EDITORIAL - P.Noy

President-elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, who will be sworn in as the country's 15th president at noon of June 30, prefers to be called henceforth as "P.Noy" instead of his usual nickname.

Having run successfully on a platform of change, what more appropriate change can the next president make immediately than to start with his name. "P.Noy." There is no mistaking the allusion to us as a people. And no mistaking either the allusion to himself as President Noy.

P.Noy (okay, let is get on with it) admitted it was his sister Kris (better start getting used to her) who suggested the name. But of course. Certainly you did not think it would be Viel, or Pinky or Ballsy. It had to be Kris.

Actually, Pinoys are irrepressible suckers for initials and acronyms and should be expected to take to the new monicker like ducks to water. P.Noy has a ready-made ring to it, so it should not be a problem remembering.

It needs to be written down first so people can get used to the correct spelling as the word is punctuated by a period at a very specific place in the structure. P.Noy can easilly be spelled Pinoy if you resort to simple phonetic spelling.

As far as most Pinoys can remember, several Philippine presidents have ended up being referred to simply by their initials, such that Diosdado Macapagal was DM and Ferdinand Marcos was FM.

After Marcos, the mother of P.Noy, Corazon Aquino, preferred to be called by her real nickname Cory. Then came Fidel V. Ramos and Filipinos went back to initials, this time including the middle one: FVR.

Then there was Joseph Estrada, and another reversion to a standard nickname came -- Erap. After Erap came President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and for the first time Filipinos could not make up their minds whether to call her simply as GMA or add the P for her title, thus: PGMA.

Now we have P.Noy. It is actually okay, except that one has to make the extra effort of putting the period after the P and then hitting the shift key again to capitalize the N. But then what's in a name. It's the substance that matters. The word must be made flesh.