5 June 2021, Calgary – What is the Philippines’ ancient script or syllabary?
This question was answered during the fourth episode of the Sining Filipinas International Online Lecture Series on 31 May 2021 where Filipino Canadians learned the Philippines’ “baybayin.”
“Baybayin” was ably discussed by the resource speaker, Dr. Edwin V. Antonio, Head of the National Committee on Northern Cultural Communities of the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA), a major institutional partner of the Sining Filipinas.
The online lecture, co-sponsored by the Philippine Consulate General in Calgary, was streamed on the Facebook page of the Calgary-based Binhi ng Lahi Philippine Folk Dance Troupe, the event’s main organizer.
Dr. Antonio explained that the “baybayin,” the Tagalog script, was used as the writing system all over the Philippines during the precolonial times until at least the 17th century when the Philippines was a colony of Spain. When the Filipinos’ ancestors opted to use the Roman and Latin alphabets for certain reasons, the “baybayin” became half-buried in the memory of the older Filipinos, only to be seen later in some artifacts of stone and copper, and some potsherds.
Interestingly, a few ethnolinguistic groups, such the Hanunuo and Buhid Mangyans of Mindoro, and the Tagbanwa and Pala’wan of Palawan, continued to use their native scripts to date. As Dr. Antonio cited, the native scripts of these people were formally inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 1999.
Dr. Antonio shared that the use of Philippine native scripts has hyped up at least in the past few decades. It led to the enactment of the Baybayin Act of 2013, which calls for the use of the Philippine native writing systems in the logos of government agencies, departments, and office.
Now, “baybayin” scripts can be seen in the current logos of some government cultural institutions, such as the NCCA, Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Library, National Archives, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, among others. The “baybayin” writings were also incorporated in the New Generation Series of Philippine banknotes released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the Philippine passport.
An interesting highlight of the online lecture was when Dr. Antonio showed the viewers how “baybayin” is written and read, explaining the ancient writing system’s vowels and consonants.
Philippine Consul General Zaldy Patron described this latest episode of Sining Filipinas as truly educational and revealing of the Filipinos’ ancient writing system. He encouraged the younger generation of Filipinos to know, learn and practice “baybayin” to enrich their Filipino heritage and culture. END.