A Personal Journey of an

MTB-MLE Advocate

AT T Y. M A N U E L FA E L N A R
"The worst thing a speaker can do is to
be so self-centered. Speakers would
design a talk that sounds good them,
but do not even consider whether the
audience would find the presentation
beneficial or not."
(Francis J. Kong, Business Matters (beyond the bottom line),
The Philippine Star, February 6, 2016)
OUTLINE
1. Why the advocacy
2. Some Census Data
3. Why are our languages dying
4. Linguistic Fascism and National Language
5. Cheating in the 1934-1935 Constitutional Convention
6. Undesirable Effects of Linguistic Fascism
7. Under the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions, the Tagalog-
based National Language Ceased to Exist
8. How do we preserve, develop and promote our native
Filipino languages
9. Some successes
NAKEM 2014 IN SEPIA. We remember in sepia, and in sepia, we talk
about the eternal verities of our cause: linguistic justice, liberation
education, and cultural democracy. - Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili

WHY THE
ADVOCACY
 ETERNAL VERITIES
OF OUR CAUSE
Linguistic justice,
Liberation education, and
Cultural democracy,

slugging it out with:

the powerful,
the apathetic or indifferent,
the callous,
those in the cloud of unknowing = linguistic fascists
The National Statistics Office (NSO) data from 1948 to 1995
show that our languages have been slowly dying over the
years:
1948 1960 1975 1990 1995
Tagalog 19% 21% 23% 28% 29.29%
Cebuano 25% 24% 24% 24% 21.17%
Ilocano 12% 11% 11% 9% 9.31%
Ilonggo 12% 10% 9% 9% 9.11%
Bicol 8% 7% 6% 5% 5.69%
Waray 6% 5% 4% 4% 3.81%
Pampangan 3% 3% 3% 3% 2.90%
Pangasinan 3% 2% 2% 1% 1.01%
Table by Defenders of the Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago (DILA)

CENSUS DATA
The National Statistics Office (NSO) data from 2000:

Tagalog 21,485,927 28%

Cebuano 10,030,667 13%
Ilocano 6,920,760 9%
Bisaya/Binisaya 5,778,435 8%
Hiligaynon/Ilonggo 5,773,135 8%
Bikol/Bicol 4,583,034 6%
Waray 2,567,558 3%
Kapampangan 2,312,870 3%
Boholano 1,837,361 2%
Pangasinan/Panggalatok 1,362,142 2%

Table by Defenders of the Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago (DILA)

CENSUS DATA
"Until about 1970 there were more Filipinos who spoke
Sugboanon or Cebuano-Visayan and its various dialects, than
those of Tagalog,

... Since then more and more Filipinos have learned to understand
and speak Tagalog because of the teaching and use of Tagalog or
Filipino in our schools and their daily use by radio, cinema and
television
- (Kapunongang Bisaya, "Dalit Bisaya a Celebration of Cebuano Culture", Dec.
1-3, 2006, University of San Carlos, Cebu City)

WHY OUR
LANGUAGES ARE
"Without our language, we have no culture, we have no identity,
we are nothing."
- Ornolfor Thorsson, adviser to President of Iceland

"When you lose a language you lose a culture, intellectual wealth,

a work of art."
- Kenneth Hale, who taught linguistics at MIT

WHY LANGUAGES NEED TO BE

PRESERVED, DEVELOPED,AND
PROMOTED
The concept of a single national language comes from Jacobinism
during the time of the French Revolution.

The French Revolution adopted a policy on language that was very

different from the kind of policy on language that other democratic
nations see as appropriate.
indigenous languages other than French were
disenfranchised and to use them was called
counterrevolutionary activities

Harold Schiffman French Language Policy: Centrism, Orwellian

Dirigisme, or Economic Determinism?" (Department of South Asian
Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 11/20/2000).

LINGUISTIC FASCISM AND

NATIONAL LANGUAGE
 WHAT IS FASCIST
NATIONALISM AND
LINGUISTIC FASCISM
"In Mussolini's vision of nationalism. there was no room for linguistic variation. This meant
leaving behind the mosaic of heterogeneous regions and coming together under the third
Rome. Dialect was seen to be weakening the unitary spirit that a single national language
expressed. This wave of anti-regionalist sentiment led to a law in 1930, which banned dialects
from being used in films and another in 1932 which prohibited their use in daily and periodical
press. - Mussolini's Italy

Nationalism, of course, was already prevalent decades before Mussolini came to power.
Marazzini, Historic profile of the Italian Language
Fascism was the flavor of the post World War I era until the end of World War II It was very
popular among nation builders of the early 2oth century - the belief in nationalism and
superiority of one language group whose language must be imposed as a national language.
This Fascist thinking was the thinking of Quezon, Recto and others.

