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This has escaped media attention, but the Senates of the Philippines
and Spain had just signed an agreement to intensify bilateral
cultural and linguistic relations and to strengthen their
parliamentary cooperation.
Sen. Edgardo J. Angara, representing Senate
President Manuel Villar, signed in Madrid an agreement on
parliamentary cooperation with Sen. Jose Manuel Barquero,
representing the President of the Senate of the Kingdom of Spain.
Angara said this was the first time that an accord of this kind was
singed by the two Senates of both countries.
Angara and Barquero are proponents of stronger
ties between the Philippines and Spain. They are the presidents in
their countries of the Philippine-Spanish Friendship Group. Most
Filipinos have been casting longing eyes at America, forgetting the
many contributions of Mother Spain to the country. Angara
appreciates the contributions of the United States and Spain. He
said that Philippine history would not be completely digested
without realizing the significance of Spanish influence. In the
recent election campaign, for instance, Angara had noted the
prevalence of many towns in various provinces derived from the names
of places and Spain.
Angara is confident that the Agreement on
Parliamentary Cooperation would promote the pursuit of projects in
research, education and Spanish language, among others. He, himself,
has been taking tutorials in Spanish. I took up 12 units of Spanish
at the University of Santo Tomas and I was a member of a group
called “Los Amantes del Espanol” whose members are encouraged to
talk in Spanish during meetings. Alas, that was almost four decades
ago and since I had very little chance to use Spanish, it had become
almost like Greek to me.
The language of Cervantes
During my student days, most of my classmates
made fun of Spanish. I remember one time when our professor, Ms.
Primi Cervania, asked a student to name some things, feminine
gender, that could be found in an office. My classmate answered
slowly: “La mesa, la tinta, la pluma.” His voice trailed for a
moment then, as if struck by sudden genius, rattled off: “lamok,
langaw, langgam.” The class rolled in laughter but Ms. Cervania
was far from amused. “Seńor San Diego, I will decanonize you,”
she warned.
The Spanish language is not a thing for Angara
to trifle with. He announced that applications for 30 scholarships
at the Universidad de Alcala are open at his office. He said that
interested Filipino students and teachers may file their application
at his office in coordination with Prof. Maite del Val, head of
International Affairs. The Universidad de Alcala will also establish
a chair on Philippine Studies by Ma. Dolores Elizalde, an expert
on the Philippines. It has already established an academic exchange
agreement with five Philippine universities—the University of the
Philippines, Ateneo de Manila, UST, University of Asia and the
Pacific and ASCOT.
Angara said that another highlight of his
official trip to Spain was his visit to the Basque country. He noted
that some of the most dominant families in Philippine business are
of Basque origin, among them the Ayalas, the Aboitizes and the
Elizaldes. While in the Basque country, he visited Zumarraga and
Ordizia, hometowns of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Fray Andres de
Urdaneta, respectively. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that
the main street leading to Urdizia is called Calle Filipinas, and
that during the feast of Santa Ana in February all women wear the
“manton de Manila.”
Angara said Urdizia Mayor Jose Miguel de
Santamaria is interested in signing a twinning agreement with
Urdaneta City in Pangasinan and that he might visit the Philippines
next year with the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the birth
of Fray Urdaneta.
Gringo on ZTE
Many critics have harped on the financial aspect
of the controversial national broadband project to be put up by ZTE
Corp., a firm controlled by the Chinese government. Sen. Gringo
Honasan looks at it from a different angle—its security
implications.
Gringo noted that at the center of the NBN
project is the highly sensitive matter of government communications.
He expressed concern of problems that might arise should the
bureaucracy becomes wholly dependent on the NBN, and the network
suddenly crashes, resulting in the complete breakdown of government
communications.
He fears that under these circumstances, the
government would be forced later on to ask ZTE or another private
entity to take over the network’s maintenance as well.
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
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