LANGUAGE DEFINING OUR IDENTITY

I would like to write in Filipino but then my audience would be limited to those speaking it. However, I had my Pilipino-English Feminist Primer translated into Spanish because in order to reach out to women in Latin America. But later on, I had thought, they could be more advanced than us in terms of understanding feminism. They have had so many female presidents already Brazil, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, (Isabel Peron was the first woman president in Latin America), according to a BBC report. It would be a good idea to research on how they influenced the developments of their countries as women presidents. 

Then, while perusing a magazine from India, I discovered that they are still using their language Hindi, side by side with English officially. But look at our midst, we are sunk in using English. Here is a list of them and my desired Pilipino equivalent:

1. National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council -- NDRRMC. (KONSEHO IWAS SAKUNA) How many syllables do you have there -- 16!!!!. Whereas if they use theTagalog term, that is only 8 syllables and KONISA for its acronym but actually, there is no need for an acronym anymore since the full name is easy to utter.

2. Department of Environment and Natural Resources- DENR (Kagawaran ng Likas Yaman) DENR has 15 whereas the Tagalog term 9 syllables. 

3. Department of Social Welfare and Development -- DSWD (Kagawaran ng Pagkalinga)
13 syllables for DSWD and 9 for the Tagalog term. 

4. Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development - PCARRD  -- 27 SYLLABLES!!! (SALIKSIK YAMANG KALIKASAN - 9 syl only)

5. DEPARTMENT OF BUDGET AND MANAGEMENT - DBM Kagawaran ng Badyet
(It is understood that when you take care of the Budget, then that would include management, not just the figures that you spend, isn't it?)

I could come up with a longer list Folks. I will continue this next time. This is just to emphasize that the Linggo ng Wika celebration is no celebration at all so long as our officials have a hard time deciding whether to be bilingual or not in its transactions. Should they accept bilingualism, you can expect a further leap in our children's intelligence.