The following is the report by The Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino) on the relationship of the use of the term 'Filipinas' to the recovery of unity of the whole nation as based on history, logic and the constitution. Following the report is an observation regarding the report. To read the whole and original of the aforementioned report from inquirer.net, click the next group of extracts:
" BUWAN NG WIKA
From ‘Pilipinas’ to ‘Filipinas’
By The Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino)
1 WHY go back to “Filipinas?”
There are three reasons behind the Board of Commissioners Resolution No. 13-19 (April 12, 2012) of the Commission on the Filipino Language or Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF):
First, history. There are now three forms of the name of our country.
Filipinas, the name given by Ruy López de Villalobos in 1548 and used officially by Miguel López de Legazpi when he established the Spanish colony beginning 1565, which was used continuously for 300 years until the time of Rizal and Bonifacio, and again used as the name of the first Asian republic—the “Republica Filipinas” established in Malolos in 1898.
“Philippines,” the name used by the Americans when they entered our country in 1898 and officially used by the Constitution of 1936 and up to the current Constitution of 1987.
“Pilipinas,” used starting around 1941 when the abakada without the F was promoted for general usage and continued as the translation of Filipinas and Philippines in works and documents written in the Pilipino language (which was the name given in 1959 to the national language using the abakada).
Second, language change and development. In the 1973 Constitution, it was stated that “Filipino” instead of Pilipino should be the name of the national language.
This was restated in the 1987 Constitution, together with the proposed modernization and enrichment of the national language by way of the native languages.
The first step in this language change was the eschewing of the abakada and the promotion and spread of the alpabeto with the additional letters C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X and Z.
Now that the national language has an F and is called Filipino, isn’t it simply logical to restore Filipinas and gradually discourage the use of Pilipinas?
Third, to be consistent with the method of using the eight additional letters in the Ortograpiyang Pambansa (National Orthography) being promoted by the KWF.
This is the first comprehensive examination of the new alphabet and should be read closely by users of the the Filipino language and other native languages.
The case of Filipinas is ...
... it is also a symbol of the linkage and union of the barangay, tribes and islands of our archipelago.
Before Filipinas, what Legazpi referred to as Indios were a disjointed, scattered lot. He colonized us but also gave us a first means toward national unity.
On the other hand, it is rather difficult to say that just calling our country Pilipinas is already nationalistic. This happened merely because of ...
If we reject the way our founding fathers pronounced our nation, we reject the way they acted towards our nation as a result of their development. If we reject their action towards our nation as a result of their development, we reject their development. If we reject their development, we do not anymore recognize them but somebody else. Since these somebody else are not the ones who came into existense thru our historical development, these so called founding fathers are not anymore real but synthetics. Therefore, if the founding fathers of our nation we recognize are already synthetics, the nation we recognize today as founded by synthetic founding fathers is also synthetic. If the nation we recognize today is synthetic, what kind of people of this nation do we have today then?
If the nation we recognize today is synthetic, how can we have love for it? If the nation we recognize today is already synthetic, how can it produce a people that is organic the way our nation of the 1900s was founded by our organic founding fathers? How then can we have bond with our real founding fathers? And how then can we have bond for a people already a product of a nation founded by people who are already synthetic? The only bond we have then is only thru a piece of paper. With only a piece of paper devoid of flesh and blood developed thru history, how can a bond with a people that is part of our Determinant of National Actions directing us for generations, be ever formed? Without it, how can we have a functioning social order such as that of an organic nation?
How then, can we have a nation with people acting cohesively for the life of our nation and not individually to the detriment of such nation? What we have been experiencing after the mid 1900s are the abandonment of the nation for the pleasure of the self and family. This was the time our developmental defenses against the north americans of the United States invaders have finally been dismantled. This was the time our developmental defenses against the chinese creeping invaders of our economy have finally been dismantled as a result of U.S. blocking of our efforts to wrest control of it from them. It was then that our Determinant of National Actions in our political, economic, defense, and educational systems have been severely corrupted by these foreigners who have taken over control of direction of development of those systems.
Is it still a wonder that after the mid 1900s until today, our archipelago has become the breeding place for corruption, littering of wastes, taking advantage of the weaker by the stronger, destruction of our mountains and forests, mass exile to foreign lands, all legitimized for individual and family survival? Is it still a wonder that those among us who act to correct the deviation that occured along our organic development to recover the nation we inherited from our founding fathers in the form of recovering our clean environment, our original forest lands, our real independence, our original resources, our sovereignty, and our original DNA are identified as the ones who are deviants?
If we are to recover from a corrupted DNA of a people that we are today, let us recover that love of nation we had as a people united in the 1900s. If we are to recover that love of nation we had as a people united and determined at the cost of our individual and family life in the 1900s, let us recover that development of the founding fathers of our nation that directed them to act towards our nation the way they did.
