“SALVAGING WHAT ‘SALVAGE’ TRULY MEANS”
By: Ephesia Ruth T. Llamas
MA English
Baguio Central University
The discovery of the RMS Titanic wreck in 1985 by Robert Ballard sparked worldwide fascination, as people marvelled at the sunken ship frozen in time, a tragic monument to history (National Geographic, 1985). The discovery of the sunken ship was so captivating that it sparked the imagination of filmmakers, leading to the creation of the blockbuster film Titanic. Wherein, the initial scenes were a group of explorers trying to salvage valuables from the ruins of the sunken ship.
As time moves on, some words get mixed up – certain used terms adapt meanings far from their original definitions. A perfect example is the word “salvage”. The term “salvage” in common English parlance means something positive. Growing up, I often hear people use the word salvage to relate it to incidents related to killing. It is the initial knowledge I have about the word “salvage”, a dead person who had been killed violently, painfully, or tortured. Once news about a dead body dumped somewhere inappropriate or secluded reach the knowledge of people in my neighbourhood before, you could hear them define the dead as a “salvage” victim. And this learned knowledge does not apply just for me, even to most of the people I grew up playing with. I and the other kids in my neighbourhood used to role play a villain and a hero. We often used the word salvage in exchange for the word kill, instead of saying “Let us kill that person” we usually say “Let us salvage that person.” I still remember clearly well how we used to play those games when we were young. It was the definition I know about the word until reading became a habit of mine.
Reading made me encounter the word “salvage” a lot of times, which caused confusion on what I initially know of the word. The confusion led me to realize the true meaning of the word. The realization also led me to wonder how a positive connotation turned into its opposite meaning, from saving to somewhat destructive. Until today a lot of people still did not know about the true definition of the word “salvage”. I was really anxious to discover if there is truth in the shift of the definition of “salvage”, it got to the point where I asked around friends and from work what they perceive when they hear “salvage”. Almost all of the people I asked answered it as related to killing. There’s even one who demonstrated how he understood salvage by running his fingers across his throat as a gesture for killing. Most people recognized the meaning of the term salvage, incidents related to killing, showcased how people have taken on its adapted meaning.
Many Filipinos first learn the disturbing Filipino meaning of the word “salvage” not from a dictionary, but from the news. In Cebu, for example, a 2022 report from CDN Digital described how a woman scrolling through Facebook suddenly recognized the clothes of a man being reported as an unidentified “salvage victim” in Consolacion. What began as a viral post ended with her confirming that the body was her partner, Eric Quebo-quebo. For her-and for the many readers who encountered that story-the word “salvage” no longer suggested saving or rescuing someone. Instead, it pointed to a killing carried out with deliberate intent. Reading this story reminded me of the only meaning I knew before. Furthermore, stories like this show how the term has evolved in the Philippines, taking on a meaning far removed from its English origin and revealing how language can transform through lived realities of violence and fear.
There is a specific history behind the word “salvage”, particularly in the Philippines. In a newly released revised edition book by Dalton (2025), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) explained the term as “Salvaging is a term used in the Philippines to refer to summary execution or extrajudicial, surreptitious, killings of individuals by the armed forces. The person “salvaged” disappears after being picked up by the military or security forces and is found dead some days later”(Dalton, 2025). Dalton is a former foreign correspondent who wrote a book about the former President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. According to Dalton, as each successive year of the former President Marcos Sr., the number of violence, abuse and killings got worse. It could have been the reason why many Filipino people associated killings to the word salvage since it is what the ICJ used to describe extrajudicial killings during that time.
Many dictionaries like Cambridge, Britannica, Merriam, and Oxford consistently echo the same core idea of the word salvage as “an act of saving or rescuing”. I now clearly understand that some terms that have shifted to its original definition can evolve because of culture or historical context. In the case of “salvage”, it has turned to an example of semantic shift, where the original meaning gradually separates it from its original English sense of saving or rescuing because of cultural or historical background. Understanding and recognizing its distinct meaning help us avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation, especially if conversing with a different culture. Ultimately, exploring different meanings of terms or its evolution could deepen our appreciation of words and aid us in interpreting information accurately. May this piece salvage the true essence of the word “salvage”.
