Language policy and local literature in the Philippines1

Victor N. Sugbo
University of the Philippines in the Visayas
Philippines

Abstract
Multilingualism is a complex phenomenon and is sometimes considered a problem to national unity and
ultimately, political control. A language carries with it a culture, social knowledge, and a community. The
presence of many languages in a single country obviously implies many cultures, many loyalties, and many
communities. Multilingualism may invite not only ethnic animosities but also ethnic wars. The political
survival of a multiethnic nation clearly depends on the creation of social coherence among its peoples. In
these situations, a good language policy should generate such coherence. However, a multilingual nation’s
desire for national coherence becomes complicated when its colonial experiences pervade the national
consciousness. Long after they have left the country, the colonizers’ cultural attitudes, traditions and
loyalties may remain among the formerly colonized. In some cases, the colonized legitimize the colonizers’
language as the national language and in the process, subordinate their more dominant local languages.
Language policies, which by their nature affect both educational and administrative systems, may give rise
to a gamut of social, economic and political inequalities. Speakers of local languages become marginalized
from political participation. Since they do not speak the colonizer’s language, work opportunities for them
are limited to manual and menial tasks. The colonizer’s language creates a political and economic divide
between the privileged and marginalized classes. Local culture is devalued; local literatures may be lost.

This paper examines the influence of Philippine language policy on local literatures, particularly literature
written in Waray, a language spoken in the eastern region of the Visayas. It will first provide an overview
of Philippine language policy and look into the effects of the policy on Waray literature, language loyalty,
Waray writers’ responses, and literary production. Data for this paper were gathered from existing
literature, surveys, and personal experiences.

The language environment and Philippine language policy

The Philippines has experienced several shifts in language policy as the government has had to
confront the challenge of unifying a nation whose people speak over one hundred languages2—eight
of them major languages. Early in the history of Philippine governance, particularly prior to the
American colonial period, administrators paid less attention to language policy since they were more
interested in wresting power from the Spanish colonizers. It was not until 1935 that the Philippine
government started to look seriously at the language situation. However, because the Constitution did
not explicitly stipulate a common language—chosen from among the country’s local or indigenous
languages—that would serve as the national language, efforts to develop a language policy were
indecisive. The fundamental law retained English and Spanish as the country’s official languages. In
1943, the government began developing Tagalog, one of the major local languages, and propagating it
as the national language by having it taught as a subject in the secondary curriculum.

The growing anti-Western mood in the sixties, increasing student dissatisfaction with English-
medium education and escalating nationalist sentiment in the early seventies triggered student unrest,
forcing the government to reexamine its position in relation to education and language policy. The
aftermath of this widespread unrest was a government program designed to promote a national
language and a nationalist consciousness in the educational system. The government was clearly in

1
© Victor N. Sugbo, 2003
2
McFarland, 1996

Victor Sugbo 1
need of a cultural project that would unite the nation. In 1972, the imposition of Martial Law
generated public fear, silencing the more restive areas in the country and in the year that followed,
Pres. Ferdinand Marcos called for the ratification of a constitution that would confer on him
enormous political power. One provision of that constitution was the adoption of a national language
called Filipino. The Filipino language was envisioned as a universal language that would grow out of
the mix of several Philippine languages. Since the general perception was that the national language
did not yet exist, the government declared English and Filipino—actually Tagalog—the official and
de facto national languages.

It was easy to make changes in the educational system under Martial Law. All it took was a
presidential decree or an executive order. In 1974, an order from the Department of Education,
Culture and Sports was issued to set a bilingual education scheme in place. Informed by findings from
a language survey, the policy was received with mixed feelings by teachers and students from the
different regions of the country. The department order mandated that English would be the medium of
instruction in science and mathematics and that Filipino or Tagalog would be the medium of
instruction in all other subjects in elementary and secondary levels. Nevertheless, the bilingual
education scheme flourished and became instrumental in perpetuating and circulating the myths and
legends about Marcos’ leadership.

The EDSA Revolution in 1986 ended the Marcos regime and catapulted into power the first woman
president, Corazon Aquino, who restored democratic institutions through a new constitution.. In no
uncertain terms, the constitution declared Filipino (Tagalog) as the national language and reiterated
the position of English as an official language of the country. As before, both were to serve as
languages of instruction. Today this policy has succeeded not only in generating widespread use of
Filipino (Tagalog) as the medium of communication among citizens speaking different languages, but
also in maintaining English as the medium of communication in government and business.

