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Friday, September 22, 2006
Roperos: A hundred years of UP
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
UP is, of course, the University of the Philippines. And although it is not the oldest educational institution in the country, it has produced probably the most number of national leaders that hold positions of power and influence.
I am not trying to generate, though, a competition. The point I wish to bring out is that on June 2008, this government institution will already be 100 years old.
If the United States has its Harvard, the Philippines has its UP. The State University is not an exclusive school for the social elite and the materially affluent. On the contrary, it is for the masses, for the less-financially privileged.
What may be elitist in students at UP is their academic freedom-bred intellect.
People at UP are intellectual risk-takers. They move into areas that at times are strictly forbidden, such as the ideological conflict between the political left and the political right, with the political center playing the role of referee and enforcer of rules.
What may be considered the real meat of the country’s premier educational institution is its unfaltering effort to move into intellectually unexplored areas as far as scholars and intellectuals are concerned.
There is no limit to what a UP student would do along the lines of his scholarly interest or his intellectual pursuits. Whatever others may say about this assertion, the fact remains that in UP anything can happen in the minds of individual students in so far as satisfying their curiosity is concerned.
Which is the reason why UP students are often held suspect with regards to innovative ideas and ideological thoughts. But as far as its products are considered, none have put the nation to shame intellectually.
Two weeks ago, select members of the local UP academe gave a long-desired attention to the Cebuano language issue.
It has long been decided that the national language should be based on Tagalog and that all other Philippine languages should play only contributory roles. Thus, Cebuano terms like hinay-hinay, katarongan and the like have been picked up—if it is any consolation to us—to be part of the Filipino vocabulary. But otherwise, 90 percent of the language is Tagalog.
UP students the other week held a sort of celebration of the beauty of the Cebuano-Visayan tongue. They read balak or poems and sang Cebuano songs with Cebuano lyrics. It is, to me, a timely revival of interest in our culture and literary arts, which have been laid aside through the years.
In my youth, I wrote more than a dozen novels and about a hundred short stories. And it pains me to think that our youth has deserted our tongue in favor of the still “debatable” national language.
Let me just put it this way. Had the competitive advantage of the Cebuano been downed by the English language, I would not have minded so much, especially now when the facility to speak English is a priority to applicants in call centers, where the minimum pay, it is said, is at least P15,000 a month.
I know that, statistically, for every 100 applicants for a position in a call center, the recruiter would be lucky if he gets five. The usual is two to three applicants. What happened to our English instruction in schools?
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 22, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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