Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Filipinolohiya
at Pambansang Kaunlaran June 26, 2019
Assignment No. 1
By F. Sionil José
What did South Korea look like after the Korean War in 1953? Battered, poor – but look at Korea now.
In the Fifties, the traffic in Taipei was composed of bicycles and army trucks, the streets flanked by tile-
roofed low buildings. Jakarta was a giant village and Kuala Lumpur a small village surrounded by jungle
and rubber plantations. Bangkok was criss-crossed with canals, the tallest structure was the Wat Arun,
the Temple of the Sun, and it dominated the city’s skyline. Rice fields all the way from Don Muang airport
– then a huddle of galvanized iron-roofed bodegas, to the Victory monument.
Visit these cities today and weep – for they are more beautiful, cleaner and prosperous than Manila. In
the Fifties and Sixties, we were the most envied country in Southeast Asia. Remember further that
when Indonesia got its independence in 1949, it had only 114 university graduates compared with the
hundreds of Ph.D.’s that were already in our universities. Why then were we left behind? The economic
explanation is simple. We did not produce cheaper and better products.
The basic question really is why we did not modernize fast enough and thereby doomed our people to
poverty. This is the harsh truth about us today. Just consider these: some 15 years ago a survey showed
that half of all grade school pupils dropped out after grade 5 because they had no money to continue
schooling. Thousands of young adults today are therefore unable to find jobs. Our natural resources have
been ravaged and they are not renewable. Our tremendous population increase eats up all of our
economic gains. There is hunger in this country now; our poorest eat only once a day. But this physical
poverty is really not as serious as the greater poverty that afflicts us and this is the poverty of the spirit.
Why then are we poor? More than ten years ago, James Fallows, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, came
to the Philippines and wrote about our damaged culture which, he asserted, impeded our development.
Many disagreed with him but I do find a great deal of truth in his analysis.
This is not to say that I blame our social and moral malaise on colonialism alone. But we did inherit from
Spain a social system and an elite that, on purpose, exploited the masses. Then, too, in the Iberian
peninsula, to work with one’s hands is frowned upon and we inherited that vice as well. Colonialism by
foreigners may no longer be what it was, but we are now a colony of our own elite.
We are poor because we are poor – this is not a tautology. The culture of poverty is self-perpetuating.
We are poor because our people are lazy. I pass by a slum area every morning – dozens of adults do
nothing but idle, gossip and drink. We do not save. Look at the Japanese and how they save in spite of
the fact that the interest given them by their banks is so little. They work very hard too.
We are great show-offs. Look at our women, how overdressed, over-coiffed they are, and Imelda
epitomizes that extravagance. Look at our men, their manicured nails, their personal jewelry, their
diamond rings. Yabang – that is what we are, and all that money expended on status symbols,
on yabang. How much better if it were channeled into production.
We are poor because our nationalism is inward looking. Under its guise we protect inefficient industries
and monopolies. We did not pursue agrarian reform like Japan and Taiwan. It is not so much the
development of the rural sector, making it productive and a good market as well. Agrarian reform
releases the energies of the landlords who, before the reform, merely waited for the harvest. They
become entrepreneurs, the harbingers of change.
Our nationalist icons like Claro M. Recto and Lorenzo Tanada opposed agrarian reform, the single most
important factor that would have altered the rural areas and lifted the peasant from poverty. Both of
them were merely anti-American.
And finally, we are poor because we have lost our ethical moorings. We condone cronyism and
corruption and we don’t ostracize or punish the crooks in our midst. Both cronyism and corruption are
wasteful but we allow their practice because our loyalty is to family or friend, not to the larger good.
We can tackle our poverty in two very distinct ways. The first choice: a nationalist revolution, a
continuation of the revolution in 1896. But even before we can use violence to change inequities in our
society, we must first have a profound change in our way of thinking, in our culture.
My regret about EDSA is that change would have been possible then with a minimum of bloodshed. In
fact, a revolution may not be bloody at all if something like EDSA would present itself again. Or a dictator
unlike Marcos.
The second is through education, perhaps a longer and more complex process. The only problem is that
it may take so long and by the time conditions have changed, we may be back where we were, caught
up with this tremendous population explosion which the Catholic Church exacerbates in its conformity
with doctrinal purity.
