The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 4

4.   The integration of the pre-Hispanic ethnic states

The majority of the local Chieftains that came to the 1599 synod, upon learning of the foregoing benefits, overwhelmingly voted Yes to the proposal about the Spanish King being their sovereign.

Even the Moslems of Manila, of Joló and Mindanao said Yes to this proposition thereby integrating their own local Estates into the recently founded Filipino State. The favorable vote of these early Moslem groups was later affirmed by Sultan Alimuddin of Joló when he later visited Manila.

Thus the local Moros also participated in the establishment of the Filipino State from the start.

The 150 or so Chinese residents in Mayi-in-I-la also said “Sí” to the same proposal and became citizens of Spain.

Thus, the Filipino STATE, started out with three kinds of people as its founding constituents. These are the Spanish Conquistadores and Frailes, the Tagalog, Visayan and Capampañgan katutubô or indigenous (Indios to the Spanish records) and the Chinese that migrated from both China and the destroyed Orang Dampuan settlement in northern Mindadanao.

As the Messianic Spanish Frailes went on with the founding of Catholic pueblos, which they also endowed with maiz, camote, kamatis, sibuyas, ajos, calabaza and the guisado, the asado, the pinirito (frito), the salseado, the enjamonado, the embutido and the puchero and the tinola, they also got the Chinos Cristianos to bring over some Chinese culture, particularly their cuisine.

With the help of their indigenous flock and their Chino Cristiano co-adjutores, the Frailes got to build, through the bayanihan system of both the Polo and the Falla, all those awesome Catholic churches, roads, bridges and Casas-Tribunales and Casas Reales that used to dot every Filipino pueblo of recent times.

Thus, the Filipino STATE became consolidated in fact because of the patient work and determination of the Spanish Frailes at the head of their Indio and Chino Cristiano flock.

Then, Filipinos, with their Indio and Chino Cristiano relations, became full-fledged Spanish citizens. This happened in 1810 when they were given Spanish surnames for identification and tax purposes. Those who wanted to keep their Indio, or Chino Cristiano, surnames were allowed to do so with the condition that these be spelled and pronounced in Spanish.

Thus Indio surnames like Macaspac, Maglaque, Agcaoili and Chino Cristiano surnames like Tantiongco, Cojuangco, Tanjutco, Locsin, Lacson, etcetera, became Spanish surnames with their owners also becoming Spanish citizens.

There were only five kinds of taxes imposed upon them. These were: the cédula personal, the licencia, the amillaramiento, the aduana and the herencia.

There were, then, no such oppressive things as a yearly income tax to pay at source and to file every March and April. There were no oppressive EVAT, no gasoline tax, no electrical and water distribution tax, no amusement tax, no 70% inheritance tax, no confiscatory land and business taxes, no court, litigation, entertainment and prostitution taxes and no cigarette and drink taxes, etc. etc. now collected to mainly pay an atrocious foreign debt and an oversized and graft-and-corruption ridden bureaucracy.

In the Nineteenth Century Filipinos revolted against Spain in their desire for political reforms but were overtaken by the war declared by the U.S.A. in order to grab Cuba, Puerto Rico and Filipinas, the three last provincias de ultramar or Spanish over-sea provinces.

The U.S. WASP invaders did not only downgrade into a mere “insurrection” the Filipino resistance to their war. With the war they cruelly imposed upon the recently born República Filipina of 1898 the unphonetic English language.. The U.S. WASP  invaders cruelly nullified the flowering of the 1571 freely established State in Asia.

*** Webmaster’s Note: Guillermo Gomez Rivera is a Premio Zobel awardee, a member of the Academia Filipina and former National Language Committee Secretary, Philippine Constitutional Convention 1971-73.

The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Part 3

3.  What was the status of the Filipino State in 1571?

Its status was that of a Province of Spain administered through the vice-kingdom of New Spain which is Mexico today.

At the beginning, the Filipino State was treated as a missionary and military outpost by its creators. The Spanish military was there to guard and protect the missionaries and the scant Spanish civil population that came to settle in the Islands.

But this situation does not affect the other fact that the constituents of the newly formed Filipino State were primarily the Spanish Conquistadores followed by the indigenous (mostly Tagalog, Pampango and Visayan) and Chinese population that accepted the King of Spain as their sovereign.

Naturally, by accepting the Spanish King as theirs, all those mentioned became Spanish citizens in fact.  And as Spanish citizens they shared in whatever attributes of sovereignty that Spain had at that time.

