Rodrigo Duterte, the perpetually disgruntled president of the Philippines, is unhappy about the name of his country
, the perpetually disgruntled president of the Philippines, is unhappy about the name of his country. “I want to change it someday,” he remarked earlier this month in one of his customary rambling speeches. “No particular name yet but, sure, I would like to change the name of the Philippines, because the Philippines is named after King Philip.” The Philip in question was a 16th-century king of Spain.
It was the second time in three weeks that Mr Duterte had called for a new name, making it sound like an official government policy. But his spokesman, Salvador Panelo, is woolly about that: “He is expressing an idea again…as usual.” If it is policy, it will require an amendment to the constitution, which would have to be approved by plebiscite.That seems unlikely. If the reminder of colonialism makes ordinary Filipinos bridle, they do so less openly than their president.
Most historians, however, believe that Mr Marcos invented the guerrilla group, or wildly exaggerated its exploits, in order to cast himself as a war hero. Many academics also dispute the assertion that Maharlika means nobility, saying it refers to a lower class in the ancient hierarchy. Moreover, the word does not seem to be Malay at all, but rather derived from Sanskrit. The consensus seems to be that it means “man of ability”, although a persistent minority translate it as “big phallus”.
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