We are faced with a growing compulsion to violence, but even if the communists won, they will rule as
badly because they will be hostage to the same obstructions in our culture, the barkada, the vaulting
egos that sundered the revolution in 1896, the Huk revolt in 1949-53.
To repeat, neither education nor revolution can succeed if we do not internalize new attitudes, new
ways of thinking. Let us go back to basics and remember those American slogans: A Ford in every garage.
A chicken in every pot. Money is like fertilizer: to do any good it must be spread around. Some Filipinos,
taunted wherever they are, are shamed to admit they are Filipinos.
I have, myself, been embarrassed to explain, for instance, why Imelda, her children and the Marcos
cronies are back, and in positions of power. Are there redeeming features in our country that we can be
proud of? Of course, lots of them. When people say, for instance, that our corruption will never be
banished, just remember that Arsenio Lacson as mayor of Manila and Ramon Magsaysay as president
brought a clean government.
We do not have the classical arts that brought Hinduism and Buddhism to continental and archipelagic
Southeast Asia, but our artists have now ranged the world, showing what we have done with Western
art forms, enriched with our own ethnic traditions. Our professionals, not just our domestics, are all over,
showing how accomplished a people we are!
Look at our history. We are the first in Asia to rise against Western colonialism, the first to establish a
republic. Recall the Battle of Tirad Pass and glory in the heroism of Gregorio del Pilar and the 48 Filipinos
who died but stopped the Texas Rangers from capturing the president of that First Republic. Its
equivalent in ancient history is the Battle of Thermopylae where the Spartans and their king Leonidas,
died to a man, defending the pass against the invading Persians.
Rizal – what nation on earth has produced a man like him? At 35, he was a novelist, a poet, an
anthropologist, a sculptor, a medical doctor, a teacher and martyr. We are now 80 million and in another
two decades we will pass the 100 million mark.
Eighty million – that is a mass market in any language, a mass market that should absorb our increased
production in goods and services – a mass market which any entrepreneur can hope to exploit, like the
proverbial oil for the lamps of China.
Japan was only 70 million when it had confidence enough and the wherewithal to challenge the United
States and almost won. It is the same confidence that enabled Japan to flourish from the rubble of defeat
in World War II.
I am not looking for a foreign power for us to challenge. But we have a real and insidious enemy that we
must vanquish, and this enemy is worse than the intransigence of any foreign power. We are our own
enemy. And we must have the courage, the will, to change ourselves.
Posisyong Papel ng Kagawaran ng Filipinolohiya ng PUP hinggil sa Pagtatanggal ng Filipino sa mga
Kolehiyo at Unibersidad
Peligrosong hakbang ang ginawa ng Komisyon sa Lalong Mataas na Edukasyon (CHED) nang alisin ang
asignaturang Filipino sa inilabas nilang Memorandum Order Blg. 20 na may petsang hunyo 28 serye 2013.
Bagaman sinasabi ng komisyong nabanggit na maaaring maituro sa Ingles o Filipino ang mga
asignaturang binalangakas nila, bilang halimbawa ay ang Purposive Communication na nakapaloob sa
nilikha nilang bagong kurikulum, nababatid namin na pag-aagaw-agawan pa ito ng napakaraming guro
sa Filipino at Ingles sa mga kolehiyo at unibersidad, at magdudulot pa ito ng hindi pagkakaunawaan,
pagtatalo at ang masaklap pa pa'y aangkinin lamang ito ng mga Departamento ng Ingles sa mga
unibersidad at kolehiyong mabuway ang Filipino dahil halata namang nakakiling ang Purposive
Communication sa Ingles. Sa hakbang na ito, tila unti-unting nilulusaw ang mga natatag na
Kagawaran/Departamento ng Filipino sa mga kolehiyo at unibersidad sa Pilipinas. Higit pa rito, maraming
