‘No consensus to make Filipino a core course’

TAGAYTAY CITY — Several multilingual and language groups demanded that other Philippine languages, and not just Filipino, be taught in college, should the high court favor petitions to bring back Filipino and Panitikan (Philippine Literature) as core courses.

Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Chair Prospero de Vera III said groups, particularly from the Visayas and Mindanao, felt that languages, such as Cebuano, Ilocano or Bicolano, and “not necessarily Filipino,” as Tagalog was largely spoken in Metro Manila and Luzon, should be taught in universities and colleges.

Groups like the Multilingual Society and another from the Ilocos region had written the commission, as CHEd began its review of the K-12 (high school and senior high) curriculum and the general education (GE) subjects in college.

A lot of opposition

“It’s not even a consensus of the entire Philippines that we teach Filipino in GE. There are a lot of groups opposing the teaching of Filipino [and instead] said that it should be all the languages of the country. That is on record,” de Vera said.

De Vera said groups were not “unanimous” on pushing particularly Filipino back into the college curriculum, as debates were triggered by the recent Supreme Court ruling that excluded Filipino and Panitikan as core or required subjects.

University professors and groups like Tanggol Wika said they would challenge the court’s decision by filing a motion for reconsideration this week.