Should the name Philippines be changed to something originally Filipino?

Question

Hi, I am doing a survey for my extemporaneous speaking and if you could please answer the following question above, we all know that this name was given to us by Sapin in commemoration of King Philipe, so do you think it is right to change it to a new name like Siam to Thailand?, please, feel free to answer, thank you.

Answer 1

To some extent I support your idea of changing the name of our country. I mean, after the fall of Communism they did change name of the city Leningrad back to it's original name of St. Petersburg.
The problem is that the Philippines didn't have any official name as a unified country before the spaniards came for that 400 year long visit.
But then again, what's wrong with the name "Philippines"? I could understand if Filipinos are thinking about the oppression we went under during those colonial times, but nobody really associates that name with any previous injustices, right? It's also worth mentioning that there are still a lot of pinoys out there who have noo idea that the name came from a spanish king.
So what I have to say is this... why fix it when it ain't broken?

Anyway, the more intriguing debate is really what to call our country if not the Philippines?

Answer 2

A new name doesn't make a new nation.

I think changing the name only makes things worse.
It will invite controversies and a huge amount of debate.
I doubt it if it will ever be come to anything.
It will only sow discord among the already divided nation.

Where we are from, what we are called, and how we are presented matters; but nothing matters more than what actually happens to give the country a future.
A new name doesn't make us any better,
just as using an old name doesn't make us original.

Being Filipino and being original will never go together.
We were barely given a chance to develop as a civilization before we were conquered.
We will have to do with what we have.
We must simply own it and be proud of it.

Before we think of changing ourselves,
we must make ourselves ready for change.
Bring Philippines to the forefront, give it a future,
and then,
maybe the time will be right to look back to the past.

Answer 3

The word Filipino that currently identifies the people living in the Philippine archipelago and/or was born from a Filipino heritage is the legacy of Spanish colonization. But in the past, Filipinos draws the demarcation line between Spanish race and Indios (natives).

When the Spaniards arrived in the sixteenth century, they named the land Philippines but they did not call the natives Filipinos. Originally, the term filipino (spelled with a small f) was reserved only for Spaniards born in the Philippines. The natives were called indios (Indians), the very same term that Columbus used for the indigenous population of the New World.

This historical fact basically contradicts with the current popular idea of the term Filipino Nationalism- an ideology that upholds a concept of liberation from its Imperialist Colonizers. Why use a name that does not historically describe our identity, anyway? But name changing to reclaim our national identity is an old hat, describing the various suggestions of re-naming Philippines into something else.

But the most controversial amongst it, was the campaign of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos who pushed the initiative to switch the name Philippines into Maharlika. Of course, this idea was totally opposed then by the growing anti-dictator movement in the Academe such as Remigio Agpalo who exclaimed, replacing Philippines with Maharlika is “to cut ourselves from the historical, emotional and ideological roots of our national identity, leaving us without vital sources of purpose, meaning, and life”. For Agpalo, the name Philippines is the symbol of a saga for nation-building, which our past heroes fought for liberation against Spain.

Answer 4

The idea of a name change is old hat. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos attempted to foist upon the Filipino people the name Maharlika. In pre–colonial Philippines, maharlika denoted a warrior–noble who belonged to the lower aristocracy and who rendered military service to his lord.

Since the Maharlika episode, there have been several attempts to have the country’s name changed. Among the alternative names submitted to the Constitutional Commission of 1986 and to the Philippine Congress were Rizal, the name of the country’s national hero; Bayani, an indigenous Tagalog term which means “hero”; and Luzviminda, short for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the names – of pre–Hispanic origins – of the three main island groups of the Philippine archipelago. Almost each time, the main argument presented for the name change was that Philippines is of colonial origin. The new proposals have all been shot down, and Philippines has prevailed.

The name Philippines, was enshrined in the country’s poetry, essays, speeches, letters, state documents as well as in patriotic music, and was “a symbol of a saga of nation–building, a struggle for freedom, a history written in the blood and sweat of Rizal, Bonifacio, and many other national heroes and in the sweat and tears of ordinary citizens”.

Answer 5

As there is no recorded name for the whole archipelago before it was named which is now called the Philippines, renaming it may just cause a never ending arguments.

As a contribution to your research, before the arrival of the Chinese and the Europeans, the natives of the islands have developed their own scripts called 'Baybayin' by the Tagalogs. So we may derive a name from Tagalog (like the Marcos 'Maharlika'). However, the Visayans have their own version of the Baybayin so does the Ilocanos, and the moros.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

The original name of the Philippines is Felipinas, as you said, in commemoration of King Philipe (Felipe) of Spain. It sounds weird so it was called Pilipinas or Philippines. Republika ng Pilipinas or Republic of the Philippines. That's the history of my dear country's name.

Answer 8

Present Germans did not clamor to change their name to forget the atrocities and havoc their past leadership brought to the world , not because they are proud of it but they want to always remember that the harm they brought before must not in any way be repeated . Instead this generation must live shoulder to shoulder with other nations to maintain peace and harmony . Japan was very sorry to the damaged they've brought to other nations especially Philippines but they did not change their name just to appease and erase the memory of what hunger for power could do to nations . Instead Japan maintained their name and vow to never be shamed by it again and help all those nations they brought damage to
.
Why then Philippines must be ask to change its name , when we were not oppressors but the oppressed but our Filipino spirit never surrendered , stump upon by more powerful country but our heroes courage never wavered in their fight for freedom and national pride , we were ravaged by war but stood proud that among nations in fight for posterity after the war . Our soldiers were marched to death but you have not heard any story that any one among them surrendered their being Filipino just to avoid death .
Maintaining our name that shed so much blood from our past generations , will make our young know the history of our name . Every time they ask where did we get our Philippines name and why is it the one who gave our name are not our rulers now , the truth of Filipino bravery and sacrifice they have to do for our young to be free , will then be revealed and the most expected by our heroes is for our young to love our country as they did .
Now , do you want our name to be changed ?

Answer 9

In my humble opinion, No.

It will cost us too much to change the name. The whole world is gonna change anyway. Would there still be nationality distinctions by that time?

Answer 10

I work with a lot of Filipinos and they are so proud that they have Spanish names, even though they don't have any Spanish cultural traditions except Catholicism. So, I doubt that they would support that.

Plus, most Filipinos don't know there history. I know some who were born in the Philippines left during Marcos' downfall and lived in Hawaii and now claim they are Hawaiian. Not just born in Hawaiian, but Hawaiian.