTIONS

PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS UNHAPPY WITH THIS DEVELOPMENT

1. TAGALISTA ELITE IN MANILA UNIVERSITIES
   
2. INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL LANGUAGE (You're not? Prove it.)
3. TBHON QUEZON and his wannabes
4. RGMA -Bigtime Balita
   
5. Some Television writers and directors
   

THE SOLUTION II

Is the situation that bleak? Is it really going to happen? It will, if we don’t act now and publicize the issue. The more people aware of the dying Philippine languages situation the more people will get involved. It is the awareness of the issue that could be the first step of saving our other languages – it was when I learned of this condition that I got involved. Everyone esp. those of the “minority” tongues should get involved.
It’s good to note several politicians are conscious of this and are acting fast though I prefer short term and feasible solution first at the moment. Federalization is a long process and I’m not sure whether it would happen (change in the system of government) soon. But it is the best solution.

Ethno-linguistic minorities
in a federal government

By Prof. Fred Cabuang

IN a surprising move, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel and other senators recently sponsored a multi-party resolution for the federalization of the Philippines. It proposes the creation of states that will establish 11 centers of finance and development in the archipelago.

These states are Northern Luzon, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Minparom (Mindoro Oriental, Mindoro Occidental, Palawan, Romblon and Marinduque), Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao and BangsaMoro (Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, (Shariff Kabunsuan) Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi).

link

WE ARE A DYING PEOPLE II

Some people with hidden agenda won't believe this but this is a fact: Non-Tagalog Philippine languages are dying. Need more proof? Hah! Just in time!

Even Kapampangan and Pangasinan are now

DYING LANGUAGES

By Rene Q. Bas

Experts expect Kapampangan and the Pangasinan language—out of the 10 major Philippine languages—to be extinct 20 years from now.

How can this happen? It’s easy to visualize how our Negrito (or Agta or Aeta or Ata) fellow Filipinos can disappear completely from the scene. (See “Negrito (Agta) languages’ descent to extinction” below by Prof. Fred S. Cabuang.) They die and their languages go with them forever.

Experts give different figures about the number of our languages. Most say there are 120 living languages and 175 in all including our extinct languages.

The eight major languages, according to number of speakers, and their percentage of the total Philippine population are: Tagalog 29 percent, Cebuano Bisayan 21.17 percent, Ilocano 9.31 percent, Hiligaynon Bisayan 9.11 percent, Bicolano 5.69 percent, Waray Bisayan 3.81 percent, Kapampangan 2.9 percent and Pangasinan 1.01 percent.

Language experts are agreed that languages spoken by less than 300,000 persons are endangered. They can become extinct soon enough. They see that within 20 years both Kapam-pangan and Pangasinan will no longer be spoken by a native speaker.

That the other non-Tagalog languages could also someday be in peril is indicated by the steady decline of their native speakers as a part of the population. In the past 20 years, Cebuano speakers have been reduced to just about one-fifth of the Filipino people. They were one-fourth less than 10 years ago. Ilocanos were 12 percent of the population in 1948. They now make up only 9 percent of the population. The Ilonggos show the same decline…

Source

Institutionalized genocide is another term to describe it.

Related links:

The Solution
Yeah RIGHT
Dying People

The Solution

We don't have to rely on our inept government to save our beloved language as it is biased in favor of Tagalog. But I'm glad President Arroyo understood the importance of English when she reinstated it as the medium of instruction in public schools.

Another language related news:

Well, it may come as a surprise to many that a lot more people are now batting for saving our native languages. Not just the Save our Language through Federalism. And they are the ones who are also batting for constitutional change and the adoption of the federal system.

Well, for one, I got a Yahoo mail from Manny (Mon Ramirez), which stated that "We, the non-Tagalogs, majority of the people of the Philippines have our own district mother tongues, our own district languages. We have no commonality with Tagalog."

Manny adds - Tagalog is not even prescribed as the national language in the 1987 Constitution. Instead, Section 7, Art. XIV states that the official language is Filipino as it shall be developed taking into account then other languages of the Philippines …

To impose Tagalog on the non-Tagalog peoples is not acceptable. It is divisive, not unifying, Manny added.

Solfed's Khalid points out that the problem comes after Dr. Jose Rizal, when the emergence of Tagalistas and their witting or unwitting form of cultural domination. It was wrong to speak another Philippine language in the classroom (1960-90s).

"Fortunately, there are people here in the Philippines, organizations like Solfed and Dila (to mention just a few) who made us aware of a Tagalog dominant culture to the detriment of the other regional cultures."

"There is even now an interpretation that the Katipuneros were only interested in a Tagalog Republic. Araneta, Lacson, et all, here in Negros Island, did not necessarily communicate and align themselves with Aguinaldo when they (Araneta and Lacson) took over the Spanish garrison here in Bacolod," Philip pointed out.

Source

We won't die out that easily. Here are more excerpts:

In various parts of the country, there has been a growing movement to save our native language. The point - when you destroy the ethnolinguistic tongue of the people, you destroy their soul, i.e. their culture disappears, so with their history.

That is why, in the Caraga Region, Dr. Dacudao reported, disc jockeys of radio stations, have started to use Butuanon and Cebuano in their commentaries and their programs.

And, yes, they also had the National Anthem translated into Butuanon. And the dwindling number of Butuan residents and natives speaking their mother tongue, have considerably risen.

"And, the more notable result - we are communicating with one another more effective," Dr. Dacudao pointed out. And, yes, he is aided by Taylor Calo who had recently helped organize the Antique SOLFED that is reviving interest in the Kinaray-a. That had touched Antique Governor Sally Zaldivar-Perez, also Regional Development Council chair, who recently astonished a lot of people when she and Rep. Janette Garin (1st District, Iloilo) paid tribute to their native tongue by using it in their public speeches during an RDC meet.

Source

I think it would help if the government allows teaching of Bisaya in Bisaya-speaking areas, Hiligaynon in Ilonggo areas, etc.,etc.

HILIGAYNON IS A LANGUAGE

Let me correct this propaganda. I have heard people erroneously call Hiligaynon a dialect. NO! Hiligaynon is proudly a language. It is in the same league as Spanish, French and English. It is not a variation of another language.
Let this piece from the Defenders of the Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago explain what is going on in the Philippines:

This forum is the "home court" of DILA members based in the Philippines, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada, Dubai and other countries.
DILA, which stands for Defenders of Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago, is a union among patriotic Pangasinenses, Pampanguenos, Bicolanos, Warays, Karay-as, Ilongos, Cebuanos, Ilocanos, and other ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines who feel aggrieved by the language policy of their country, and whose passion in life centers around promoting their dear languages (and other aspects of their culture) and saving them from extinction. Their related activities include studying their languages and doing language translations, interpretations and comparisons in a scholarly way. They work for the intellectualization of their languages and aim to have them be made languages of instruction and regular subjects in the school curriculum. Love and pride for their languages motivated them into forging this grand alliance. All members of minority groups, as well as exceptionally sympathetic Tagalogs, are strongly encouraged to join us and participate in our intellectual discussions. We are here to destroy the growing Tagalista mentality that is marginalizing all native languages to no end. "United, we shall overcome!"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DILA/

I join them in the massive fight against marginalization and cultural extinction of non-Tagalog Filipinos.