Harvey Fiji wrote: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DILA/message/18425>:

Benign on it's surface this is a strawman's argument. No one disputes that native speakers have the responsibility of using their own languages. The issue is whether we should tolerate the present status quo of having a single national language policy. ...

 

Even if there is no individual effort--which is not the case--the

reality is that the biggest obstacle is the Philippine State.

Absent a move to change the national language policy, all efforts to

preserve the regional languages would be nothing more than rearguard

actions--delaying the inevitable.

 

Self-help alone is insufficient unless all barriers are removed. Personal responsibility is not excused, but personal responsibility does not mean that our languages are to be subject to discrimination, legal or otherwise, overt or covert.

 

In fact, to argue for the retention of the national language policy and at the same time insisting that the regional languages will survive "as long as they are used" is a twisted misuse of the principle of personal responsibility.

 

It's like saying "we're going to fight each other, I'll put on body armor get into a tank while you will be bound and gagged and stand there in the middle of the field. I am going to kill you by blasting you and running over you but if you die it's your fault for 'not fighting hard enough'."

 

It's like saying "you will be tied hand and foot and with 250 pound weights attached to your body and you will be thrown into the Marianas Trench in the Pacific. Yet if you drown it's your fault for 'not swimming hard enough'".