A seminar on language preservation as well as on SOLFED's proposal for the federalization of the Philippines, was conducted at Angeles City High School Special Science Class (SSC) in the class of Mr. Regala by Mr. Edwin Camaya and Atty. Lino Faelnar of DILA (Defenders
of Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago).
The following are verses in Kapampangan composed by the students there March 24, 2006. They were written extemporaneously! Let's give these students a standing ovation!
ING PARUGANG
Atin metung atau
Atin yang alagang asu
Pile ya gamat, pile ya bitis
Kule yang kamatis
Atyu ya lalam tanamang saresa
Kasiping da metung a bisikleta
Metung ya parugang
Makatula ya kasi e dudugang
Mamaduas lang asan
Para karela yang kanan
Kanan da ne sana
Misabit ya king sanga
By Samuel Garsain and Justin Gatus
***************************
1.
Ing quecang lagu eku kalingwan
Makayama kang lalawen kapilan pa man
2.
itang capayang manibalang
pengan ne ning tikbalang
ikit neng Maam Malang
penagal neng palang
o ba'titang tikbalang
neng pangaragul a tikbalang
makalunus ya i Maam Malang
Melakwan ya king lalam
Jerome Ocampo
Prangelle Pingul
Joed Ticse
Jann Nicolas
Diego Cabacungan
Cecille Rapal
***************************
Ika, aku, ikatamungan
Kapampangan tamu, e mu emukakalingwan
Pakisabyan mula reng anak mu keng Kapampangan
Batang e mate ing kekatang pibatan
Kathleen Tanjuakio
Maisah Macala
Christie Santos
***************************
"Uran"
Mekeni ali mu ku lalakwan
kening lalam ning uran
Palsintan da kang tune
kapilan pa man
Kamille Guevarra
Ira Dayrit
Kevin Ward
Richmond Macaspac
***************************
O sinta qung luluguran
O queka ibie qu ngan
Eganagana para quekangan,
nanungan buri mu kakung
luguran
Nunag, Sharmaine M.
Vital, Janine G.
***************************
Ika, aku, ikatamungan
Kapampangan tamu, emu kakalingwan
Eme papaten ing sariling kultura tamu
Uling keni ka mebye, mibait at pikalulu
Kathleen Tanjuakio
Christie Santos
Maisah Macala
***************************
E que balu nung nanu ing tatalnan
na ning kapalaran
Pero
Balu ku nung ninu ing
tatalnan ning kapalaran.
Mariama Veruasa
***************************
Ing buri kung sabyan a ibat keng pilublub ku,
kaluguran daka, ika mu irug ku.
Edaka pamalit maski kaninu
Emuku lalakuan, pota ika mate ku.
Trisha Marie S. Nabong
Karen Joy San Luis
***************************
Kalugurân kung kalugûran
Manyad kung lugud
pati saup e sana
magbayu ing kekang lagu
N.H. Atienza
***************************
O, ing kekang mayap a kaluguran
E da ka akalingwan andyang kapilanman.
Marie Geneva D. Manialung
Katri Anthea Rojo
Wendy Joyce Balenton
Karen Ruth Grant
***************************
Bengi bengi ika ing paninapan ku
Eku agyung ala ka king siping ku
Aldoldo ika ing aisip ku
Eku mabye kung lakwan mu ku
Ika ing bye ampong pangisnawa ku
Ika ing eganaganang kanaku
Wong, Ezra
Mayo, Hannah
Gonzales, Kristine
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Atty. Manuel Lino Faelnar and I were in Angeles City last Friday, March 24, to revive the SOLFED Chapter at the Angeles City High School Special Science Class. We had earlier set the schedule with Mr. Joel Regala, who teaches at the school. Since the students were only available in the morning the time was set at 9:00 p.m.), we stayed overnight at an Angeles City hotel and arrived at the venue at the appointed time.
Upon arrival at SSC (which, being the science high school of Angeles, is home to the city's cream of the crop in the sciences and mathematics), we were met by Mr. Regala, who took us to the Principal's Office, where we were served entertained and served a filling Kapampangan merienda. Afterwards came the program.
