Cebu City dad urges fellow lawmakers to respect the law, stop Cebuano rendition of ‘Lupang Hinirang’

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A CEBU City lawmaker is drawing the line between cultural pride and legal duty.

Councilor Jun Alcover said singing the national anthem in Cebuano is simply "not allowed" as he called on the 17th Sangguniang Panlungsod to stop using the Cebuano rendition of Lupang Hinirang during its official sessions, arguing that it goes against the provisions of Republic Act No. 8491, or the Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines.

“Naa man gud na sa balaod. I don’t have any personal reasons ani. Mao na ang naa sa balaod…Kita nga mga opisyal, legislators ta, we are bound to respect the law,” Alcover said in an interview on Thursday, July 24.

He said he plans to file a formal resolution on July 29 to halt the practice, which began during the council’s inaugural session on July 8 and continued during its third regular session on July 22, when he first raised the concern to Presiding Officer Councilor Philip Zafra.

While he acknowledged efforts to strengthen Cebuano cultural identity, Alcover said the law must come first.

“Unahon lang usa ug kanta ang national anthem, then follow dayon ang Cebuano version if ganahan gyud sila,” he added.

The law cited by Alcover, enacted in 1998, clearly mandates that Lupang Hinirang should be performed in Filipino and follow the official arrangement composed by Julian Felipe.

It explicitly prohibits renditions in other languages during official events. Violators may face a fine ranging from P5,000 to P20,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both.

RA 8491 also outlines specific conduct during the singing of the anthem, particularly for government officials and institutions, emphasizing respect and adherence.

Despite Alcover’s legal position, Mayor Nestor Archival and Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña have both supported the revival of the Cebuano version in official ceremonies.

During a press conference on July 14, Archival said he saw nothing wrong with using the Cebuano version, provided its spirit remains unchanged.

“The important thing is that the national anthem we sing, regardless of the language, is the same. It’s the same tune,” Archival said.

Still, he clarified that consultations must happen first.

“This is one thing we need to consult; we need to consult it in case there are implications,” he said.

Osmeña, for his part, pushed for the change during a recent flag-raising ceremony, describing it as a return to a long-standing tradition that reflects local pride.

This isn’t the first time the Cebuano version of the national anthem has made its way into official proceedings.

In 1988, then Governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña led a cultural shift that saw the Cebu Provincial Board pass Ordinance No. 89-8, which prohibited the use of Tagalog (Filipino) as the medium of instruction in public schools.

This resulted in the removal of Filipino textbooks in Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) and sparked a wider adoption of Cebuano in classrooms and ceremonies, including the singing of the national anthem.

At the time, however, there was no law regulating how the anthem should be sung. RA 8491 had not yet been enacted, and its implementing rules and regulations were only issued in 2002. President Fidel Ramos’s executive order on anthem conduct also took effect only in 1993, after Lito Osmeña had stepped down.(TGP)