ELEVEN YEARS OF OPPOSING TAGALOG IMPERIALISM

Defenders of Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago is a grand alliance of patriotic Pangasinenses, Pampanguenos, Bicolanos, Warays, Karay-as, Ilongos, Cebuanos, Ilocanos and other ethno-linguistic groups who oppose the language policy of the Republic of the Philippines.

It is not the lack of government support that kills a language, rather it is the government's official support for a certain language that kills the others. Capampangan is dying because the government is favoring Tagalog and discouraging Capampangan speakers from using their language. The non-Tagalog languages may still be barely here but only because of our persistent loyalty despite government suppression.

We reject the jejemon language known as "Filipino" and will neither tolerate the Tagalogista mentality spread by ABSCBN-GMA7-ABC5 nor leave unchallenged their attempt to expand their domination to the internet through trickery. The media uses Tagalog because it is the language that government promotes exclusively. Supporting the existence of a national language is the same as allowing the government to kill your non-Tagalog language. The one they misleadingly call "Filipino" is only a mere sub-dialect of Tagalog, one meant to wipe out and replace your God-given language.

The nationalists falsely accuse English of causing our language problem. Until the time the 1987 Constitution of Corazon Aquino is dismantled, our languages are in mortal danger of being taken over by Tagalog. Give back to their speakers the pride and self-respect they lost due to their having become second-class citizens in their own indigenous territories.

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