Rodrigo Duterte wants to change the name of the Philippines

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, He proposed change the name of the country that governs, in an attempt to eliminate the reference to the colonial past that would require constitutional reform.

The current denomination was installed by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, who honored the young child of the time. Felipe IIwho will later become king in the sixteenth century.

Therefore, Duterte proposes that the country be called now Maharlika, which means the nobility in a local language The proposal had already been launched by the late dictator Ferdinando Marcos.

"Marcos was right. change it to Maharlika because it is a Malay word that is more related to the concept of serenity and peace "said the president.

For his part, the Senate Speaker, Tito Sotto, agreed with the idea, although he warned that the process would not be easy. "I would need a lot of changes," he said, referring to a constitutional reform process. For the moment, no project presented to the Congress is intended to advance the modification which would require an update of the atlas of the world.