Rizal, in his patriotic efforts to foster Philippine nationalism, put in the mouth of Simon, addressing Basilio, the following words: “Spanish will never be the language generally spoken in the country; the people will never speak it. Each people has its own way of thinking. You are trying hard to divest yourselves of your own personality as a people; you forget that as long as a people preserves its language, it retains a token of its liberty, just as a man retains his freedom so long as he preserves his own independence of thought. A language expresses the ideas and ideals of a people.”
Hence, in deciding to adopt a national language culled from the different languages spoken in the Philippines and mainly from the Tagalog which was not only the native tongue of Rizal but also is the most developed of all the existing languages in our country, we are merely carrying into realization one of the ideals of our national hero as a means of consolidating and invigorating our national unity.
For over three hundred years that Spain exercised sovereignty over the Philippines, Spanish was the official language; nevertheless, when the United States took possession and control of these Islands, Spanish had not become the common language of our people. With the establishment of the American régime, English became the official language of our country; but despite the fact that English has been taught in all our public schools for more than a generation, it has not become the language of our people. Today there is not one language that is spoken and understood by all the Filipinos, nor even by a majority of them, which simply proves that while the teaching of a foreign language may be imposed upon a people, it can never replace the native tongue as a medium of national expression among the common masses. This is because, as Rizal asserted, the national thought takes its roots in a common language which developes and grows with the progress of the nation. We may borrow for a time the language of other peoples, but we cannot truly possess a national language except through the adoption, development and use of one of our own.
It is unnecessary for me to demonstrate how essential it is for our people to have one language that can be used by all in their daily intercourse. Such language cannot be either English or Spanish, except perhaps, if ever, only after many generations and at a very great cost. We cannot wait that long. We must as soon as possible be able to deal with one another directly using the same language. We need its power more completely to weld us into one strong nation. It will give inspiration and warmth to our popular movements and will accord to our nationality a new meaning to which we have never learned to give full and adequate expression. As President of the Philippines, many times I have felt the humiliation of having to address the people through an interpreter in those provinces of the Islands where either Ilocano, Visayan, Pampango or Bicol is the language used.
The fact that we are going to have our national language does not mean that we are to abandon in our schools the study or the use of the Spanish language, much less English which, under our Constitution, is the basis of primary instruction. Spanish will preserve for us our Latin culture and will be our point of contact with our former metropolis as well as with Latin America; English, the great language of democracy, will bind us forever to the people of the United States and place within our reach the wealth of knowledge treasured in this language.
There was a time when it seemed that it would be impossible for the Filipinos to agree that one of the native languages be chosen as the national language, but at last we have all realized that if we are willing to accept a foreign language as the official language of the Philippines, with more reason we should accept one of our own languages as the national language of our common country. Without giving undue importance to the role that a common language plays in the life of a people, we may point to the fact that in the Orient the one nation which has made the greatest progress and which has won a high place in the family of nations, is the only nation that has one common language—Japan. And every other nation which has attained the highest state of culture, solidarity and power, both on the American continent and in Europe, and even in Africa, is a nation that possesses a common national language.
Today, with the adoption of Tagalog as the basis for the national language of the Philippines, we have accomplished one of the most cherished dreams of Rizal.
In no better way could we have honored his sacred memory on this anniversary of his immolation to the cause of our free nationhood.
I wish you all a Happy New Year.