Cha-cha and the protection of languages!

Yesterday, we attended a Seminar Workshop on Proactive Responses to Language issue in the Philippine Education and Development at the University of the Philippines-Lahug Campus. This workshop continues the whole morning today. While I do not want to pre-empt the results of this workshop, let me just say that the time to change our language policies is upon us. Call it timely that we're about to change our constitution so that we can include respect for Regional Language as a matter of national policy.

I was with Consultation Commission (concom) chairman Prof. Jose "Pepe" Abueva for breakfast yesterday and we went together to the workshop, as he was the opening speaker for this seminar. Prof. Abueva talked about the national language that he supported for many years. But lately, he experience a paradigm shift… that as a believer in a Federalized Philippines, it is easier for him to convince people that in a Federal system, the local language in that area would be the dominant language that would be taught in schools. English should also be taught as our global language. Indeed, I believe that charter changes should result in the protection of all our languages.

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Not many people in this country realize that last Tuesday's Regional Consultations by the Consultative Commission was a rare political exercise that few Filipinos ever tasted or experienced. If you want to know, the last discussion on changing the constitution where the ordinary Filipino folk was involved happened 34 years ago during the 1971 Constitutional Convention (concon). Now wonder there was so much enthusiasm with the consultations at the Waterfront Hotel last Tuesday.

If you remember, the 1971 Concon was sidetracked by the declaration of Martial Law in September of 1972… thus we ended up having the 1971 Constitution hijacked into the 1973 Marcos Constitution, which even grade school children know in their heart that it only served the purposes of the Marcos family. Thus after the People's Power Revolt won against the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, the 1973 Constitution became history!

But that meant that Cory Aquino became President as head of a revolutionary government because she had no constitution to back her up. I still recall that then Vice-President Salvador "Doy" Laurel suggested a quick fix solution to this dilemma, which was to bring back the 1935 Constitution. But the people surrounding Tita Cory had other plans, after all, they knew they could sell the Filipino people any Constitution that they concocted, hence they decided to make their own, appointing 49 Constitutional Commissioners to do the job.

So the 1987 "Cory" Constitution was born. But they hammered this inside a back room in Malacañang without consulting the Filipino people what kind of government they would like to have. Thus, the Filipino people got a constitution that did not come from them. It is for this reason why I still believe in a Constitutional Convention, but we'll settle for a concom instead.

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I don't know why media gives too much importance to that so-called "People's Court", which was created by the group that calls itself the Bukluran Para sa Katotohanan. They also have another name for this… the Citizen's Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA). Well, for the rest of us Filipinos, we too have another name for a "People's Court", it's called a "Kangaroo Court!" If any, the People's Court was given some kind of "legitimacy" when former Vice-President Teofisto Giungona supported this group and the rest is up to the media to play up all this stupidity.

One basic tenet of law is one of impartiality. Judges are not supposed to take sides, nor prejudge anyone. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught the very same thing… for us not to pre-judge others. So what can we expect from a "People's Court" that is stacked with sore losing oppositionists, who are in the forefront of all those rallies demanding the President to resign because they want to grab political power? Come now, even an idiot can already predict the outcome of this non-courtroom "non-drama."

Well the other day, Atty. Romeo Capulong served their "summons" to the President in Malacañang, as if they had some kind of authority to try the President. It was received by a minor functionary who got the documents and tore it apart in front of the media… in an act that Capulong said was "bastos". But then again, just because they have the support of a former Vice-President, it doesn't give these jokers any legitimacy. As for Guingona, he's already in the twilight of his long illustrious career, only to ruin it in the last few minutes. There's a name for his actions… Senility.

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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com. Bobit Avila's columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com