Philippines’ Language Planning and Policy

Language/s According to the 1987 Constitution

National: Filipino
Official: Filipino and English
Regional: Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Tagalog, and
Waray

Language planning and policy in the Philippines is handled by Komisyon ng Wikang

Pilipino, which is an agency mandated to develop the Filipino as a modernizing and
intellectualizing language as per Republic Act No. 7104 in 1991. Moreover, it is rasked with the
conservation of the Philippine languages and the compilation of their literatures.

Status Planning
In this level of language planning, the Komisyon ng Wikang Pilipino (KWP) enforces
Filipino as a medium of instruction in ways that it develops Filipino as a language of academic
work. Furthermore in the medium of instruction, the agency is tasked to monitor the government
policies and laws so that they will not be inimical to its own purposes of work.

Ultimately, the status planning in the Philippines, although with much trials and errors or
revisions in the constitution, led the country to its national language which is Filipino and its
official language, namely: Filipino and English as per 1987 Constitution, Sections 6 and 7,
respectively.

Corpus Planning
The KWP, the official agency for language planning in the country, performs its
functions with regards to corpus planning by accomplishing linguistic and sociolinguistic
researches that will aid on the internal structure of language. Moreover, it preserves and
conserves as well as disseminates the other Philippine languages and their respective literatures.

Along the same line, the standardization and cultivation of Filipino dictionaries is also
handled by the agency where it can have an impact in the involvement on changes on the
linguistic code and the creation of grammars. As defined by KWP, “Filipino is the variety of
speech used as a lingua franca in the Philippines, found in urban areas and historically first
emerging in the Manila area;” all the more reason to establish and create a black and whites of
the Filipino language.

Acquisition Planning
The promotion on the inculcation of Filipino is spread and promoted through teaching the
language for six units at the collegiate level that began on 1975. In addition, Department Order
No. 22, Series 1975 states the prescribed content of the syllabus.

Meanwhile, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Order No. 59, Series 1975 has
prescribed nine units of English (the two equalized for symbolic purposes) and six units of
literature (which may be taught in Filipino or English).
 Lastly, the institutionalization of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in school
under the Department of Education (DepEd) Order 74, Series 2009 and celebration of Buwan ng
Wika (National Language Month) is enforced to conservation and for the festivity of the
language that Filipinos are using.

Institutionalization
The current working definition of the Philippines’ national language is found in Sections
6 and 7 of Article XIV of the 1987 Constitution, which was created following the ouster of
Marcos.

Section 6 states: “The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it

shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages.”

Section 7, says: “For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages
of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English.”

The 1987 Constitution’s definition of the national language takes the notion of Filipino
from the 1973 Constitution even further – by explicitly recognizing that the national language is
subject to change through influence from local and foreign languages over time.

The definition also gives due consideration to the role of the other Philippine languages
in shaping the national language. It also replaced “Pilipino” with “Filipino” as an official
language.

Lastly, Section 9 orders the establishment of a national language commission, which will
enhance the language-formation role of regional languages through the representation of various
regions and disciplines in the body. The task of this commission is to undertake, promote, and
coordinate researches for the development, propagation, and preservation of Filipino and other
languages.

Domains
In the school domain, the DepEd Order 74, Series 2009 that institutionalizes the Mother
Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in school and CHED Order No. 59, Series 1975 oversees
and the activity of the official languages.

In the home and religious domains, 1987 Constitution, Article XIV Section 7, says: “For
purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino
and, until otherwise provided by law, English.” This mobilizes and mandates Filipinos to use the
language in their respective homes and faiths.

History of LPP in the Philippines

Given the rich history of the country and controversies regarding its language planning
and policy throughout the century, we will explore the history of language policy and planning in
the Philippines and the impacts it has had on its people, especially the non-Tagalog/Filipino
speaking population.

