After the terrible Second World War, through the American bombing of Manila and the provincial capitals, the 1950 Census still stated that the Spanish-speaking Filipinos made up 6% of the population, for which reason the legislature passed two laws providing for 24 units of Spanish and Filipino literature as part of the university curriculum, since Spanish continued to be official, together with English and Tagalog.

But then came the ominous 1987 Constitution of President Cory Aquino that suppressed the official status and regular teaching of this language in Filipino schools. Knowingly or not, this “legal” stratagem represents one more stage in the genocidal agenda against Spanish-speaking Filipinos ded or alive; because what is intended as final objective is to deprive the entire Filipino people of its memory as a people in order to stultify it so as to better exploit it in an absolute way.

Despite these measures, there are still almost 500,000 Filipinos who speak Spanish, outside of those who speak creole, who number over a million people in the provinces of Zamboanga, Basilan, Cotabato and Cavite. These Spanish-speaking survivors could be strengthened through a well-thought-out program to restore Spanish on the part of the Spanish government, through the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and the Instituto Cervantes of Manila.

Will they do it? Because if they do, Spain and Latin America will have a new friendship base in the Asia of the future.