Can we bring baybayin back?
More to the point, should we?
These were probably some of the questions that came up in the deliberations of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture which recently approved a bill declaring baybayin the country’s national writing system.
Baybayin is an ancient pre-colonial script that dates back to the 13th century CE (it could be older). Spanish friars in the 1600s documented its use among the Tagalogs for legal proceedings, petitions, land deeds, and the like. However, baybayin did not survive into modern times because the colonizers imposed the use of the Western alphabet.
House Bill 1022, the proposed “National Writing System Act,” promotes greater awareness and appreciation of baybayin. Filed by Rep Leopoldo Bataoil (Pangasinan), the bill has the support of the Department of Education, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the advocacy group Baybayin, Buhayin.
Should it pass into law, many expensive changes will need to be made. Baybayin must be on the labels of locally produced processed foods; street signs and signs for public facilities such as hospitals and police stations; and the names of newspapers and magazines, among other materials.
Many netizens don’t think this is a good idea, mostly because baybayin has been dead for hundreds of years. While it has been regaining popularity in recent times, it is used mostly for trendy tattoos and cultural and artistic projects. What’s hindering its wider acceptance is that few Filipinos know how to write and read it.
While some might argue that reviving it under this bill, by force, as it were, will help baybayin proliferate, instruction in its use will still be required. Are we going to teach it to children in schools? Where is the budget for the signages, letterheads, and all the other materials? What about logistics? Otherwise the baybayin signages and all will just be a pretty aesthetic with no practical purpose.
Baybayin itself is not truly indigenous. It is derived from the Brahmic scripts of India. Also related to these are other Philippine scripts including the Mindoro Hanuno-o, Mangyan Buhid and Surat Mangyan, Pampanga Kulitan, Ilokano Kurditan, Palawan Tagbanwa, and Visayan Badlit. Old Kawi script, which was used on the Laguna Copperplate inscription (900 CE), is Javanese and thus also Brahmic in influence. Tagalog itself is descended from an old form of Sanskrit.
Some netizens point out that baybayin is a Tagalog script. Why resurrect that and not a script that is non-Tagalog? Is this Imperial Manila rearing its head again?
Bringing baybayin back is the ultimate throwback. But it will require a great outlay of effort and money—for what? An artificially imposed symbol of Filipino pride? It’s hard enough to implement various other laws and rules related to Philippine culture in government, let alone in the private sector.
Here are a couple of examples. During the previous administration, the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino sent guidelines to government agencies requiring Filipino translations alongside English in official forms, letterheads, signages, and the like. I know of at least one government agency that did not comply, simply because they were swamped with their regular work.
Likewise, there was also a memorandum-circular or something of that nature from the Palace that sought to promote the use of local textiles by encouraging government employees to use materials such as piña, jusi, and the like in their uniforms, or wear Filipiniana once a week. Nothing substantial came of that either, as far as I know.
I believe that Filipino culture has an important role in the development of our society. As a journalist and writer, I am in the frontline of the struggle for Filipinization and indigenization to move away from our colonial past. On a personal level, I am interested in baybayin and would like to learn more about it.
But reviving baybayin on this scale, in this fashion, seems to have no practical purpose. We would be prouder of a country that does not have its own script but that hews to the rule of law and protects human rights while developing economically in a way that benefits the many, not the few.