Category Archives: News

Baybayin Bill – National Script Act of 2011

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baybayin bill - national script act 2011
Baybayin Bill – House Bill no.4395

As part of a Baybayin talk I participated in last week at Guro Dan Inosanto’s Academy, the presenter (Jay Enage of Baybayin Buhayin Inc.) showed me the “Baybayin Bill” known as the “National Script Act of 2011” sponsored by Representative Leopoldo N. Bataoil.

Yes, an actual law that will require that Baybayin be taught in schools and be used in everyday life! This is something the Baybayin community has been talking and debating about for years and now it may become a reality.

Here are the bill Sections:

An act providing for the protection and conservation of Baybayin, and declaring Baybayin as the National Script of the Philippines

SECTION 1: This Act shall be known as the “National Script Act of 2011”

SECTION 2: It is a declared policy of the state to inculcate, propagate and preserve our cultural heritage and treasures for the evolution and development of patriotism among our citizenry. The state shall give utmost priority to the conservation and promotion of arts, letters and culture of our nation as a tool for cultural and economic development.

SECTION 3: Babayin also known as Alibata is herby declared the national script of the Philippines. The official adoption of Baybayin as the national script shall be promulgated by inscribing Baybayin in all products locally produced or processed in the Philippines. Manufactures of processed or food products shall include on the label a translation in Baybayin. The Department of Trade and Industries shall promulgate the necessary rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this Act.

SECTION 4: Baybayin shall also include in the curriculum of the elementary and secondary schools. The Department of Education shall likewise promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this Act.

SECTION 5: Any provision of law, decree, executive order, rule or regulation in conflict or inconsistent with the provisions and/or purposes of this Act is hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

SECTION 6: This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its complete publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation.

One item in the bill that will cause controversy is the claim that “The Baybayin scripts were culled from our giant shells, the Taklobo, in which our forefathers gathered giant pearls, that is the reason why we were called the “Pearl of the Orient”.

I sincerely applaud the mission of the bill it will certainly bring up many important points:

1) No standardization
2) What is the government cost to roll-out?
3) How will this affect businesses in an already bleeding cash?
4) Is the script name too Tagalog-centric?
5) What about other living scripts like the Mangyan, Palawaan or Kapampangan?
6) Who will teach the teachers?
7) Who will create the educational materials?
8) Who will coordinate all of this?

What do you think? Is it a good idea for the government to implement something that appears yet to have a solid foundation?

Is this something that can be compared to changing the name of the Philippines?

Looking for Baybayin translators

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baybayin

While working on a few projects like my Baybayin School, documentary, and new book, I’m exploring another project and need some help. I’m looking for a Baybayin translator who knows how to type using fonts. I prefer someone from the Philippines. If you can speak other Filipino languages, the better but not required.

This will be a paid job. For more information, please email info@baybayin.com

Baybayin School survey – FREE gift

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doctrina christiana baybayin tattoo
Over the past 5 years I’ve been meeting people at my events at festivals, learning institutions, museums and online and it became apparent that many people don’t how Baybayin works how relevant it is to rediscovering our pre-colonial past. I spend a lot of time explaining Baybayin and I feel its a subject people can be passionate about but need assistance.

I had plans of launching this mentoring program alongside with my documentary but I’ve decided to launch the program ahead.

The focus will be on the basics on how to write and read Baybayin. It will be for beginners who wish to learn the basics of the script.

If I just described you, and you would like private online mentoring from me, then this program is for you.

FEEDBACK PLEASE

Before I launch, I want to know what YOU want and what are your problems in getting started with Baybayin so I can be certain to help you reach your goals.

To help me determine this, I need feedback from as many of you as possible. Even if you have no plans of joining my program, I would still appreciate the feedback. If I know what people struggle with, I can provide the best assistance.

REWARDS FOR FEEDBACK

To encourage feedback, I’m offering a soon to be released new ebook titled “Doctrina Christiana: Thoughts on Colonialism, Tattoos, & Baybayin” for FREE. It features a complete copy of the Doctrina Christiana and words from my Baybayin colleagues.

I’ll also give a 3 FREE early entries into the program to the people who provides the best feedback.

I’m launching this program soon, so I need your feedback withing 72 hours.

To send your feedback, please visit the SURVEY <–Click Here

Questions? Contact me at info@baybayin.com

Padayong,
Christian Cabuay

Baybayin seminar at Dan Inosanto Academy

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baybayin seminar

There will be a Bayabyin seminar at the Dan Inosanto Martial Arts Academy in Marina Del Rey, California on March 11 & 12, 2011. The event will be presented by Jay Enage, the founding chairman of Taklobo Baybayin Inc. and Baybayin Buhayin Inc. It’s the same team that brought us the Baybayin iPhone app.

