STATISTICS: THE SPANISH LANGUAGE
IN THE PHILIPPINES
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5. INCREASE IN THE NUMBERS OF SPANISH SPEAKERS

INSTEAD, AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBERS OF SPANISH SPEAKERS

What is most curiously significant is that the alleged alphabetization or education in English in the public schools established by the North Americans beginning in 1900 tended to produce a larger number of Spanish-speaking – not English-speaking -- Filipinos. For this reason, the Director of Instruction Mr. David P. Barrows himself, alarmed and almost indignant, wrote the following:

"It is to be noted that with the increased study and use of English, there has been an increased study of Spanish. I think it is a fact that many more people in these islands have a knowledge of Spanish now than they did when the American Occupation occurred" (op. cit., p. 96)." 
After asking for more funds to be allocated to a budget item for "night schools," which meant redoubling the teaching and imposition of English on Filipino children and adults in order to not leave them under the influence of the predominant language which was Spanish, Mr. Barrows, much in the manner of consolation for himself and his superiors in Washington, D.C., wrote that Spanish, through certain measures adopted against it, would tend to disappear in the long run because the Filipinos would be far from the Spanish-speaking countries and therefore would have no support from the latter in their desire to preserve their Spanish language:
"But in spite of these facts, it is believed that the use of Spanish will wane. It is unsupported by Spanish-speaking countries adjacent to us" (op. cit., p. 96).
From this observation one may well glean the white Anglo-Saxon policy of deliberately isolating the Filipinos from the Hispanic world that they belonged to.

CHINESE ALSO SPEAK SPANISH

On the other hand, the aide memoir – report submitted by Don Carlos Palanca to the Schurmann Commission in 1906 -- indicates the following:

"...apart from the eight Tagalog provinces described as Spanish-speaking, there are another eight provinces which are equally Spanish speaking." (From Tulay, a weekly publication of the Chinese-Filipino community in Manila, 10 October 1999, article by historian Pío Andrade.)
Aside from these 16 Spanish-speaking provinces, the referenced article states, Don Carlos Palanca mentions five other provinces where "Spanish is little spoken." The data provided by don Carlos Palanca were considered "of great weight" by the Schurmann Investigative and Legislative Commission because they came from the wealthiest Chinese Filipino in the Islands who was the head of the powerful Chinese Businessmen’s Association, which in turn had an up-to-date compilation of data on the local market it served.