Writing local literature: Language loyalty and the Waray writer

Literature written in Waray is essentially poetry and drama. Its development took two directions.
Poetry flourished with the publication of local newspapers while drama grew with the celebration of
town fiestas. The drama was usually written by a local playwright upon the request of the hermano or
mayor and was presented on the feast day.

In the early 1900s, the Philippines was undergoing a political transition, a shift in power after Spain
ceded the country to America. Although the Spanish colonizers were already gone, local newspapers
still carried Spanish names like La Voz de Leyte, El Heraldo de Leyte, Noli Me Tangere, El Liberal,
and El Obrero and were written mostly in Spanish. While the colonial Philippine government favored
the use of English and Spanish as the official languages of the country, local writers sustained their
writing by continually using Waray and Spanish in the local papers. They realized that their Spanish
education alienated them from their own people, and so there grew among them a kind of cultural
nationalism.

The Church and local literature

The Roman Catholic Church played a great role in the efflorescence of Waray poetry. It regularly
published periodicals in two of its large dioceses in Samar and Leyte. One of these periodicals, Eco
de Samar y Leyte, produced by the Archdiocese of Catbalogan, Samar, had sections in Spanish and
Waray. In Eco, Spanish was used in news reports about the diocese, gospels and stories. Waray was
employed in writing local news, poetry and stories. The poetry published in Eco was mostly
occasional, moralistic, and religious in theme. In like manner, the stories, which were serialized,
tended to be sentimental and didactic. The dominant poet in this periodical was Andicula who wrote a
series of didactic, satirical and humorous, poetry in Waray, which functioned as social commentaries.

Victor Sugbo 2
An Lantawan, the other Church periodical, published by the Archdiocese of Palo, appeared in the
1930s. This periodical was six pages, four of which were devoted to reports and religious essays in
Spanish. Two pages were used for poetry and stories in Waray. Inasmuch as it was also a Church
publication, much of its written material tended to be moralistic and religious. The stories, likewise
serialized, were melodramatic and sentimental. It is in this periodical that some of the best poems in
Waray were published. These poems were mainly satirical and humorous and were written by three
ilustrados or well-educated elite, namely Eduardo Makabenta, Iluminado Lucente, and Casiano
Trinchera, all of whom had their education in Manila.

Three factors explain the growth of literature in Waray during the first three decades of the 1900s.
First, the Catholic Church encouraged it through its publications. Secondly, the local writers felt
alienated by their Spanish education and thus wrote in Waray to communicate to the larger milieu.
Thirdly, cultural sub-nationalism and language loyalty motivated writers to write in their ethnic
mother tongue. The moralistic stance of the Roman Catholic Church heavily influenced the literary
writing in Waray and much of the literature published during the period was heavily didactic and full
of religious fervor.

Anglicization and literary production

The establishment of a free public school system under colonial rule in the Philippines drew large
numbers of people who were eager to study. To put an end to Filipino resistance, American teachers
trained Filipinos to become good citizens. They taught them English, writing and arithmetic. The
increasing importance of English as a de facto national language, beginning in the 1900s, had so
alarmed the local writers that they organized themselves into the Sanghiran San Binisaya which
became an association of writers, political leaders and businessmen. The objective of the Sanghiran
was to propagate the use of Waray and to preserve and enrich the language.3 The writers, particularly
Trinchera, Makabenta and Lucente, wrote poetry that riled their compatriots who showed disdain for
Waray and instead used English or Tagalog (the national language) to communicate.

Local writers were not threatened by the use of Spanish because the language was slowly falling into
disfavor. Their advocacy was for the Waray as a people to go back to their cultural roots and show
pride in their own language. In the poem “Bakit” (Why), Trinchera complains about the Waray who,
after staying for some time in Manila, refuse to speak in Waray, preferring to use Tagalog when they
return:

In Manila, they use a lot of bakit.

It is both a joy and a pain.
What irks me is that those who have been to Manila
Do not speak our own language once they return.4

Similarly, in “Tukas Kamo Han Kalo” (Take Off Your Hats) Makabenta reveals his utter repugnance
for the Waray who, with little education, speaks pidgin English which he cannot understand.

