Language Policies by the Colonial Government

In compliance with decrees issued by the home government, the

colonial government also issued several laws concerning language
policies.
Governor Solís issued the following law on October 19, 1752,
later it became Ordinance 52 in 1768 ,so that in the villages of
their districts they demand, establish, and found, from this day
forward, schools where the children of the natives and other
inhabitants of their districts may be educated and taught (in
primary letters in the Castilian or Spanish language), seeing to
it earnestly and carefully that they study, learn, and receive
education in that language and not in that of the country or any
other.
In 1863 the Educational Act was issued which stated that in
every town a primary school should be established. For boys and
girls aged 6-12, primary education became compulsory. Tuition
should be free and equipment should be provided to the poor,
The educational decree prescribed that Spanish was to be the
sole medium of instruction in order to facilitate the need to
learn Spanish, so that literacy in Spanish appeared to be the
major purpose of the curriculum. To this end, the decree
provided that natives who could not speak, read and write
Spanish five years after its issuance were not to be permitted
to hold salaried government positions. This was the major
motivation to induce the Filipinos to study the language (B&R
46.85)
The reasons of the failure of the Spanish language education was
multifaceted, some of them being enumerated as follows:
(1) The Philippines is geographically distant from Spain, so
royal decrees was not so forceful as in the homeland.
(2) In order to prevent the impact of independence of Latin
Americans, the authority wanted the natives to be barred from
news form outside, therefore, being hesitant to spread the
Spanish language.
(3) The decrees being originally oriented for Americans, it did
not fit the realities in the Philippines (B&R 46.285).
(4) A lack of funds was another reason. It was said that funds
were not available very often and this hampered the hiring of
teachers
 (5) There were generally no incentives for natives to learn
Spanish.
(6) The Spaniards were forbidden to live in the native village
except friars, therefore, natives had few chances to practice
Spanish.
(7) Even though the colonial government planned to spread the
Spanish language, the friars in villages and towns wanted to
monopoly the tools of communication and ensure their own power
base. The friars were categorically opposed the spread of
Spanish.
For three centuries Spanish was the language of the ruling
class. By the end of its regime, it was reported that 2.46% of
the adult population could speak Spanish (1870 Census, quoted in
Gonzalez 1980: 26). As the strongest impact of the Spanish
language on the sociolinguistic situations in the Philippines,
we can refer to the fact that Spanish language education led to
the rise of Tagalog and the unified consciousness as a Tagalog-
speaking race.
Its nationalism was developed during the Propaganda Movement and
the Philippine Revolution.
In the middle of the 19th century, in Spain, the liberal
movement arose in Barcelona then moved to Madrid. Those days a
great number of Filipino students were studying there and they
were influenced by this movement. They began to campaign for
the liberation of the Philippines, but it did not mean they
aimed at the independence from Spain but the assimilation into
Spain with Filipinos’ rights fully recognized.
In 1882 Del Pilar founded the nationalist newspaper Diariong
Tagalog, through which he propagated his idea. In 1892 José
Rizal founded an organization Liga Filipina and started his
campaign.
José Rizal played an important role in the history of the
consciousness of the Philippines. He studied Morga’s Sucesos de
las Islas Filipinas and “found” that the Philippines had a great
language and culture. He re-found there were a great race and
culture in the ancient Philippine islands. He explained to his
fellows that they all belonged to this great race. He insisted
that before the arrival of Spaniards, there was no abuse, no
exploitation , people live fruitful and prosperous life. Also a
revolutionist, Andres Bonifacio wrote, “these islands were
governed by our own compatriots who were then living in the
greatest abundance and prosperity.” He wrote about their
linguistic situations, “young and old, the women included, knew
how to read and write, using their own alphabet.” (DS 8:201).
The nation “Filipinas” and the people “Filipinos” were
conceptualized and Spain and the Philippines came to be
recognized as separate beings. Filipinos began to understand
their motherland was not Spain but the Philippines. This
finding was quickly spread to other intelligentsia in the
Philippines.
But one of the characteristics of the Propaganda Movement is
that it was done through the Spanish language. In general, the
propaganda movement was done through the Spanish language.
Therefore, the limit of the propaganda movement was that this
movement mainly depended on Spanish, not on the public language,
Tagalog. Due to this, the movement could not spread to the
masses. Constantino (1975:157) clearly stated that “… an
important factor limiting the influence of the propagandists was
the fact that they wrote in Spanish, a language virtually
unknown among the masses.”
 Language
Policies by the
Colonial
Government

Loreno, John Francis

Mejes, Dorothy

Ramos, Mariella Jessa

Canete, Mary Rose

Caleon, Zayna

BEED II- A