Siuálâ Ding Meángûbié

The following article is taken from:

Pangilinan, Michael Raymon M. (2009). Kapampangan Lexical Borrowing from Tagalog: Endangerment rather than Enrichment. A paper to be presented at the 11th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistcs. Aussois, France, June 22-26, 2009.

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Some of the ethnic groups in Luzon during the Spanish colonial era: Cagayan Warrior (Boxer Codex), Kapampangan Peasants (Damian Domingo) and Sambal Warriiors (Boxer Codex)

During the Spanish colonial era, the different ethno-linguistic groups within the Philippines, at least the major ones, were regarded as “nations” by the Spaniards (Morga, 1609; San Agustin, 1698; Diaz, 1745 and Bergano, 1860). The Spaniards took advantage of these differences and pitted one nation against the other. For instance, the Kapampangan people, who were highly favoured by the Spaniards, made up the bulk of the Spanish colonial armed forces and were used to quell various ethnic uprisings all over the archipelago (Henson, 1965 and Corpuz, 1989). One Spanish friar wrote, “One Castillan plus three Kapampangan is equal to four Castillans” (Diaz, 1745, see also Henson, 1965; Tayag, 1985 and Corpuz, 1989).

When the Philippines declared its Independence from Spain in 1898, their constitution defined “nation” simply as “the political association of all Filipinos” (1899 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines). The “Filipinos” at that time saw no commonality among themselves except a shared historical experience of being a Spanish colony. It was a Tagalog, in the person of Manuel Luis Quezon, the Resident Commissioner of the Philippine Islands under the United States and later president of the Philippine Commonwealth Government, who envisioned and laboured for the creation of a Filipino “nation” that is unified by one common language and identity (Gueraiche, 2004). In 1937, Quezon proclaimed Tagalog as the basis of the national language through an Executive Order (Bautista, 1996). The teaching of Tagalog in all schools became obligatory by 1940 (Gueraiche, 2004).

Manuel Luis Quezon, President of the Commonwealth and Father of the Filipino Nation. It was his vision to unify the different ethnolinguistic groups within the archipelago under one language and culture...his language and culture ~ Tagalog.

Through the years, an educational system and language policies were designed to mould and unify the population according to Quezon’s vision of a Filipino nation, with one language and one culture. In 1959, Education Secretary Jose Romero issued a department order renaming the Tagalog-based national language as Pilipino (Bautista, 1996). It was later spelled Filipino under Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution. This naming game was a clever doublespeak tactic aimed at distracting possible opposition to the use of Tagalog as the national language.

Through conditioning in schools, students learned that to be Filipino, one ought to speak Filipino (which is actually Tagalog). To speak Kapampangan or any other Philippine language is deemed unpatriotic. Nationalism and patriotism has been equated to speaking Pilipino/Tagalog. During the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos in the late 1960s to the early 1980s, the Kapampangan homeland became the hotbed and breeding ground of the nationalist and anti-establishment movement. However, the language they used was Tagalog and not Kapampangan. To prove their patriotism, Kapampangan nationalists became well-versed in the Tagalog language. The best publicly known Tagalog speaker to date, who is a product of that time, is the nationalist Professor Randy David of the University of the Philippines, a native Kapampangan speaker.

The Pinoy (Filipino), Quezon's ultimate creation, a product of decades of conditioning and suppression of ethnic identities. Image taken from the group Pinoys for Honest Good Government at pinoyknoeksyon.ning.com

After the fall of the Marcos Dictatorship, Tagalog has finally replaced English as the second language of the Philippines (Anicia del Corro, pers.comm., May 9, 2009).  Through decades of conditioning in schools and the broadcast media, Tagalog has become the dominant language even within the Kapampangan homeland.


References:

Bautista, Ma. Lourdes S. (1996). An Outline: The National Language and the Language of Instruction. In Readings in Philippine Sociolinguistics. Manila, Philippines: De La Salle University Press.

Bergaño, Diego. [2nd ed.]. (1860). Vocabulario de la Lengua Pampanga en Romance.  Manila: Imprenta de Ramirez y Giraudier.

Corpuz, Onofre D. (1989). The Roots of the Filipino Nation. Quezon City, Philippines: AKLAHI Foundation, Inc.

Diaz, Casimiro. (1745). Conquistas de las Islas. Valladolid, Spain. [From Henson, 1965, Tayag, 1985 and Corpuz, 1989]

Gueraiche, William. (2004). Quezon, an opportunistic nationalist? Pilipinas, No. 42.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/5999916/Quezon-An-Opportunistic-Nationalist-By-William-Gueraiche.

Henson, Mariano A. (1965). The Province of Pampanga and Its Towns: A.D. 1300-1965. 4th ed. revised. Angeles City: Mariano A. Henson.

San Agustin, Gaspar de. (1698). Conquistas de las Islas Philipinas 1565-1615. [1998 Bilingual Ed., Trans. Luis Antonio Mañeru]. Intramuros, Manila, Philippines: Pedro Galende, OSA.

Tayag, Renato [as Katoks]. (1985). The Vanishing Pampango Nation. In Recollections and Digressions. Escolta, Manila, Philippines: Philnabank Club c/o Philippine National Bank.

1899 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines. Chan Robles Virtual Law Library.
Retrieved on June 6, 2009 at http://www.chanrobles.com/1899constitutionofthephilippines.htm.

1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines. Chan Robles Virtual Law Library.
http://www.chanrobles.com/article14language.htm.