{"id":201976,"date":"2019-02-13T01:56:37","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T06:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=201976"},"modified":"2019-02-13T01:56:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T06:56:37","slug":"prrd-only-expressing-an-idea-to-rename-ph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/13\/prrd-only-expressing-an-idea-to-rename-ph\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD only \u2018expressing an idea\u2019 to rename PH"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte gives a message as he meets with the Barangay Councilors from the Fourth District of Quezon City at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on February 6, 2019. ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte was only expressing an idea when he mentioned eyeing to change the name of the country from \u201cPhilippines\u201d to \u201cThe Republic of Maharlika\u201d, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“Tingnan natin<\/em>\u00a0how (Let\u2019s see how)\u2026 how it evolves. He is expressing an idea again\u2026 as usual,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Although the President was just expressing an idea, Panelo said it is really up to Congress to enact a law to change the country\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress may enact a law that can change the name of the country and then submit it to the people for a referendum,\u201d Panelo told reporters in an interview after the briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy proposing a bill, then\u00a0magde-deliberate \u2018yun sa<\/em>\u00a0Congress \u2018di lahat ng mga players puwede niya imbitihan<\/em>\u00a0(then it will be deliberated in Congress so all players can be invited),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo said that charter change could also possibly allow the country to be renamed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome may argue, \u2018you can no longer change that\u00a0kasi<\/em>\u00a0(because) it\u2019s in the Constitution.\u2019 Others may argue also that \u2018hindi kaya lang inilagay sa<\/em>\u00a0Constitution (it\u2019s not in the Constitution),\u2019\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u00a0kung palitan natin ng batas<\/em>, automatically\u00a0puwede mo ring palitan<\/em>\u00a0(But if we change the Constitution, you can also change the name),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked why Duterte came up with the idea to rename the Philippines, Panelo said that it might be the President\u2019s way of \u201casserting our national identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell his reason is, the word \u2018maharlika\u2019 is a Malay word. And \u2018di ba, marami nang nag-criticize na iyong<\/em>Philippines was named after King Philip (And remember, there were many criticizing the fact that Philippines was named after King Philip),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo was referring to Philip II, king of Spain during the Spanish colonization of the country in the 16th century.<\/p>\n

He said the President might have preferred the name \u201dMaharlika\u201d because it meant \u201croyalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Duterte first suggested changing the country\u2019s name agreeing with former President Ferdinand Marcos’ proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilippines because it was discovered by Magellan using the money of King Philip.\u00a0Kaya pagdating ng u***, ginawang<\/em>\u00a0(So when he came here, he named it) Philippines.\u00a0Pero okay na ‘yan. Balang araw palitan natin<\/em>\u00a0(But that\u2019s okay. Maybe it can be changed someday),\u201d Duterte said in a speech in Buluan, Maguindanao.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually,\u00a0tama si Marcos. Panahon ni Marcos, tama talaga si Marcos. Gusto niya palitan. Maharlik<\/em>a (Actually, Marcos was right. During Marcos\u2019 time, he was really right. He wanted to change it to Maharlika). The Republic of Maharlika because Maharlika is a Malay word and it means more of a concept of serenity and peace,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Panelo, however, said that it was not Marcos who first came up with the idea to rename the country to Maharlika but could not remember who did.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, that\u2019s not Mr. Marcos\u2019 idea. I forgot the name of that person. But Mr. Marcos at that time welcomed that idea, but it was not his original (idea),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo also cited how former Batasang Pambansa member Eddie Ilarde filed Parliamentary Bill 195 in 1978, which sought to change the country\u2019s name to Maharlika.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte was only expressing an idea when he mentioned eyeing to change the name of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":201254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}