This is the reason why Spain was referred to as their State’s Mother Country. And this also may explain why Filipinos stood with Spain, for almost four hundred years, against all the several invasions of their islands launched by the Dutch, Limahong and the British.

We may add that under the United States of America, the Filipinos stood by her against Japan because they  lived with the thought of sharing with Americans their country’s attribute of sovereignty even if General MacArthur, unlike Sim�n de Anda, chosed to flee from the Philippines leaving Filipinos to themselves with the phrase ‘I shall return’.

The tragedy of the Filipino war veterans waiting for American compensations in the form of a grant of U.S. citizenship with all its benefits, is a drama that we are witnessing up to now and well into the new millennium. But this fact is merely noted as a footnote to the relative “attribute of sovereignty” due the existing Filipino State.

Going back to the establishment of the Filipino State in 1571, we moreover note that when the reigning King of Spain became Felipe II, the name Felipeno acquired a more pragmatic connotation. It meant ‘one who paid tribute, or taxes’, to Felipe. Thus Felipenos were also the Indios who rendered service in his name and the Chinos Cristianos that paid the necessary licencia  (a form of tax) to him for doing business in the Islas Felipenas. The other Felipenos were, or course, the Spanish Conquistadores and Frailes that served Felipe II.

 (As a linguistic note, we remind our co-Filipinos that the two letters “E” in Felipeno were eventually replaced with the letter “I” because the indigenous Al�bata did not have neither an “E” nor an “O” in its composition. Being influenced by Arabic it only had three vowels or phonemes, —-namely A, I, U).

The form of government that came with the founding of the FILIPINO STATE was monarchial and it had the main feature of being one with the Catholic Church because of the Patronato Real. This was an agreement of unity between Madrid and Rome.

From this Patronato Real, the unity between the Spanish monarch and the Pope produced the first aim of Spanish colonization which is to Christianize.

By 1599, or twenty eight years after the founding of the Filipino State, a Synod was organized in Manila wherein all the Maharlic� Chieftains, R�gulos, Principales, Rajahs and Datus or heads, of the  different Ethnic States that were still existing in the entire archipelago, were assembled in Manila to answer the simple question (called a requirimiento) if they accepted, or did not, the Spanish King as their sovereign. (See John Leddy Phelan’s “The Hispanization of the Philippines”, p. 25 as edited and presented by historian Renato Constantino’s Filipiniana Reprint Series, Manila, 1985).

The Synod had this one simple and main question addressed to all the representatives of the native Ethnic States. “Do you accept the King of Spain as your lawful sovereign?”

The question was translated to them in all their different native languages.

Before answering Yes, the Chieftains conferred among themselves and then frankly asked the Spaniards under Legaspi what benefits they would get if they elected the Spanish King as their sovereign.

The Spanish answers were, more or less, the following:

(1) They would have the organizational benefits of Christianity since their acceptance of the Catholic Religion will not only mean the salvation of their souls but also the conversion of their barangays into sitios, their several sitios into a barrio, their several barrios into a municipio, their several municipios into a provincia with a cabecera, and, their several provincias into a “estado regional” under a Concejo de Indias of the Crown of Spain. By the 1800s, Las Islas Felipenas would fall under the Ministerio de Ultramar as an over-sea province (Provincia de Ultramar) along with Cuba and Puerto Rico.

(2) The indigenous people would become, so to speak, CITIZENS of Spain because “your friends will be our friends and your enemies will be our enemies”, in the tenor of the Requirimiento read to them.

(3) They would also have a better economy, from one that was of subsistence in character to one that was utilitarian. This would occur upon the arrival of new industrial and agricultural plants, root crops and vegetables like the maize, the caf� bean, the chocolate cacao, patties, camotelc, (camote) tobacco, cassava, papaya, man�, lanca, calabaza, tomatoes, onions, sincamatelc, (sincamas) camachictelc (camachile), etcetera, aside from the introduction of the arado (araro) and the azad�n (asarol), the sistema de caj�n of planting rice and a working irrigation system with the introduction of the horse (kabayo), the cow (Baka), the carabao (imported from Vietnam), the sheep and new fowl like the ganza, the pavo and a new breed of pato.

(4) From Manila, the capital city, a national system of government would improve the local pre-Hispanic system of governance for every Ethnic State since with Christianization and the founding of the pueblos or municipios the integration into one, single, Filipino State of all the previously different local, or ethnic, nations would be achieved.

