FROM THE FRINGES: Filipino and the Philippine Journalist

FROM THE FRINGES: Filipino and the Philippine Journalist

By Jerome Aning | August 14, 2026

August is Buwan ng Wika or National Language Month, which aims to celebrate and promote Filipino, the country’s national language. Originally, the celebration, made official by President Sergio Osmeña in 1946, lasted for a week, called the Linggo ng Wika, from Mar. 27 up to Apr. 2, the birth anniversary of Francisco Balagtas, the “Prince of Tagalog Poets”. In 1954, President Ramon Magsaysay moved the celebration to Aug. 13 to 19, the end date being the birth anniversary of President Manuel L. Quezon, the “Father of the National Language”. In a 1987 proclamation, President Corazon Aquino affirmed the week-long observance but 10 years later, President Fidel Ramos, in another proclamation, expanded the celebration for the whole month of August, starting in 1998.

For this year, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF, Commission on the Filipino Language), selected the theme, “Wikang Filipino at AI: Kasangkapan sa Pananaliksik at Tulay sa Yaman ng Impormasyon (Filipino Language and AI: Tools for Research and Bridges to Rich Information).” The commission, in a statement during the celebration’s press launch last Jul. 23, said the theme “recognizes the wide reach of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for research, while stressing the need for its critical, responsible, and ethical use. This includes the verification of AI-generated information, respecting the rights of authors and other sources of knowledge, and the repercussions of technology use.”

I discovered only recently that the commission maintains an online KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, based on the dictionary printed way back in 1989. I think the online dictionary is an effective way to promote Filipino standardization, not just in spelling but also word usage. It could be enhanced using AI to help students, employees and other writers not only in corrections and vocabulary expansion but also in translation and research. Maybe an app could be developed eventually to do all these things.

In the Philippines, mediamen, particularly those based in Metro Manila, are expected to possess skills in communicating in Filipino and English, the country’s two official languages. Both languages are used in news-gathering—from interviews and press conferences to official documents and press statements. In my previous job as a reporter for an English language national broadsheet newspaper, I frequently use Filipino in communicating with news sources (except foreigners, of course) so much so that I wondered whether I would be adept in writing in Filipino for a local tabloid or airing a report in Filipino for a radio or television news program. In news writing, translating a Filipino quote into English is quite a challenge, as the reporter has to choose between a literal translation or a “normal” conversational one that may include English idioms. Nowadays, however, there are apps using AI that transcribe not only an interview or an entire press conference but also translate Filipino content to English and vice versa. To get more viewers, many news commentators speaking in English on their vlogs use AI to provide Filipino subtitles or dubs.

A curious newsman from the United Kingdom once asked me what’s the difference between Filipino and Tagalog and whether or Philippine journalists make distinctions between the two languages. I recalled some colleagues working for media entities broadcasting or publishing in Filipino telling me that they play it by the ear, so to speak, when selecting the “right Filipino word” for a news broadcast or article. For example, in a police story, should one use “kriminal” instead of “salarin”, “tinutugis” instead of “hinahanting” or “kinauukulan” instead of “otoridad”? Despite Filipino being based on Tagalog (which some linguists narrow down to the Tagalog “dialect” used in Metro Manila), journalists prefer to use words that are easily understood by the most number of listeners or readers. We also learn to distinguish, at least informally, words we think are “more Filipino” and those we consider as “more Tagalog”. In the aforementioned example, using “kriminal” is better as it is derived from the English and Spanish word “criminal” and easily understood. The word “salarin”, which comes from the Tagalog word “sala” or offense, would surely be less understood in Northern Luzon or Mindanao where there are different words for “sala”. In the same way, the two other words, “hinahanting” and “otoridad”, being derived from “being hunted” and “authorities”, are more understood nationwide compared to “tinutugis” and “kinauukulan”. I image an English-Filipino dictionary, where, for the word “dictionary”, the first listed Filipino meaning will be “diksyonaryo” rather than “talatinigan.” The primary synonyms for “artificial” would be “artipisyal”, “sintetiko” or, okay, even “pakunwari”, rather than “di-tunay” or “balat-bunga”. I think older or less used Tagalog equivalents should also be eliminated from English-Filipino dictionaries, like, for example, the Filipino word for window should only be “bintana” and no longer include the other Tagalog word “durungawan.”

The KWF, under Republic Act No.7104 or the “Commission on the Filipino Language Act”, is tasked to “undertake or contract research and other studies to promote the evolution, development, enrichment and eventual standardization of Filipino and other Philippine languages.” This task includes “the collation of works for possible incorporation into a multi-lingual dictionary of words, phrases, idioms, quotations, sayings and other expressions, including words and phrases from other languages now commonly used or included in the lingua franca.”

Nearly 90 years after Quezon designated Tagalog as the basis of the national language, the standardization of Filipino remains a work in progress. Some language experts have complained that despite sounding artificial, Filipino is virtually the same as Tagalog, while a few alleged that since the two are mutually intelligible, the real intent is to make Tagalog, masquerading as Filipino, the dominant language in the country, to the detriment of the other Philippine languages. However, the efforts to propagate, enrich and standardize Filipino have led to its interesting evolution of its lexicon, including but not limited to spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, and this I think makes the Tagalog domination conspiracy theory untenable.

For example, loan words from other Philippine languages have made (and are continuing to make) it to Filipino. Some that came to mind while writing this column are the words “dugyot” and “ukay-ukay” which came from Ilocano and Bisaya.  Filipino is diverging from Tagalog, slowly but surely and in little things. On streets in Manila and Pasay City, I see written Filipino advertisements inviting prepaid phone subscribers to “Load na dito”, which should be “Load na rito” in strict Tagalog. In high school, I once encountered a Filipino dictionary listing geometric terms such as “trianggulo” and “parisukat” that can be easily understood nationwide. But I wondered if the words for the other polygons, like “limsiha” and “walsiha” for pentagon and octagon, respectively, would be acceptable. In college, our Filipino teacher told us that it’s okay to use an English word that has no Filipino (or Tagalog) equivalent, or to prefer using the English word if the Tagalog equivalent would not be easily understood by everyone. I earlier mentioned “bintana” and “durungawan”, the first surely understood wherever one goes in the Philippines, the second understood only in Tagalog-speaking areas. As a history buff, I prefer the using term “Cold War” when speaking in Filipino instead of “Digmaang Malamig” that others use on social media. Then as now, we continue resort to “Filipinizing” an English word using the old rule “kung anong bigkas ay syang baybay (spelled as pronounced)”. I was recently pleased to read a historical essay in Filipino that used the word “bakgrawnd” instead of “background”, or the Tagalog equivalent “sanligan” which I last heard being used in high school.

In their proclamations, Mrs. Aquino and Mr. Ramos said having Filipino as a universal native language symbolizes our national unity and identity, and serves as an essential tool for communication and understanding, leading to national development. Orge Castellano, a Venezuelan-born Basque writer and journalist, wrote: “Languages, just like people, are worlds within themselves. They have the incredible ability to provide us with a clearer, more profound and detailed perspective of a culture and its views on life, nature and death.” One cannot truly say he or she is “proud to be a Filipino” if he or she is not also a good Filipino speaker. All Filipino speakers, not just the KFW, have a mission to ensure the survival of the Filipino language so that it may be accepted and recognized globally, not just in the Philippines.

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