Masses don’t watch impeachment trial

We’re supposed to be a country that speaks both Filipino and

English, yet many citizens don’t understand the language used in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, so they’ve lost interest.

Ask a man on the street whether he listens to the proceedings on radio or watch TV; chances are he doesn’t.

So what’s the use of having the impeachment trial on radio and TV when people are not listening or watching?

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It’s the fault of the Department of Education that English is not taught in school as a second language.

The medium of instruction in public elementary schools is mostly Filipino, very seldom English.

So pupils who graduate from public schools have a hard time adjusting to English instruction in high school and college.

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Before the war and during the time “baby boomers”—people born after World War II and in the late ’50s—were in school, the medium of instruction was English.

I am a baby boomer and my generation spoke English fluently.

But in the 1960s, the nationalistic fervor took hold on the country and people shunned English in favor of Filipino, the national language.

Newscasts on radio and TV, which were in English, were slowly transformed into Filipino so that today, you can only watch English newscasts on ANC.

I’m not saying that we should set aside the Filipino language.

I’m saying that we are a bilingual country and should be proud of it.

We should not shun the language that made us an educated people and put us on the map as an English-speaking nation.

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There is this joke about a verbal tussle between the defense and prosecution panels in a courtroom.

The accused was on the witness stand.

Prosecutor: On the night of July 25, what did you did?

Defense attorney: Objection, Your Honor, my pañero is misleading my client by using wrong grammar.

Judge: Objection sustained. Use the right grammar, Prosecutor.

Prosecutor: On the night of July 25, what did you done?

Defense attorney: Same objection, Your Honor.

Judge: Darn it! Check your grammar!

Prosecutor: Yes, Your Honor. On the night of July 25, what did you did have done?

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The joke may be funny, but the mangling of the English language happens every day in our schools, government and private offices and courtrooms, where English is used as a medium.

Call centers have a hard time taking in applicants who are college graduates.

Only very few speak English correctly.

And we pride ourselves as an English-speaking country.

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Now that the position of director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is vacant, there is a clamor from the public that it should be filled by a lawyer who’s not a retired cop or military man.

Preferably, the next NBI chief should come from the ranks or from the Department of Justice.

That’s not a difficult request to grant.