We came expecting only to speak. Imagine how surprised, nay, overwhelmed, we were by what we encountered. After the invocation (in Kapampangan, of course) we were serenaded with well-loved Kapampangan songs, capably performed by the members of the school choir, who were accompanied on the keyboard as well as by a musical skit complete with costumes. We could not believe that all this was put together on such short notice.
The first number after the Philippine National Anthem (in "Filipino" because, it was stressed, there is now a law forbidding its singing in any language other than the "national language") came the Imno ning Kapampangan (Kapampangan Hymn), composed by Msgr. Gregorio Canlas, with lyrics by the late Atty. Serafin Lacson [while it was commissioned in the 1980s by then governor Estelito P. Mendoza, it has taken a life of its own, acclaimed as the de facto Kapampangan National Anthem (along with "Atin Ku Pung Singsing," of course), sung both in provincial government functions and by Kapampangan (regional) nationalists. Its inclusion among pirated Kapampangan songs sold in the sidewalks of Angeles is an indication that it has attained the popularity of a folk song]. This was another of our pleasant surprises. I had brought with me a tape of the "Imno," since I planned to play it at the beginning of the affair (as should befit a Kapampangan-related event). I had not expected that they themselves would be performing it. And that fact that this was not merely for our benefit was emphasized. We were told that the "Imno" is played every morning during the flag ceremony, and that this has been the case since the term of the previous principal.
After the presentations, Mr. Regala gave a short speech in Kapampangan emphasizing the necessity of keeping Kapampangan language and culture alive, illustrating this with examples from his own family, in whom he tries to inculcate this virtue. He related how the existing system makes this extremely difficult. Excellence in Kapampangan is not rewarded, but rather penalized in school, in which the mother tongue has absolutely no place. On the contrary, in the case of his daughter, this translates to low grades in Filipino. He has to constantly make the point that having low grades in the "national language" (which, under the bilingual system, is used in half of the subjects) is a small price to pay for not losing one's identity and heritage, which is what happens if one loses Kapampangan. This is the dilemma which every parent, whose child has to deal with several languages, two of them foreign to him, but in which all school subjects are taught, has grapple with. [Is it any wonder then that an increasing number of parents around the archipelago are "resolving" this dilemma by switching to Filipino-Tagalog? Should we be surprised that "Virtually all rural-dwelling Cuyonon now speak Tagalog to their children"
(http://www.manilastandardonline.com:8080/mnlastd/iserver?page=news03_may30_2005), or that Tagalog has replaced Cebuano as the lingua franca (and biggest non-Muslim mother tongue) of Cotabato City? The remarkable thing about Kapampangan is not that it is losing ground, but that, with its geographical location near Manila and surrounded by the Central Luzon Tagalog provinces, the overwhelmingly Tagalog mass media, the compulsion to speak Filipino-Tagalog in the schools, and the heavy non-Kapampangan immigration, is that it has been able survive at all in the face of relentless pressure. But, without government recognition, it is difficult to tell for how long.]. He added that the parents of the students themselves did not seem to appreciate his teaching his subject in Kapampangan, fearing that this would undermine their facility in English and Filipino (the languages in which success is measured). He emphasized that there is not much time left, considering the overpowering social pressure for language shift. He ended his speech with an exhortation to be faithful to the native language and to the Kapampangan identity, despite the increasing temptation to abandon it.
Yours truly was then asked to speak. I began by giving a short enumeration of current public figures who have Kapampangan ancestry, from Kris Aquino to Sen. Manny Villar (his maternal ancestry is Kapampangan). Not to mention the fact that the President is of Kapampangan descent. Unfortunately, I noted that so few of them can actually speak Kapampangan, or are even known by the public as such. I tried to drive home this contradiction, stressing that all this is meaningless if the Kapampangan identity is lost in the end, which is what will happen if the language dies.
