Hi r/SideProject,

I just launched BatasKo (batasko.com) — a free civic education site that translates Philippine laws into plain language, in English and Filipino.

The problem I'm trying to solve: every Filipino has rights, but almost no Filipino can read the actual law. Our Constitution, Labor Code, and most major Republic Acts are written in dense legalese. People only learn their rights after they've been violated. I wanted to fix that.

What I built so far:

- All 18 Articles of the 1987 Constitution

- 4 major Legal Codes (Family, Labor, Penal, Civil) — about 3,800 articles total

- 176 of the most-searched Republic Acts (VAWC, Rent Control, Safe Spaces, etc.)

- Real Filipino scenarios on each — "Sarah from QC was fired for being late 3 times..."

- A "For OFWs" section on laws that affect overseas workers

- 21,000+ laws scraped and ready, drip-publishing the rest

The whole thing is built solo with Claude as a research partner (disclosed openly). Solo founder, no funding, no lawyers on team (yet).

Stack: Next.js, Tailwind, MDX, Anthropic API for generation.

I'd genuinely love feedback on:

1. Does the design feel like a serious legal reference or AI slop?

2. Is the ELI5 + real scenario + official text structure clear?

3. What's missing for it to be actually useful?

Site: https://batasko.com

Happy to answer any questions about the build. The scraping pipeline alone took an interesting weekend.

TIL learning Bisaya today.

In English we differentiate: live pig vs cooked pork. In Bisaya it's just "baboy" for both.

Probably because in Cebuano culture, baboy is so central to celebrations (lechon at every birthday, fiesta, christening) that the line between "animal" and "food" is basically the same conversation.

Same thing with karne (meat) — also from Spanish. Manok is chicken AND chicken meat. Isda is fish AND fish meat.

Anyone else find their language has these collapsed categories where English splits them?

https://preview.redd.it/nakqgd8laz0h1.png?width=758&format=png&auto=webp&s=749743fa3a3be3c04ecd071de4c46f59f5e4446a

src https://www.talkbisaya.com/word-of-the-day

TIL learning Bisaya today.

In English we differentiate: live pig vs cooked pork. In Bisaya it's just "baboy" for both.

Probably because in Cebuano culture, baboy is so central to celebrations (lechon at every birthday, fiesta, christening) that the line between "animal" and "food" is basically the same conversation.

Same thing with karne (meat) — also from Spanish. Manok is chicken AND chicken meat. Isda is fish AND fish meat.

Anyone else find their language has these collapsed categories where English splits them?

https://preview.redd.it/gotdmb5baz0h1.png?width=758&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c2fee12556483c39657edc276494ca4d81d959f

src https://www.talkbisaya.com/word-of-the-day

Bisaya word of the day: Karne (meat)

Just realized half the food words my Lola uses are Spanish loanwords I never recognized growing up. Karne. Bistek. Adobo. Mantikilya. Gulay (okay that one's Tagalog).

What's a Bisaya word you only recently realized was Spanish?

src: https://www.talkbisaya.com/word-of-the-day

https://preview.redd.it/5hz1ebitxl0h1.png?width=751&format=png&auto=webp&s=3640461a8c7e053c8582c400cb45276d186904bd

Today's Bisaya word of the day: Karne 🍖

Means "meat" — pronounced kahr-NEH.

Example: "Lutoa ang karne." → "Cook the meat."

Funny how it's basically the Spanish word "carne." Bisaya has SO many Spanish loanwords most people don't realize.

Drop your favorite Bisaya word below 👇 trying to learn more

https://preview.redd.it/rjj3mknowl0h1.png?width=791&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b66b28ae030c956bedcd330e1cbd8847df9012e

ok so todays bisaya word of the day is pan 😂 which just means... bread. pronounced pahn.

example they gave: Mangaon ta ug pan → "let's eat bread"

it's wild how much spanish just casually lives inside bisaya. pan in spanish, pan in tagalog (pandesal anyone), pan in bisaya — like the spaniards left and the bread stayed lol.

anyway bisaya ppl whats your go to pan?? im a pandesal w/ kape guy myself but i feel like pan de coco is underated. or are u the type who only counts puto/bibingka as real merienda and dosent even consider pan lmao

src: talkbisaya.com/word-of-the-day

https://preview.redd.it/2fdica9a0b0h1.png?width=743&format=png&auto=webp&s=3802e42a762067c13ed65e49f44a014658422faa

ok so todays bisaya word of the day is pan 😂 which just means... bread. pronounced pahn.

