[REFLECTION] The Jesuit in slippers: Roque Ferriols at 100

He would cringe at his Wikipedia entry which calls him a philosopher. The Jesuit Roque Angel Jamias Ferriols, whose 100th birth anniversary the Ateneo de Manila community is celebrating this year, would rather be called a mang-iisip or a thinker.

In his talk at the kickoff event for the Ferriols Centennial last July at Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), philosophy professor Manuel Dy retells how Ferriols ended up teaching philosophy. “During his regency in San Jose Seminary, he put up a play on the life of Saint Camillus de Lellis, which was a success. After the play, the Father Provincial ordered his transfer because he deemed the director lacking in spirituality. Ferriols was then groomed to succeed Father Irwin, but this assignment went to Father Reuter. Then, he was groomed to succeed the sociologist, Father Doherty, but this task went to Father Lynch. And so, he was thrown into the philosophy department.”

Despite studying theology and obtaining his doctorate in the US, Ferriols developed a fraught relationship with the American missionaries of the Society of Jesus. By 1969 to 1970, he unsurprisingly inaugurated a praxis which continues to be controversial — thinking and teaching philosophy in Filipino.

In “Memoirs of Six Years,” Ferriols looked back on more than half a decade of teaching philosophy in Filipino. He related that during the late 60s, “Tagalog was beginning to be very much in the air.” It was a time when luminaries of the state and church spoke “bad” Tagalog in public, to the horror of advocates of pure Bulakanese. Against the strong wind of English, touted as the language of the world, the scientific, and the educated, the use of Tagalog amongst the intelligentsia sprouted “noiselessly, invisibly,” but “tangy enough to cause tremors in the delicate nostrils of both civil and ecclesiastical politicians.”

In this essay, Ferriols answered seven questions. The first two continue to be asked: “Are you trying to develop a Filipino philosophy? Are you trying to help make Tagalog the national language?” Both of which got an emphatic ‘NO.’

For him, intentionally developing a philosophy that is “Filipino” is “blowing bubbles in the wind.” The project did not wish to privilege one language over the other, but “to help awaken other people into living.”

The third question reveals the heady atmosphere of the Loyola Heights campus back then.  To the question whether teaching philosophy in Tagalog was the wave of the future, Ferriols quipped: “This question is usually asked by those who are steeped in whatever products of American mass media reach our shores.” The next statement can be triggering: “Many of the askers are in the process of giving up the religion of their fathers and converting to the religion of being “with it” or “in” or “on.” On the other hand, the Apo Hiking Society was starting to generate “original Pilipino Music.”

Filipinization

Wikipedia is not wrong in saying that his work was in line with the larger Filipinization movement. But for Ferriols, Filipinization was not merely changing the leaders with those holding Filipino passports in Catholic institutions. It meant more than wearing a national costume or knowing that sipa is the national sport. He was interested in something even more basic: awakening the Way within and around us. “Inner truth” cannot be separated from meron, one’s ineffable being, which certainly included cultural rootedness.

To awaken to “what is going on” (talagang nangyayari) requires immersion in the experiences of Filipinos, especially poor farmers who possessed their own wisdom. Being Filipino is not to be known (or simply used as a branding strategy), but to be experienced and lived out.

Today “doing philosophy in Filipino” faces the challenge of students not wanting to take courses in Filipino willingly. They think readings will be unmanageable or the oral examinations excruciatingly difficult.  As better pedagogical methods are adopted, however, the question is not whether philosophy is taught in English or Filipino, but whether the class can leverage the diversity and plurality of languages in the classroom.  The aim is less to propagate the teaching philosophy in Filipino, but to consider the philosophy classroom as a space to inquire about the Filipinos’ consciousness and sentiments as we respond to the geopolitical and environmental challenges of our time.

The revival of the interest in Ferriols will be pointless if sales of his books do not pick up. Ferriols’ stories animate these books, which are available at the ADMU Press bookstore. Few know that Mga Sinaunang Griyego, a textbook on ancient Greek philosophy, was dedicated to Godofredo B. Alingal, SJ, whose main apostolate was to the farmers in Mindanao. Pambungad sa Metapisika, a textbook for the philosophy of being human course, was served to honor the memory of his Lolo, Miguel Jamias, who studied at the Escuela Normal de Maestros and served as public school teacher in Zambales. His textbook on the philosophy of religion was written to honor Mary, Mother of God.

Let us continue to tell the stories of one the most celebrated teachers of Ateneo.

Let us begin by saying that once upon a time, when Ateneo has not been infested by cars, a Jesuit, an Ilocano born in Sampaloc, walked in his slippers. His pants had to be held by pins so they would not fall down, for they used to belong to an American Jesuit twice his size.

His name was Roque Ferriols. – Rappler.com

Jovino G. Miroy teaches philosophy at Ateneo de Manila University. In 2018, he directed “Ang Apologia ni Sokrates salin ni R. Ferriols,” featuring Ron Capinding.