The former mutineer and Marine captain, now a lawmaker, said that the new name should "appropriately address and define us as a people and nation."
The Magdalo Representative filed the House Bill 5867, or An Act Constituting a Geographic Renaming Commission to Rename Our Country on June 7, Wednesday.
The legislator's office stated in a press release on June 11, that the filing of the bill will happen during the 119th Independence Day Celebration on June 12, Monday.
In the proposal, the commission would have representatives from three members from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), and the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF).
An initial funding of P30 million would be given to the commission and from the approval of the act, it will be given "not later than one year" to complete its work and then the report-recommendation will be submitted to the president.
"If we want to be truly independent, then we should throw away the bonds of colonialism by establishing our own national identity. For our country to move forward, we should identify a name for our country that genuinely reflects our national aspirations, a name that signifies our values and self-determination," said Alejano, a mutineer turned legislator.
"While many other nations who were formerly under colonial yoke have reverted back to their former pre-colonized name as it gives them a sense of national pride and identity as free people, we opted to retain the name given by our Spanish colonizers. It is high time for our country to experience a sense of being and independence by choosing a name that reflects our character, our values, as a people, and as a nation," he added.
The legisltaor explained that by renaming the country, it would get rid of its colonialism traces, establish its national identity and also for its nation, people and national language would be addressed. He also noted that former colonies had "reverted back to their former pre-colonized names as it gives them a sense of national pride and identity as a free people."
"Various colonizers came over which muddled our identity as a people and nation. Felipenas, Filipinas, Pilipinas, Philippines—which of these is the correct name of our country? It is high time for us to have a name which befits us and is universal to all," he said.
The legislator previously filed an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte and unfortunately for him, his complaint was junked on the first hearing for having "inefficient substance."
Source: GMA; Rappler
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