Proem

There is a truism that says that you cannot identify something if you have no word for it. It is a fact that there are many English words without Sugboanon Bisaya equivalent and also many Sugboanon words without English equivalent.

Take the Sugboanon word panuhót. Our English trained physicians will call it "colic."

Strictly speaking, colic is specific only to pains in the abdomen and bowels or intestines. It is not accurate in describing the pains of panuhót that can be in any part of the body.

Gangsterism

Some faculty members of the College of Criminology of the University of Bohol were funded by CHED 7 to research on gangsterism in Bohol. I asked them if they can distinguish a good gang from a bad gang.

A requirement of a research paper is to cite references. They could not find any English research work that deals on a good gangster. As a result, the researchers followed only the standard English concept of a gang and gangsterism.

Gang

A gang is defined as a group of person associated for a particular purpose. It has a leadership set-up, rules to follow, and requirements for membership.

However, when the member of a gang is called a gangster, the meaning in English is always derogatory.

Sugboanon Bisaya

Sugboanon Bisaya can differentiate a gang (bahan) into a good gang and a bad gang. "sangkay" is the Sugboanon Bisaya term for a good gang and "hanib" is the term for a bad gang.

The researchers knew that upon reaching puberty, young boys will tend to group and organize themselves into what could be called a gang. At the early stage, a gang is always sangkay or a good gang. However, at some later stage, some of the gangs would begin to do mischiefs and become a hanib or bad gang.

The standard "English" research work will focus only in the bad gang because in the first place the English language have no specific terms for a good gang and a bad gang and assumes that all gangs are bad.

The usual findings for (bad) gangsterism are, broken homes, neglected by parents, experienced being abused by authority figures, etc.

My question is, the members of the sangkay (good gang) experienced also these causes, why do they stay good? You can find many sangkays organizing dances, dramas, clean up work, etc. If you will interview the members of a sangkay you will know that many of them are also situated similar to the members of the hanib (bad gang).

Therefore in the Boholano context, where our language can distinguish a sangkay (good gang) from a hanib (bad gang), the results of the English language researches would not be valid.

For example, an adolescent was severely whipped by his father. Many researches in gangs would cite it as a reason for turning bad. However, if you investigate properly, you will find that many Boholano boys became good because he was whipped when he misbehaved.

In fact the autobiography of my father Atty. Victoriano Tirol, Sr. specifically cited the instance when he was severely whipped for misbehavior as the cause for his becoming diligent in school. When he organized groups or gangs, he saw to it that they become a sangkay not a hanib.

There is really a need to revisit the methodology in the research about gangsterism.