Source: Language policy during the ventennio of Fascism.

http://lingwa.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/6/1/22617950/language_policy_during_the_fascist_regime_edit.pdf
 CHEATING IN THE 1934 -1935
CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION
Starting with an article by the late Albano Pacis, Dr. Aurelio Solver Aurelio Solver Agcaoili
researched on the proceedings of the 1934-1935 Constitutional Convention which was only
published 30 years after the event:

"[L]et these drafts from the Laurel Proceedings tell you of the ruses that happened. First
draft: Article XIII, Sec. 2: "A national language being necessary to strengthen the solidarity
of the Nation, the National Assembly shall take steps looking to the development and
adoption of a language common to all the people on the basis of the existing native
languages." Second draft: Article XIII, Sec. 2.a: "The National Assembly shall take steps
toward the development and adoption of a common national language based on the
existing native languages, and until otherwise provided by law, English and Spanish be the
official languages." Third draft: Nothing on Article XIII. Other parts of the draft of the
Constitution had provisions.
 CONT

We must note here that the second draft was to be 'polished' for
stylebut not for substance!by the Committee on Style chaired
by Claro M. Recto. We note here that in the third draft, only those
provision that have revisions for stylistic reasons were to be
reviewed so that these provisions could be incorporated as part of
the final, fourth draft.

In the case of the provision on the national language, that was not
mentioned, there was nothing, and thus, logically, the second draft
is deemed that which was to move to the final, fourth draft.
 BUT, HERE IS WHAT WE HAVE
GOT:
Fourth draft: Article XIII, Sec. 3: "The National Assembly
shall take steps toward the development and adoption of a
common national language based on one of the existing
native languages. Until otherwise provided by law, English
and Spanish shall continue as official languages."

Cheating to accomplish Fascist linguistic objectives.

 DYSFUNCTIONAL EFFECTS
OF LINGUISTIC FASCISM

- To force people to use only one language can break

a country apart.

Pakistan learned this the hard way. When the super nationalists in
Islamabad declared that only Urdu would be used, the Bengalis
did not agree and Bangladesh was born. The civil war in Sri
Lanka was also caused by language. The Tamils did not agree
that only Sinhalese would be used. Belgium also almost broke up.
It was good that they made the country federal and they gave
respect to the indigenous languages in Belgium. In Spain, after
Franco's death, they also recognized multiculturalism and made
the regional languages official languages. The same thing was
done in the United Kingdom. Welsh and Scottish Gaelic were
made official language's.,
 CONT

- Here in our country, we are even belittled as in the movie

SAKAL SAKALI that those who do not speak Tagalog are not
Pinoy.
- Littling can never foster unity because, as Charlie Serapio of
the Christian National Union says, it is motivated by a sense of
superiority and domination.
- Linguistic Fascists only limit OPM to Tagalog music. Non-
Tagalog Filipino music is ignored.
Under the 1987 Constitution "Pilipino" with a P does not
exist.
 UNDER THE 1973 AND 1987
C O N S T I T U T I O N S T H E TA G A L O G -
B A S E D N AT I O N A L L A N G U A G E
CEASED TO EXIST

Article XV Section 3(2) of the 1973 Constitution gave Congress this mandate: "(2) The
Batasang Pambansa shall take steps towards the development and formal adoption of a
common national language to be known as Filipino.
With this Constitutional mandate to Congress, the Tagalog-based national language of
the 1935 Constitution ceased to exist.

Article XIV, Section of the 1987 Constitution provides: "Section 6. The national language of the
Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of
existing Philippine and other languages.
Section 6 did not make the Tagalog the national language. Neither the 1973 nor the 1987
provided a language base for Filipino. It is clear from the wording of Section 6, Article XIV
of the 1987 Constitution that Filipino was intended to be an amalgam language in the
same way that Official Basque, Romansche and modern Irish are amalgam
languages. But the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino continues to use Tagalog as the base
language with only tokens for the other languages. Dr. Jose Abueva that the greatest
contribution of Cebuano to Filipino would have been simplification of the latters
grammar, But KWF has not chosen to do this.
 H O W D O W E D E V E L O P, P R O M O T E
A N D P R E S E R V E O U R N AT I V E
FILIPINO LANGUAGES

- Let us take care of our languages because they are slowly dying.
- Let us not allow ourselves to be belittled and demeaned because we are not
Tagalog.
- MTB MLE is a good start and it needs to be implemented well, but it is not
enough.

