There is a suggestion for the impeachment trial to conduct its hearings in Pilipino para daw maintindihan ng masa.

I have no objection to that.  But I have a better suggestion for the trial proceedings to go Taglish.  Let’s meet halfway.  Why?  Because “there is no translation or expression in Tagalog for legal terms,” as somebody suggested.

“Law students go through law school in English. The books they read and study are all in English, and the bar exams are conducted in English,” as suggested by those who favor straight English.

But I have received an opposition to conducting the trial in English which stated that it’s “the prosecution panel’s ploy to diminish the mastery and majesty of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s and Justice Serafin Cuevas’ arguments since there are many legal terms that cannot be translated into Tagalog, for they would lose their true meaning. Also it’s the prosecution’s solution to lessen the impact of their ineptitude compared with the defense panel and Enrile and Senator-Judge Miriam Santiago. They want Enrile and former Supreme Court justice Cuevas to stammer and grope for words. That would be unfair for the Cebuanos, Ilocanos, Ilonggos, etc… who do not speak Tagalog well.     

I am sure there will be opposition either way the trial goes.  The happy medium, as I said, is to go Taglish and, for sure, neither side will complain. That’s what  Enrile,  Santiago, and Cuevas are doing now, and it’s perfectly fine with me and I am sure to many others as well. Meeting halfway will solve the problem.

For years, I’ve practiced it in this column, for if I go straight English, only the A and B reads it.  But when I go Taglish, my column is understood by the A, B, C, and D readers.  I know for I get feedbacks from the A and B readers and those from the C and D as well, especially those in the palengkes who follow my column.  The readership is expanded.

This is tried and tested for the past 16 years that I’ve been writing my columns in this newspaper.  The emphasis in Tagalog is clearly understood by the C and D classes.

If I go straight Tagalog, only the C and D classes read it. Worst if you use deep Tagalog. Ang A and B, nahihirapan.  Kailangan ‘yong Tagalog na ginagamit sa TV programs, or conversational Tagalog, not the poetic one or you’ll lose readership.

The Senate impeachment trial is actually doing it now.  Enrile,  Santiago, and Cuevas are already doing and doing it very well, by going Taglish. With English, they put emphasis in Tagalog well understood by everyone.

Taglish is better than going straight English or straight Tagalog.  Like it or not, it’s the best medium of communication for our people now.

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