Honestly, when I am online I often use PH rather than RP even before a proclamation of an executive order by President Aquino directing all agencies to start using PH or PHL. But I known for a fact that the Republic of the Philippines and other countries known us with an acronym RP (Republic of the Philippines), until Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Manila formally announced that it would start using PH or PHL as the official acronyms to refer to the Republic of the Philippines, which is in line with the Philippine membership with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), as well as to avoid the ambiguity and confusion with the use of the initials RP.This is in accordance with DFA Department Order No. 16-10 dated October 20 issued by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo which directed 67 Embassies, 23 Consulates General, and four Permanent Missions to use the initials PH or PHL.
In a statement, the DFA explained that:
- The long standing usage of the initials "RP" is not in accordance with ISO codes, leading to ambiguous initials that can also refer to other countries, the DFA noted.
- The ISO developed the ISO3166-1 codes, assigning two letter (alpha-2) and three letter (alpha-3) code to member countries.
- ISO 3166-1 is part of the ISO 3166 standard adopted by the ISO, and defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. The codes for the Philippines are PH and PHL, respectively.
- These codes are used in the Philippines and abroad in airline ticketing, passport issuances, currencies, and internationally-traded shares of stocks, among others.
- The DFA Office of Consular Affairs has adopted and reflects the ISO three-letter codes in the data pages of the Philippine electronic passport.
Adoption of these initials was recently endorsed by former Ambassador Juan Ona and the DFA Tattlers Group, a group of retired and active Philippine envoys.
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