Changing Pilipinas to Filipinas won’t violate law – KWF

MANILA, Philippines - Pilipinas or Filipinas? What difference does a letter make?

When it comes to spelling the name of the country, Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF) chairman and National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario believes this matter should be given proper attention and consideration. 

The KWF came out with Resolution 13-19 series of 2013 dated April 12 that covers “returning the usage of ‘Filipinas’ while preventing the usage of ‘Pilipinas’ as the official name of the country.” Almario clarified that using Filipinas would not violate of any law and would not require an act of Congress to make it into law, as “there is no law that says Pilipinas is the name of the country.”

He also explained that the KWF resolution pushes for the gradual and non-compulsory re-use of Filipinas in order to promote the official and modern way of spelling the name of the country and to help the citizenry reflect on the history and progress of the nation.

He said Filipinos referred to the country as Filipinas until the end of the 19th century. It was even used by national heroes Jose Rizal in his works and Andres Bonifacio in his poem “Katapusang Hibik ng Filipinas.” 

It was only when Lope K. Santos introduced his “Balarila” in the 1940s that the Fs were replaced with Ps. Santos introduced the 20-letter Tagalog alphabet.

“But since language is a ‘formation’ or a sequence of accepted signs and symbols in communication, as the French philosopher Michel Foucault observed, it changes with the times,” Almario said.

The “Abakada” was then replaced by the 28-letter Filipino alphabet under the 1987 Philippine Constitution that added eight new letters, namely C, F, J, ñ, Q, V, X and Z. 

Almario admitted that the “Filipinas” campaign was only part of the document that they are trying to promote, the “Ortograpiyang Pambansa” (National Orthography), which is a codification and refinement of existing rules on written Filipino.