LAST week, I wrote about the importance of language to a country. I was telling about my excitement in learning the Arabic language because part of it is the understanding of the culture and identity of its speakers.
Then this week, we have our Supreme Court lifting the temporary restraining order affirming a memorandum of the Commission on Higher Education to remove Filipino, Panitikan and Constitution in the general education curriculum. And the nation was appalled. If the appeal to keep Filipino as a core subject in the higher education fails, it will surely endanger the culture and identity of the Filipino people as Senator Hontiveros claims.
The Filipino subject like any other language subject is not only about teaching students to speak the language. As I have written, it is more on knowing, understanding, and embracing the culture of the people. It is about expressing or narrating the experiences of people in a language that is close to the heart of the speakers. For one thing, our Filipino language is one way to see the country as a nation. It shows our uniqueness from the different countries around the world. It also speaks of our sovereignty and independence. It was declared our national language, not Spanish or English, because it speaks more of our identity as Filipinos. After our liberation from the Americans, then President Quezon highlighted this independence by declaring our own national language. Filipino language, therefore, speaks of our national pride.
A language has a certain way of telling a story. A Filipino listening or reading to a story in Filipino language understands the story better unlike when it is written in a foreign language. The message is clearer because the reader or listener can easily create a visual or a picture of what he/she is reading or listening. He/she can easily get the meaning of the words because of familiarization.
When we cross out Filipino and literature in the college classroom discussions, we stop learning the richness of our language and as a result we fail to understand the many Filipino words we do not use in our daily conversation. We become alien to our own language. It is very ironic because just last year (June 2017) the inclusion of the Korean language in the SPFL was formalized under a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Philippines and South Korea.
We have included Korean language in our elective classes, though it is optional as the secretary reiterated, while planning to remove Filipino in the general education curriculum. If there’s a way, I’m sure Manuel Quezon would climb out from his grave and storm the CHED office. My God!
I was first hooked up to Filipino and Literature when I was in high school. We used to read and discuss stories and poems of popular Filipino writers. They were so compelling that I think it improved my imagination. It made me love reading.
In a way I think it enhanced my critical, analytical thinking and widened my perspectives. I developed great love to Filipino poems (rhyme poems) and the names Amado V. Hernandez and Jose Corazon de Jesus stuck to my mind until these days. I studied in a small secondary school so we do not have the luxury of having sufficient books.
But during my spare times, I used to go to the small library room and try to look for Filipino poems, and then poems written in English. Luckily, I found some such as the “Ibong Adarna” and “Florante at Laura.” I would read them over and over because it gave me joy and excitement. Two of my favorite poems were “Ang Panday” by Hernandez and “Ang Manok Kung Bulik” by de Jesus. “Ang Panday” gave me a sense of patriotism. The following lines are an excerpt of the poem: “Kaputol na bakal na kislap ma'y wala, Ang kahalagahan ay di matingkala –Ginagawang araro, pambuhay ng madla; Ginagawang sandata, pananggol ng bansa.”
So few words but so great a meaning. I have composed several poems written in Filipino because I was influenced by these readings. “Ang Manok Kung Bulik” tells about a country man's misfortune in cockfighting. I could relate to it much because not far from our house is the town’s cockfighting arena. We could hear the shouting from those men, some are relatives, every Sunday afternoon. I was all smile every time I read it back then.
I do not want to remove Filipino as a core subject because if it happens, we stop learning and understanding who we are and what we are as a nation. Our educators who proposed the removal might think that our years in basic education are enough to learn the beauty and complexity of our language. The thing is, it is not enough to learn the language but we should learn to appreciate it and see its meaning. We expect that we grow in wisdom or we become mature when we get to college. It is only when we reach maturity that we learn to appreciate the things we learn and do.
This is the same with Filipino subject and Literature. "We can see these days among the youth the lack of grasp of the Filipino language and by removing this as a core subject in college or any other school level, I fear this would deteriorate even further," Senator Tito Sotto said.
College students should appreciate the language and we cannot achieve it when we remove the subject from the general curriculum. What would happen to our budding Filipino poets, novelists, and language artists?
“The Filipino language is part of our identity as a people and as such we should strive to preserve and strengthen this at all times,” added Senator Tito Sotto and I strongly agree.
The Senator also quoted the words of the constitution: “The Government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.” And who would forget the words of the great Jose Rizal: “Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa amoy ng malansang isda.”