Waray-waray Defended
I found this article really fascinating. This might even change some of your prejudices towards Waray-warays and, to a greater extent, those coming from rural areas in the Visayas. Although it is also quite noteworthy that there is a subtle bias, unintended or not, towards Warays from Leyte, owing to the fact that the regional center (economic and educational) of Eastern Visayas is in Leyte.
http://www.geocities.com/rolborr/vinwaray2.html
#################
By Rolando O. Borrinaga
Tacloban City
(Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 29, 2003.)
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.
"May ada-ada"
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.
