Acronyms in the Philippines

Acronyms are popular in the Philippines. [citation|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/05/business/sxpesek.php|title=Viewpoint: GRSP! Asean's acronymitis|author=William Pesek|date=August 5, 2007|publisher=International Herald Tribune]

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.cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |author= |coauthors= |title= Redrawing the nation|url=http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/may/04/yehey/opinion/20080504opi1.html |work=The Manila Times |publisher=The Manila Times Publishing Corp. |location=Manila, Philippines |date=2008-05-05 |accessdate=2008-09-21] 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. A last example is CAMANAVA, which stands for Caloocan City, Malabon City, Navotas, and Valenzuela City—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

** Acronym pronounced partly by spelling out.