Since I was very curious

I walked beside the man
and nodded to him.
I said, Excuse me, Mister.

3
Ma. Luz C. Vilches, 1982.
4
Casiano Trinchera, 1924, page 32.

Victor Sugbo 3
 Eh, wat? Mister?
Ay yam sadyen sawsaw
Of Cosmopolitan,di member of lawgaw
Ay yam mor important dan armi kapitan,
Ay yam di goteher en di nasabangan.5

During the same period, Lucente, a major Waray playwright, wrote plays, presented in town fiestas,
where he ridiculed town folks who spoke in halting Spanish and English. He attacked the Waray who
adopted American ways. He conveyed his abhorrence for these two languages by making his
characters—illiterate town folks—speak these languages to show the audience how hilarious it was to
use them. Let us take the case of the female character in “Up Limit Pati An Gugma” (Off Limits,
Even Love), Duyak, who complains to an American soldier about what has happened to her home
after the Second World War:

Wan day before you land her al the typhoon

Destroyed by our aur banana. Now dat you
are her sam of aur plant run over by di Tank;
also di land occupied bay di army destroyed
bay di bulduser laid haus, coconut and oder
trees fruit. 6

By the second quarter of the 1900s, the appearance of the first local English newspapers in Leyte,
namely Leyte News and The Leader, were indications of the gradual acceptance of English among the
Waray. As a counter measure to the spread of English, Waray writers published newspapers in
Waray. Casiano Trinchera published and edited Haguishis while playwright Iluminado Lucente
published Mahagnaw.7 At about the same time, poems in English began to appear in the pages of An
Lantawan. The writers did not feel threatened by the policy on Tagalog as the national language
because the latter had not yet taken a dominant position in Philippine education and mass media.

New writers writing poetry in English started to fill the pages of local newspapers. The new poems in
English were romantic and occasional. They were stilted and imitative of early written American
poetry. Nevertheless, the American poetry served as material for learning English. Despite the
political pressure to shift to English, writers like Francisco Alvarado, Iluminado Lucente, Eduardo
Makabenta and Casiano Trinchera tenaciously held on to their ethnic mother tongue and continued to
write poetry in Waray.

There was also renewed zeal for writing Waray plays. Staging of the hadi-hadi or kumedia persisted
with each holding of town fiestas. The hadi-hadi was a long drawn out play that depicted warring
Muslim and Christian kingdoms. In central towns of Leyte and Samar, the zarzuela, plays performed
with songs, were likewise staged in town plazas. As a literary form, the plays grew in the hands of
Norberto Romualdez Sr., Alfonso Cinco, Iluminado Lucente, Francisco Alvardo, Emilio Andrada Sr.,
Pedro Acerden, Margarita Nonato and Moning Fuentes.8 Until the 1940s, poetry and drama remained
the bulwark of literary production in Waray.

5
Eduardo Makabenta, 1939, page 8. The excerpt is an English translation of the original.
6
Iluminado Lucente, 1947, page 4.
7
Ceferino B. Montejo, 1937.
8
Clarita C. Filipinas, 1991. pp.32-90.

Victor Sugbo 4
Closing a speech community’s mind and the onset of cultural amnesia
The widespread acceptance of English in the 1950s did not augur well for Waray literature. A survey
of the newspapers published between the mid-1950s and the early 1970s indicates the growing
dominance of English. The result was a gradual displacement of Waray from the pages of newspapers
and the growing disinterest in literary production in Waray. More and more local newspapers devoted
many pages to English with a page or two to Waray.9 In an effort to drum up interest in the Waray
section of these newspapers, the editors reprinted the poems of Iluminado Lucente, Vicente I. de
Veyra, and Eduardo Makabenta but this tactic failed to stimulate local writers to write in Waray. By
mid-1970s, weekly and monthly periodicals were publishing only in English. The increasing
commercialization of the newspapers, the shift to English and the characteristic short-lived existence
of these papers struck a final blow to Waray poetry.

Waray drama met a similar fate. The onslaught of Hollywood movies had affected greatly the interest
of people in local play productions. The high cost of stage production discouraged people from
putting on plays. As presentations of plays in town fiestas started to slacken, the writing of plays also
declined. Today local plays are no longer written and presented in town fiestas. What have taken their
place as entertainment fare are beauty pageants, games of luck, cockfights and Ferris wheels.