I plan to be there to film my Baybayin documentary

Register now

Inosanto Academy of Martial Arts
13348-13352 Beach Ave.
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292

Image of Inosanto’s autograph in Baybayin. Courtesy of Tony Fajarillo from the Baybayin Facebook page.

Baybayin on coins

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This is a guest post from MARY ANN UBALDO (Panday Ginto Urduja)
www.urduja.com
———————–
I have known from Professor Gandhi Cardenas about the Baybayin “Pi” in our Pilipino coins in the denominations of 1 peso ( Year 1996,1997,1998,2000,&2001) & 10 peso Philippine Millenium 2000-2001 Series. I have 14 of these coins as a gift from Gandhi from the early 2000. I have been wearing this Philippine Millenium Series 2001, 10 peso coin as a necklace & have given Perla Daly one of these coins as a gift. The font used in these coins are from Baybayin Lopez 1620. The Baybayin “Pi” is located below the neck of Andres Bonifacio.

VIEW THE PICTURE OF THE Philippine Millenium Series 2000-2001
Ten Piso Coin

Baybayin Buhayin iPhone app now available in iTunes Philippines

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The Baybayin Buhayin app has just been released on the Philippine Apple app store. It’s FREE for a limited time. If your outside the Philippines, you can get it by creating another Apple account and choosing the Philippines as your home country. Once all setup, search for Baybayin. For Philippine accounts, here’s the direct link. This is only V1. Look out for more features soon.

Some basic info about the script

The most interesting part is the tutorial where you can trace the strokes. There’s even audio of the pronunciation.

Baybayin on American TV show Burn Notice

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I think it’s a given that Baybayin will certainly gain exposure in 2011 with several projects like the Baybayin keyboard and my documentary but just this week, we have the new Peso bills and this American TV show.

On the 12/16 episode of Burn Notice (Season 4 episode 17: Out of the Fire), Baybayin was shown on explosives.

The context is that this guy wants to blow something up but have the authorities think it’s Filipinos from Manila. Pretty funny stuff. He has an instruction manual that has some Baybayin on it and the guy says, “I know you want to frame some guys in Manila but I don’t read Tagalog”. I couldn’t make out any of the words. Could just be random garbage.

It looks like the Baybayin is incorrect on the explosives. You can see in one of the photos below, there are no kudlits. One common mistake is to forget that each consonant already has an inherent vowel. Adding a vowel after it would be redundant.

I think one of the words is supposed to say Patok. The longer word looks like it has the following characters: Pa-Nga-Ya-Na-e/i. I think the Nga is supposed to be N but when you type a capital N, it outputs the Nga. The last photo has the A & E/I characters. Anyone have any guesses?

You can watch the whole dumb episode here. Forward to about 18 minutes. Be patient as there are a few annoying commercials. The female lead is hot though.

Poor Paul Morrow, 1 day he get’s the prestige of having his fonts on the new Philippine Peso bills and the very next day his work is on some crappy show that doesn’t do enough research.

Thanks to Nathan DjHyped Partida from PSTGear for the tip

The man behind the Baybayin on the new Peso bills

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The Baybayin community is quite excited with the new Peso bills just announced. This isn’t the 1st time Baybayin has been on our money. It’s been on Peso bills in the 1940’s on the Katipunan flag and most recently a microscopic “Pi” on coins. These new bills have an actual word spelled – Pilipino. You can see it partially on the bottom right front of the bills. Too bad it has to be held in the light to be seen.

The moment I saw it, I knew it was one of Paul Morrow‘s fonts. For those that don’t know, Paul is actually not Filipino. He’s a white guy from Canada who knows more about Filipino culture than most Filipinos.

I reached out to him to see how felt about having is work on the new bills. To my surprise, he didn’t even know about it. Here’s his statement:

From what I can see in the photos, it is definitely my “Tagalog Stylized” font, which I created in 1992. I would need to see one of the new bills up close to see if it is my current version or an older one, which has some very minor differences.

Nobody from the Philippine government consulted me about using one of my fonts, but I have always offered them for free on my website, so I can’t complain. It’s definitely in the public domain now. Actually, I feel honoured, even though it was not the government’s intention to honour me.

I assume that whoever designed the bills wanted a modern look and chose this font over my other fonts, which are historical replicas of old typefaces. My website and the information sheet that is part of the font’s download state that my “Tagalog Stylized” font is a modern interpretation of the old baybayin script and is not historically accurate.