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Marilou Lactuan, secretary-general of an association of widows and retirees here said the use of English phrases and motions in parliamentary procedure limits wide participation.
She told MindaNews after attending a workshop on Parliamentary Procedure that as a big organization, they have to subscribe to the use of parliamentary procedure but they are burdened by the dearth of materials in their mother tongue.
Lactuan, an elementary school teacher in Kalasungay village here, said most of their attempts to use parliamentary procedure end up very disorderly and dragging as many of the members are not comfortable discussing in English.
She said those who are not comfortable with English do not join discussions, making the meetings undemocratic.
There were 22 participants who joined the training organized by the Kalasungay Association of Professionals (KAPs) as part of the organizational development projects of the newly formed community organization.
Lactuan echoed concerns raised by some participants on the practicality of using the procedure in purok (small village) discussions.
Richel Okit, resource speaker and head of KAPs assured participants the procedure is as useful in the rural villages as in bigger organizations such as councils and cooperatives.
He said it could be learned and that organizations may choose to use the procedure using Cebuano as the medium. But he admitted that most of the terms used in motions still do not have Cebuano translations.
He vowed to include Cebuano translations in his next training. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)