“HOW can we expect ordinary citizens to follow the law if it’s written in a language they can’t understand?” Akbayan Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno said in explaining why he filed House Bill 3863, or the Batas sa Sariling Wika or Law in Native Language Act.
Diokno should be commended for his measure to linguistically indigenize laws, which are not only integral to everyday life, but more importantly, governs what citizens can and cannot do. As such, these laws must be understood by people in a language accessible to them.It was prudent that Diokno did not propose the wholesale translation of the law into all indigenous languages. Otherwise, there would be a need for roughly 180 translations of it, some of which have no qualified translators .
Take, for example, church readings in indigenous languages are not easy to understand, nor it is also easy to deliver an academic lecture in such languages. Filipinos also lack the opportunity and education to understand and produce indigenous languages.In this project, it is necessary to engage linguists and language scholars not only in actual translation but also in determining the pathway toward a linguistically inclusive justice system.
Written In Indigenous Languages
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