The governor’s dialect

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“An academic dialect is perfected when its terms are hard to understand and refer only to one another.”—Mason Cooley

 

THE dialect spoken in Antique is Kinaray-a, while in Iloilo is Hiligaynon.

When she made an appeal to Iloilo Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. recently to ease Iloilo’s border restrictions, Antique Governor Rhodora Cadiao reportedly spoke in Tagalog: “Okay lang kung magsara kayo ng borders pero ‘wag naman ‘yung mahigpit na border (restrictions). Kailangan namin ng suporta ninyo para mabuhay ang negosyo dito sa Antique.”

Cadiao’s statement came after Defensor, in an executive order dated July 1 restricting persons from traveling to the province from July 1 to 15, ordered the closure of Iloilo borders as part of the travel restrictions.

With “strict local action,” Iloilo is currently under modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).

We are not against the use of Tagalog by any public official, provided it is done only sparingly.

It is still a lot better if we can use our own dialects as members of our own culture groups; after all, we have the right to protect our own cultural identities.

 

-o0o-

 

Promoting or using Tagalog even in ordinary conversations is always seemed as “promoting the Tagalog Nationalism”, which is actually a cultural and psychological barrier that could be regarded as “nationalist myths” that apparently justify the existence of internal colonialism in the area known as the Philippines.

Examples of such myths are Nationalism, Nation, Nation-state, One Country, National Language, and so on, which the Manila-based Unitarian government promotes in schools and government institutions, our friend Dr. Jose Paluay Dacudao once explained to us.

We can actually “demystify or desanctify these myths,” suggested Dacudao, who recruited us in 2004 to join a “movement” that would preserve our native languages.

Being human inventions, these myths are subject to the critique of human reason, he pointed out.

“For example,” Dacudao explained, “one can consider not singing or reciting them. Or a non-Tagalog, like an Ilonggo (or for that matter a Cebuano, Waray, Ilocano, Pangasinense, Kapampangan, Bicolano, etc.), can sing and recite them in Binisaya, thus promoting Ilonggo nationalism, which in our present social and historical context may be a good way to oppose Manila colonialism.”

 

-o0o-

 

Filipinos who are now US citizens or green card holders and stranded in the Philippines due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown and travel restrictions may be salivating as their fellow Filipino-Americans “enjoy” the  Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package passed in March, immediately when the COVID-19 was starting to terrorize the people from all over the globe.

But if their one-time stimulus checks of $1,200 each were received by their relatives or friends here in the USA, stranded Fil-Ams can always request that these checks be mailed to them in the Philippines where they can encash said checks.

If they can return to the US soon, they might receive another $1,200 check each just in time when the Senate will OKs its own version of the HEROES Act, another bill approved by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, in the last week of July.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)