The spirit of the law vs. the letter of the law. Scarlet letter politics. FOI, NDF, EJK, LNB, ETC. The 1st 50 days of the Duterte administration has seen letters figure prominently in its opening sequence. Comes now my brother Erwin Maceda with his own take on letters that spell and cast a spell ...
Beautiful Philippines. I have visited more than 1,300 or 80% of all cities and towns in the country. And everywhere, I found a symbol that represented the place and its people. An industry, a cuisine, an art – something that unified them and gave them their identity. What I failed to find was a symbol that defined and unified all places and all peoples. Ours is a nation divided. Could this be one reason why?
Is there a symbol that unifies us all? We are religious. Is it religion? I’m sorry but religion divides us. Our national symbols: The Flag – it depicts 8 provinces or only 10% of our provinces. The national anthem – adapted from a Spanish poem. And my older friends remember singing it in school in English “Land of the morning..” The national language, Filipino – but talk to the ilocanos, cebuanos and the others. The national flower, Sampaguita – its scientific name is Arabian Jasmine. The national tree, Narra – called Tzu Tan in China and Tnug in Cambodia. Also known as India Padauk, Burmese rosewood, and Andaman (Thailand) redwood. The national fruit, Mango – also the national fruit of India and Pakistan. Its the national tree of Bangladesh. The national animal, Tamaraw – this is good as it is found only in the Philippines. But only in Mindoro and in no other province. Nothing uniquely Pilipino for all Pilipinos.
If nothing today truly represents, maybe we should look to the past. Going back through history, before the Spanish, there were Muslims. Before them were Hindus and Buddhists. To date, the oldest scientific evidence of the people of these islands is a 17 character language called BAYBAYIN. It predates the Hindu and Buddhist evidence. It is older than Buddha (500 BC). It has no commonality with all known ancient languages like Greek, Latin, Sanskrit. The Spanish priests and frailes who came after Magellan translated their hymns and prayers into BAYBAYIN in order to communicate with us. Later realizing it was the one thing common to us all, they tried to make it disappear by giving it a new name and etymology. They added characters and called it Alibata. The Americans simply banned it outright along with the Flag, the National Anthem and others, trying to erase all vestiges of our nationalism. It is found in all our dialects and heard in all our accents. The punto or accent of the Bisaya, Waray, Batangueno are all echoes of this ancient language. BAYBAYIN. Could this be our unifying symbol?
We are the texting capital of the world. And it is natural for us to use shortcuts of words. I believe it is inherent in our thought process because BAYBAYIN is embedded in our consciousness. When we text, we ignore rules of modern language like spelling and grammar. Instead we revert back to BAYBAYIN which is communicating the essence of our message without the use of real words.
The modern alphabet is linear in form and function. How one writes and speaks is how one thinks. BAYBAYIN is not linear. It is intuitive. It narrates the essence of the thing it is describing. One of the characters, phonetically pronounced as HA, means the essence of life. Or literally, alive. In today’s language, HA is Hangin, air, or breath, that which makes us alive. Hayop, a live animal. Halaman, a live plant. Halimuyak ng bulaklak, the essence of a live flower.
Another character is KA which is the symbol of HA two times, one atop the other, with a line connecting them. If HA is life, then KA is two lives together. Today, we use words like kapatid, kasama, kakulay, kabayan, katulong. Our flag before its current form was the flag of the Katipunan. You will find the character KA in the center of some versions of the KKK flag. Many katipuneros used BAYBAYIN characters as their nom de guerre in documents. Katipunan literally means “association” or “a people together.”
For those interested, you can visit the National Museum and see an ancient Copper Plate of BAYBAYIN characters. It is a bill of debt. Listahan ng utang. You can also visit Bahay Nakpil in Quiapo and see the camisa de chino of Macario Sakay. Written on it are BAYBAYIN characters. A common practice of the katipuneros who believed it made them invincible. An anting anting.
It is fitting that the last week of August is Linggo ng Wika and August 29 is Araw ng mga Bayani. BAYBAYIN was last used publicly and formally by the katipuneros in 1898 in their signing of the Kartilya ng Katipunan. These are the very same heroes we honor on National Hero’s day. Dr. Rizal said “Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa kanyang pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa kanyang paroroonan.” Maybe the key to our future unity lies in the shadows of our past.
I am advocating that BAYBAYIN be considered as one of our national symbols and am hoping to see it resurface, recognized, and included in our educational curriculum today.
(References: Historians from UP who requested their names be withheld. Thank you professors.)
Speaking of heroes … Cousins witness dynamite fishing just offshore while horseback riding on a beautiful black sand beach in Ilocos Sur. Jose Rosario, 13, immediately galloped off to call the police, who quickly responded. But alas, the crooks were already gone. Fortunately, Paulo Jacinto, 20, caught the whole incident on videotape and turned it over to the police who were able to identify the culprits. Hats off to our young heroes and the quick responding police. But why was there dynamite fishing at all?
(Erwin has spent the last 20 years in government service. He is a soil and crop scientist from Purdue University, USA. Married to Annie Rosario of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, they have three children: Jamie, Toni, and Sam. And a dog named Poochie.)