by V.E. CARMELO D. NADERA JR.

THE NATIONAL language of the Philippines is no longer Pilipino but Filipino. And as it evolves with its modern alphabet, Philippine literature is expected to develop along with it. But the latter is a task that could be difficult to accomplish especially with such government rulings as Executive Order 210 that has once more made English the medium of instruction in our schools, and the second language to be taught in the first-level system.

This is, after all, a country with more than a hundred languages, a fact that has spawned a rich collection of regional writing. Yet while there have been moves to “mainstream” what National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera has described as “hitherto marginalized writing,” vernacular literature has remained trapped in the regions, unable to go beyond linguistic boundaries. One could say it has been in search of a vehicle that could help it move forward. Now, however, the vehicle most likely to do that has been deprived of fuel.

No one doubts that vernacular literature is vital to our cultural identity. Herminio Beltran Jr., author of Lemlunay: Mga Tula sa Tatlong Wika and Bayambang (Tula, Daniw, Poems) and chief of the Literary Arts Division of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), says that it was through vernacular literature that he “came to know how it is to be Ilocano or Filipino.” Part of the group that took over the CCP in the ‘80s, he adds, “Compared to English or any other foreign language or literature to which I was exposed early enough in school, it is the mirror or vehicle of my own experiences, dreams, aspirations, hatred, longings.”

For sure there have been efforts to think nationally by acting regionally. There has been Liwayway Publications, for instance, which has popularized literary works in Tagalog through its magazine, Liwayway, as well as those in Iluko through Bannawag, in Cebuano through Bisaya, and in Ilonggo through Hiligaynon. According to its former circulation editor Juan S.P. Hidalgo, who retired from Liwayway as associate editor, Liwayway sold 200,000 copies a week during its “Golden Age” in the 1930s; Bannawag did 50,000 copies, Bisaya 80,000 copies, and Hiligaynon 40,000 copies.

But so long as our country lacks the vision of Malaysia’s Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Institute of Language and Literature), vernacular literature may have a hard time developing a national audience. For years now, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka has been translating even world classics into Bahasa Malaysia, as if to say, “Hey, we have words for your words.”

Without a similar initiative, we may be bound to follow the circuitous route taken by artist and avid Liwayway reader Frank Rivera in appreciating indigenous artforms. A Laguna native, Rivera was once accused of being a “cultural colonizer” because he was among those who brought theatre to the grassroots in the ‘70s. But that was before he realized that there were more exciting artforms in the regions awaiting rediscovery — leading him to found Sining Kambayoka, which recently won the Gawad CCP para sa Sining Pangtanghalan for popularizing its folk theater format adapted from the Maranao song-and-dance form, the bayok.

Now one of the project directors of the Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan (KALAHI), Rivera says, “Regional literature, including theater, is the base of almost everything we are as a people, that makes our works today more substantial than many works of art that are not based on past experiences.”

REGIONAL WRITERS, of course, haven’t exactly been waiting for outsiders to appreciate them. Confident in the value and beauty of their work, they have shared poems, essays, and fiction with their respective peoples for generations. Recently, regional writing has even gone online to reach out to those who have joined the great Filipino diaspora. Bicolanos publish online via its oragonrepublic.com. Dalityapi Unpoemed from Pangasinan and Iluko.Com from the North are both active and proactive in their quest for literary rennaisance. Aklanon Literature and Mindanao Creative Writers Group Inc. likewise come alive in cyberspace, especially now that there is panitikan.com.ph, which is the portal to Philippine literatures.

Writing in the vernacular helps preserve local languages, as well as enriches literature and culture. Yet while regional writing does not need appreciation from outsiders to be relevant, it can only benefit from being presented in a national context, because then it becomes part of a greater story that can be enjoyed by more people.

Unfortunately, this has happened only rarely. Indeed, folios like Jose Bragado and Benjamin Pascual’s Pamulinawen: Dandaniw 1949-1975 (1976), critiques like Evangelina Hilario Lacson’s Kapampangan Writing: A Selected Compendium and Critique (1984), and anthologies like Victor Sugbo’s Tinipigan: An Anthology of Waray Literature (1995) and Illumined Terrain: The Sites and Dimensions of Philippine Literature (1998) or Efren R. Abueg’s Sa Bagwis ng Sining: Mga Nangaunang Manunulat ng Cavite (2005) are in dire need of successors. So is Lumbera’s Filipinos Writing: Philippine Literature from the Regions (2001).

In Sansiglong Mahigit Ng Makabagong Tula Sa Filipinas (2006), as well as in its twin publication Pag-unawa sa Ating Pagtula: Pagsusuri at Kasaysayan ng Panulaang Filipino (2006), the pride that is national is ever present. Their common author and editor, National Artist Virgilio Almario, selected some of the best poems in Bikol, Binisaya, Espanyol, Iluko, English, Filipino, and Kapampangan from 1900 up to the present, and provided translations into the national language. Today, though, the national language itself now seems to be at risk of being overtaken by a foreign tongue.

The irony of it all is that the education department has mandated the use of the vernacular as a medium of instruction in mathematics in Grades 1 and 2 in public elementary schools this coming schoolyear. Back in 1950, then Iloilo schools division superintendent Jose Aguilar had discovered that children should be taught in their native tongue so they could learn as much as they could before they complete their elementary education. Another way of explaining what Aguilar learned and rallied for, perhaps, is that language empowerment is people empowerment.

And it’s not as if there has been no effort to push the national language in schools since then. In 2000, then education secretary Brother Andrew Gonzalez, FSC issued Memorandum No. 202 to train trainors for the Special Program in the Arts or SPA that was meant for select public high schools. In 2004, the Department of Education extended SPA to other high schools interested in having creative writing classes in Filipino for their students.

The SPA training workshops have since been reaping praises from the teacher-participants who have echoed the lessons to their students. Carmelita Cabaluna, a school paper adviser from Zamboanga City, says she herself learned how to write poems and stories in Filipino because of SPA. “What was amazing,” she continues, “was the fact that I am a Chavacana. I became a role model for writing in Filipino. Earlier this year, modesty aside, my student won in the secondary schools press conference. And she said she owed it to me.”