- Pre-colonial Philippine bayans thrived in linguistic diversity, using Old Malay and Chinese for trade under datu leadership
- Spanish colonization preserved local languages for practical governance, with friars compiling native-language vocabularies
- The 1925 Monroe Report revealed U.S. colonial motives for English instruction citing linguistic fragmentation while unintentionally widening social divides through elite language access
Prior to colonial times, the Philippine islands were made up of multiple bayans small, kinship-oriented societies characterized by ethnic and linguistic diversity. These were not imperial societies, but as part of the larger Southeast Asian maritime trade network, the elite datu class who ruled them used Old Malay as a lingua franca and perhaps some business Chinese.
During the colonization of the islands by Spain, contrary to the notion that it aimed to wipe out all indigenous culture, Spanish was not extensively taught except religiously. Even, the friars, surprisingly, were active in maintaining local languages, including elaborating on comprehensive vocabularios as useful devices for interacting with the local population.
The use of native languages was likely as much a logistical necessity as a strategic choice, as it was more efficient for a small group of Spaniards to learn the local languages than to impose Spanish on a large, multilingual population. With the arrival of the Americans in the early 1900s, the newly established public school system adopted English as the primary language of instruction. Historians have generally interpreted this step as a way of cultural and economic colonization getting Filipinos ready to engage in an American-directed economy and society.
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But a lesser-known but important study, the 1925 Monroe Report, formally known as A Survey of the Educational System of the Philippine Islands, uncovered hidden motives behind this language transformation. The report, commanded by Paul Monroe and submitted by U.S. Public Instruction Secretary Eugene A. Gilmore, who incorporated the insights of his 11 Filipino research assistants and examined language use in schooling complexities,
highlighted the 'language problem', with respect for the islands' vast linguistic heterogeneity: six large linguistic groups, 43 languages, and 87 dialects. It concluded that none of the local languages was spread or developed enough to use as a national medium of instruction. Drawing on European models, the document contended that, like in Italy, Germany, or France, a prestige language English in this case could act as a neutral and uniting medium.
But this path also reproduced another schism: favoring a foreign language isolated the educated intelligentsia from the rest of society and replicated the cultural rift Zeus Salazar attributed to Westernizing the ilustrado class. The report hesitated to recommend that if Tagalog was to be a national language ever, Filipinos themselves should decide and only in due time.