(5) There were other things, relevant to a national Filipino infrastructure, that were possibly mentioned and explained like the organization of parochial schools, colleges and a university (UST), a foreign trade v�a the Acapulco-Manila Galleons, a system of land ownership with the encomiendas that would later become partitioned into haciendas, an inter-island transportation system, etc..

(6) The gradual spread of Spanish, along with the principal languages (Tagalog, Bisaya and Ilocano) as the primary official language of the courts and public documents would be the hallmark of progress. The mentioned principal native languages would also be developed with a common phonetic and Hispanic alphabet in order to convert them into better tools of Christianization and basic European civilization and education for the indigenous people.

*** Webmaster’s Note: Guillermo Gomez Rivera is a Premio Zobel awardee, a member of the Academia Filipina and former National Language Committee Secretary, Philippine Constitutional Convention 1971-73.

The Filipino State (Another way of looking at Philippine history): Parts 1-2

Part 1: What is a ’state’?
Part 2: When was the origin, or birth of the Filipino state?
Part 3: What was the status of the Filipino state in 1571?
Part 4: The integration of the pre-Hispanic ethnic states
Part 5: Maturity of the Filipino state in 1898
Part 6: 1900: The Filipino people was deprived of its own state
Part 7: Was the Filipino state mortgaged and hocked? Was it grossly betrayed? Will the Filipinos remain to be stateless even in their own country?

1.  What is a ’state’?

A small dictionary defines state as “a territory with laws”.

The word “laws” in this definition naturally implies that there are people living in that “territory”. This also means that the “territory” is the patrimony of the people living in it for which they have laws.

And the very fact that a territory has its own laws, it also implies that it has a basic attribute of sovereignty to make such laws for itself.

Thus, the word “laws” in this definition also implies that there is a government, with defending soldiers or policemen, existing in the same and referred to territory that enforces those laws upon the people living in it.

That government may be monarchial because the ruler is a Chieftain or a King or by whatever title such a ruler may be called.

Let us now find out the origin and evolution of the State that locals, as well as foreigners, now call as the Filipino State. Ang Estado ng Filipinas.

2.  When was the origin, or birth, of the Filipino State?

When Philippine history is taught now-a-days, the origin, or birth, of the Filipino State is not discussed. It is deliberately omitted.

By whom? – You would ask. And we would answer pointblank:  —– by our White Anglo Saxon Protestant  (WASP) masters who by their undue interference in the language and economic policies of the Filipino State threaten, or violate, its attribute of sovereignty.

Why? – You would again ask.  In order to turn Filipinos into strangers in their own country for the purpose of better exploiting them economically in the midst of their confusion about themselves.

And this charge can be proved true by the un-Filipino results of the educational system principally conducted in English which most often makes relative, or insecure, the attribute of sovereignty of the Filipino State.

But let us go back to the main question. When was the birth of the Filipino State?

The answer is very easy.

At the same instant that Manila was founded and established as its capital city. And the date given to that event is June 24, 1571.

It is, therefore, a fact that the Filipino State was simultaneously founded with the founding of Manila.  For, why should there be a capital city, seat of a Central Government and Law, without a corresponding State to govern?

And due to this fact, we come across a grave error being committed in the manner Philippine history is taught in our schools.

We often tell our students and children that Manila was founded on June 24, 1571 as the Capital City of the Philippines but we always fail to teach that with its founding the Filipino State was also founded and established.

We also fail to underscore that from that day onward, the Filipino State began to exist as a jurisdictional reality up to the present time as we find ourselves talking about it in this year 2000.

 *** Webmaster’s Note: Guillermo Gomez Rivera is a Premio Zobel awardee, a member of the Academia Filipina and former National Language Committee Secretary, Philippine Constitutional Convention 1971-73.

Rizal: A Man for All Times

Editor’s Notes: The following article was a speech delivered by Sir Allan Terrett, KR.

————

Rizal was truly an amazing man. Professor Blumentritt had said that a man of his stature only appears in the history of any nation, once every century. I don’t believe Australia has yet produced a man of his stature.

I will briefly review some of the areas in which he excelled, in his short life of only 35 and a half years.

He was:

    *      an anthropologist
    *      a botanist
    *      a businessman
    *      a cartographer
    *      a dramatist
    *      an economist
    *      an educator
    *      an engineer
    *      an essayist
    *     an entomologist,

While he was in Dapitan he used to send plant, animal and insects to Europe. (1) A rare frog which was named Rahpcophorus Rizali, (2)  A small beetle belonging to the species coleoptera, which was named Apogonia Rizali, and (3) A dragon fly which was named Draco Rizali.