example they gave: Mangaon ta ug pan → "let's eat bread"

it's wild how much spanish just casually lives inside bisaya. pan in spanish, pan in tagalog (pandesal anyone), pan in bisaya — like the spaniards left and the bread stayed lol.

anyway bisaya ppl whats your go to pan?? im a pandesal w/ kape guy myself but i feel like pan de coco is underated. or are u the type who only counts puto/bibingka as real merienda and dosent even consider pan lmao

src: talkbisaya.com/word-of-the-day

https://preview.redd.it/cbrh9behca0h1.png?width=743&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff4c059303849a9b62408cddd1658d5b27a5ba33

Been picking up some Cebuano lately and today's word of the day on TalkBisaya hit me with something delightfully simple:

Pan (pronounced pahn) = bread

Example: Mangaon ta ug pan. → "Let's eat bread."

It's one of those sneaky Spanish loanwords that slipped into Bisaya centuries ago and just stuck around like a houseguest who never left. Spanish pan, Tagalog pan (in pandesal), Bisaya pan — same bread, three flags later.

Bisaya speakers — what's your favorite "pan" to pair this with? Pandesal? Pan de coco? Or are you team bibingka and don't even consider that pan?

Source: talkbisaya.com/word-of-the-day

https://preview.redd.it/tenh5u7bba0h1.png?width=762&format=png&auto=webp&s=32c49b79d2cebee4c433001e03ea1b0afe9d019e

Maayong adlaw, mga higala! 👋

Today's Bisaya word of the day is:

>

Example sentence: "Gusto kog gatas." → "I want milk."

Unsa imong paboritong paagi sa pag-inom og gatas? Mainit o bugnaw? ☕❄️ (What's your favorite way to drink milk? Hot or cold?)

Drop your own sentences using GATAS sa comments! Let's practice together. 💬

Source: TalkBisaya.com Word of the Day

https://preview.redd.it/h3rc2877stzg1.png?width=743&format=png&auto=webp&s=85d4b92c15f9e32b62493e6a3a265ba11ae83456

Pronunciation: ah-SEEN

Example sentence:

"Pwede pakihatag ang asin?" — "Can you pass the salt?"

Perfect word for anyone eating with Bisaya family and trying to fit in at the dinner table haha 😄

I've been building a free site to help people learn Bisaya — it updates with a new word every day. Would love feedback from actual Bisaya speakers on the words and example sentences!

🔗 talkbisaya.com/word-of-the-day

https://preview.redd.it/cyqimpc9zezg1.png?width=749&format=png&auto=webp&s=4f20912b8dadd9831bee060ad37b5a231e8db5fa

going thru a small linguistic crisis ngl. been working on this bisaya site as aside thing and ended up reading wolff's 1972 cebuano dictionary (free on gutenberg) and parts of zorc's 1977 dissertation. expected to just confirm what i already knew. got humbled.

few things that surprised me as a native speaker:

— "salamat" is literally arabic. salām (peace), came thru malay traders centuries before the spanish even arrived. always assumed it was spanish like kabayo or Diyos. nope. tagalog, bisaya, hiligaynon, waray, malay, indonesian — all using the same arabic loanword. how is this not taught in school??

— "suki" is hokkien chinese btw. from 主客 ("main guest"). same trade era that gave us siyomai, lumpia, tinapa. so when ur mom calls someone suki sa palengke she's using a word older than spanish colonization

— "habagat" (southwest monsoon) is reconstructed at around 4000 years old. you're complaining about monsoon season using a word older than the pyramids at giza. not exaggerating thats the actual reconstruction date

— bonus weird one. pre-colonial cebuano only had 3 vowels. just i, u, a. the e and o entered thru spanish loanwords and gradually became phonemic. old religious chants and traditional verse feel rhythmically different bc they were composed before that shift happened

idk man just thought it was wild. both wolff and zorc are free online btw (gutenberg #40074 and zorc.net) if anyone wants to nerd out. been folding this into the learning site i'm putting together (talkbisaya.com) but tbh the etymology stuff has been more fun than building the actual site

what other surprising bisaya word origins have u guys come across? especially boholano or davvao bisaya stuff, feel like there's regional sources i havent gotten to yet

For expats here trying to learn Cebuano/Bisaya.

I founded this site for free education www.talkbisaya.com

Might help those of you wanting to learn our language. Has phrases, grammar, pronunciation, dictionary and guides.

It's free so might as well check it out. Better than just relying on your Filipino friends to translate everything