Duterte reiterates plan to rename the Philippines

President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday reiterated his plan to change the country’s name but clarified he has no specific name yet in mind.

Duterte earlier expressed his agreement with the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos' supposed plan to change the country's name from the Philippines to Maharlika in a bid to move away from its colonial past.

The Philippines was named after the Spanish monarch Philip II. The archipelago was a Spanish colony for centuries until it was seized by the US in 1898.

“No particular name yet but sure I would like to change the name of the Philippines because the Philippines is named after King Philip,” Duterte said in a speech in Isabela City, Basilan.

“Eh okay na, matagal nang panahon. Sabi nila what’s the name? Marami po. Kasi kami nung doon sa Mindanao hanggang Luzon, ‘yung hindi inabot ng Islam, we were converted brutally. Pinapatay ‘yung ayaw mag-Kristiyano.”

Duterte’s spokesperson Salvador Panelo last month said that the President was only expressing an idea when he floated the idea of changing the country’s name.

He said under the Constitution, the Congress may, by law, adopt a new name for the country, and shall take effect only upon its ratification by the people in a national referendum.

Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray meanwhile sees no need to tinker with the country's name when there was no reason to do it.

"If it's not broke, don't fix it. I mean, Philippines is Philippines," Gray said. 

A historian said the word maharlika does not mean noble or nobleman.

Professor Xiao Chua said American colonizers had erred in translating Spanish documents that contained the word mahadlika or maharlika.

"Ang ibig sabihin ng maharlika noong unang panahon ay isang uri ng tao na malaya," Chua said.

Chua said that while there was the classes of datu and of uripon or alipin, there was the class in the middle of the system that was called maharlika, or timawa in the Visayan language.

"Middle class. Malaya," Chua said. —KG, GMA News