When Villalobos landed in Leyte, Bernardo Torre named our archipelago after King Philip II. He included the word islands because it’s comprised of thousands of islands and islets.
Our country was known as the Philippine Islands from the Spanish-American War until the Commonwealth. It was a direct English translation of the Spanish name Las Islas Filipinas. After the Americans, the word Philippines appeared as the truncated version of the Philippine Islands. The Americans referred to our country as P.I. (pi-ay).
Until now, people refer to it as PI, most especially those residing in the US.
Officially, we have 7,107 islands of which 2,000 are inhabited. This may no longer be so. China is now occupying several of our islands and continues to establish their presence in total disregard for our rights and protests.
Before we know it, China would be occupying thousands of our islands.
We Filipinos must be aware of this extremely serious problem.
We are losing our sovereignty to China.
