DAMASO, GIEROME MIKO S.

GEC 002

BTLED-HE 1A

ELABORATE 7
ACTIVITY 4: Additional Learning from Articles

DIRECTIONS: Conduct a research on the topic randomly assigned to you. Write an essay of at least ten
(10) sentences what you have learned about the assigned topic below. Be sure to make use of in-text
citations and an APA format citation of the websites you visited after your essay.

“THE MALOLOS CONSTITUTION”

The Malolos Constitution’s deviation from the Biak-na-Bato Constitution on promulgating

Tagalog as the national language can be seen as its attempt to possibly come up with a single, unifying
language for the entire nation. However, the constitution having chosen Spanish as the language “for
public authority and judicial affairs” says something about how our government officials of that time
view the importance of language policy-making in the building of a nation. As Flores (2013, p. 5) once
again puts it, governmentality should nor be a top-down process but rather, it should be something that
is aligned with what happens on the masses and public institutions. The reason why Spanish was chosen
to be the official language of the first Philippine republic can be rooted to education. Since most of those
who drafted the constitution were either ilustrados or from elite families, they were able to learn
Spanish to the point of fluency and use it in academic and intellectual discourse, paving the way for it to
be used as a language of the government. Unlike the Biak-na-Bato Constitution, the Malolos
Constitution was able to do away with the Tagalog-centric language policy. However, it has failed to
implement policies that would be able to recognize linguistic diversity and empower all other Philippine
languages.

For a nation that was still on its way to standing up on its own, perhaps they did not see the
need yet for coming up with language policies that would strengthen Philippine education and
eventually, build the Filipino “nation”. At present, the Philippines is using Filipino and English as its
official languages, reflective of what happens in the schools and universities of using the said languages
as media of instruction. However, just like how Spanish was only limited to a small and elitist group of
people, the number of people which has access to education is relatively compared to the country’s
total population. Only a few can have the opportunity to learn the two languages to the level of higher
order thinking. For history not to repeat itself, certain measures in language plocy-making, planning =,
and implementation has to be done. While there has been recent actions to legitimize local languages.
the prevailing view still sees languages other than English and Filipino as less legitimate in the national
sphere. Many proponents of marginalized languages have seen this as a positive step, but there remains
more tobe done. Policy makers should consider programs and laws that would empower all
ethnoliguistic groups while continuing to teach Filipino and English. By doing this, students would have
their home languages elevated to a coequal level and also become proficient in the national and official
languages. Then, marginalized segments of the Philippines, using their languages, could be fully
participatory members of the society.
 In spite of the circumstances which then existed, when it seemed as if nothing could stand,
when everything was tottering on its foundations, when the very secular institutions and all that most
respected the past was threatened with death and destruction, it was yet possible to frame with
serenity and rectitude a constitution which was logical, rigid. formal, alone in its class, a beautiful and
imperishable document which constitutes, according to the Message of Aguinaldo, ' the most glorious
token of the noble aspirations of the Philippine Revolution and an irrefutable proof before the civilized
world of the culture and capacity of the Filipino people for self-government ", a constitution which
established-one is forced to admit-in spite of its being provisional, the first democratic republic in the
Orient, for even the Japanese constitution of the year 1889 cannot be compared favorably with the
provisional Constitution of Malolos.

References:

Doroja, D. M. A. Lessons Learned From The Philippine Language Policy of The Malolos Constitution.

Malcolm, G. A. (1921). The Malolos Constitution. Political Science Quarterly, 36(1), 91–103.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2142663

ESSAY:

As I have read the Malolos Constitution, I see a perspective in which we can distinguish the
Philippines as a developing nation in terms of rules and obligations. Through this, I learned that the
Malolos Constitution was the start of a stable, constitutional government when several and other Asian
countries were surrendering to military authoritarianism or communist rebellion. Moreover, the Malolos
Constitution also made the country's language like Filipino and English known. During that trying times,
the laws was very significant to be implemented to control the government movements towards people
and people to the government actions. This institution was built for the sovereignty that our country
needs in order to promote peace and equality despite of the Spanish colonization that happened before.
The society is one of the prior things that needs innovation and development, Basically the 1899 Malolos
Constitution is the major foundation to give what the people of the country deserves. Being
characterized as the first democratic republic in the orient, knowing the significance of this institution
can contribute to the patriotism and the nationalism built to us Filipinos. In conclusion, the 1899
Malolos Constitution gives us the provision to promote equitable environment that transferred to us
until present. Just the first constitution, we must unite together to build a nation with dignified society
and love towards people. Loving God, throughout rules and determination to create a safe and unified
independence.