what was the philippines called before spain came and ruled it?

Answer 1

The Philippines were named by explorers after king Phillip II of Spain in the 16th century.

It is doubtful that the island group had an overall name before that - each island would have been separate and independant of the others, so people were from Mactan, or Lapu-Lapu, and so on.

Answer 2

There have been no specific call for the full geographical entity we now call the Philippines before the Spanish arrived. The chinese language, besides the incontrovertible fact that, had a collective call for the places interior the Philippines they have been to - "ma-i". however the chinese language did no longer easily circulate to each and each of the islands interior the Philippines. The natives dwelling interior the islands themselves did no longer have a thought that they belonged to a minimum of one usa.