Filipino Sign Language

Filipino Sign Language (FSL) or Philippine Sign Language, is a form of manual and visual communication used by the deaf and those who are unable to speak in the Philippines. This is a vocabulary of signs and symbols communicated through the use of the hands of a person trained in this skill, particularly those who cannot hear and the mute, but also includes those who served as interpreters for this form of communication.

FSL has a very strong influence from American Sign Language (ASL). Some Deaf even go as far as saying that only ASL is true sign language and FSL is just some kind of home gestures. Also there is a strong influence of Signing Exact English (SEE) which is used in most of the schools for the Deaf in this country. Total communication is used in deaf schools, with teachers both speaking and signing. Used by the USA Peace Corps, American Sign Language is well known as a second language. Population of users estimate at about 300,000 hearing impaired individuals and about 100,000 to 4.2 million people who have hearing problems.

In 2003, the Philippine Federation of the Deaf conducted a project for three years to develop dictionaries and teaching materials as well as a database of sign language data. It was funded with the assistance of the Japanese government.

1600s and 1700s
During the time of the Spaniards in the Philippines, one of the those who used sign language as a method of teaching catechism and used it also to administer the sacrament of baptism to the deaf was Father Ramon Prat (also known as Raymundo del Prado or Ramón del Prado), a Spaniard who speaks Catalan and who arrived at Dulac, Leyte during the latter days of 1590. Another person who is believed to have first used sign language in the Philippines for communication and teaching was Juan Giraldo, a Frenchman who arrived at Dulac, Leyte in 1595. To achieve an effective manual and visual communication and teaching program, however, the monastic missionaries first had to learn local Philippine languages. Furthermore, in relation to the general history of signing, Abat and Martinez pointed out that the "interest in" the study of "sign languages is well documented in the life and works" in Europe of an "Spanish ex-Jesuit" named Lorenzo Hervás.

American influence
It is believed that the sign language from the United States had a great influence over the sign language used by the deaf in the Philippines. The School for the Deaf and Blind (SDB) – now known as the Philippine School for the Deaf was established in 1907. It was founded by Ms Delia Delight Rice, an American teacher. Rice, a native of Columbus, Ohio, was invited to the Philippines to spearhead a pioneering school for the handicapped in the country and its Asian neighbors. The request came from David P. Burrows, then director of education in the Philippines, who trusted the educator’s expertise in special education. Rice, whose parents were both deaf, had immeasurable experience in the field. This school was run and managed by American principals until the 1940s.

Another great influence to providing education for the deaf was the assignment of volunteers from the U.S. Peace Corps, who were stationed at various places in the Philippines from 1974 through 1989. Influence from the United States also included the arrival of religious organizations, teachers, publications, and videos that utilized and promoted American Sign Language and Manually Coded English linguistic sign systems.

Native origins in the Philippines
During the early days of the 1990s, one of the local influence were the research activities done by Liza Martinez and Rafaelito M. Abat. Martinez was an individual without any hearing impairment but knowledgeable with sign language and also a former member-teacher at the University of Gallaudet, a university for the deaf; while Abat was a deaf researcher. Martinez is the current director of the Philippine Deaf Resource Center. She was one of the pioneers who begun studies about the use of sign language in the Philippines. She also pioneered the publication of reading materials and the launching of projects about Philippine sign language.

Chronology of events
Rafael Abat and Liza B. Martinez grouped the "milestones and landmark events" of the development of Filipino linguistic signing into four waves, namely those that occurred in the early 1900s, the 1960s, the middle of the 1970s, and the 1990s.

First wave
The emergence of Filipino Sign Language as one of the modern-day sign language disciplines in Asia can be traced from the founding of the Manila School for the Deaf (now called as the Philippine School for the Deaf) during the early days of the 1900s, a time when first contact with American Sign Language occurred. This was followed by the formation of the Philippine Association for the Deaf during the early 70s.

Second wave
In the 1960s, contact with American Sign Language continued through the launching of the Deaf Evangelistic Alliance Foundation and the Laguna Christian College for the Deaf. The Bible Institute for the Deaf (BID) was started by the Rev. S. Wayne Shaneyfelt, a missionary of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, USA. He came to the Philippines in October 1962. He founded BID as a ministerial school on October 12, 1962 with publications continuing in 1979 and 1987.

Third wave
In the 1970s, further contact with American Sign Language - in addition to the influence of the Manually Coded English (MCE) signing systems - continued. The Southeast Asian Institute for the Deaf was established, as well the Luneta Coffee Shop managed by the Philippine Association for the Deaf. From the second wave 's meetings of the deaf outside the vicinity of Manila, the deaf community expanded their activities during the third wave to the provinces, through the employ of schools and communal gatherings.

Also during the middle of the 1970s, the first group of American Peace Corps volunteers arrived. With regards to literature, the Rev. S. Wayne Shaneyfelt Love Signs publications were printed, a program which included the documentation of traditional Filipino signs.

Fourth wave
During the fourth wave of the 1980s and the 1990s, the CAP School for the Deaf was launched (1989), together with the Program for the Hearing Impaired at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (1991). Meanwhile, beginning in 1983, the International Deaf Education Association (IDEA) led by former Peace Corps volunteer, G. Dennis Drake, established a series of residential elementary programs in Bohol, funded in part by sales at The Garden Cafe, a deaf-owned and operated restaurant and training center located in Tagbilaran City. Subsequent expansion increased the deaf-operated businesses, and helped create Bohol Deaf Academy (2005), a residential high school specializing in TESDA approved vocational coursework. In Manila, a computer-skill-related program was also established through the Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf (1993). A School of Special Studies (later became School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies) was also opened, which offered a Bachelor in Applied Deaf Studies at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. Deaf organizations proliferated during this period with the Philippine Federation of the Deaf as a prominent figure. Influence from Gallaudet University occurred through its batches of Filipino and American graduates, and with Rev. S. Wayne Shaneyfelt's 1987 Philippine Sign Language in the Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deafness, ed. J. Van Cleve, 97. New York: McGrawHill. The National Sign Language Committee also made efforts to prepare the Status Report on the Use of Sign Language in the Philippines.

Publications about Filipino Sign Language
These are selected publications about sign language used in the Philippines:
 * An Introduction to Filipino Sign Language (PDRC/PFD, 2004)
 * Filipino Sign Language: A Compilation of Signs from Regions of the Philippines (PFD, 2005)
 * Status Report on the Use of Sign Language in the Philippines (NSLC)