Snap Blog #1 : The Language of Law in the Philippines

Since the court's creation, the english language had been used in court proceedings. But even though english had been used as a medium of communication in terms of law for a long time in the Philippines, there were also some who would prefer to use Filipino in court rather than the universal language, which is english. In fact, for the first time in Philippine judicial history, some of the regional trial courts in Bulacan said that they will use Filipino to promote the national language.

A law practitioner, Zigfred Diaz, agrees that the Filipino language should be used as the language of law in the Philippines. He believes that one of the things that slows our court processes down is the language barrier. He points out that this problem has several effects. First, court proceedings are delayed because what is being said to the witnesses to the case has to be translated from english to the local dialect and vice versa since only english is being used by the courts. And secondly, the parties involved in the case who do not know how to speak english do not understand what is being ligitated. Though the use of the Filipino language would help solve these problems, a lot of complications regarding the processes of law would arise.

Using Filipino in courts in the tagalog-speaking areas of the country might improve the court processes. But for some parts of the country, it might become a bane instead of a boon. The reason for such is that in the Visayas and Mindanao areas where "Visayan" dialect is used, using Filipino would pretty much end up just like when english is used since the local population is not very well-versed in speaking tagalog. And if ever Filipino will be used as the language of law in the Philippines, the 1987 constitution would need a major overhaul. I'd rather hire an interpreter during every trial or hearing than to fiddle with our constitution. Besides, speaking a different language other thatn our native language doesn't make us less of a Filipino. Moreover, as the saying goes, "a person who studies another language doubles his opportunities in life."


*My article regarding our topic in Eng. SP 03-03-09*