He was a farmer

    *      a folklorist
    *      a geographer
    *      a grammarian
    *      a historian
    *      a horticulturist
    *      a humorist
    *      a lexicographer
    *      a linguist, He could speak with ease 22 languages, and in many was able to write letters and poetry.

He was

    *     a musician
    *     a novelist
    *    a painter
    *    a physician – including a specialist ophthalmologist
    *    a poet
    *    a philosopher
    *    a polemist
    *    a psychologist.

He was

    *    a satirist
    *    a sculptor
    *    a sportsman
    *    a sociologist
    *    a surveyor
    *    a traveller, and
    *    a zoologist;

but more than these a patriot, a hero and a martyr.

Some believe that Rizal is no longer relevant to the present day; because the circumstances and the tyranny of the times in which he lived have long since passed.

But I believe this is wrong. Rizal and his legacy are for all times, and all ages, and all classes of people.

I am a great believer that we should all have a hero in our lives, somebody to try to emulate; – and there is no better person to have as a hero, and to try to emulate, – than Rizal.

Rizal was a man who suffered

    *    hardship
    *    persecution
    *    poverty
    *   disillusionment
    *   sorrow.

We must remember that he was a man; made of flesh and bones just like us; – and though we may fall short of his example, we will be better for having been inspired by his example.

I believe that we who have children of Filipino background have an obligation to teach children about Rizal.

I believe that if we, and if we teach our children to try to emulate aspects of Rizal’s life, then this will raise ours; – and our children’s standards of:

    *   dedication to ideals
    *   dedication to study
    *   standards of morality, actions, behaviour, thinking, aims, and ethics
    *   respect for law, parents, other people, and country
    *   and to use our lives more productively.

I believe that the teachings of Rizal are very relevant today; he is a man for all times, and that if he becomes a role model for ourselves, and our children, then we, our community, and our country will be better for it.

*** Paper presented at “A Symposium on the Life and Works of Dr Jose P. Rizal” by the  Order of the Knights of Rizal, Sydney Chapter, on May 30, 1999 at the Bankstown RSL Club, Bankstown, NSW.

The Making of a National Language

Editor’s Notes: The following article is written by Renato Perdon.

—————

A clear proof the cultural diversity of the Filipinos is the number of languages and dialects spoken in the Philippines, from Batanes in the North to Jolo in the South.

This language diversity is one of the reasons why it took more than three centuries, after the arrival in the Philippines of the Europeans in the 16th century, for Filipinos to become a cohesive integrated national community.

The religious missionaries took it upon themselves to learn and master the native dialects instead of teaching the natives to speak in Spanish.

In the case of the Americans, it was opposite. Believing that a single language is the key to any colonisation scheme, Filipinos were forced to learn American English.

The language problem in the Philippines was recognised only in the 1930s. It took a politician who later became the country’s president, Manuel L. Quezon, a Tagalog speaker from Baler, Tayabas, now Quezon Province, to push the idea of a single language for the Filipinos.

During the 1935 Constitutional Convention, it was Quezon who worked hard for the inclusion of a provision that would require the development of a national language for the Filipinos.

Initially, Tagalog ( note: a dialect which was the lingua franca of Manila)  was proposed as the national language but the non-Tagalog speakers, mainly from the Province of Cebu, objected and the word Tagalog was deleted and replaced by a phrase “one of the existing native languages”.

Thus, the Philippine Constitution provides “Congress shall take steps towards the development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages.”… English and Spanish would continue as official languages of the country.  In pursuance of this mandate, the National Assembly, the lawmaking body of the Philippines at that time, created the Institute of National Language (INL) to study which among the native languages could be developed and adopted as the national language of the Philippines. The INL was composed of a chairman and members representing the major native languages of the Philippines such as Iloco, Pangasinan, Ibanag, Pampango, Tagalog, Bikol, Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), Cebuano, Samar-Leyte and Magindanaw.

Jaime C. de Veyra, scholar, historian and politician, who hailed from the Province of Leyte became the Chairman of the INL. In 1937, the Institute recommended to Congress the adoption of Tagalog as the basis of developing a national language. Subsequently, President Quezon proclaimed the national language of the Philippines based on the Tagalog dialect.

