Acronyms in the Philippines

Acronyms are popular in the Philippines.[1] It is widely used in the different sectors of the Philippine society. Often, due to long full names of the institutions in the Philippines, acronyms are then utilized to shorten the name of an institution or a company in the country. Making it more convenient to the majority of the Philippine population, but sometimes tends to become ambiguous.

Cultural predominance

Geography

Geography is one area prone to acronyms. Many times, when a group of places is formed, instead of coining a descriptive term for the group, an acronym that stands for the individual places is created. An example outside the Philippines is Benelux, which stands for the countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

A premiere example in the Philippines is Luzviminda. This is an acronym that stands for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the three island groupings of the country. Luzviminda is actually used as a name for many Filipino women. Another example in the Philippines is the region CALABARZON. This is a region consisting of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon.[2] CALABARZON was split off from the former Southern Tagalog region in 2002. The region containing the remaining provinces in Southern Tagalog is also named as an acronym, MIMAROPA, which stands for the provinces of Mindoro (Occidental and Oriental), Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan.[2] A last example is CAMANAVA, which stands for Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela—all of which are located in Metro Manila.

Entity uses

Acronyms are not only prevalent in geography.

Many business owners also use acronyms in their company names. The name of the popular clothing company, Bench, is actually an acronym for the company's president, Ben Chan.

Acronyms are even used to name TV shows. Popular noontime variety shows like SOP and ASAP have appropriated common acronyms as the name of the TV show.

Politics

In political campaigns, many candidates names become acronyms stating their political platforms. A particularly stilted political acronym used was the slogan used by the People Power Coalition (PPC) in the 2001 senatorial elections: VOT FOR D CHAMPP. The slogan is an acronym that stands for the names of the 13 senator candidates fielded by PPC. The 11 administration senators who voted YES to block the opening of the second envelope during Estrada's impeachment trial were called "Jose's Cohort": Jaworski, Osmeña, Santiago, Enrile, Sotto, Coseteng, Oreta, Honasan, Ople, Revilla, Tatad.

List of Philippine acronyms

Churches and Religious Institutions

Geography

Government Institutions and Corporations

Political parties

Companies and commerce

Educational institutions

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ↑ William Pesek (2007-08-05). "Viewpoint: GRSP! ASEAN's acronymitis". International Herald Tribune.
  2. 1 2 "Redrawing the nation". The Manila Times. 2008-05-05. Archived from the original on May 15, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
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