Atty. Faelnar explained our reason for coming, and introduced SOLFED and its objective of saving the languages of the Philippines. With respect to "federalism" in the name, he said that it was a means to an end, which is to save our languages, rather than an objective in itself. He praised the efforts of the school, and the work to revive Kapampangan, and put this in the context of an on-going, Philippine-wide movement to return the regional languages to their rightful place in society. Giving Cebu as an example, he said that Cebu's prosperity and the place it has earned is due not just to hard work, but, just as important, to the Cebuanos' love of and loyalty to the native language and culture. This patriotism is what gives direction and meaning to one's efforts; in the end, it is what counts most. He ended with a call to the students, on whom the life of the language will depend, to do their best to keep Kapampangan, "a beautiful language," alive and strong.
I then administered a short test (25 items), which asked the students to pick out the non-Kapampangan words in a sentence, and to replace them with the correct Kapampangan equivalents (this is based on current speech, which, unfortunately, is now increasingly penetrated by Tagalog, English and Spanish words, for which there are perfectly good Kapampangan equivalents). The top three (top four, actually, since there was a tie) were given prizes.
Afterwards, I gave a short talk on Kapampangan literature, on which they were quizzed later (they also received prizes for this).
Then, Lino asked them to compose short verses in Kapampangan. When these verses came out, it was heartwarming to see how well many of them came out despite the short time given to compose them. We promised to keep them and have them published in the Internet, or, if possible, in an anthology of Kapampangan writing.
We ended by dividing the group into two for a closer discussion and recap of what was taken up. We took their names and e-mail addresses, for their inclusion into an e-mail discussion group and as SOLFED teams for their school. We were presented with a certificate of appreciation and a token afterwards.
All of this was capped with a satisfying lunch of bulanglang and chicken, over which language and other issues were discussed with Mr. Regala and some of the students.
All in all, it was a most rewarding morning. The teacher and students pulled out all stops to welcome us and entertain us with excellent numbers and company (and good food), and we hope we did justice to this and were able to impart something to them. We know that they appreciated the fact that we went all the way from Metro Manila and Los Baños to talk to them. What especially made an impact was the fact that Lino, who comes from Cebu, was visiting them to tell them to keep their language, Kapampangan, alive. We hope that the language revival in Cebu and other parts of the country, and the spirit of SOLFED, rubs off on them.
That afternoon, we paid a visit to the Center for Kapampangan Studies at Holy Angel University. We were received by the Director, Mr. Robby Tantingco, who gave us a copy of the CKS DVD and the publication "Singsing." The Center is not only prolific in terms of its output (publications, CDs, etc.; one is an animated one on "The Monkey and the Turtle" in Kapampangan), wields much influence, and has been pivotal in promoting Kapampangan language and culture in the Kapampangan Region. For instance, it was instrumental in the resolution by the Pampanga provincial government to play Kapampangan music in radio stations and malls, as well as in the ordinance of the San Fernando City government mandating that Kapampangan history be taught in elementary schools. It is also in the process of developing a Kapampangan syllabus in cooperation with the government of the City of San Fernando. The Center maintains ties with municipal/city governments throughout the Kapampangan Region, including Pampanga and the Kapampangan areas of Tarlac, Bataan and Nueva Ecija. Representatives of various universities, notably Tarlac State University, have ties to the CKS. Just as important, it is in touch with its counterparts, regional centers in other parts of the country, such as those in the Visayas and Ilocos, with which it cooperates. It turned out that Dir. Tantingco corresponds regularly with Dr. Tirol of Bohol, who teaches science in Cebuano in his school. One recent coup by the Center, according to Mr. Tantingco, is the acquisition of permission to show "Jesus," a Kapampangan-dubbed film of the life of Christ based on the Gospel of Luke, which will be aired locally on cable in time for Holy Week.
All in all, it ended on an encouraging note for Kapampangan language and culture in particular, and the regional languages and cultures of the archipelago in general. The odds may be awesome, to be sure, but if the enthusiasm we encountered is any indication, they are not insurmountable. I might add that if something like this is possible in the Kapampangan Region, which is in the eye of the storm, so to speak, there is no doubt that it can be done elsewhere, in other regions which are more distant from the frontlines. SOLFED is to be praised for being both a participant and a catalyst in this historic movement. In the same way that we have it to thank for remembering to include Kapampangan in its proposal as a separate federal state.
Edwin Camaya
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