A Brief History of Mass Communications in the Philippines

By

John Duesenberry

Introduction to Mass Communication Fall Semester, TCMN 151

Professor Dee Gross

December 5, 2011

John Duesenberry

Professor Dee Gross

Introduction to Mass Communication

5 December 2011

Any form of communication whether it be person to person, person to multiple people, or multiple people must begin simply at language. The language of a people is the key to being able to communicate to an audience both large and small. We will examine the history of the Filipino language from its early roots (Pre-Hispanic) to the modern day and how we are now using that language in a modern format via the Web and mobile communication.

Prior to the invasion of Philippines by Spain the Filipino people had already developed a language, an alphabet, and a form of mass communication. “The pre-Hispanic Filipinos wrote on many different materials; leaves, palm fronds, tree bark and fruit rinds, but the most common material was bamboo. The writing tools or panulat were the points of daggers or small pieces of iron.” (Morrow) The Filipinos were then able to make the carvings stand out by rubbing ash into the carvings making them stand out from the rest of the bamboo. Filipinos did not begin to use ink until after the arrival of the Spaniards in the late sixteenth century. The alphabet, or Babayin, that they developed had become an integral part of Filipino society. Unfortunately because there was little done to preserve Babayin there are only currently three forms of the alphabet that remain today. They are still written by some using bamboo and a knife, while some scholars, particularly Paul Versoza, have preserved them for record. Versoza, a 20^th century member of the Old National Language institute coined a modern term for Babiyan called alibata stating “in 1921 I returned from the United States to give public lectures on Tagalog philology, calligraphy, and linguistics. I introduced the word alibata, which found its way into newsprints and often mentioned by many authors in their writings. I coined this word in 1914 in the New York Public Library, Manuscript Research Division, basing it on the Maguindanao (Moro) arrangement of letters of the alphabet after the Arabic: alif, ba, ta (alibata), “f” having been eliminated for euphony’s sake.” It was this knowledge that was able to establish a firm grip on the history of Pre-Hispanic Filipino language.

Spanish Colonization of the Philippines began in 1565 and lasted until 1898, it was during this time that the Spanish forced the native Filipinos” (Cuadernos de Historia, Instituto)to speak a new language, where before they had (and still have) a Babel of tongues.” amongst other things. It was during this time of change foe the Filipino people that there forms of communication changed drastically. Prior to the Spanish invasion the writing had been slim and stories were told with a more oral tradition. The Spanish brought with them Catholicism which the Filipinos embraced unquestioningly. Whereas the system that they previously used was mainly about sustenance the Spanish now were forcing new religion, systems of government, and even naming of people. Filipinos learned new ways of farming as well. This system was the catalyst for more change culturally for the Filipinos and how they communicate.

The Spanish language was still popular in the Philippines during the Pacific War. At that time more than one million people still spoke Spanish and were heavily influenced by their more than 300 year presence. The country today is still largely Catholic (81 percent) according to the website www.state.gov and its influence can still be felt. The language itself was “basically among middle-upper and upper classes, as a language for understanding among themselves, and still maintained its position as the official language for law and administration as well as was the lingua franca in trading, together with English. (Cuadernos de Historia, Instituto) Much of this was due to anti-English sentiment towards the United States. The religious dogma of Catholicism had become entrenched in the Philippines and many of more affluent people were not willing to give it up.

“The birth of English-language media in the Philippines took place not long after the Americans set foot in the Philippines, when on October 11, 1898, an Englishman, Thomas Gowan, founded the country’s oldest newspaper The Manila Times.”(Dayag 34) This paper was followed soon by The Manila Daily Bulletin (February 1900), The Herald(1920) and The Tribune(1925), the latter three being the most popular English speaking papers through World War II. There were also several publications that were published on a weekly basis including the Philippines Free Press (1907) and the Graphic (1927). The Japanese occupation halted these newspapers, but it was not long after the liberation that many new publishers began to appear. “Among the American newspapers in circulation were the Yank, Daily Pacifican, Stars and Stripes, Free Philippines, and small airmail editions of Time and Newsweek.” (Dayag 34) Not to be outdone many of the underground newspapers that were being published during the occupation by Japan came to the forefront. They began to compete with many of the English papers of the times. Difficult times were ahead for the free press of the Philippines.

President Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation 1081 on September 21, 1972 which placed the entire Philippines under Martial Law. The law allowed him to seize control of the Mass Media in the country. Marcos shut of the free press and in so doing he created a void of intelligence. His “military might choked hard at the throats of writers, editors, and publishers and the media facilities. The Philippines went into a deathly journalistic silence.”(Dayag 34)

Marcos also took control of the television at the time. Seizing control from their respective owners and handing them over to family members that would make it easier for him to control his message. Marcos wife’s, Imelda, family members also took over “Ambassador Roberto S. Benedicto took over ABS-CBN, a multi-million dollar radio-TV complex which used to be owned by business tycoon Eugenio Lopez Sr” (Dayag 34), this seizure of control was integral in the control of Filipinos by the Marcos regime. He then had many of the country’s leading personalities arrested and jailed for simply being a personality.

