Philippines: Why national unity is so hard to achieve

[Harold Schiffman]

December 3, 2007
Why national unity is so hard to achieve

INSIDE CEBU By Bobit S. Avila Wednesday, November 28, 2007

In last week's briefing by the Strategic Studies Group, I was given a
copy of the National Security Review, a publication of the National
Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP), for the month of August. I
was lucky to be sandwiched by Comm. Mariano Sontillanosa (ret.), AFP
vice president for research and special studies of this publication,
and Dr. Cesar Pobre who wrote a very interesting article, "The Quest
for National Identity: An Imperative to Building the National
Community." Dr. Pobre told me that he was also a historian and thus we
do have common interests, plus the fact that he is a neighbor of my
first cousin, Gen. Rufino Ibay Jr., a retired police director. Dr.
Pobre asked me to make objective comments about his piece. However,
since it is quite long, I will only make one comment on this piece. So
allow me to reprint excerpts of his article.

Dr. Pobre wrote: "A nation strongly built is a nation secure. To be
strong, it must have unity. In addition, to have unity, it must have,
among others, a national identity. Hence the quest for national
identity is an imperative to building a strong national community." I
fully agree with his observation; after all, there should be something
that ought to unify all Filipinos for as long as everyone is given
equal opportunity, as a nation ought to give its citizenry. However,
in his chapter about the lack of unifying symbols, Dr. Pobre said,
"One such symbol is a common language… we need to have one, which we
can speak and write, and by which we can connect 'our inner selves to
the realities of community life." This is where I differ from Dr.
Pobre's thoughts.

There are many in this country who still insist on having a single
national language policy, which groups like the Save our Languages
through Federalism (Solfed) or those who belong to that Internet group
dubbed Defenders of Indigenous Languages throughout the Archipelago
(DILA) strongly believe is detrimental to the many cultures that have
survived in the Philippine archipelago long before the name
Philippines was even invented. In fact, when this issue surfaced
during the SSG conference, Atty. Manuel Faelnar of DILA clearly
pointed out that having a common language that is forced upon
non-Tagalog-speaking Filipinos have only disunited this country.

The reason is very simple. As the old saying goes, we had 400 hundred
years in the convent and 50 years of Hollywood until we finally got
Philippine Independence. An ethnic group composed of Tagalog
nationalists is now forcing its own language to those of us who do not
speak that language. This is why we look at Imperial Manila as another
colonizer! In his column (I'm sorry, I only have a printed copy that
has no date or what newspaper it was published), "Fastfood for
Thought" written by the late Vicente Albano Pacis entitled "Conceived
in Sin, Reared in Ignorance," he wrote about the national language:
"After Linggo ng Wika, the truth must be told that the so-called
National Language was conceived in unmitigated sin, reared in total
ignorance, and maintained in style through constant constitutional
dodging."

Mr. Pacis added: "According to official records and documents, the
language provision approved by the Constitutional Convention of
1934-1935 was as follows: 'The National Assembly shall take steps
towards the development and adoption of a common national language
based on existing native languages. (Concon record, Vol. IX,
pp.470-471). When the Constitution was printed, this provision was
tampered with to read, 'Based on one of the existing native
languages.' Somebody had inserted 'one of the' between the words 'on'
and 'existing.' The simplicity of the insertion of only three short
words, one of only two letters and two of only three letters each,
might have been additional temptation to the crime's perpetrator. This
was the unmitigated 'Original Sin.' But who was the original sinner?
Abangan!"

This article proves that someone monkeyed around with the 1935
Constitution and today those who continue to espouse a national
language based on the Tagalog language has to look into this article
and tell us honestly if the tampering of the 1935 Constitution was
done in good faith. I have written volumes that having a common
language is no guarantee for having a national unity. God knows that
the American Civil War killed five million Americans who spoke the
same language. So, too, with the Spaniards. National unity will come
with the recognition of the other major spoken languages of this
country. It's high time we accept the reality that Filipino is nothing
but Tagalog in disguise. Call it what it really is… Tagalog, then
allow Cebuano, Ilonggo, Waray, Kapampangan, Bicolano and Ilocano as
the national languages of this country and we shall see national
unity.

http://kamaru.blogspot.com/2007/12/why-national-unity-is-so-hard-to.html
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