The development of the national language of the Philippines was slow. According to historian Onofre D. Corpuz, by 1960 only 44.5% of the population spoke Pilipino, the official name of the national language, although this was better than the 39.5% for English and 25% for Spanish. This slow development was due to the fact that while Pilipino was being taught in school, it was not used as a medium of instruction, compared to English which was taught as if it was a native language.

The use of Pilipino, based on Tagalog, as one of the media of instruction in all schools in the Philippines, gained momentum in the 1970s when a a bilingual policy in education was adopted by the National Board of Education…. The policy, among other things, provided for the gradual introduction on all levels, starting in 1973, of Pilipino as the medium of instruction in certain subjects like the social sciences, practical arts and physical education. However, English was retained as the medium of instruction in mathematics and the sciences.

While Pilipino was gaining a headway as a national language with many Filipinos becoming conversant in the language, arguments against it continued. During the 1971 Constitutional Convention which revised the 1935 Philippine Constitution, the language issue was one of the heated subjects that dominated the many conferences and meetings attended by the delegates.

As completed, the 1973 Constitution of the Philippines incorporated a much clearer policy on the issue. It stated that “the National Assembly shall take steps towards the development and formal adoption of a common national language to be known as Pilipino.”  Moreover, it was also mandated that the fundamental law be “officially promulgated in English and Pilipino.”

The wider use of Pilipino during the People’s Power Revolution in 1986 added credibility to the national language…. the Aquino sponsored Provisional Constitution, also known as “Freedom Constitution” …issued on 25 March 1986… was ordered published in English and Pilipino.

… In the past, the subject of a national language only worth a few lines in the fundamental law of the land. However, in the 1987 Constitution, a separate part titled “Language”, with four sections devoted solely on the subject of national language, is incorporated.

Approved in a nationwide plebiscite on 2 February 1987, Filipino became the new name of the national language of the Philippines and the government was enjoined “to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as a language of instruction in the educational system.”

The Constitution also mandated the creation of the Commission on Filipino Language (CFL) which will undertake, coordinate, and promote research for the development, propagation, and preservation of Filipino and other languages.

** This article is an extract from the author’s book, English Filipino Wordbook.  / webmaster rc 010899 – Emanila Team

Salawikain (Tagalog Proverbs)

Ang salawikain ay mga kasabihan na nagmula sa mga pahayag at payo ng mga matatanda ayon sa kanilang mga karanasan sa buhay o sa isinalin sa kanila ng kanilang mga ninuno.

Ang ibang salawikain ay napapalooban ng mga pahayag sa kagandahang asal kaya ang mga ito ay nagsisilbing parang “code of conduct.”

May mga katumbas ang ibang salawikain sa Ingles katulad halimbawa ng:

Turan mo ang iyong kaibigan, sasabihin ko kung sino ikaw. (Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll you who you are.)

Ang tunay na kaibigan, nakikilala sa kagipitan (A friend indeed is a friend in need.)

Gawin mo sa kapuwa mo. Ang nais mong gawin niya sa iyo. (Do unto others what you want others do unto you.)

Malaki ang impluwensya ng salawikain sa kultura ng mga Filipino dahil sa bisa nito sa pagpapahiwatig ng pakikipagkapwa-tao, sa ugnayan ng tao sa Diyos, sa pagbibigay galang at puri sa mga magulang at sa pamumuhay.

Nandito ang ilang salawikain na hinango namin mula sa iba’t ibang lathalain:

SALAWIKAIN

Ang paala-ala ay mabisang gamot sa taong nakakalimot.

Ang taong nagigipit, kahit sa patalim ay kumakapit.

Hangga’t makitid ang kumot, magtiis mamaluktot.

Magsisi ka man at huli wala nang mangyayari.

Huli man daw at magaling, naihahabol din.

Kung hindi ukol, hindi bubukol.

Matalino man ang matsing, napaglalalangan din.

Bawa’t palayok ay may kasukat na suklob.

Batang puso madaling marahuyo.

Tikatik man kung panay ang ulan,
malalim mang ilog ay mapapaapaw.

Naghangad ng kagitna, isang salop ang nawala.

Ubus-ubos biyaya, maya-maya ay nakatunganga.

Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa.

Kung binigyan ng buhay, bibigyan din ng ikabubuhay.

Ang iyong kakainin, sa iyong pawis manggagaling.

Buhay alamang, paglukso ay patay.

Buntot mo, hila mo.

Kung nasaan ang asukal, naruon ang langgam.

Walang mapait na tutong sa taong nagugutom.

Lahat ng gubat ay may ahas.

Ang anumang kasulatan dapat ay lalagdaan.

