Gawad Dangal ng Wikang Filipino

I was lucky to have been one of this year’s awardees of the Gawad Dangal ng Wikang Filipino, given by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) last Friday at the Century Park Hotel. The other awardees were Luciano L. Gaboy, Luis P. Gatmaitan, the CCP Sangay ng Panitikan, and ABS-CBN’s Todo-Todo Walang Preno.

Here are translated portions of my acceptance speech (which I delivered in Filipino, of course), with some afterthoughts and comments:

I’m very grateful for the kind words of Senator Edgardo J. Angara [the keynote speaker] for praising my play Baler sa Puso Ko, but the credit should actually go to two persons present here today: Cecile Guidote Alvarez, the First Lady of Philippine Theater who taught me how to write in Filipino for the stage and who put together the Baler team, and Liesl Batucan, who played the lead role and brought to life my lifeless words. [Liesl guested in the program, singing two Filipino songs. She alternated with Lara Maigue for the role of Maria in the Baler, Aurora, production. Also outstanding in that production, by the way, were Ramon Acoymo and Al Gatmaitan, the two male leads.]

I’m happy but very surprised that you gave this award to me, an Inglesero [English speaker]. I write my column in English, I am a board member of the English Speaking Union, I am president of the Philippine Fulbright Scholars Association, I was educated in the US, and my Ph.D. was in English.

Perhaps it is because the little English that I have mastered I learned by using Filipino. This is one reason I never tire of saying that the reason English is deteriorating in our country is the use of English as the medium of instruction in our schools. The best way for Filipinos to learn English is to use Filipino as the medium of instruction for all subjects at all levels, including English subjects.

I have paid a price for this advocacy.

First, my English-speaking colleagues always regard me with suspicion, thinking that I am a double agent.

Second, I did not become Education Secretary during Cory Aquino’s term because of it. You see, before she asked Teddy Boy Locsin to come home and write better speeches, I wrote Cory’s early campaign speeches, which were in Filipino. Once, when we were alone in her office in Makati, she asked me if she should really be running for president. I said, sincerely and not just to keep my job, “You have to, Mrs. Aquino. There is no one else that can solve the mess we are in right now.”

Then she asked me, “What would you do if you were Secretary of Education?”

Without hesitation, I answered, “I will make Filipino the sole medium of instruction in all our schools.”

“Sobra ka naman [You’re too radical],” she said.

Though she was always nice to me during and after her presidency, she never offered me a government post. [To her credit, however, Cory issued Executive Order No. 335 in 1988, “Enjoining All Departments/Bureaus/Offices/Instrumentalities of the Government to Take Such Steps as are Necessary for the Purpose of Using the Filipino Language in Official Transactions, Communications and Correspondence.”]

When my close friend Raul Roco asked me in 2001 to be his Undersecretary at DepEd, I warned him that I would push for Filipino to be the sole medium of instruction. He said that he did not agree with me, but because he needed a totally loyal friend beside him in his new post, he promised not to say so publicly. To his credit, even after I left him at DepEd [because I found out that I could not live on a Usec’s starvation salary], he never reversed my order increasing the number of elementary schools using the lingua franca as sole medium of instruction and my order requiring all public school students to read at least one book in a vernacular language every year.

I thank all those that chose me to receive this prestigious award, particularly KWF head Jose Laderas Santos, who was my editor when I tried (unsuccessfully!) to be a komiks writer.

“WORDS OF THE DAY” (English/Filipino) for next week’s elementary school classes: Sept. 7 Monday: 1. toe/jail, 2. bridge/joker, 3. steam/juvenile, 4. feeble/judo, 5. journey/joss, 6. expert/jazz; Sept. 8 Tuesday: 1. top/kabit, 2. brush/kaba, 3. steel/kalag, 4. amount/kalamansi, 5. exchange/kaaway, 6. credit/kabasi; Sept. 9 Wednesday: 1. rub/kabig, 2. breath/kahig, 3. stem/kalog, 4. feather/kabkab, 5. certain/kalapati, 6. desire/kalasag; Sept. 10 Thursday: 1. wet/kagat, 2. brown/kalan, 3. step/kamatis, 4. motion/kampi, 5. drawer/karayom, 6. statement/kalusugan; Sept. 11 Friday: 1. oil/kahoy, 2. great/kambal, 3. still/kati (low tide), 4. mountain/kalawit, 5. leather/kagyos, 6. station/kawad. 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.