THE WARAY-WARAY, the people who speak the Bisayan language of Leyte and Samar, remains a scorned linguistic group at present. Thus, many native speakers of this language prefer to hide their ethnic identity outside the region by speaking another language, oftentimes Tagalog with either a heavy or queer accent.

The ethnic label was always "Waray-waray" (with stress on all syllables), to refer to both the people and the predominant language of Eastern Visayas. At least, the label stayed that way until the circa-1960s movie "Waray-waray" starring the late Nida Blanca, which became the benchmark spoof on the Leyte-Samar people and their culture.

The movie and its theme song, the title of which was grossly mispronounced by the Tagalog actors, made them the cultural scapegoats for the underside of the Filipino nature.

Somehow, in recent decades, half of the two same-word label got lost or was dropped, and the word "Waray" (with stress on the second syllable) was appropriated to substitute for the original label.

Of course, the literal meaning of the substitute half-label is "none" or "nothing," which connotes a desperate state or condition of hopelessness.

The dropping of half the label seems to have been influenced by former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, who carped against the negative meaning of the single word and cursorily dismissed the syllabication of the original two-word label for her people and their language.

In her heyday, Imelda in fact attempted to substitute her artificial label with "may ada-ada." However, contrary to her wish, the "Waray-waray" tag stuck; "may ada-ada" was rejected as substitute label, and its meaning evolved to include persons who suffer from occasional loss of sanity.

So for now, "Waray-waray" or its shortened version "Waray" is largely perceived as an embarrassing label among the schooled segment of the Leyte-Samar population. Yet the persistence of this label somehow invites the suspicion that "Waray-waray" must have been an honorable identity and source of pride during ethnic times.

I tried to look into this line of thinking and found the following:

* In his monumental work, "The Jesuits in the Philippines," Fr. Horacio de la Costa mentioned that the revered ruler of a part of Bohol at the Spanish contact was known as "Waray Tupung" (i.e., No Equal). This obviously Waray-waray chief probably ruled a territory that included the present towns of Bato in Leyte and Bien Unido in Bohol, whose municipal governments are still disputing over the ownership of an islet and a shoal that are sites of a multi-million seaweed farm in the Camotes Sea.

* In his English translation of some Chinese manuscripts on Filipino-Chinese contacts during the pre-Spanish era, the late Dr. William Henry Scott mentioned about occasional raids on coastal parts of Imperial China by warriors from the Bisayas (i.e., Leyte-Samar). These raiders might have come from Kandaya (literally, "belonging to Big Boat"). Daya (Big Boat) seemed to be the moniker of a great Waray-waray confederate chief who once ruled over most, if not the whole, of Samar and some parts of Leyte. The Tagalogs, who were probable preys of Daya, presumably trivialized his name later and memorialized the word to refer to a "cheat" or "shrewd manipulator."

* Probably a Waray-waray native himself was Lapulapu, our earliest national hero. In a paper that Fr. Miguel A. Bernad, SJ, published in Kinaadman journal in 1995, I hypothesized that Lapulapu might have been the chief of Bagasumbol, an ancient village in the capital town of Naval, in Biliran Province. "Baga sombol," the ethnic Waray for "like a symbol of a great victory or conquest," seemed to have been the ascribed moniker of Lapulapu, memorializing his victory over Ferdinand Magellan in the Battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521.

Bagasumbol was probably Lapulapu's "provincial" domain, while Mactan might have been his "urban" domain for trade and ethnic relations with Cebu, an international trade center during his time. Like some part of Bohol, Mactan might have been Waray-waray territory in those years.

From the above historical speculations, we can infer that the "Waray-waray" identity was associated with superior and admirable traits during ethnic times. "Waray-waray" seemed to indicate reckless valor and defiance, ambition, aggressiveness, and native heroics against white-skinned colonizers.

That we now believe the exactly opposite connotation of "Waray-waray," and seek to dissociate ourselves from the shame, may be attributed to the debasing effects of our colonial miseducation, and to the dominating intrusion of "western" and "Imperial Manila" cultures into our way of thinking.

It is time for the Waray-waray people to again take pride in their identity, to exorcise themselves of the self-inflicted shame presently associated with their ethnic label, and to strive to accentuate the positive traits of their ancestors in the 21th century context.

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