Nasa taong matapat ang huling halakhak.

Ang tunay na kaibigan karamay kailan man.

Ang tunay na kaibigan, nakikilala sa kagipitan.

Ang matapat na kaibigan, tunay na maaasahan.

Turan mo ang iyong kaibigan, sasabihin ko kung sino ikaw.

Ang tunay mong pagkatao, nakikilala sa gawa mo.

Ang tao kapag mayaman marami ang kaibigan.

Magkulang ka na sa magulang huwag lamang sa biyenan.

Ang pag-aasawa ay hindi biro, ‘di tulad ng kanin
Iluluwa kung mapaso.

Nakikita ang butas ng karayon, hindi makita ang butas ng palakol.

Kung gaano kataas ang lipad gayon din ang lagapak pag bagsak.

Hampas sa kalabaw, sa kabayo ang latay.

Kapag ang ilog ay matahimik, asahan mo at malalim.
Kapag ang ilog ay maingay, asahan mo at mababaw.

Ang lumalakad nang mabagal, kung matinik ay mababaw.
Ang lumalakad nang matulin, kung matinik ay malalim.

Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan,
hindi makakarating sa paruruonan.

Ang langaw na dumapo sa kalabaw,
mataas pa sa kalabaw ang pakiramdam.

May tainga ang lupa, may pakpak ang balita.

Kung ano ang itinanim, iyon din ang aanihin.

Ako ang nagtanim, ang nagbayo at nagsaing,
saka nang maluto’y iba ang kumain.

Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo.

Huwag magbilang ng manok hangga’t hindi napipisa ang itlog.

Kung sino ang unang pumutak, siya ang nanganak.

Magkupkop ka ng kaawa-awa, langit ang iyong gantimpala.

Ang mabuting gawa kinalulugdan ng madla.

Kapag bukas ang kaban, nagkakasala sinuman.

Ang butong tinangay na aso, walang salang nalawayan ito.

Ang utang ay utang, hindi dapat kalimutan.

Ang iyong hiniram, isauli o palitan.
Upang sa susunod, hindi ka makadalaan.

Ang bungang hinog sa sanga matamis ang lasa.
Ang bungang hinog sa pilit kung kainin ay mapait.

Walang humawak ng lutuan na hindi naulingan.

Gawin mo sa kapuwa mo. Ang nais mong gawin niya sa iyo.

Ang sakit ng kalingkingan damdamin ng buong katawan.

Ang mabigat ay gumagaan kapag pinagtulung-tulungan.

Madaling pumitas ng bunga,
kung dadaan ka sa sanga.

Ibong sa awla’y ikinulong nang mahigpit,
kapag nakawala’y hindi na babalik.

Kahoy mang babad sa tubig sa apoy huwag ilapit
‘pag ito’y nadarang sa init, sapilitang magdirikit.

Nawawala ang ari, nguni’t ang uri ay hindi.

Sa larangan ng digmaan, nakikilala ang matapang.

Kung may hirap ay may ginhawa.

Kung ano ang taas ng pagkadakila
siya ring lagapak kapag nadapa.

Ang pag-ilag sa kaaway ang tunay na katapangan.

Bago mo batiin ang dungis ng ibang tao,
ang dungis mo muna ang tingnan mo.

Walang pagod magtipon, walang hinayang magtapon.

Ano man ang tibay ng piling abaka
ay wala ring silbi kapag nag-iisa.

Ang gawa sa pagkabata, dala hanggang sa pagkamatanda.

Ang taong mainggitin, lumigaya man ay sawi rin.

Walang matiyagang lalake sa pihikang babae.

Ang bayaning nasugatan, nag-iibayo ang tapang.

Kung takot sa ahas, iwasan mo ang gubat.

Kapag may isinuksok, may madudukot.

Matutuyo na ang sapa nguni’t hindi ang balita.

Ang tunay na anyaya, may kasamang hila.

*** Posted: Pebrero 4, 2003, emanila*pilipino

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Remembering Claro M. Recto

 By Tony P. Fernandez

The year was 1950. The place was the Malate church in Manila. I was attending a Sunday mass and stood on the aisle because the church was full. Then suddenly he appeared: Don Claro M. Recto. He stood next to me, comfortable, refined and elegant in his plain white suit.

The earth seemed to sink beneath me. I remember saying to myself: “Wow! Claro M. Recto himself!”

