it is also know a Pilipino or sometimes written as Filipino. Tagalog or Pilipino is requred subject especially in the high school and college.

Pilipino is often used to denote a "person" from the Philippines.

The "language problem" is very difficult to reconcile - it makes it difficult for the Philippine government to "unite" all the people into one "Filipino" group because almost every province has its own dialect - that the next town in the same province (same land mass)speaks two dialects. Leyte and Southern Leyte is the case in point. You ride a public bus from Tacloban, Leyte to Southern Leyte to take a ferry to Cebu province you will notice a dramatic change - people on the side of Leyte enroute to Cebu speaks Waray-Waray dialect (Samar is also Waray), by the geographic boundary as the bus travels through - every passengers who speak switch to speaks in Cebuano which the current dialect now and also Cebu is Cebuano speakers.

Travelling in the Philippines is easy if you know Tagalog - it traverse different dialects in each province. Official and public documents are written in Tagalog or Englsih. There are 7 major dialects in the Philippines. NOW it is much more complicated with the introduction of the "TAG-lish" - new generations talks in Taglish - a status symbol of people who speak Tagalog and English - mix in the sentence structures. Taglish has been popular for over 40 to 50 years. The older folks those over 70 and above are often times confuse of what is going on.

Philippines is now written as PH - also as Mahubay, these are preferences of the present government - I bet the Department of Education are having a swell time adjusting and putting out memos and policies regulation to all the educational institutions in the Philippines. Just pick up Philippine newspapers or log in into the Philippine news online you will have a glimpse of the changes discussed in here.

Students of Philippine Studies especially those in the University of Chicago (and other IVY leagues) are well "educated" in these changes - they are documented in scholarly books and monographs.