La Union, Pangasinan push ‘mother tongue’ to save local languages

The La Union provincial government is going all-out in its campaign to preserve and promote its mother tongue.

By next year, the provincial government will fully implement its local language code making Iloko the official language in La Union. The code was embodied in an ordinance that the provincial board approved last year.

Adamor Dagang, provincial information and tourism officer, said Gov. Manuel Ortega has issued a memorandum requiring employees to use the native tongue in their transactions and engagements with the public.

“We are now in the promotional stage. We hope to be in full swing early next year,”

Dagang said.

Residents noted that the use of the local language has made public functions and programs move faster as public speakers did not have to read from their prepared speeches.

Public officials, for example, have been heard speaking entirely in their mother tongue even in a mixed audience of non-Iloko speakers.

The code also applies to schools where teachers and students are encouraged to speak in Iloko in their classrooms.

Radio and television networks operating in La Union are also required to guarantee air time in Iloko while local newspapers are asked to devote a full page for articles written in Iloko.

The media organizations that follow the code are given either incentives in the form of air time purchase or advertising placements or are allowed to participate in the raffle for the publication and dissemination of provincial ordinances and other legal notices.

Pangasinan language

The use of the mother tongue in Pangasinan province got a boost with the launch of the “Panuntunan na

Ortograpiya ed salitan Pangasinan,” a handbook on Pangasinan language orthography.

Alma Ruby Torio, Pangasinan I schools division superintendent, said the handbook would be a big help to teachers handling Kindergarten and Grades 1, 2 and 3 classes.

“This handbook is very important, especially so that one of the features of the K to 12 [basic education education program] is the use of mother tongue-based multilingual

education (MTB-MLE). In the case of my division, we are

using Pangasinan language,” Torio said.

Fr. Immanuel Escano, a commissioner of the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission and member of the validation committee on orthography, said reading and writing in Pangasinan used to be difficult and confusing.

With the handbook, he said, Pangasinan language now has a set of standards on how to write, spell, pronounce and conjugate it.

Pangasinan is one of 13 indigenous languages in the country with at least a million native speakers. The others are Tagalog, Cebuano, Iloko, Hiligaynon, Waray, Kapampangan, Bikol, Albay-Bikol, Maranao, Maguindanao, Kinaray-a and Tausug.

The National Statistics Office’s 2000 Census of Population and Housing said 47.6 percent of the household population in the province were Pangasinan speakers while 44.25 percent spoke Iloko. The rest were either Tagalog (3.79 percent), Bolinao (1.96 percent), or were from other ethnic groups (2.41 percent).

Torio said with the handbook, translation of teaching materials to Pangasinan would now also be standardized.