This year’s iteration of the Fr. Jose Burgos Memorial Lecture Series, held by the UNP College of Arts and Sciences, foregrounded the valuing of the Ilokano language and cultures as a recuperation to many years of relegating them to the periphery.

Held on March 5, 2024 at the UNP Gymnasium, the talk was titled “The Ilokano Language in the 21st Century, Or Why We Should Stan Alamat and Ilokano Writers.” The speaker was Mr. Mark Louie Tabunan, assistant professor of literature at the University.

He focused on the language politics in the Philippines, noting the symbolic power of the colonial languages throughout the years and the privileging of Tagalog as the basis of the national language. Anti-colonial resistance was enabled by a rhetoric of promoting the national language, whereas the minoritized/regional languages in the Philippines have been cast into the periphery.

He added that the regional mother tongues slightly figured in the 1973 and 1987 constitutions only to the extent of being “auxiliary languages.” However, MTB-MLE is a turning point for its turn to these minoritized languages.

He echoed scholar Ruanni Tupas’s call that valuing of one’s mown mother tongue, such as Ilokano, needs to be framed as a linguistic human right. Also, beyond the domains of pedagogy and culture, giving importance to Ilokano means a “lifelong search for identity, demand for cultural representation, participation in socioeconomic transformation, and call for more effective learning.”

Tabunan also asserted that the work of the P-Pop group Alamat mirrors the multilingualism of the Philippines for its use of different languages even in only one song, thus going beyond the monolingual mold of Original Pilipino Music (OPM). Also, Ilokano writers and content creators are making waves in promoting the Ilokano language and culture – with the magazine Bannawag and Ilokano books as the foremost platforms for doing so.

He ended by encouraging the audience to support writers, performers, local media, and content creators; purchase and read Bannawag and Ilokano books; and make Ilokano a part of their repertoires in doing their professions soon.