THE PHILIPPINES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 1 February 1943, Page 3

THE PHILIPPINES

AMERICA’S ACHIEVEMENTS FUTURE OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION It has been suggested by a certain school of “prophets” that the Philippines will never revert to the original U.S. plan embodying the Tydings-Mc-Duflie Act, by which they were to set up their own Republic in 1946, says a writer in the Melbourne “Age.” The Americans will have none of this. They regard their work in the Philippines as an administrative effort of a very high standard, and are extremely proud of the good will of the people as a permanent and indelible fact. To the American mind the development of the Philippines during the 44 years of United States control occupies a proud place as an outstanding achievement, if an imperfect model in securing the social and economic welfare of the native race and writing a page of progress in the territory. The place of Sir William McGregor and Sir Hubert Murray as outstanding administrators in Australian esteem is paralleled in American respect by that of Sir Douglas MacArthur and his pi'edecessors in United States administration of the Philippines since Admiral Dewey took control in 1898.

In the shadow of the monument to Legazpi on the outskirts of Manila now extends—or did before Japanese occupation—a golf course where golfers drove from the first tee over ground that once heard the whistle of larger and somewhat more menacing balls. That was in 1571, and it is not generally known perhaps that even then Filipino forts mounted their own home-made cannon and made their own powder. Even before Magellan the natives of the Philippines made their own gunpowder, and an actual civilisation was found on islands never heard of by Europe as far back as 1520. Dr Beyer, head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of the Philippines just prior to the Japanese occupation, said: “We have found 2000 words of Filipino or Malayan origin in the Century Dictionary; many are place names, of course, but others are well known in English. ‘Taffy,’ for example, is a Tagalog word, and ‘humbug’ comes from ‘hambug,’ which means n Tagalog exactly what it does in English. Into this native writing the Jesuits translated the Apostles’ Creed and other sacred texts; you can see some in the Library of Congress at Washington.” Not only were many people literate before the advent of the Spaniards and Americans, but they enjoyed a culture comparable to that of civilised Siam (now Thailand), India and other Eastern lands. Witnesses to this are historians who wrote soon after Magellan “discovered” the islands. ENRICHING THE LANGUAGE The future place of English in the Philippines is quite assured. It has secured a hold not only in business, but also in education and in the homes of the more enlightened families. Dr Gonzales, the late president of the University, predicts:—“With the separation of the Philippines from the United States there will naturally be fewer Americans with whom our people can come into contact. Also, because any country tends to develop its own language, it is to be expected that the English spoken in the Philippines will tend to differ ultimately from the original English, or as it is spoken by the Americans who first brought it to the islands, but it will be sufficiently close.”

Such jargons as pidgin and the beche de mer of the Melanesians grew up as necessities for communicating with the white man. The teaching of English has removed any such necessity in the case of the Filipino. His borrowings have had a different motivation, namely, the enriching of his own language. The spontaneity and completeness of his acceptance is shown by the fact that he indicates tenses, model coloration and grammatical relations by combining English words or phrases with his own affixes.

The Filipino people are in four distinct groups, all of mainly Malayan origin. The Christian Filipinos, who compri i the greatest bulk of the population, numbering some ten millions, and who live mostly in Luzon, Mindoro and the Visayas; the Mohametan Moros, of Mindanao and Sulu; the Negritos or mountain people, who are spread on the high uplands all over the archipelago, and present a distinct anthropological problem, for they are pygmies of a negroid type, whose origin is the subject of wide discussion; the lgorot types, who live in the high mountains of Luzon, and who were until about 30 years ago headhunters and the followers of many strange cults and fetishes. To the present day they eat dogs, and in the mountain capital of Luzon, Baguio, visitors may see the native dog market and its flea-bitten stock in trade.

It is in these high mountains that the gold mines of Luzon were being operated at the time of the Japanese invasion. The miners are Igorots, whose forefathers knew these fields of old, and exploited them by primitive means. To-day the men who work in the pits are as modern as the plant, with their helmets, lamps and kneehigh boots.

Gold valued at £10,000,000 was coming out of the hills of Luzon each year, and was being shipped to the United States. The mines are great modern plants, with elevators, overhead conveyors and huge vats in which the ore is crushed and cleansed with chemicals.

Fuel, next after food, is the Igorot’s most serious problem. The mountains that surround Sagada are bare except for a very few zealously cared for forests, from which only the dead branches may be gathered and a few new plantings. lgorot never planted trees until quite recently. The Episcopal mission, set him the example in this matter; it began planting its reserve of about a hundred barren acres in 1905, and now has an excellent forest, from which it allows him to gather the dead limbs. SPIRITED ACTORS Filipinos of the younger generation are passionately fond of acting in farces, comedies and burlesques, and fall easily into the spirit of these despite the fact that the types and settings are drawn from a foreign culture, with American furniture, hats, boots, and even American pipes. But those who guard the performances, in and and out of the towns, prefer their traditional arms and garments—with, however, the addition of a shirt on which to wear a badge of authority, lgorot youths are considered to be among the best built physically of all Filipinos.

During the period immediately after the American occupation the Igorots had some reason to resent Americans. Government buildings were being built in Bontoc, soon to be the provincial capital; mission buildings were going up, roads were being resurveyed to an even grade and widened; bridges were being built. Materials for these constructions as well as consumers’ goods, books and furniture for a goodly number of American officials and Filipino clerks and soldiers all had to be carried in by Igorots. They were paid,

they were not allowed to decline the pay, and they were often fearfully overworked. But this was soon remedied, and after a somewhat chequered beginning America settled down to a fine job of colonisation, and the problems of culturation under the United States flag had been met in a manner that has provided more than a little ground for pride and satisfaction. THE TRADITIONAL ELITE In contrast to the Igorots, the Christian Filipinos are placid and docile for the most part, and very amenable to education. Little children may be seen crying because they cannot go to the schools, which though sadly overworked, are unable to accommodate all the would-be students. When the Japanese invasion took place education was progressing apace. Throughout the period |bf American administration hundreds of school teachers, both male and female, imbued with the spirit of service and missionary work in education, came voluntarily to instruct the Filipinos into the American’s ADD PHILIPPINES

ways of thought and learning, and successfully met and conquered the many hardships and prejudices which beset their early path. As a result instruction was put on an efficient basis, and the percentage of literacy is higher than that in many other countries.

Dr R. F. Barton, the biologist, said in 1940:—“The Government school teacher, a relatively new figure in the village scene in nearly all areas, is becoming an especially powerful influence for change. There is a more sophisticated attitude among those most in touch with things alien, usually the aristocracy on the one hand and the young people on the other, and this presages a weakening of the rather naive combinations of western and indigenous ideas and beliefs that hold sway. Young people and those counted of lower status are questioning the right of the traditional elite to survive indefinitely. Individualism creeps in to modify the older co-operative arrangements; another period of cultural flux and reorganisation seems under way.”