The number of textbooks published by three leading universities in the National Capital Region (NCR) for ten academic disciplines are summarized in Table 1a. University of the Philippines (UP) has more than 110 books, whereas De La Salle University (DLSU) and Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) together have less than 50. Table 1b shows the work done in the other major institutions of learning in the NCR, indicating sparse contributions. Indeed, the implementation of the DECS Order No. 52 in 1978 has been going at a snail’s pace, except at UP; although even there the general feeling seems to be that the “critical mass” has not been reached.
There are two schools of thought on how best to achieve the intellectualization of Filipino. The first group, led by Ernesto A. Constantino advocates the preparation of wordlists and dictionaries to match the technical terms in English. The latest work of Constantino is analyzed in-depth as regards the mechanisms of language used, e.g. borrowing, calquing, derivation, compounding and coining. The majority of his technical terms seems to be the result of borrowing from the English language.
The second group led by Andrew B. Gonzalez and Bonifacio P. Sibayan believe that it is through the development of registers in the different disciplines that intellectualization is best achieved in Filipino. Two textbooks in Philosophy, one in Metaphysics by Roque J. Ferriols and another on the great philosophical thinkers in history by Florentino T. Timbreza are analyzed regarding their lexical and semantic associations, collocations and expectancy chains or scripts, and how these develop the registers of philosophical discourse are explained in detail.
Finally, some suggestions regarding the procedures for intellectualizing Filipino are discussed. The report ends by calling for more contributions towards this objective, especially from the specialists in the various academic and technical disciplines in the country.