Eventually Marcos would lift Martial Law in 1981 but after nine years of terror the people of the Philippines, particularly the media, had become afraid of what could happen to them because of Marcos. However on February 25, 1986 the military and the citizens of the Philippines rose up against Marcos and he was ousted, which lead to a huge revolution in mass media. Newspapers, television stations, and radio stations could now freely speak their minds and in so doing create a new level of discourse for their people. “The fledgling democracy and the accompanying freedoms the Filipino people regained resulted in the mushrooming of national broadsheets and tabloids.. In the late 1980’s and the 1990’s a few more broadsheets were founded, In 1986, Manila Standard was born, and in 1993, Today was founded by Teodoro Loesin Jr., son of the late Teodoro Sr., The founder of The Philippines Free Press.” (Dayag 36) This transition marked another step towards the future of media in the country, especially with the digital revolution right around the corner.

The beginning of the 1990’s was very important around the world. The internet was is in its infancy and media was about to change. The Philippines was an island nation that had a lot of travel between islands and with the successful overthrow of Marcos in 1986. The democratization of the Philippines was very impactful to its people. The first incident that really set into motion what was needed in the Philippines was People Power II. The sitting president of the Philippines was a man by the name of Joseph Estrada. He was an actor turned politician that had won the vote by a landslide by appealing to the lower class, however he was found to be corrupt, allegations that had gotten their weight from the Internet and via SMS(text messaging). “On January 16th, 2001, the senate impeachment committee voted 11-10 to reject the opening of an envelope that was believed to contain crucial evidenceagainst Estrada. Within hours, Manila residents poured into the streets to protest at the Shrine at Epifnio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), the site of the 1986 People Power movement. Carrying a strong sense of history, massive demonstrations of People Power II lasted for four days from the 16th to the 20th, when the protesters received a deluge of sympathetic media coverage, which added tremendously to the polifical pressure on Estrada. On the 17th, all senator-judges resigned from the impeachment trial and the case was suspended indefinitely. The Defense Secretary and Finance Secretary resigned on the 19th. By then, most members of the Estrada cabinet had abandoned office, and the military had sided with demonstrators. On January 20,2001, Estrada was escorted out of the Malacanang Palace by the Armed Forces Chief of Staff and the Vice Chief of Staff. By the end of the day, the Supreme Court declared the presidency vacant; Arroyo was sworn in as the new president” (Qiu, 41) the internet and mobile communication like the newspapers fifteen years before had drastically changed the politics of the day. People Power II was a success in overthrowing the government once again in the Philippines. Not unusual here is the fact that Mobile Phone usage has grown exponentially in the Philippines. In 1999 there were less than 5 million units in the Philippines, but by the year 2002 the numbers had tripled. (Qiu 43) Today that number has grown. Interesting is that in the Philippines as opposed to the United States the majority of Cell Phone usage is done via SMS. Phone calls are rare and there are very few monthly contracts. The people of the Philippines prepay for their service. A sim card is what is used and now cell phone companies are building phones that have the ability to carry two sim cards so that customers can use more than one carrier to access their information. The Mobile revolution has certainly helped people of the Philippines to be able to share information more freely.

Language can’t be undervalued nor can the free sharing of information in a society. The earliest of Filipinos understood this when they were using knives to carve into bamboo. The stories of a people must be shared amongst the people. Whether it was the Spanish Invaders, The Americans after them, or their own people the language of the Philippines and the free distribution of information has been vital to its people. That is of course true with any society. Today in Africa we are beginning to see a great deal of change since its people have gone mobile. Prosperity has become even greater for them and the mobile device may just be the great equalizer in the world.

Works Cited

Morrow, Paul “Baybayin – The Ancient Script of the Philippines” mts.net

Web 14 July, 2010

Verzosa, Paul Rodriguez.   “Pangbansang Titik nang Pilipinas (Philippine National

Writing). Manila, 1939. From Michael Y. Cueva (e-mail, November 5, 2002)

Cuadernos de Historia, Instituto Cervantes, Manila, N. 1 (1998): 177-190

FRom the website: http://www.aeep.es/socios/rodao/98a1eng.htm

Dayag, Danilo T. “The English-Language Media In The Philippines.” World English’s 23.1 (2004): 33-45. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Dec. 2011

Qiu, Jack Linchuan “Mobile Civil Society in Asia: A Comparative Study of People Power II and the Nosamo Movement. Javnost-The Public Vol: 15(2008)