The very large majority of them have been brought up in the Catholic faith. In physical characteristics, dress and customs they resemble each other quite closely. They are alike in their dignity of bearing, their sobriety, their genuine hospitality, their kindliness to the old and the feeble, their love of their children and eagerness to obtain for them educational advantages which they themselves have been denied, their fondness for music, their patience in the face of adversity, and the respect which they show for authority so long as their passions are not played upon, or their prejudices aroused, by the unscrupulous. These are admirable characteristics and afford a good foundation on which to build. Such differences as exist between these several peoples are steadily diminishing. This is especially true of the Tagálogs and the numerically comparatively unimportant peoples lying immediately to the north and west of their territory, namely, the Pampangans, Pangasináns and Zambalans. The Tagálogs, Ilocanos, Cagayans, Bicols and Visayans are distinguished by much more marked differences.
In general, the Tagálogs tend to become the dominating Filipino people of the islands, and successfully attempt to assert themselves in their dealings with all the other Christian peoples except the Ilocanos, who are quite capable of holding their own. The Ilocanos have a reputation for orderliness and industry which the Tagálogs lack. The Cagayans are, as a people, notoriously lazy and stupid, although there are of course numerous conspicuous individual exceptions to this rule. The Visayans are comparatively docile and law-abiding. Many of the Bicols are energetic and capable, and they seem to be possessed of a rather keen sense of humour, which their neighbours lack.
Two things tend to keep the several peoples apart. The first is the present lack of any common medium of communication. There are more quite sharply distinct dialects than there are peoples. The Visayans, for instance, speak Cebuano, Ilongo and Cuyuno. The language difficulty is of least importance among the peoples immediately north of Manila where the use of Tagálog is generalized to a considerable extent, but even here it is serious.
Mr. Justice Johnson of the Philippine Supreme Court tells me that when he was serving in Zambales as a judge of first instance the examination of a family of four persons necessitated two interpreters, one for the father, and another for the mother and two step-children, while in the trial of seven men charged with a murder it was necessary to read the complaint in four different dialects.
Taylor cites the following typical instances of practical difficulty growing out of the multiplicity of dialects:—
“In December, 1898, General Macabulos was the commissioner in Tarlac Province. At Camiling the orders prescribing how the elections were to be carried on were read in Spanish and then translated into Ilocano. General Macabulos next delivered in Tagálog a speech informing the assemblage of their duties under the new form of government. This was translated into Ilocano, as the people did not understand Tagálog any more than they did Spanish.[2] When on July 6, 1898, a junta of men in favour of the independence of the Philippines met at Gerona, Tarlac, to elect among themselves the civil officials for the town, the decrees of Aguinaldo, of June 18 and 20, were read in Ilocano, in Tagálog, in Pampanga, and Pangasinán, all of which languages were spoken in the town.”[3]
The head of the town of Antipolo, Morong Province, wrote to the secretary of the interior on October 21, 1898, that his delay in executing orders had been caused by the fact that they were written in Tagálog, which he did not understand. He recommended that Spanish be always used by the central government.[4] Mabini himself at one time proposed that English be made the official language. The constitution of the “Republic,” while making Tagálog the official language, provided for instruction in English.[5]
There is no literature worth mentioning written in the native dialects, nor do they open a way to the fields of science, the arts, history, or philosophy. Their vocabularies are comparatively poor in words, and they do not afford satisfactory media of communication, especially as words of generalization are almost entirely lacking. This latter fact conclusively demonstrates the stage of mental evolution attained by the peoples which have developed these several languages. Not long since I heard a keen student of Philippine affairs remark that the trouble with the Filipinos was that none of them were more than fourteen years old! There is truth enough in the statement to make it sting.
The use of Spanish never became common, and knowledge of this language was limited to the educated few. After fifteen short years English is far more widely spoken than Spanish ever was. When English comes into comparatively general use, as it will if the present educational policy is adhered to, one fundamental difficulty in the way of welding the Filipinos into “a people” will have been largely done away with.
The second important barrier between the several Filipino peoples is built up of dislikes and prejudices, in part handed down from the days when they were tribally distinct and actively hostile; in part resulting from the well-marked tendency of the Tagálogs and the Ilocanos to impose their will upon the others. The actual differences between a Tagálog and a Visayan are not so great. The important thing, from the American view point, is that every Tagálog and every Visayan really considers them very great.