Cutting carbon

Today at the Heroes Hall of Malacañang Palace will be held an important inter-agency conference named “Carbon Cutting Congress versus Climate Change” (CCCvsCC), aimed at setting targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emission by the Philippines.

Heherson T. Alvarez, Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change, who convened the congress, says, “Through the Congress, we hope to form a national consensus among stakeholders on how the Philippines could be a carbon-neutral country, by involving some 350 representatives from the national and local governments, business and industry, academic and science communities, civil society, and environmental NGOs.”

Alvarez will head the Philippine delegation to the 14th Session of the Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP-14) in Poznan, Poland, from Dec. 1 to 12. The COP-14 estimates that a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide by 2050 will avoid irreversible climate change.

Climate change is no longer science fiction. Unless we get our act together, as Alvarez puts it, “the world will see even more destructive typhoons, deadlier floods, and desertification. Small islands will disappear as giant ice formations 40% the size of China melt and cause sea levels to rise.”

Watch the Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth (2006), which, despite its scientific inaccuracies and blatant partisanship, should alert you to the disasters our grandchildren will face. We joke about the Philippines having 7,100 islands at low tide and 7,000 only at high tide, but if climate change becomes irreversible, we might be down to 3,000 islands. No joke.

LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: Pending in Congress is a bill entitled “The Multi-Lingual Education and Literacy Act of 2008,” principally authored by Magtanggol T. Gunigundo and supported by numerous lawmakers. The bill seeks to establish a multi-lingual education program by making the native tongue the language of instruction for the formative years of basic education.

Currently, the native tongue is the language of instruction only for the first three years of elementary school. From fourth grade to the end of high school, Filipino and English are the two main languages of instruction, with English used more than Filipino, contrary to the Constitution.

The Gunigundo bill, which has received enthusiastic support from all the language associations and agencies in the country, including DepEd itself, seeks to apply findings from educational research that children learn best when taught in their home language.

Among the important provisions of the bill are these two: the use of the child’s first language as primary language of instruction for all subjects (except Filipino and English, of course) throughout elementary school and the use of Filipino and English as primary languages of instruction in high school. Universities, of course, have academic freedom and can use any language they like for instruction on the college level, subject only to a few CHED memos (such as the one on the General Education course on the Literatures of the Philippines, which should ideally be taught in the language of the region).

FILIPINO IN THE JUDICIARY: Speaking of languages, with Congress now moving to increase the use of native languages in education and the Supreme Court taking steps to increase the use of Filipino inside the courtroom, only the Executive Branch seems to be bent on defying the Constitution.

The Supreme Court’s “Seminar Workshop sa Paggamit ng Filipino sa Hukuman,” held Oct. 20-21 at the Bulacan State University, was an eye-opener for me as an invited commentator. Attended by justices, judges, law school deans, clerks of court, court stenographers, prosecutors, and various lawyers, the seminar featured two simulated trials conducted entirely in Filipino. The cases tackled were real civil and criminal cases, and the “actors” (who were real-life judges and lawyers) argued and made motions like they were in a real courtroom.

Incidentally, all the basic laws of the land are now available in Filipino translation, courtesy of Judge Cesar C. Peralejo, whose efforts at legal translation have been widely praised and recognized.

“WORDS OF THE DAY” (English/Filipino) for next week’s elementary school classes: Nov. 24 Monday: 1. cook/wakas, 2. fold/wisik, 3. space/wakwak, 4. cotton/wagas, 5. screw/witwit, 6. theory/wawa (delta); Nov. 25 Tuesday: 1. need/walo, 2. horn/wagwag, 3. sneeze/wallet, 4. cushion/waglit, 5. powder/wigwig, 6. natural/wagas; Nov. 26 Wednesday: 1. fire/wala, 2. have/wall, 3. sharp/wart, 4. bucket/watch, 5. private/water, 6. electric/warehouse; Nov. 27 Thursday: 1. play/white, 2. from/wika, 3. smash/wish, 4. angry/willow, 5. protest/wine, 6. committee/welga; Nov. 28 Friday: 1. eye/dalaw, 2. mark/dusa, 3. fear/dasdas, 4. white/diwa, 5. wool/darak, 6. impulse/daguldol. The numbers after the dates indicate grade level. The dates refer to the official calendar for public elementary schools. For definitions of the words in Filipino, consult UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino.