Senator Robin Padilla is Stupid but at Least He Keeps His Promises

Senator Robin Padilla is without doubt the dumbest member of the Philippine Senate. He is even dumber than Bato who proves to the nation that he is above his pay grade every time he opens his mouth. But at least Robin has kept the one promise that was important to him as a Filipino. Try to guess what it is without reading ahead. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1696472/robin-padilla-insists-ph-try-legalizing-drug-use-and-just-amend-law-if-ineffective

Senator Robin Padilla is still gung-ho about legalizing drug use in the country, even after hearing all the opposing arguments.

He said the law is always open to change if it doesn’t work.

The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs heard about drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation centers, and Senator Ronald Dela Rosa wondered if the country could “afford an experiment” to determine if decriminalizing drug use would be beneficial or not.

Padilla responded: “We can always amend the law. English iyon ah. Kailangan lang natin sumubok. Kailangan natin pakinggan rin iyong medical point of view kasi nagawa na natin iyong law enforcement point of view. Wala naman masama. Kung hindi naging epektibo, eh ‘di next year, palitan natin. Tanggalin natin iyong batas.”

(We can always amend the law. Wow, that’s English. We need to try. We also need to hear the medical point of view because we’ve already acted from the law enforcement point of view. There’s nothing wrong with that. If it’s not effective, then let’s change it next year. Let’s remove that law.)

Did you catch it? Understandably the whole notion of trial and error law, (that's not how legislation works!), might obscure the promise he kept so here it is in black and white:

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1610647/senator-elect-robin-padilla-to-debate-in-filipino-im-not-facing-americans

Neophyte Senator-elect Robin Padilla said Tuesday he is “100 percent” ready to join the Senate, but will opt to debate in Filipino, saying he would be facing Filipino legislators, “not Americans.”

Padilla, who topped the 2022 senatorial elections, attended a legislative briefing  in the Senate ahead of the opening of the 19th Congress in July.

“One-hundred percent,” said Padilla when asked about his readiness to join the Senate.

Padilla said he is also ready to debate with his fellow legislators, but will do so using the vernacular, and not the English language.

“Tagalog… una, hindi naman Amerikano mga kaharap ko para mag-English ako. Siguro kung Amerikano, well I’m willing to debate. Pero mga Tagalog sila eh, eh ‘di Tagalog tayo,” Padilla said.

(Tagalog… for one, I will not be facing Americans for me to speak in English. If I am facing Americans, well I’m willing to debate. But they are Filipinos, so let’s use Tagalog.)

Robin Padilla promised he would not be speaking in English in the Senate. He started out in English but then caught himself and switched to Tagalog. 

But who does this promise help? No one. It's posturing plain and simple and it makes him look like a complete idiot. 

Robin Padilla's refusal to speak in English because he "will not be facing Americans" is full of hypocrisy and stupidity. What does he have against Americans when he claims to be more American than English speaking Americans because he has Native American blood? His two children and wife are American citizens!

https://entertainment.inquirer.net/346969/robin-padilla-defends-mariel-rodriguez-having-baby-in-us

Robin Padilla justified his and Mariel Rodriguez’s decision to have the TV host give birth to their second child, Gabriela, in the United States. 

Rodriguez gave an update about her pregnancy last Saturday, Sept. 28, days after she flew to the US to prepare for the delivery of their second child. 

“Another update is her head is now down getting ready for delivery,” she said in her Instagram post on Saturday. “[Please] pray with me I really want to push for another vaginal birth.”

“Enjoying the last stretch of my pregnancy,” Rodriguez added. 

Many of her fans wished her well, but one Instagram user, a certain @georg_supreme, did not seem to be in favor of Rodriguez’s giving birth in the US.

The netizen, addressing US President Donald Trump’s Instagram account (@realdonaldtrump), pointed out that Rodriguez only goes to the US to give birth. He/she added that it made Rodriguez a “birther,” and that it was not allowed.

After being asked by another Instagram user about what was wrong in giving birth in the US, the netizen chose to “research” about the celebrity couple. He/she then asked why would Rodriguez leave the Philippines to give birth if Padilla prided himself on being nationalistic. The said comments have since been deleted. 

