President and Congress should mandate ‘Filipino Republic’ as the official name of our country

France, true to its tradition of setting styles and trends in the world, started the tradition of designating for itself a formal name (by which it would be known in the international community) and adopting a common name for popular usage.

France listed its official name as “Republique Francaise” (French Republic) and subsequently embraced “France” as its common name.

Many other states in modern times adopted the French style in their national nomenclature. Notable among these are (the list below cites the common name first and then the formal name):

1. Argentina – Argentine Republic

2. Czech Republic – Czech Republic

3. Greece – Hellenic Republic

4. Portugal – Portuguese Republic

5. Venezuela– Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

6. Slovakia – Slovakian Republic

7. Italy – Italian Republic

8. Gabon – Gabonese Republic

9. Kyrgyztan – Kyrgyztan Republic. The ISO standards set by the International Organization for Standardization are widely accepted around the world. This standard is used by the United Nations.

ISO 3166-1 defines an official short name in English. Official names of countries in a language other than English should not be used on the English Wikipedia.

The dominant customary international law standard of statehood is the declarative theory of statehood, codified by the Montevideo Convention of 1933. The convention defines the state as a person of international law if it “possess[es] the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) a capacity to enter into relations with the other states” so long as it was not “obtained by force whether this consists in the employment of arms, in threatening diplomatic representations, or in any other effective coercive measure.”

At the other end of the spectrum, the constitutive theory of statehood defines a state as a person under international law only if it is recognized as sovereign by other states.

Bridge to national identity, history and heritage

My key proposal in this series on national nomenclature is our imperative need for legislation to designate an official name or title for our republic.

In this regard, I nominate “Filipino Republic” as the ideal and logical choice to be mandated as the official title of our republic in place of “Republic of the Philippines,” which was decreed by the old and now defunct 1935 Constitution.

“Filipinas” should become the nation’s common name, “Philippines” will stay as the English translation of our national name, and “Pilipinas” will be a Tagalog translation of the name.

A name correction or rectification is imperative because the 1934 constitutional convention committed an egregious error in summarily Americanizing the name Filipinas, by which our country had always been known to the world.

This failing was compounded by the appalling failure of the 1986 Constitutional Commission to provide for national nomenclature in their rush to write the 1987 Constitution. Technically, our republic does not have an official name today; it only has the memory of one.

But more important than these are the reasons why reverting to the names “Filipino Republic” and “Filipinas” will be salutary and beneficial to the nation and the republic.

“Filipinas” is the name whereby our archipelago has been known in recorded history. Before 1521, we did not have a history with dates.

According to the writer Nick Joaquin, until 1521, when Magellan arrived, we essentially had a history without dates; we only began to have dates after Ruy Lopez de Villalobos baptized us “Filipinas.”

Without Filipinas, there would be no root word for our nationality as “Filipinos,” we would have nothing to match other nationals in their natural and easy identification with their countries of origin.

History shaped by other nations

For over 500 years, our people’s history has been shaped by other nations. Three times our country was conquered, occupied and colonized.

And now that we are completely independent and sovereign in our own land, there are those who doubt whether we are truly independent or capable of being sovereign over our territory.

For over 500 years, Filipino history has not been the story of what Filipinos have done as much as what was done to us.

Seen against this background, the adoption of “Filipino Republic” will be an act of renewal for the Filipino nation.

It will be our way of reclaiming our national identity, our history and our heritage.

Filipinas will allow us to reclaim our living land — our archipelago of over 7,600 islands and over 110 million people.

The name change will reflect a sense of new nationalism, release fresh energy, and reinforce the program of modernization and renewal of the Marcos Jr. administration. If explained effectively to our people, it could become the basis for the entire country to unite behind the government in its singular purpose and vision of the future.

As with the transfer of Philippine Independence Day observance from July 4 to June 12, the adoption of “Filipino Republic” will be a popular and patriotic policy of the government. In no time, the whole nation will reach a full consensus on the wisdom of reverting to the name “Filipino Republic” as our official name.

The nation and the world will adjust.