Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

172 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

Filipinos of both sexes possessors of the rudiments and culture of the vernacular language. Let it be noted that of this
total were excluded those less than ten years from which,
taking into account the educative system in the schools and
our practical ways of teaching at home, there can still be
chosen a considerable number of boys and girls of elementary.
training.
I figure out that the number of Filipinos of both sexes of
ten and more years of age who read English only amount
to 885,854 ahd those who read Spanish, 879,811; figures 4
which give a total of 1,765,665, or rather a little bit more
than one-half of the number of Filipinos who read the dialects.
It may also be presumed that those who read English as
well as those who read Spanish would equally be proficient in
their dialect. As to this particular statement the Census itself
brought out this comment:
"It may be said that among the Filipinos who speak
and read English or Spanish some have learned the theory
and practice in schools, and others have learned the language by themselves and the latter were usually those
already possessed of some instructions and could read and
write a local dialect."
These statistics are an eloquent demonstration that the
knowledge of citizenship in the Philippines is registered as
having a greater number in favor of those whose qualification
is the knowledge of reading and writing our dialect; coming,
as second place, those qualified for speaking and writing English
and third those who speak and write Spanish.
And this in spite of the nonexistence of a school purposely
established to teach the native dialect, the Government not
having contributed to this end an atom of moral or material Y
effort, or protection.
Another positive fact in favor of the utility of native lan-
guages for the spreading of popular and civil culture is the
notable preponderance in circulation of the vernacular newspapers over those written in English or Spanish, in spite of
the decisive and constant official protection to these two