SPAIN MUST BE BLAMED FOR FILIPINO ETHNIC DIVISION

By Felizar Mortillero

The Spanish friars and authorities did not teach the native Filipinos to speak and write in Spanish for fear that the natives would soon ask for independence from Spain if the native Filipino islanders would be educated. Only the rich Filipinos like Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Antonio Luna, Marcelo del Pilar and other Filipino patriots during their generation were able to know Spanish since they belonged to rich families.;

The decision of the Spanish authorities not to teach the Filipinos of the Iberian language bore good fruits since the Philippines was one of the last colonies together with Puerto Rico and Cuba to secede from Spain not because of a successful revolution by the Filipinos but because of the Spanish-American War where Spain lost to a new colonial power, the United Sates of America. Because of the insistence of Spain not to teach the Filipinos the Castillian tongue which would have united the Filipinos under one language, the Spanish language, the Filipinos continue to be divided even during these days because of ethnic tongue issues.;

Because of the failure of the Spaniards to educate the Filipinos, the Filipinos have developed that so-called "Superiority Complex" over other ethnic groups. The Tagalogs feel superior over their Visayan and Mindanaoan counterparts much more that the Tagalog dialect is widely taught in school and being used widely in the Philippine Archipelago. The Cebuanos also feel superior over their Hiligaynon counterparts and vice versa since they already have developed not just tongue superiority but they already have developed REGIONALISM.

Regionalism is a superiority complex where one ethnic group feel superior over and above other ethnic groups. Regionalism which is happening in the Philippines is like RACISM which happened in America and APARTHIED which happened in South Africa, and which are still happening even during these days in those countries and in other parts of the world.

Had Spain educated the Filipino islanders within her dominance over the Philippines using her language for three hundred thirty three (333) long years, the Philippines would have a deeply rooted uniting language which would have negated the possibility of Regionalism for one and only reason that the Filipino Islanders would have spoken one and the same language, and that is the Iberian tongue called SPANISH.