Languages spoken by presidents of the Philippines
Emilio Aguinaldo was a native Tagalog speaker, having been born to a mixed family in Cavite, a Tagalog-speaking province.
[11][12] Sergio Osmeña is a native Cebuano speaker, having been born and raised in Cebu City, although he later spent much of his adult life in Manila.
He was also fluent in Spanish, having established the newspaper El Nuevo Día (The New Day) with the help of Nicasio Chiong Veloso, a Chinese millionaire and his eventual father-in-law.
[14] Osmeña was also fluent in English, and although he believed in adopting English as a medium of instruction so that, in the words of Sotero Laurel, serve as "a unifying medium and for the purpose of overcoming the barrier of language", he also believed in the adoption of a national language that would be the product of consensus and evolution.
[15] As president, he delivered a couple of speeches in Tagalog in 1945,[16][17] and the following year, he signed a proclamation designating a National Language Week between March 27 and April 2, the precursor to the modern-day Buwan ng Wika celebrated every August.
Although his hometown, Iba, was primarily Ilocano-speaking during his time, Magsaysay was born to a mixed non-Ilocano family, with his ancestors coming from Tagalog-speaking Rizal and Cavite and Waray-speaking Catbalogan in Samar.
His fluency in English allowed him to cultivate a deep friendship with Edward Lansdale, who would later be instrumental in his rise to the presidency in 1953,[24] while he popularized Tagalog during his administration.
His mastery of Cebuano manifested in his poetry, which earned him the titles "Prince of Visayan Poets" and "Bard from Bohol",[28] and even leading one to remark that Garcia was more famous for his poems than his presidency.
[39] He is notable for cultivating the use of the national language as a means of ensuring unity and "Filipino greatness",[40] and mandating its wider adoption in and use by government agencies.
[43][44] However, he later writes that Marcos did learn Spanish after marrying his Spanish-speaking wife, Imelda,[43] and he delivered his first speech in the language in 1968 in celebration of the Día de la Hispanidad.
He also possesses some fluency in Spanish, which he used in 1998 during the state visit of King Juan Carlos I of Spain and his consort, Queen Sofía, in celebration of the Philippines' centennial.
[63] Although Benigno Aquino III was born to Kapampangan-speaking parents, he was raised in Manila and grew up speaking English and Filipino.
[68] However, he has used the language in his speeches when welcoming foreign dignitaries from Spanish-speaking countries or when opening cultural events in the Philippines related to Spain.
Rodrigo Duterte was born in Cebuano-speaking Southern Leyte, and later spent his childhood in Cebu before moving to Davao City at the age of six.
[69] A columnist for the Bohol Chronicle, Jes B. Tirol, meanwhile suggests that Duterte is likewise misunderstood in English because he speaks in English through a Cebuanophone psychological lens, as evidenced by his infamous "rape joke" where he supposedly derided an Australian missionary who was raped and killed during a prison riot and hostage crisis at the Davao Metropolitan District Command Center in 1989.
[73] Although Bongbong Marcos was the son of an Ilocano-speaking father and a Waray-speaking mother, he was raised in Manila and grew up speaking English and Filipino.