In response, Padilla said, “Ang pagiging [Filipino-American] ay hindi pagtataksil sa Inangbayan (Being Filipino-American is not betraying the motherland).”

He then claimed that he and his wife are more American than those who speak English and live in the US, after pointing out that Rodriguez is an American citizen, and stating that he bears some Native American blood.

It's simply amazing that this man was elected to the Senate. It's amazing that Filipinos consistently vote for people who are incompetent and who brazenly show they do not care about this nation. Make no mistake, Robin Padilla does not care about the Philippines.

Filipino-English Words Added to the OED

If you think Filipinos do not speak good English then think again. Maybe it is you who do not speak good Filipino-English. Filinglish? Time to brush up on your Taglish.

http://cnnphilippines.com/lifestyle/2018/10/11/oxford-dictionary-trapo-bongga-Filipino-words.html

Coincidentally in time for the Philippines' election season, the Oxford English Dictionary added a new word to its extensive list: trapo.  

"In Philippine English, a trapo is 'a politician perceived as belonging to a conventional and corrupt ruling class'," Oxford defined in a statement.  

It cited the word as an example of the multilingualism of the Philippines, because not only is it an abbreviation of "traditional politician" but is also an allusion to the Tagalog word that means rag, which in turn was borrowed from Spain.  

And isn't that just bongga? 

"Another new item from Philippine English is the adjective bongga, borrowed from Tagalog, which means extravagant, flamboyant, impressive, stylish, or (more generally) excellent," Oxford added.  

Aside from that, at least nine new Filipino words have been added to the dictionary as of October this year. Not surprising to Filipinos, they're all related to food.  

These words are: bagoong, bihon, calamansi, carinderia, ensaimada, palay, panciteria, sorbetes and turon.

Yeah sure. That's just "bongga." From the OED press release:

In Philippine English, a trapo is ‘a politician perceived as belonging to a conventional and corrupt ruling class’. Trapo’s complex etymology exemplifies the multilingualism of the Philippines: it is an abbreviation of the English phrase ‘traditional politician’, but with punning allusion to the Tagalog word trapo (‘rag’), which in turn is borrowed from Spanish. Another new item from Philippine English is the adjective bongga, borrowed from Tagalog, which means extravagant, flamboyant, impressive, stylish, or (more generally) excellent.

https://public.oed.com/blog/new-words-notes-september-2018/

Perhaps one could say the multilingualism of the word "trapo" also reflects the multiculturalism and mulithethnicity of Filipinos themselves. With the blood of not only various native tribes and people groups but also outsiders such as Malays, Chinese, Spaniards, and other Europeans, Filipinos are a hodgepodge of assorted races all boiling over from the rainbow stew of the global melting pot.  A united nation of divided people.

But wait! There's more!  Yes this is not the first time Filipino-English words have made it into the OED.

Here you can find a list of the new Filipino words and senses added to the OED in the June 2015 update.

1. advanced adj.
2. bahala na int.
3. balikbayan n.
4. baon n.
5. barangay n.
6. barkada n.
7. barong n.
8. barong tagalog n.
9. baro’t saya n.
10. batchmate n.
11. buko n.
12. carnap v.
13. carnapper n.
14. comfort room n.
15. despedida n.
16. dirty adj.
17. estafa n.
18. gimmick n.
19. go v.
20. halo-halo n.
21. high adj
22. kikay n. & adj.
23. KKB int.
24. Kuya n.
25. Mabuhay int.
26. mani-pedi n.
27. pan de sal n.
28. pasalubong n.
29. presidentiable n.
30. pulutan n.
31. salvage v.
32. sari-sari store n.
33. sinigang n.
34. suki n.
35. utang na loob n.

https://public.oed.com/blog/june-2015-update-new-filipino-words-list/

Many of those words are straight up tagalog words and not English in the slightest. Nor are they kind of words which are untranslatable and have no English equivalent like the German word "schadenfreude." Some of them are English words imbued with new Filipino meanings. Like "gimmick."