From the 1960s to the early 1990s there was a long hiatus in the production of Waray literature.
Newspapers and town fiestas no longer served as venues for poetry and drama. The literary landscape
was bleak. Writing in Waray became more of a private passion of the writer whose works never got
published. If ever a poet’s works were recited or read it was in connection with an occasional town
contest or celebration. At the time, English had become so dominant that it had taken every
controlling domain of society: government administration, education, science and technology,
business, mass media, and international relations.10 During those years, writing a poem or short story
in English that got published in national magazines was considered a feat. This was so because
English was and still is considered a prestige language. People used English as the measure of one’s
education and social behavior. Local writers who wrote during this period were usually educated in
English and American literature in the university. They read only Shakespeare, Yeats, Faulkner,
Hemingway and Auden. They spurned the literature in Waray since the latter could not live up to
their Western expectations. What made it even sadder was that they later became teachers of English
and English literature in the universities and colleges. Their attitudes and values were reproduced in
young people who no longer knew their cultural and literary heritage. This loss of cultural memory
among young Waray speakers is even worse today because they do not know their own Waray
cultural history. They know more about Luzon-based history and American culture.

The national language and cultural inferiority

As noted above, within this same period, two years after then-President Marcos’ imposition of
Martial Law in the country, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports issued a department
order placing the educational system under a bilingual education scheme. English was to become the
medium of instruction for science and mathematics, and Filipino (Tagalog) the medium of instruction
for all other subjects in the elementary and secondary levels. The order marked the expanded role of
the national language in the Filipino education system. This same bilingual policy was reinstalled
after the Marcos’ dictatorship ended and with the political ascension of Corazon Aquino to the
Philippine presidency. Under the bilingual education scheme, Filipino (Tagalog) formed part of the
cultural project on the development of a nationalist consciousness.

9
See extant copies of The Vanguard, An Tingog, Leyte Samar Gintigi-an, Leyte Record, The Crusader,
Midweek Report, The Courier, The Leyte Post, The Newsrecorder, Eastern Dispatch and An Sulo available at
the Leyte-Samar Museum of the Liceo del Verbo Divini, Tacloban City.
10
Bonifacio P. Sibayan, 1995.

Victor Sugbo 5
At present, elementary and secondary students do not only study Filipino (Tagalog) as a distinct
subject but also use it as a medium for all other subjects that deal with civics. In a recent study on the
relationship between education, language policy and cultural marginalization, high school graduates
who speak Waray revealed that studying Filipino or Tagalog constantly reminded them that they were
different, that Tagalog speakers in Luzon were culturally superior, and that as non-Tagalog speakers,
they were inferior.11 Clearly, the nationalist consciousness project has worked against its very
objective. Instead it has heightened ethnic differences and caused feelings of cultural inferiority for
the non-Tagalog speaker, at least among the Waray. These findings have a number of implications for
literary production in Waray. Since the Waray think they are inferior in relation to the Tagalog
speaker, they also think the Waray language a low prestige language. Also, inasmuch as Waray is
perceived as a low prestige language, it is thus not worth using in creating a Waray literature.

Reviving interest in local literature and new writing

At present, after more than thirty years of silence, new writing in Waray is being produced, spurred
not by any government order or language policy but by writers Waray academics who conduct
writers’ workshops in which they teach the craft of poetry and fiction. So far new poetry is being
written. Unlike the poetry composed during the time of Lucente, Trinchera, and Makabenta, the new
works are subtle and compact, metaphorical and experimental. This renewed effort to write in Waray
has been an offshoot of a recent move by Philippine writers in English to write poetry and fiction in
their respective ethnic mother tongues.

Early in the 1990s, the government’s Commission on Higher Education issued a policy that requires
the study of Philippine literature from the regions as a separate subject at the university or college
level. Although this effort is a token act, it is a commendable measure for it allows speakers of local
languages to study their own literatures and relearn the values and knowledge of their own cultures.
The policy has generated a new audience for local literatures. Within this purview, the young Waray
generation will at last have a chance to appreciate their own culture and literature, and use their
language with pride.