Spanish Colonization
What was the language policy and planning like during the Spanish colonisation?
According to Rodriguez (2013), the Spanish Crown issued several contradictory laws on
language: missionaries were asked to learn the vernacular but were then required to teach
Spanish. The friars continued to learn the local languages for evangelisation which turned out to
be a success (Gonzalez, 2006). Thus, teaching Spanish teaching remained limited for the elites
and wealthy Filipinos ready to conform to Spanish colonial agendas (Martin, 1999).

American Colonization
American policy allowed for compulsory education for all Filipinos in English but was
hostile to local languages. Although President McKinley ordered the use of English as well as
mother tongue languages in education, the Americans found Philippine languages too many and
too difficult to learn thus creating a monolingual system in English (Gonzalez, 2006).

Independence
In 1936, the Institute of National Language (INL) was founded to study existing
languages and select one of them as the basis of the national language. In 1937, the INL
recommended Tagalog as the basis of the national language because it was found to be widely
spoken and was accepted by Filipinos and it had a large literary tradition. By 1939, it was
officially proclaimed and ordered to be disseminated in schools and by 1940 was taught as a
subject in high schools across the country.

There was resistance to Tagalog, especially among speakers of Cebuano (Baumgartner,

1989). Baumgartner (1989, p.169) summarises the sentiments of other ethnic groups and asks,
“With what right could the language of one ethnic group, even if that ethnic group lived in the
national capital, be imposed on others?” Hau and Tinio (2003), however, point out that this
opposition to Tagalog was not a manifestation of an ethnic conflict but rather reflects battles over
resource allocations parceled out by regions.

60’s and 70’s

Bilingual Education Policy (BEP) was formally introduced, using English for Science
and Mathematics and Filipino for all other subjects taught in school (Lorente, 2013). Gonzalez
(1998) notes that this was a compromise to the demands of both nationalism and
internationalism: English would ensure that Filipinos stay connected to the world while Filipino
would help in the strengthening of the Filipino identity. This had little success, with English still
dominant and Filipinos feared an “English deprived future.”

The 70’s, which was also the time of the dictatorship in the Philippines, saw changes in
the education system, restructured to answer to export-oriented industrialisation (Lorente, 2013). 
With cheap export labour in mind, then President Ferdinand Marcos had a strong support for
English and shifted English education to vocational and technical English training (Tollefson,
1991).
Post-Dictatorship
After the dictatorship, the 1987 Constitution was written. Tagalog was changed
to Pilipino and then Filipino for it to be less regionalistic, or less connected to
the Tagalog region. According to this Constitution, Filipino was to be developed from all local
languages of the Philippines.

According to this new BEP, Filipino and English shall be used as the medium of
instruction while regional languages shall be used as auxiliary media of instruction and as initial
language for literacy. Filipino was mandated to be the language of literacy and scholarly
discourse while English, the “international language” of science and technology. However,
nothing changed and implementation of the policy failed at most levels of education (Bernardo,
2004).

In 1991, the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language) was

established. They have led the celebration of Buwan ng Wika (National Language Month) every
August. It is a regulating body whose job includes developing, preserving, and promoting the
various local Philippine languages. The commission has published dictionaries, manuals, guides,
and collection of literature in Filipino and other Philippine languages.

References:

Castro, A. (2018). Language Planning in the Philippines. Retrieved on November 11, 2020 at
https://www.slideshare.net/AnneCastro10/language-planning-in-the-philippines

Karunungan, R. J. (2016). A History of Philippines’ Official Languages. Retrieved on November

11, 2020 at https://reneekarunungan.com/2019/08/15/a-history-of-the-philippines-
official-languages/

Pelagio, E. C. T. (2019). Philippine Languages and Dialects. Retrieved on November 11, 2020
at https://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/ungegn/docs/Training/Manila/day
%202/03_PELAGIO_Philippine%20Languages%20and%20Dialects_KWF.pdf

Tan, N. (2014). What the PH Constitution Says About the National Language. Retrieved on
November 11, 2020 at https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/national-language-
philippine-constitutions