 Philippine English. A night out with friends.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/78347

I am quite certain that word 21 should be "high-blood."

high blood  n. and adj.  (a) n. colloq. high blood pressure; hypertension;  (b) adj.Philippine English angry, agitated.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/86850

Word 16, dirty, should also be "dirty kitchen."

dirty kitchen  n. Philippine English a kitchen where everyday cooking is done by household staff, as distinct from a kitchen that is purely for show or for special use by the owner of the house.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/53367

Wow. So the kitchen where all the food is cooked is called a "dirty kitchen"!? Who has two kitchens in their house? Orthodox Jews do believe it or not. That is so they don't mix foods like milk and meat. But who in the Philippines has two kitchens? I have never seen such a set-up. Does this mean that all these houses with one kitchen have de facto dirty kitchens?

The online OED does not illustrate the words so let me do the honour of showing you a dirty kitchen.

No roadside kitchen is a clean kitchen!

With 600,000 words and counting the OED is the definitive guide to the English language. With millions of OFWs Filipinos are the definitive scullery maids of the world. How long until Filipino English dominates the OED?

Infanticipating

They say Filipinos can speak English very well. So well in fact that the whole world has taken notice.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-20066890

That is from 2012 and I can attest that the market for Filipino English teachers has grown and continues to grow considerably. 

But though they may be able to speak English well it really drives me nuts to see things like the following:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/959813/faeldon-gets-furlough-to-be-with-infanticipating-wife

Infanticipiating? Why not just write "expectant?" Why try to get cutesy but combing two words to make a third word that is not a word.  These nonsensical portmanteaus are what I have dubbed "Filipino shorthand" and are to be found most especially in the newspapers. 

Filipinos may be good English speakers (actually they are just the cheapest English teachers) but with these kind of word combos it will be a wonder if they don't start speaking in their own version of Nadsat* before long.

*Nadasat is the slang spoken throughout "A Clockwork Orange." Read the book and forgo the film.

Filipino Shorthand

Filipinos have a peculiarity in their English.  They like to combine words to make short phrases.  Here are a few examples.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/04/27/1694457/solgen-calida-tadeco-bucor-deal-void

Instead of typing out "Solicitor General" the press calls this guy "SolGen." Sounds funky. Great name for a funk soul band. SoulGen. As in soul generator.

And Bu-Cor?  What the heck is that? That's the Bureau of Corrections.  Tadeco is the Tagum Agricultural Development Corporation.  Quite a mouthful.

How about this one:

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/932902/sogie-equality-bill-outing-gender-identity-emmeline-villar-kaka-bag-ao-geraldine-roman

What is a sogie?  It's nothing. There is no such thing as a sogie. "Sogie" is an acronym which means whoever wrote this article messed up by not capitalising each letter as such: SOGIE.  SOGIE is an acronym for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression.

Chinese bizmen?  Bizmen is not even a word.  What they really mean is Chinese business men.  They could have fit that in the headline if they had decreased the font size. But they didn't so now this news paper looks stupid.

Here's a real testament to how lazy journalists in the Philippines can be.  Compare these two headlines.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/628553/afp-won-t-be-involved-in-destab-plots-spokesman/story/

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/10/06/1746132/destabilization-plots-wont-come-military-afp-spokesman

What is a destab plot?  Does it involve knives?  Will the AFP be stabbing people to death? Nope.  GMA News was just too lazy to type out the full word: destabilisation. But Philstar did type it out. See? Proper English is not so hard.

How about this one:

http://www.philstar.com/food-and-leisure/2017/11/04/1754276/heres-how-mcdo-made-undas-experience-better

McDo? How is that even pronounced? Long "O" or short "O"? And who orders McDonalds to eat at the cemetery while they are praying for their dead relatives?

http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/11/21/1760915/why-i-will-not-run-senator

TRAPOS?  That's a new one. Short for "traditional politician." This is probably the worst one yet. Is this a word to be said out loud in conversation or is it a literary device only?

And now finally the number one shorthand word used all over the Philippines.  It's basically a new word all its own.

Unli.  Short for unlimited this "word" is used mostly by the telecoms to advertise their phone plans but is also used by restaurants to advertise all you can eat or drink deals.

I am sure there are lots more of these shorthand words. This is only a small sample. It's not surprising that Filipinos would take the English language and make it their own. They have also done the same with Spanish. It is interesting and funny how language evolves within a culture. Each culture works out its own creative wordsmithing.