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Language: Part of the colonization process

SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Bobit S. Avila (The Philippine Star) | Updated December 4, 2012 - 12:00am

As of this writing, unless it has changed its path, Typhoon “Pablo,” international code name “Bopha” packing winds up to 295 kph and moving at 75 kph should be raging in the Visayas (or Cebu City) as of this time. The last time Cebu got struck by a super typhoon was when Typhoon “Ruping,” international code name “Mike” hit us on Nov. 12-13, 1990. It was on the top ten lists of the most devastating typhoons to strike the country. That was 22 years ago and the president at that time was President Cory Aquino. It just makes me wonder why super typhoons strike our country when we have an Aquino in power in Malacañang?

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Last Oct. 21st, I was in Rome with my camera crew from SkyCable and MyTV channel 28 to cover the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod. Because not everyone could be in Rome for that historic day, the Cebu Archdiocese led by Arch. Jose Palma came up with the idea of holding a Thanksgiving Mass for San Pedro Calungsod, and that event happened last Friday at the South Road Properties (SRP), where a million Filipinos (mostly Visayans) and the entire Aquino leadership led by President Benigno Aquino, were in full attendance.

Unfortunately, I had to be in Manila to be a sponsor to the wedding of Chris and Anna Achacoso Graham last Thursday at the Santuario de San Antonio, where I met my new compadres, Edward Achacoso of GMA-7 and famous balladeer Jose Mari Chan. It was truly a nice experience having our groom and bride entertaining their guests because they are great singers and have their respective bands. But since my flight back to Cebu was at 2 p.m., it was a bit too late for me to be at the thanksgiving dinner.

Call it turning the tables on me because I had to watch the thanksgiving for San Pedro Calungsod on Live TV. After the Holy Mass where the top leadership of the Catholic Church was all in attendance, it was P-Noy’s time to give a speech. Surprise of surprises, the President gave a message exhorting the Catholic faithful to emulate the ideals of San Pedro Calungsod, giving a brief story about his life and death in the shores of Guam. Perhaps, best of all, P-Noy gave his speech in English.

I have no doubt that someone gave the President the good advice to have his speech in English, after all, the majority of the crowd are people from the islands surrounding Cebu and we are not Tagalog speakers. Call it a plus-factor for P-Noy, except that when he held a presscon, he told the Cebu media that by Monday (that’s yesterday) he would meet with the Congressmen to push for the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

How I wish that he would have changed his mind — as the RH bill has only divided our people — to pro-RH and anti-RH. More so that it is a plagiarized bill from the UN. With the Department of Health (DoH) giving out vaccines that causes our children to become sterile… then we have no need for an RH bill to reduce our population. Anyway, we are still hoping and praying that there would be no quorum in Congress to approve this bill.

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Let me get back a little bit about the President’s giving a speech in English last Friday at the Thanksgiving Mass for San Pedro Calungsod as this is one of the pet peeves of many Visayans. For instance, did you know that half the questions in the entrance exams for the Ateneo University is in Pilipino, which we know is 99.9% in Tagalog? What about the University of the Philippines (UP) when my daughter took the exams there, it was entirely in the Tagalog language. Now you ask, is this fair to the Visayan people who were not born in this tongue? It is a huge advantage to Tagalog speakers!!

This is the attitude that makes Visayans hate Imperial Manila. We were colonized for 400 years under the Spaniards, 50 years by the Americans (as Sir Max Soliven would write, we were 400 years in the convent and 50 years of Hollywood) so when the Philippines was given Independence by the Americans on July 4, 1946, another ethnic group, the Tagalogs colonized the Philippine archipelago. Proof of the pudding that we have been colonized is the reality that learning the Tagalog language was made compulsory in high school. So we in Cebu always asked, “Why can’t they teach us to read and write in Cebuano?” That my friends is part of the colonization process.

On a final note, just over a month ago, as I got back from Rome, mainstream newspapers had on their front pages that report about the deaf mute holding a rally, demanding to have a Filipino sign language version instead of the international sign language that the rest of the world uses. I call this a wrong sense of Filipino pride. We’ve always said that the Cebuano language was not a dialect of Pilipino as there are many words that are totally different from the Tagalog language. More on this issue on Thursday.

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Email: vsbobita@mo-pzcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com.

