The president of the Philippines wants to rename the country in order to eliminate "signs of Spanish servitude"
- In 1543 the name of the Philippines was imposed on the island in tribute to the emperor of Spain Philip II. In 1521 the military expedition of Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano began, and Zumarraga López de Legazpi's conskister carried out the slavery of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines, which was condemned to be a colony for almost four centuries. The far-right president, Rodrigo Duterte, has proposed for the country the name of Maharlika, the Malassian word that was used before the arrival of the Spaniards to "eliminate this colonial sign".
In these years is celebrated the 5th centenary of the return to the world of the military expedition initiated by Fernando de Magallanes and carried out by Juan Sebastián Elcano. The main objective of this expedition, promoted and paid by the Spanish Empire, was to submit to the Spanish Empire the territories where there were species of similar value to gold.
A significant stop to this Elkano expedition occurred on the island of Cebu in April 1521. It was the first time that the Spaniards had arrived in the Philippines, and also the beginning of colonialism, which lasted for almost four centuries. Magellan appointed the islands under the command of the Crown of Spain before his death by their citizens of origin. This later enabled the Getariarra Elcano to become the head of the expedition.
In 1543 the Spaniards named the islands the “Philippines”. The next expedition behind Elcano was led by the conqueror Ruy López de Villalobos. The process of domination ended a few years later, with the help of a conqueror of Zumarraga. In 1571, Miguel López de Legazpi directed the control of the Spaniards to most of the islands of the Philippines and the creation of the current capital, Manila.
Spanish historian Carlos Martínez Shaw highlighted in the congress of the centenary of the Elcano world tour the following: "The first thing the Spaniards took to the Philippines was an image of the 'Child Jesus'. Like all expeditions of that time, one of the main goals of Elkano and others was to evangelize the peoples who were on the way.”
The consequences of what happened five centuries ago are now clear. The Philippines is one of the few countries in Christian Asia (about 80 per cent of the population). The 333 years of Spanish colony and half a century after the United States have not been overlooked.
The president of the country, Rodrigo Duterte, has declared that Filipina is a name linked to the Spanish and Christian heritage that has led him to rule out the Muslim community residing in the country. “It’s been a long time. In Mindanao or Luzon there is no trace of Islam. (The Spaniards) Everyone who did not want to be a Christian was brutally killed,” Duterte said. He was not the first president to propose the change of name, as in the 1970s the dictator Ferdinand Marcos also proposed the appointment of Maharlika.
The 1987 Constitution allows a change of name if Congress so agrees and citizens ratify the change by means of a subsequent referendum. The Government spokesman, Salvador Panel, has stressed the difficulties of renaming. As he said, it is a very difficult idea to carry out, “it is very expensive, because many official documents have to be changed.”
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