The endonym used by speakers of the dialect itself or the Hokkien language in general though is typically, Chinese: 咱人話 / 咱儂話; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lán-nâng-ōe / Lán-lâng-ōe / Nán-nâng-ōe; Tâi-lô: Lán-nâng-uē / Lán-lâng-uē / Nán-nâng-uē.

[28] From the late 16th century to the early 17th century, Spanish friars in the Philippines, such as the Dominican Order and Jesuits specifically in Manila, produced materials documenting the Hokkien varieties spoken by the Chinese trading community who had settled there in the late 16th century:[30][16] These texts appear to record a dialect descended primarily from a coastal Chiangchiu (Zhangzhou) dialect of Hokkien, specifically modern-day Haicheng (海澄; Hái-têng) from the area around the old port of Yuegang (an old initially illegal smuggling port that was later legalized in 1567 and is now part of Longhai),[11] but also with some attested features of the dialects of Chuanchiu (Quanzhou), such as from Anhai (安海; Oaⁿ-hái)[17] and Tong'an (同安; Tâng-oaⁿ),[17] and Teo-Swa as well, hence Klöter (2011) considers it to be a contact variety, known as Early Manila Hokkien (EMH).

[16] Yuegang (月港; Goe̍h-káng), part of Zhangzhou Prefecture under the late Ming China and Qing China used to be the Chinese terminus to and from Spanish Manila, under the Spanish Empire, which was part of the main artery that linked the trans-Pacific trade carried by the Manila galleon over the Pacific to Acapulco in New Spain (modern-day Mexico) of the Spanish Americas, that was also linked to the trans-Atlantic trade from the port of Veracruz to Seville in Spain, spreading trade goods from Asia across the Americas and later across Iberia and Europe.

As a result as well of a 1603 Sangley Rebellion and a 1639 2nd Sangley Rebellion which both caused massacres of ethnic Sangley Chinese in Manila or Southern Luzon in general, the loss of Spanish Formosa to the Dutch in 1642, and the victory of Koxinga (國姓爺; Kok-sèng-iâ) in 1662 against the Dutch at the Siege of Fort Zeelandia in Taiwan, which caused the founding of the Kingdom of Tungning, Koxinga would send an ultimatum to Spanish Manila demanding to pay tribute to him or else he would send a fleet to conquer them and expel the Spaniards as well.

In the same year of 1662, Koxinga would suddenly die of malaria, only a few months after defeating the Dutch, in a fit of madness and delirium after discovering that his son and heir, Zheng Jing, had an affair with his wet nurse and conceived a child with her.

Likewise during the 1700s, Spanish Dominican friar missionaries in Amoy/Xiamen would be severely persecuted in the region as well, but nevertheless continued to operate clandestinely.

...Another witness said the Spaniards had given up the Amoy trade since 1800.The Suez Canal which would later link Spanish Philippines directly to Spain in Iberia without rounding the cape would only start construction by 1859 and be completed at 1869.

Carstairs Douglas writes in his Hokkien dictionary that[43] Singapore and the various Straits Settlements [such as Penang and Malacca], Batavia [Jakarta] and other parts of the Dutch possessions [Indonesia], are crowded with emigrants, especially from the Chang-chew prefecture; Manila and other parts of the Philippines have great numbers from Chin-chew, and emigrants are largely scattered in like manner in Siam [Thailand], Burmah [Myanmar], the Malay Peninsula [Peninsular Malaysia], Cochin China [Southern Vietnam], Saigon [Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam], &c. In many of these places there is also a great mixture of emigrants from Swatow.

John Macgowan also records 3 entries explicitly defining Hokkien Chinese: 呂宋; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lū-sòng; lit.

In the 21st century, the Philippines now only has 2 official languages, Filipino (Tagalog) and English, with currently 19 recognized regional languages, including Cebuano Bisaya, Hiligaynon, etc., which Philippine Hokkien speakers currently frequently codeswitch with, which the form using Filipino (Tagalog) and English together with Hokkien is known as Hokaglish, akin to Taglish.

[27] Hokkien in the Philippines has been used as a liturgical language in Christianity (both Roman Catholicism and Protestant denominations), Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, and Matsu worship for centuries.

It has a long history in using Hokkien to minister to Sangley Chinese living in the Philippines and Fujian as evidenced in the works of the Spanish friars, such as the Doctrina Christiana en letra y lingua china (1593), who aimed to use the Sangley Chinese Catholic converts as a catalyst for converting the rest of China.

[52] 21st century Philippine Hokkien (咱人話; Lán-nâng-ōe) is largely derived from the Coastal Quanzhou (泉州; Choân-chiu) Hokkien dialects of Jinjiang (晉江; Chìn-kang), Coastal Nan'an (海南安 / 下南安; Hái Lâm-oaⁿ / Ě Lâm-oaⁿ), Shishi (石狮; Chio̍h-sai), Quanzhou City Proper (泉州市; Choân-chiu), Hui’an (惠安; Hūi-oaⁿ), but has possibly also absorbed influences from the adjacent Amoy dialects of Xiamen (廈門; Ē-mn̂g), Coastal Tong’an (同安; Tâng-oaⁿ), Kinmen (金門; Kim-mn̂g), Highland Nan'an (頂南安 / 山南安; Téng Lâm-oaⁿ / Soaⁿ Lâm-oaⁿ), Inland Yongchun (永春; Éng-chhun), and Inland Anxi (安溪; An-khoe) dialects of Xiamen and Highland Quanzhou respectively.

[17] Haicheng and Longxi have since been merged by 1960 within modern-day Longhai (龍海; Liông-hái) of Coastal Zhangzhou (漳州; Chiang-chiu) on the mouth of the Jiulong River (九龍江; Kiú-liông-kang) from where the old smuggling port of Yuegang (月港; Goe̍h-káng) used to operate from, before being overshadowed by the Port of Xiamen (廈門港; Ē-mn̂g Káng) closer to the sea by around the mid-1600s at the Ming-Qing transition due to conflict between the Ming loyalist, Koxinga (國姓爺; Kok-sèng-iâ), and the Qing forces.

Hokaglish shows similarities to Taglish (mixed Tagalog and English), the everyday mesolect register of spoken Filipino language within Metro Manila and its environs.

The latter therefore, in a similar sense with Taglish using Tagalog grammar and syntax, tends to code-mix via conjugating the Hokkien terms the way they do for Filipino/Tagalog words.