Jose Miguel Garcia
3 comments:
I just want to answer some points that you raised :
1. Historical... Unfortunately, the history of the country did not stop in the 1940's. That means it continued until it has arrived to that point in time that the name "PILIPINAS" has gained unquestioned acceptance.
2. Language Change and Development... We have to remember that changes and development must come from the grassroots. Being an expression of social consciousness, the people dictates how to use the language. And people use "PILIPINAS". If we reverse the language development, i.e. from the Academicians to Grassroots, this development will be artificial.
3. Now that the national language has an F and is called Filipino, isn’t it simply logical to restore Filipinas and gradually discourage the use of Pilipinas?
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No, it is not. First, when the national language became "FILIPINO", it was not to "return" to something. It is a reconition that some sounds exist in Philippine languages but not present in Tagalog. The "F" in Filipino was not to glorify "FELIPE". It was to recognise groups like the "IFUGAOS". So, no... it is not a logical restoration.
Yes, I agree with you. History did not stop in the 1940s. A Patient consults a physician to check an experience of painful symptom. His physician checks his painful experience. The physician does not assume the symptoms as something good just because it was allowed by most of the cells of the body to happen. The medical doctor looks into the history of the patient to trace the underlying cause of the present symptom the patient is going thru.
We also look into our history to trace the underlying cause of our present corrupted culture: Those who are stronger among us, take advantage of those who are weaker among us.
If we observe at how the israelis, french, germans, japanese, vietnamese, and other well developed nations, we can see that they have a very strong bond with their nation. This is the cause of why corruption cannot survive in their nation.
With corruption eating thru the life of our bleeding nation, can we also say that we have a bond with our nation? Let us trace the underlying cause of our having a bond or absence of bond with our nation. We can only trace the cause thru our history.
Our nation was born in 1898 as a result of the developmental intercourse of events involving the natives of these islands and the iberians of Spain and later it's conception. We were born with a higher GNP than China and India. We were only second to Japan. We were among the best educated in the world at that time. Our status of unity, not as aggregate of individuals or regions, but as a people was unprecedented and unsurpassed.
But no sooner did we attempt to consolidate our nationhood formed during our embryonic stage than the U.S. also attempted to abort that birth by invading us. Newly born as we were, we defended single handedly and fiercely such invasion of of our nationhood. We were still trying to consolidate our nationhood and defended it from 1899 until beyond 1907 when the invaders blocked our consolidation with Mindanao until around 1913. It was only after the emerging most powerful nation in the world resorted to massive hostage-taking and extermination of the civilians among us did we give in to their demands for the defense forces among us to surrender to them.
When our physical defenses were dismantled, our developmental defenses were still functioning. We still defended our nationhood against the U.S. occupation, thru the media to hold our psychological defense base. We also defended our economic bases against the creeping chinese invaders.
The U.S. swiftly dismantled our developmental defenses by blocking our defenses against them. They also blocked our defenses against the chinese creeping invasion of our economic bases. This they did by their tampering with our Determinant of National Actions thru education. Tampering with our educational system is explained in http://www.thefilipinomind.com/2006/03/making-of-americanized-filipino-minds_23.html
It is at this point of our nationhood that we as a people lost control of direction of our development that is supposed to be organic from, to, and for us. It is those foreigners, the north americans of the U.S. and the chinese who were already tampering with our DNA. It has injured our hereditary nationhood but has become functional to serve their interests. This is the deviation, away from a development that is organic functioning to consolidate and protect our interests. This is the deviation that has mutated towards Alienation Impotency Dependency Syndrome among the people of this archipelago to function to protect the U.S. and the chinese control of our nation.
It is under this condition that the country has arrived to the point that "PILIPINAS" has gained acceptance. It has excluded the way our forefathers pronounced the name of our nation. It has excluded the way filipinos among us from other regions pronounce the name of our nation. It has arrived to the point that we today are divided according to region, class, profession, education, individuals, and families. It has arrived to the point that foreigners in control of our country are united, cohesive, and well organized enough to push us out of our lands and out of control of the direction of development of our systems that generate protection, and sustainability for who ever is in control of it.
Is this not what is happening to our country today? Are we still going to allow this development to continue? These are symptoms of a people who have a deficient bond with a nation. But then how can we even have bond with our nation when we do not even have a bond with the actions of our founding fathers such as the way they pronounce our nation?
Let us this time continue the consolidation of our nationhood our founding fathers started but was wrested away by foreigners. To reconsolidate, let us recognize all regions as part of our nation. We can only recognize it by also recognizing the founding fathers of our nation which is also their founding fathers. This is by recovering the way our founding fathers which includes Bonifacio, Rizal, Mabini, Antonio Luna, Martin Delgado, Juan Araneta, Vicente Alvarez, Burgos, Torres Bugallon, and all those involved in that developmental intercourse of events in the 1500s that resulted to the birth of our nation in 1898.
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