Cultural System of Philippines (1)

The context for democracy and redistributive reforms in the Philippines is a function, not only of the country’s political evolution, but of the cultural systems that shape Philippine life. The issues of how people identify themselves, and for what purposes, are complex and not readily reducible to single dimensions such as class, ethnicity, or religion. Multiple, cross-cutting identities—family, ethnic, region, religion, political party, patron-client, class—operate simultaneously, some changing over time. These identities constitute multiple claims on an individual’s loyalty, just as they afford access to a variety of vantage points from which to interpret and respond to a changing economic, political, and social environment. These competing identities are the subject of constant negotiation, and some become more salient at times than others. Moments of economic or political crisis can help select of foreground aspects of individual identities. The very existence of powerful, cross-cutting class and group cleavages in Philippine society makes national reform problematic. The democratic class struggle presupposes that class is the most politically salient identity. Where it is not strong, class-based political parties are unlikely to emerge to pursue fundamental redistributive reform.
The Linguistic Cleavages
Cultural identifications based on regional origin, language, and ethnicity have long worked against development of a national identity and nationwide peasant action in the Philippines. Reflecting the country’s archipelagic land-base, linguistic diversity in the Philippines is extreme, with some 80 languages and dialects in use in the archipelago. No single language is common to all Filipinos. Filipino, a revised form of Tagalog, is the national and most common language and is spoken by some 55 percent of the population. English remains the language of major businesses, the government, and secondary and higher education.
Nationalist sentiment prompted constitutional recognition of Filipino as the national language in 1987. The Constitution further directed the government to initiate the use of Filipino as the medium of official communication and as the language of instruction in the educational system. The University of the Philippines has already taken steps to introduce the use of Filipino in instruction. The use of Filipino as the medium of instruction at the elementary school level remains more complicated. The initial years of public schooling are typically conducted in the regional languages. As many rural children abandon schooling in the course of grades 1-4, they are largely beyond the reach of instruction in the national language and whatever national socialization is attendant thereto. Linguistic diversity is also an impediment to nationwide dissemination of information concerning peasant rights under various government programs, including agrarian reform.
The national print media are overwhelmingly English. Television is somewhat more varied in its linguistic choice; local dramas, variety shows, and news broadcast are in Filipino; imported dramas, of which there are many, and at least one nightly news program per network, are broadcast in English. Radio broadcast are also mixed linguistically, with somewhat greater use of Filipino than is true of television broadcasts.
Linguistic identity remains an important pat of Philippine political life. A pre-martial law (1969) survey found dialect to be a much more significant determinant of voter behavior than party affiliation. Inter-provincial migration, intermarriage, and urbanization are argued to have reduced the importance of linguistic identity among Christian Filipinos, but regional/linguistic distinctions remain a common theme of Philippine political analysis.