mga guro sa Filipino, partikular na sa PUP ang mawawalan ng trabaho at mababawasan ng kita. Hindi
pumapayag ang Kagawaran ng Filipinolohiya ng PUP na mangyari ang mga bagay na ito. Sapagkat
malinaw na isinasaad sa 1987 Konstitusyon ng Pilipinas Artikulo XIV, itinakda ang Filipino bilang wikang
pambansa ng Pilipinas. Kung susuriing mabuti ang CHED Memorandum, malinaw na lihis sa hangarin at
konteksto ng Pangkalahatang Edukasyon ang pagtatanggal ng asignaturang Filipino dahil nakasaad sa
pahina apat (4) ng memorandum ang ganito: "General education enables the Filipino to find and locate
her/himself in the community and the world, take pride in and hopefully assert her/his identity and sense
of community and nationhood amid the forces of globalization. As life becomes more complex, the
necessity of appreciating the gifts of nature and addressing social problems in the general
education program increasingly become more pressing." Hindi ba't ang asignaturang Filipino ang
pangunahing tiyak na tutugon sa hangarin at kontekstong isinasaad? Sapagkat ang mga asignaturang
Filipino ay nakatuon sa pagtuklas at inobatibong pag-aaral hinggil sa kalinangang Pilipino (wika, kultura
at kabihasnan), nasa Filipino ang identidad ng mamamayan sa bansang Pilipinas, nasa Filipino ang diwang
makabansa na makatutugon sa mga kahingiang panlipunan at makatutulong sa pangangailangan ng
mamamayang Pilipino, at makapag-aambag ng kalinangan at karunungan sa daigdig. Hindi ito simpleng
maibibigay lamang ng mga asignaturang tila pira-pirasong kinopya sa dayuhang kaisipan na pilit
binibigyan ng malaking puwang na kung tutuusi'y hindi naman makatuwiran.
Sa pangunguna ng Kagawaran ng Filipinolohiya ng Politeknikong Unibersidad ng Pilipinas (PUP) na
tinaguriang "largest state university in the country" na binubuo ng humigit kumulang 70, 000 na mga
mag-aaral na nagmula sa iba't ibang panig ng bansa katuwang ang iba pang mga organisasyon ay
matatag na naninindigan na panatilihin ang Filipino bilang asignatura sa Kurikulum ng Pangkalahatang
Edukasyon sa kolehiyo.
Sa halip na alisin, hindi ba't nararapat na lalo pang patatagin ang disiplinang Filipino sa kurikulum ng
kolehiyo sa pamamagitan ng mga asignaturang Filipino na magiging pundasyon nito. hindi ba't paurong
na hakbang ng Pilipinas nang alisin ang asignaturang Filipino ng technical panel ng pangkalahatang
edukasyon ng CHED na binuo lamang ng iilang mga tao na at walang malinaw na konsultasyong
isinagawa. Samantalang sa maraming unibersidad sa labas ng ating bansa ay pinatatatag ang disiplinang
Filipino gaya sa University of Hawaii at University of Michigan sa U.S.A, Osaka University at Tokyo
University sa Japan, St. Petersburg University at University of Moscow sa Russia.
Kikilos at kikilos ang PUP upang ipagtanggol ang Wikang filipino. Maghahain ito ng mga mungkahing
asignaturang Filipino sa pakikipag-ugnayan na rin ng iba't ibang mga unibersidad at kolehiyo na maaaring
tumugon sa mga inalis na asignaturang Filipino sa Kolehiyo.
Kung hindi pa magbabago ang ihip ng hangin, at hindi pa rin matitiyak ng CHED ang malinaw na
puwang ng asignaturang Filipino sa kurikulum ng kolehiyo hanggang sa Agosto, tiyak na gagawa ng
malaking hakbang ang pinakamalaking pang-estadong unibersidad sa bansa sa pangunguna ng
Kagawaran ng Filipinolohiya nito para manatili ang asignaturang Filipino sa kurikulum ng kolehiyo.
Umiiral sa realidad sa Pilipinas na ang Filipino ay wikang panlahat. Nandyan ito, umiiral at ginagamit sa
araw-araw na pakikipagtalastasan ng mga Filipino. Mga Pilipino ang kusang tumanggap nito bilang
wikang pambansa at naging katangi-tangi ang tatag nito dahil ito ang identidad ng lipunang Pilipino.
Mahalaga ang pagpapaunlad nito sa bawat Pilipino, kaya kung ihihiwalay sa mga mag-aaral ng kolehiyo
sa Pilipinas ang patuloy na pag-aaral ng Wikang Filipino, tinanggal natin ang identidad natin bilang
Pilipino. Dahil kung ano ang wika mo, iyon ang identidad mo!