Writers of the “New People’s Army” are also writing new poetry. Largely hortatory, the poems are
propagandistic and didactic. The poets describe their lives in the mountains, the military encounters
and their aspirations for the country. New poetry is likewise being produced for radio stations in
Leyte and Samar that hold daily poetry contests. Aired over the radio, the poems or radio siday are
written mainly by ordinary people—farmers, elementary school teachers, lawyers, high school
students and housewives. Occasional and didactic, and lacking a sense of humor, their poems talk
about corruption in government, destruction of the environment and other social concerns.

Conclusion
Philippine language policy, since its inception, has favored the English language. By legislating
English in the controlling domains, policies have marginalized Philippine languages. Even with the
aid of legislation, Filipino/Tagalog, the national language, has assumed secondary status in terms of
prestige. Despite its widespread acceptance, Filipino has not succeeded in displacing English in the
controlling domains. In the case of Waray, the policy has marginalized the language, the people and
their literature. It has made speakers of Waray look at their own language with disdain. The policy
has discouraged local writers from using Waray in their works. It has encouraged the educated Waray
speakers to write creatively in English because of the many opportunities for publishing in that
language. In short, the policy has left Waray literature in doldrums.

11
Victorio N. Sugbo, unpublished paper.

Victor Sugbo 6
If there is renewed writing in Waray at present it is due to the efforts of a persistent few in the
academe who wish to restore the vibrancy of the literary landscape in Leyte and Samar. Their
persistence has been rewarded as there are new young writers writing new works in Waray. The
propagandistic poetry of the revolutionary army and the occasional didactic radio siday have added
zest to the production of Waray literature.

Philippine language policy has greatly affected literary production in Waray. It has contained literary
writing in Waray to poetry. There are three locales where Waray poetry is being produced – the
academe, the radio network, and the revolutionary movement. In the academe, the new works are
occasionally read in public poetry reading sessions. In the radio network, poems are being composed
daily by ordinary people to earn money from the contests. In the revolutionary movement, poetry is
being written as a means to keep the revolutionary spirit alive

References

Bautista, Ma. Lourdes S. ed. Readings in Philippine Sociolinguistics. Manila: De La Salle

University Press, 1996.

Filipinas, Clarita C. Lineyte-Samarnon Zarzuela (1899-1977): History and Aesthetics. Tacloban

City: Divine Word University Publications, 1991.

Gonzalez, Andrew B. Language and Nationalism: The Philippine Experience Thus Far. Quezon City:
Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1980.

_________________ and Villacorte, Wilfredo V. The Language Provision of the 1987 Constitution of
the Republic of the Philippines. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines, 2001.

Luangco, Gregorio C. ed. Kandabao: Essays on Waray Language, Literature and Culture. Tacloban
City: Divine Word University Publications, 1982.

Lucente, Iluminado. “Up Limit Pati An Gugma,” (Deciembre 1947), p. 4.

Makabenta, Eduardo. “Tukas Kamo Han Kalo,” An Lantawan (Noviembre 4-11, 1939), p.8.

McFarland, Curtis, D. “Subgrouping and Number of the Philippine Languages or How Many
Philippine Languages Are There?” in Ma. Lourdes Baustista ed. Readings in Philippine
Sociolinguistics (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1996), p.21.

Montejo, Ceferino B. “Leyte Newspapers Die A Natural Death: Lack of Journalistic Training, Public
Apathy, Dishonesty Given As Causes,” Leyte News (March 6, 1937), p.6.

Sibayan, Bonifacio P. “Language Planning in the Philippines: A Historical Perspective With English
in Focus.” Paper read the First National Conference on English Studies, University of the
Philippines, June 19, 1995.

Sugbo, Victor N. “The Waray Writer and His Struggle Against Literary Silencing” in Elmer A.
Ordonez ed. Many Voices: Towards a National Literature. Manila: NCCA, 1995.

______________ ed. Tinipigan: An Anthology of Waray Literature. Manila: NCCA, 1995.

Victor Sugbo 7
Trinchera, Casiano. Kolitog (Takloban: Imprenta Naciente, 1924), p.32. The excerpt is an English
translation of the original poem in Waray.

Vilches, Ma. Luz C. “A Preliminary Survey of Waray Poetry” in Gregorio C. Luangco ed.
Kandabao: Essays on Waray Language, Literature and Culture (Tacloban City: Divine Word
University Publications, 1982), pp. 62-64.

Victor Sugbo 8