To paraphrase former UP President Dr.Jose V. Abueva, For their survival and and
progress, the major languages and cultures of the Philippines should be more
vigorously used, developed and sustained as the fountainhead of Filipino
national culture and like other major indigenous cultures and languages in the
country the Cebuano language needs to be nurtured and developed. This
applies to all native Filipino languages, not just Cebuano.
And paraphrasing another former UP President, Dr. Francisco Nemenzo,
Cebuano will be left behind if you do not use it except trivial conversation. What
Abueva, Carnie, and Nemenzo are saying apply to all our native Filipino
languages. Article XIV of the Constitution needs to be amended to make the
regional languagesofficial languages as in Spain, Belgium, India, South Africa and
U.K. And above all, perhaps there is a need to campaign to adopt a federal
system along the lines of Belgium, Switzerland, India, and South Africa. This will
certainly save our languages.
 SOME SUCCESSES
1. 170+ Talaytayan MLE worked with DepEd on DO 74 s. 2009 which promoted the
mother tongue as a medium of instruction in the early years of the child's education.
2. 170+Talaytayan MLE, working with Congressman Magtanggol Gunigundo was
instrumental in the drafting of the mother tongue provisions of RA 15330. But DepEd
has so far failed to develop a mother tongue program for Grades 4 - 6. This is
mandated by law. DepEd has not yet complied. We need to campaign that DepED
develop the program as required by law. Bisaya (Cebuano) is now one of the language
options in Facebook.
3. At last, Cebuano has been included in both Google Translate (includes a new Cebuano
translator) and the Philippine version of Google Search now includes a Cebuano user
interface. - message from an officer in Google's Headquarters in California (May 10,
2013)
Google Translate - http://translate.google.com/
Google Search Philippines (English, Filipino, Cebuano)
http://www.google.com.ph/
 G O O G L E T R A N S L AT E A N D
PHILIPPINE VERSION OF GOOGLE

- Originally a project of DILA, taken up by Save Our Languages Through Federalism (SOLFED), back
again to DILA, and finally LUDABI and the Committee on Education and Culture of the Cebu Provincial
Board.
- As recounted by Jacqueline Siwala, Team Leader of Cebuano Google Team of Translators:

Atty. Manuel Lino Faelnar , had the chance to meet up with Wikimedia Foundations
Mr. Asaf Bartov (head of grants and global relationship) on a different project late
2011. After that meeting, Mr. Bartov tried and helped the former to connect with
right people in Google head office regarding the Google Cebuano Interface Project.
Google earlier in 2005, asked volunteers to translate Google interface phrases into
Cebuano
DILA, and later SOLFED asked Vincent Isles (now an Attorney) to take on the
challenge then, the group along with some known linguists and academicians in Cebu
reviewed Isles work. After that, they have submitted on October 20 of the same year
via e-mail the reviewed work to all Google head offices and a follow-up letter almost a
year after both without any response at all. It turned out that Filipino linguistic Fascists
working in Google had blocked any Filipino language other than Tagalog.
 GOOGLE TRANSLATE AND
PHILIPPINE VERSION OF
GOOGLE
- The team underwent the process that Angela Muigai was keen on
following: a 2-day translation workshop marathon. The group was
funded by the Office of the Provincial Board Member (Province of Cebu)
Arleigh Sitoy, who is also the incumbent president of LUDABI. On Feb
24 to 25, 2012, the team was housed in a resort in Cordova, Mactan .
- Google's policy is for inclusiveness and some language warriors and
advocates such as Time Harvey, helped us in convincing Google that a
Google search engine in Cebuano should be released. After a few
minor tweaks and correspondence between the team (Atty.
Faelnar and Jaq) and the Google project leaders such as Tim Harvey
himself and Svetlana Kelman, the search engine in Sinugboanon
(Cebuano) along with the translator was finally released in May 13,
2013.
Tim Harvey of Google presenting a
Google Translators Certificate to each
member of the Cebuano Google
Translation Team.