Image by Lloyd Zapanta via Esquire
Despite being unused for several centuries because of colonization, it has become a trend to revive Baybayin—one of the many writing systems used in the pre-colonial Philippines—by incorporating it as a stylistic motif or Filipinizing element in various slogans, documents, and posters. The hope of this movement is to reconnect with our pre-colonial Filipino culture and serve as a decolonizing effort.
Before knowing how something is brought back to life, we must understand how the writing system died in the first place and if it is worth bringing back. There are historians such as Otley Beyer who stated that the Spanish people who colonized the Philippines are those who wanted the Filipinos to reject whatever is not Christian. Quoting him, Aliosha Bielenberg writes that “the fanatic zeal of the Spaniards for the Christian faith and corresponding hatred for all other forms of belief led them to regard the native writings and art as works of the Devil – to be destroyed wherever found.” Furthermore, he mentions that the death of Baybayin can also be attributed to the Spanish destruction of the records written in the writing system. However, we should take into consideration the time period when Otley Beyer wrote his conclusion. He said these statements during the American colonization period, making it possible he wrote these statements to show how the American colonizers were the lesser evil when compared to the Spanish colonizers.
Modern experts such as Hector Santos and Paul Morrow reject Beyer’s conclusion. Santos states that one of the real reasons why Baybayin died was because there were words in Spanish literature that could not be written using Baybayin, therefore making the old writing system obsolete. Another reason was traditional Filipino activities were not done as frequently as before. Based on the given facts, we can deduce that the death of Baybayin was because foreign literature and its benefits were more important than keeping this writing system alive.
Laguna Copperplate (905 A.D). A record of the payment of debt in gold from a noble to a chief
Those who are most involved with this movement of reviving Baybayin have mainly been millennials and young professionals. They are the ones who are trying to influence others through their artwork and active belief that we need to have a strong foundation of what a Filipino is, which may be achieved through an attempt to abolish foreign influences on Filipino culture. The function of this Baybayin revivalist movement acts as a way to reconnect with a perceived pre-colonial past. National Artist for Literature and incumbent National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Commissioner, Virgilio Almario, says that “If you have no memory of your past, it is easier to make you a slave, especially if the colonizer replaces your memory with a new memory, through their education and the idea that they are superior.”
Some adherents of the Baybayin movement advocate for the importance of reclaiming Filipino history, while there are others who place emphasis on the aesthetic appeal of the writing system. The goal of this movement, therefore, differs from one group to another. Some citizens, like Minifred Gavino, a teacher of Baybayin, say that their goal in teaching Baybayin is to simply reconnect with the identity and culture that Baybayin represents. However, some people believe that Baybayin should be revived in order to become the new form of writing to replace the current alphabet. The Philippine government currently has the proposed (the law has not yet been enacted) National Writing system act (House Bill 1022) which states that Baybayin could be the official writing system of the Philippines. However, Baybayin is only one among many writing systems that were used in the pre-colonial period. People have become divided on the adoption of Baybayin if revived, and the socio-cultural implications of making a historically regional writing system a national one.
Those who would want to revive Baybayin in order for us to use it on a daily basis have the main argument that it reconnects us with our “pure Filipino roots,” since the identity of the language or the writing system we use greatly affects how we see ourselves. Their argument is that if we use Baybayin as our new writing system, people would associate themselves with the identity of Baybayin and the supposedly pure Filipino culture it represents. In addition, although adjusting the language for official use may seem a big problem, transferring to this new writing system would be of relative ease as it is possible for Baybayin script to be read and understood by computers with a 94% accuracy rate.
Despite these relatively good motives, there are still people who oppose the idea of having Baybayin. This is because Baybayin is being prioritized as the main writing system even though it is not the only writing system. Michael Pangilinan, who is a teacher of the Pampanga Kulitan script, states that he feels as if the Philippines is made only for the Tagalog and does not cater to any of the other groups of people outside of the Tagalog. If the goal of Baybayin is to reconnect to the pure Filipino culture, it should cater to all Filipinos and not just one specific group of Filipinos. Prioritizing Baybayin and having only Baybayin could possibly further erase the identities of those people who aren’t Tagalog. Another reason why people oppose the idea of reviving Baybayin is because of practicality. It is a writing system that hasn’t been used in centuries and to reteach an entire country’s population while still having quality teachers would take resources that would be better allocated to other fields of concern.
Even though Baybayin died because of the reasons discussed, people would still want to get a glimpse of a Filipino culture "untainted" by the various foreign influences that have colonized us. Some Filipinos today are still interested in making Baybayin the current writing system; however, a number of Filipinos believe that this is a Tagalog-centric approach which is not beneficial in giving importance to other parts of the Philippines.
If ever the government would plan on reviving pre-colonial culture, it is important to give significance to the Philippines as a whole and not just the Tagalog group. Being a Filipino means accepting the fact that not all of us are of the same upbringing, but rather an esoteric collection of backgrounds. Each Filipino group should be given equal importance, otherwise, we are erasing another culture and invalidating their existence. The goals of this movement differ with each member as some would want to just reconnect with the culture while others would want to use Baybayin as the new writing system of the Philippines. With this, we must consider the multifaceted nature of Filipino culture and not just that of one specific group. By doing so, we can reassess how to strengthen our Filipino identity and our connection to our history in a culturally sensitive way.
About the author
Ryan Pagcatipunan is a sophomore from BS ECE (Electronics Communication Engineering), and is someone who loves to fiddle with computers and electronics, though that doesn’t stop him from being into humanities and the arts as well! He thinks that these are as important (if not more important) than the sciences, since, for him, it is through the humanities and arts do we truly learn how to live.
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