Recto looked at me and smiled. It was a gesture I’ll never forget because Don Claro M. Recto was at the time an icon in Philippine politics. And there I was standing next to a man who will be written about in Philippine history. Oh, how I wished to have exchanged a few words with him. But that was not to be. When the mass was over, Recto walked to his car and before it sped away, he waved to some bystanders who recognized him.

A staunch nationalist

Recto was a staunch nationalist and the most prominent voice defending the sovereign rights of the Filipinos whose writings and speeches in Congress were highly critical of U.S. policy specially the U. S. military bases in our land.

Those of us who were young students of that generation had nothing but admiration for this man and considered him as the spokesman in our revolt against U.S. domination and against the American military bases.

In short, I stood next to a hero that Sunday morning for Don Claro is now esteemed by millions of Filipinos and a shrine in Philippine history.

Today’s Filipinos know how so militant a nationalist was Recto, but many might not realize that the great patriot was a product of the Spanish culture and its legacies to the Filipino people. He contended that Spanish culture has become so much part of the Filipino spirit and identity that to abolish these would impoverish our culture. Indeed, as a young aspiring writer, Recto was one of the most influential writers in the Spanish language and one of the finest poets in the Spanish language which he mastered along with English which he also mastered with brilliance.

He fought throughout his life for teaching Spanish in our schools along with Dr. Jose Rizal�s important works: the Noli and Fili.

Valuing our Spanish heritage

But after entering politics, Recto became less preoccupied to the world of letters, but kept the old faith and remained loyal to it and continued to value our Spanish heritage arguing that Spain’s enduring legacy was part of our Filipino culture.

Recto produced pages of prose and poetry in Spanish and won the Zobel Prize for Spanish literature even as he was speaking out in defense of his people�s rights in the crusade for the emancipation of the Philippines from American domination and the attainment of complete and real sovereignty of the Filipino people.

The Filipino historian Renato Constantino, in his book The Making of a Filipino, paid tribute to Recto�s contribution in our historic struggle for emancipation by stating that: “Recto�s doctrinal views in their entirety constitute a definite historic contribution which makes him part of the real history of our people; and his development proved that only the decolonized Filipino is a real Filipino.”

“It is terrible to die in a foreign country”

In 1960, the Spanish government invited Recto to visit Spain as its guest. The pilgrimage to Spain was to have been the most satisfying old dreams of Recto because of his sustaining affection for Spanish. The dream was not to be fulfilled. The pilgrimage was to remain unfinished.

Recto never reached Spain. He suffered a heart attack in Rome and died on October 2, 1960. He was 70.

According to an article written by Nick Joaquin, Don Claro M. Recto�s mind remained clear to the end. Said he in anguish: “It is terrible to die in a foreign country.”

Those were his last words.

*** This article about Don Claro M. Recto (born February 8, 1890) first appeared online here at emanila.com, and reposted to emanila*pilipino on Feb 25, 2003. Tony Fernandez is based in Montreal, Canada. Please click here to know more about Tony.

In Defense of Chabacano

One of the objectives of the Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language is to encourage the use of Spanish in the Philippines.

The fact is that Spanish is no longer spoken in the Philippines, and we, the Filipino Hispanists, are looking for ways of making Spanish accessible, so to speak, for the Filipinos.

One way is through Chabacano, one of the Philippine dialects that is closest to the Spanish language in syntax and vocabulary, more so than the other Philippine dialects.

In fact, Chabacano is some sort of a watered down Spanish, a kind of Spanish referred to as Creole or “Pidgin” Spanish.

For us, members of the Academy, if we want to reach our objective of broadening the horizons of Spanish in the Philippines, and hopefully, making it again an official and spoken language as it once was in our history, perhaps teaching Spanish in schools by way of Chabacano might be considered a possibility. Of course, this method could cause frowns among Spanish purists in the Philippines or even academics of the Spanish language around the world.

At one time, Spanish was considered in the Philippines as the language of the learned, and not of the masses. We see this in the whole concept of the “ilustrado” in our 19th century history. However, in the 21st century, we are no longer living in this era of the “enlightenment”. Democracy and the masses are the radical elements of the 20th and the 21st century. We can no longer live in our ivory towers; it is necessary to go down to the masses and simplify the Spanish language in order to make it accessible to the common person, and not only to the intellectuals.

What I have proposed in the past and even upto this day is to create an easy grammar based on Philippine dialectology. A massive problem in the Spanish syntax is, as in any Romance language bases on Latin and Greek, is the complexity of the verb structure. What has to be done, which is really what the Chabacano verb is all about, is a simplified form of the temporal and personal verbal conjugations.