 

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Comments

bibs

Tue, 2012/12/04 - 2:37am

any issue as controversial as RH is divisive...that is why there is the national debate, forum, arguments and discussion to resolve all the issues that could be resolved and then whatever can not will be decided in democratic way....we in this opposite side of the Planet earth had dealt with these issues quite a long time ago and even much more divisive as it was violent, Bitter and Long...we had dealt with Abortion (now it is Unrestricted, or there is no longer law dealing with abortion under any statute or common law, but a Health issue at the decision of the Woman and her physicians at the EXCLUSION of all Others..and it is should be covered by the Universal Health) Same Sex Marriage, took as years to resolve, many Court battles waged by the Government to fight against it, the same with by those For it and it was Resolved under the Right to EQUALITY and we MOVED on...that even the Religious Faiths had to accept the realities of time...did these resolution of controversial issues made us any lesser ethical or moral than any one? No and No...on the contrary, we are the LEAST corrupt country in the world, one among the lowest in Crime Rate of any kind..and on top of that we do not pee pee on somebody yard or let our pets pooh pooh on somebody lawn...and we do not speculate that someon is trying to unfertilize our girls...

pedroliwanag

Tue, 2012/12/04 - 7:41am

If your ancestors were so prudent enough not to be so friendly with the Spaniards when they reached Cebu back in the mid of 1500, probably you will not be bothered speaking tagalog anymore. Let's say you're just eating the fruits of your ancestors labors today. Dont complain too much.

ajca

Tue, 2012/12/04 - 11:15am

"More so that it is a plagiarized bill from the UN." > It's based from UN policies, if it's not copied word for word and passed as something original, it's not plagiarized. Besides, no one's complaining, please file a complaint or start some petition if you care about this so much. "With the Department of Health (DoH) giving out vaccines that causes our children to become sterile… then we have no need for an RH bill to reduce our population." > Yeah, so why the constant opposition if it would do nothing? Funding? Immorality? Or just 'cause? Division in ideas regarding policies is better in a democracy. Having the same ideas about everything is dangerous for those who are different, it's also detrimental to progress. Too bad on the Visayas vs Tagalog thing. As another comment mentioned, welcoming the Spaniards laid the foundation of our colonization. The Spaniards, for some reason, favored Manila. The Americans took over and built on the existing facilities, and the current "colonizers", the tagalogs are taking advantage of what the other 2 have already built. You may also want to rant on the lack of cebuano heroes. Lapu-lapu may have been the first but there seems to be nothing after that; we're the cebuano's simply satisfied with the Spanish rule?

virgo888

Tue, 2012/12/04 - 11:49am

i think its time to move on mr avila, tagalog or pilipino just happened to be the common dialect that can be understood by cebuanos, ilonggos, chabacanons, panggalatoks and just about every filipino. the telenovelas watched nationwide even abroad are all in tagalog. this doesnt mean tagalogs are trying to colonize the philippines. lets not go back to 500 years ago. look at the next 500 years

rben

Tue, 2012/12/04 - 3:16pm

"Proof of the pudding that we have been colonized is the reality that learning the Tagalog language was made compulsory in high school. So we in Cebu always asked, “Why can’t they teach us to read and write in Cebuano?” That my friends is part of the colonization process."

rben

Tue, 2012/12/04 - 3:52pm

I highly disagree this time with Bobit about using another dialect as medium of instruction and please the mention of hatred of Cebuanos of imperial manila is misplaced and should not be spread as factual as this even make us a country that can't be united under 1 language, 1 flag, 1 general custom & appearance as vintage Filipinos. US with 50 states will dwarfed the Phl, practically the size of one states in New Mexico at 120k sq. miles or 300k sq.km. and yet as seen from so many advance countries that language play a significant role in making them progressive as people simply talk & communicate in 1 language & really help unite different races using 1 common language as USA. If we want to be national we must get rid of regional mentality that divide us more and to each his own mindsets....I guess we must do as those countries that have already proven this to be true and practiced without question!

sharpnote

Tue, 2012/12/04 - 4:24pm

That labeling of manila as imperialist is already a thing of the past. Metro manila is no longer dominated by the tagalogs.... Bisaya (cebuanos, boholanos, waray, ilonggos), mindanaoans, ilocano, pampango, bicolano, tausugs, maranaws, etc are permanent residents of MM. Some were brought for economic reason, some because of inter marriages and what have you. Being regionalistic doesn't promote unity. There are beauty, brilliance and stability in diversity. We are a nation of diverse culture, language, food, flora and fauna. Be proud of it!!!