Siftings
Bien Lumbera and his crusade for 'Wikang Filipino'
Pambansang Alagad ng Literatura, Dr. Bienvenido L. Lumbera, also Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Journalism and Literature, UP Professor Emeritus; critic, poet, essayist, playwright, librettist, and above all, nationalist, was here in Iloilo City from August 20-22 to deliver a lecture on "Ang Wikang Filipino at Kulturang Popular" at the UP Visayas Auditorium (Friday, Aug. 22, 9am). The audience who came to listen, hoping to be enlightened by the words and presence of a National Artist, were students and faculty from various schools in the city and province of Iloilo: University of San Agustin, West Visayas State University, Philippine Science High School, Assumption Iloilo, UPV College of Management, UPHSI, Iloilo City National High School, Ramon Avanceña National High School, Interface Computer College, and the ABE International School at Mabini St. who came with their professors, the girls neat and pretty, and the guys dapper and handsome in their uniforms. Just as heartwarming to see were the delegations from schools outside the city: Southern Iloilo Polytechnic College of the West Visayas State College of Arts & Trade (WVSCAT), Miagao & Calinog campuses; Iloilo State College of Fisheries (ISCOF), Dumangas, Dingle & San Enrique campuses; and the Guimaras State College. There were also retired professors and alumni of UPV in the audience.
It was good to see the UPV Auditorium as the venue for a National Artist as he gave his Centennial Lecture on: "Ang Wikang Filipino at Kulturang Popular". The lecture proper and the forum took about an hour each, and could have gone on had not Emcee Prof. Fred Diaz cut short the forum to allow Dr. Lumbera time to get ready for his departure. The brisk questioning from students and teachers who spoke in very laudable Filipino made me ask myself: Why is there still such hostility of some of our countrymen (notably our Cebuano brothers) to the use of Filipino as national language? The Ilonggos have learned to use Filipino with aplomb and dispatch, and I am proud of them. They have an advantage because they are articulate in three, not just two, languages: Hiligaynon, their native tongue; English, the language of erstwhile and continuing colonization; and Filipino, which I like to think is the language of liberation, although, to borrow feminist Kate Millett's terminology who decried women's plight in a macho world, it is the language of "interior colonization" for those of us who insist that our own regional lingua franca should be the national language. Personally, I think that we should accept the fact that Filipino is basically Tagalog, the regional language of the NCR and the national broadcast media and the cinema and stop providing grist for controversies that refuse to fade away. It's time for us to move on where our language of communication is concerned.
The lecture started with Lumbera's take on his student days as a young convert to the idea of a "sariling wika" that wound carry the "natatanging identidad" of a nation that has its own "katutubong kultura". He launched his career as writer to create poems, stories, plays, essays, critiques, in Filipino, in the process, "lumahok sa pakikibaka", and getting "detained" as many of his fellow activists experienced. When he got out, Bien (as he is fondly referred to by friends and followers) continued to write in the nationalist vein, using his grasp of Filipino to focus attention on our indigenous cultural heritage, as in his doing the libretto for "Tales of the Manuvu" and other musical plays.
The last part of the lecture reiterates his call for the acceptance of Filipino, and adds that now it has become a global language, what with Filipinos dispersed in various capacities all over the world, using not just English to communicate with one another but also Filipino. I know from personal experience that when Filipinos accidentally meet in malls or restaurants abroad, they ask: "Taga saan ka ba?" Not "Where are you from?"
Just as engrossing are questions on popular culture, its nature and how to teach it in schools. According to Bien, it has a "layuning komersiyal", and one way of teaching it is to know the aim or goal of an event, undertaking or object. Primarily, popular culture is the product of a commercial purpose, that is, to entertain the audience who pay in order to be entertained "para maaliw ang mga tao." Although there is "dinalisay na popular na kultura" which aims to express the creative impulse rather than make a profit or provide livelihood, this kind is increasingly becoming rare. Traditional art forms like indigenous arts and popular entertainment forms like the zarzuela of the first half of the last century are samples. The telenovelas we enjoy are prime examples of pop culture today, with a mass appeal to a target audience who watch them every night on prime time. Usually written according to a formula acceptable to its target audience, these soaps are not sources of deep insights into human nature or life. But sometimes, a telenovela can attain psychological depth (such as "Maging Sino Ka Man", which was written by a young Creative Writing major of UP Diliman) or yield answers to questions with social dimensions, such as the need for economic security which lies beneath the loves and hates of "Iisa Pa Lamang". Here we can see that popular culture does provide the more thinking public with insights to ponder.
In sum, what the lecture stresses for me is the use of Filipino to express our Filipino-ness. Its chameleon ability to absorb and make usable words from other regional languages attest to its strength. As a language still in the making, with as yet no fixed rules for grammar and syntax, despite claims to the contrary by some sectors, it is a fluid, living, breathing organism that with time, acceptance, and use, will eventually take its place among the major languages of the world.
This lecture forum with a National Artist dedicated to his crusade, and as a cooperative endeavor of the UPV Sentro ng Wika under Prof. John Barrios, and the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, is not so much an eye-opener but is a confirmation of what we have suspected for a long time now but refuse to acknowledge: that the Filipino language, just like the popular culture it expresses and manifests, is here to stay.