In Tagalog, Chinese or most Asian languages, temporal conjugations aren’t used when adverbs of time are already in a sentence. Thus, like Chinese or Tagalog, we can simplify the verbal conjugation by leaving the verb in the infinitive, and just adding the adverb of time to specify the temporal element. Of course, the subject of the verb, as in Tagalog, would be essential.

A parallelism would be such: in Tagalog, we would say “Kakain ako bukas” (I eat [am eating] tomorrow) and “kakain ako ngayon” (I eat today). The simplified version which would parallel both English and Tagalog expressions would be: Yo comer manana( I eat tomorrow ) and Yo comer hoy (I eat today). In other words, students won’t have to worry about the future of “comer” which is “comere” or “como” (present 1st person singular).

This “easy grammar” concept is practiced in Chabacano which follows the tradition of oriental languages in concept. An important factor is identifying the subject; in Spanish or Latin, the pronominal subject is optional; it is only put for emphasis. In Philippine dialects, as in most Asian languages, the subject of the sentence, whether it be a noun or pronoun, is essential.

The word “come” in Chabacano is the corrupted form of the infinitive “comer”, and therefore, is used in all conjugated instances, whether past, present or future. Thus, “vos come”, “ella come”, “tu come”, etc.

What I have jsut briefly described is one simple example of how we should simplify and make Spanish flexible for the Filipino through the use of Chabacano, and therefore, encourage students to learn Spanish knowing that Filipino dialects are offsprings of Spanish.

I hope that in the future, Philippine universities would offer courses of this nature in order to appreciate Philippine dialects as they relate to Spanish.

*** This article was originally posted at emanila.com on Jan 4, 2003. It was sent in to us by Alberto D. Hernandez of Barcelona, Spain who requested to have it reprinted from Revista Filipina (a magazine about the Hispanic-Filipino world in Spanish). The magazine is directed by Edmundo Farolan, a member of the Philippines Academy of the Spanish Language.

The vibrancy of Filipino as a language

What is Internet in Tagalog?

We mentioned to all emanila.com members and users that our online translation service is not in Tagalog but in Filipino (Pilipino).

It has now become obvious from Mr Renato Perdon’s “The Making of a National Language” why it is so. While Tagalog is the basis of the development of Pilipino (now Filipino) in the 70s, the fact still remains that the latter is a language on its own. The two are distinct and different from each other.

Tagalog still remains Tagalog. Filipino (Pilipino) on the other hand consists of words integrated from the various Philippine dialects as well as from foreign languages.

For example, consider the following figures:

Based on Mr Perdon’s research, the official dictionary issued in 1991 by the Commission on Filipino Language had about 55% of the words integrated into Filipino coming from the major dialects in the Philippines, namely: Bicol (301 words), Cebuano (526 words), Hiligaynon (564 words), Ilocano (122 words), Kapampangan (51 words), Pangasinan (82 words), Old Tagalog / Tagalog (8,463 words), and Samar-Leyte (459 words).

There are also 328 Tausug words, 222 words from the Maranao dialect, 99 words from Maguindanao, 23 words from Samal, 16 words from the Tingian, 12 words from Isneg and another 12 words from Tagbanua.

On the influence of foreign languages, Mr Perdon has also reported that:

Spanish words account for 5,210 words followed by English (1,907), Chinese (232), Malay (176 words), Latin (70), French (46), Sanskrit (29), Arabic (28), German (25), Mexican (20), and Japanese (13).

There are also 7 words each from the Indonesian and Italian languages, 2 words each from the Argentinian, Australian, Hawaiian, Javanese and Swish languages. One word each came from Aztec, Czechoslovakian, Finish, Greek, India, and Russian languages.

Such is the vibrancy and dynamism of Filipino as a language. We will not be surprised if these days, the number of English words have increased. For how do you translate the contemporary words, especially those related to the Internet and other areas of information technology, in Filipino?

Has anyone started looking for the exact equivalent of the following common words: Internet, modem, web site, browser, email, upload, download, hyperlink, toolbar?

We will not be surprised to know that in Tagalog there are none! But in Filipino there are. The equivalent words are the native words — except that these are spelled in a manner that is distinctly Filipino! Example? Try web sayt for web site, brawser for browser, and tulbar for toolbar.

(This article was originally posted Dec 3, 2002 at emanila*plaza, emanila*pilipino)

Romy Cayabyab is the publisher of emanila.com