DILA Starts Petition to Oust Almario as KWF Chief; Cites Lack of Qualification and Disdain for MTB-MLE Provisions of Basic Education Act of 2013 Recently Signed by President

KWF Com. Virgilio S. Almario

Last week, the leaders of DILA (Defenders of Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago) through its Tacloban Chapter started a petition specifically calling for the immediate removal of Virgilio S. Almario as Chair of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF).

The petition alleges, among others, that (a) Almario does not satisfy the qualification requirement of Section 6 of RA 7104 which in 1991 created the Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino). Section 6 specifically provides: “No one shall be appointed as commissioner unless he/she is … noted for his/her expertise in linguistics…”; (b) Almario, without prior authorization, has changed the name of the country from “Pilipinas” to “Filipinas” in public documents, including a message by the President of the Philippines for the 225th birthday of Francisco Balagtas; (c) Almario fraudulently tampered with the implementing rules and regulations of RA 7104 by removing the “noted for their linguistic expertise” requirement for commissioners and watering the same down to simply “language expertise” to suit his own purposes; and (d) Almario continues to oppose mother tongue-based multilingual education which is the official language-in-education policy of the country, as provided for under RA 10533, and instead promotes a “Tagalog/Filipino-biased” education policy — this opposition to MTB-MLE is glaringly shown by KWF’s approval of a “national orthography” which requires ALL spelling systems in ALL Philippine languages to adhere to, in violation of Section 5, letter (h) of RA 10533 which states that the responsibility of developing, approving and publishing local materials shall devolve to the regional and division education units of the Department of Education.

Click here to go add your name to and/or read the online petition.

Syahan nga Usa ka Yukot hin mga Pulong nga Agsob Gamiton ha Winaray

Pagpurulongan nga Winaray-Inenglis para han mga Magturutdo ha MTBMLE

(First One Thousand Commonly Used Words in Waray
A Waray-English Dictionary for MTBMLE Educators)

[Click here to link to the interactive online Waray Language Database]

By Voltaire Q. Oyzon, John Mark Fullmer,  Evelyn C. Cruzada

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Voltaire Q. Oyzon

John Mark Fullmer

Evelyn C. Cruzada

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Pahiuna/Pasiuna

An Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 (R.A. 10533) ngan Department Order 74, s. 2009 han Department of Education nagmamando han paggamit han kalugaringon pinulongan han mga eskwela tikang ha Kindergarten ngadto ha Grade 6. Dako ini nga ayat ha mga komunidad kun diin waray pa tul-id nga ortograpiya, materyales ha pagtutdo, mga barasahon ug iba pa.

Ha kaso han aton pinulongan, nakahimo na kita hin ortograpiya nga ginagamit na yana han DepEd Region 8 (Oyzon, Ramos & Nolasco 2012). Ini gihapon nga ortograpiya an ginamit hini dinhi nga libro.

Panuyo hini nga libro nga makabaton han panginahanglan han mga eskwelahan ha Leyte, Samar ug Biliran kun diin Winaray an ira yinaknan.

Sinisiring subay han mga pag-arám, nga masayunay para han usa nga bata an pag-intindi kun an mga pulong ha iya binabasa agsob niya mahibatian. Nangangahulogan ini para hadto’n magsusurat hin mga barasahon para ha MTBMLE nga kinahanglan pamilyar ha bata an ira mga pulong nga gagamiton ha mga istorya ug barasahon.

Para liwat han mga magturutdo, labi na an mga syahan nga mapatuman hini nga MTBMLE ngan program han DepEd, problema nira an kakulangan ha Winaray nga pinulongan. Damo ha mga magturutdo an diri na pamilyar han mga Winaray nga pulong. Basi makabulig, ini nga libro ginhimo namon para hini nga kakulangan.

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE PAPER.

ETHNIC AND NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS: Considerations and Challenges

Prof. Saran

By Saran Kaur Gill
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Introduction

Transmigration has been a feature of many nations in the past century and is increasingly attaining prominence in the 21st century. This has resulted in many nations having a greater intensity in the multi-ethnic and multicultural landscape of their citizenry. In many of these nations, loyalty to the nation, does not override all other competing loyalties. “Family, tribe, locality, religion, conscience, economic interest, and a host of other appeals may at any given time and place prevail over national allegiance for particular individuals or groups.” (Emerson, 1959: 97) Therefore this raises the main challenge for nations, irrespective of whether they are newly developing or mature – this is the challenge of ensuring political, sociocultural and economic security amongst its citizenry so that “national allegiance takes precedence over all other claims which may be made upon them when they are confronted by alternative choices of allegiance …” (Emerson, 1959: 97) In this paper, it will be the sociocultural security manifest through linguistic cultural identity that will be focused on. From which bases do mutli-ethnic communities operate in terms of their linguistic cultural identity? Is it that of the nation or is it that of their ethnic communities?

 

Click “ETHNIC AND NATIONAL IDENTITIES IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS: Considerations and Challenges” for the complete document.

‘Castrated’ MTB-MLE

Dr. Ricardo Nolasco

By Ricardo Ma. Duran Nolasco, PhD
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Friday, September 13th, 2013
(rnolasco_upmin@yahoo.com)
Associate Professor, UP Department of Linguistics

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The term “castration” refers to the removal, by surgical or other means, of the reproductive organ of an animal. The intention is to prevent the animal from spreading an “undesired” genetic trait in succeeding generations.

This is precisely what the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. 10533 (otherwise known as the K-to-12 Law) appear to be doing to the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) provisions of the original law.

The IRR provide, albeit illegally, foreign and local lobbyists of the discredited bilingual-education policy with enough escape clauses for them to continue defying the law.

This introductory clause in Rule II, 10.4 circumscribes all the other language provisions: “The curriculum shall develop proficiency in Filipino and English, provided that the learners’ first and dominant language shall serve as the fundamental language of education.”

This provision, absent in the original law, confirms suspicions that the government’s language-in-education policy is MTB-MLE in name but L2 bilingual education in practice.

What National Language?

benignO
GetRealPhilippines

By benignO
GetRealPhilippines.com

So where has this drive to institutionalise the national language gotten us so far? A fatter Filipino dictionary? Granted, a national language is a good thing (we just have to figure out why in practical terms) and there has been a significant increase in the number of Filipino-language publications and television shows. (Ok, let’s just use the word Tagalog for purposes of conciseness from here on that’s what Filipino essentially is, isn’t it)

But let’s analyse the quality of the information that reaches the majority of the people. Ask the average Filipino to name any Tagalog publication. What comes up? Abante. A Tagalog TV show? Palibhasa Lalaki (or whatever; they’re all the same). Tagalog books? You’ll get any one or two of hundreds of titles of those cheesy romance novelettes sold at every corner store. Tagalog material of an academic or literary quality above cheese and sleaze languishes in the dusty Filipinana sections of libraries and the low-customer-traffic areas of bookstores and on graveyard or early morning television timeslots.