Everything about the Philippine totally explained
The
Philippines, officially known as the
Republic of the Philippines (;
RP), is an
archipelagic nation located in
Southeast Asia, with
Manila as its capital city. The Philippine archipelago comprises 7,107 islands in the western
Pacific Ocean, bordering countries such as
Indonesia,
Malaysia,
Palau and the
Republic of China, although it's the only Southeast Asian country to share no land borders with its neighbors. The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country with a population approaching 90 million people.
Spanish was an official language of the Philippines until 1973. Since then the two official languages are
Filipino and
English.
Ruy López de Villalobos used the name
Las Islas Filipinas in honor of the then-Crown Prince during his expedition to the Philippines, originally referring to the islands of
Leyte and
Samar. Despite the presence of other names, the name was eventually adopted as the name of the entire archipelago.
The official name of the islands, however, changed throughout the course of Philippine history. In the
Philippine Revolution, the Philippines was officially called the or the
Philippine Republic. From the time of the Spanish-American War until the Commonwealth, American colonial authorities have referred to the Philippines as the "Philippine Islands", a translation of the original Spanish. It was in the Commonwealth period that the name
Philippines began to appear, a name that persists as its current official name. By the 13th century, Islam was established in the
Sulu Archipelago and spread from there to
Mindanao; it had reached the
Manila area by 1565. Although Islam spread to Luzon,
animism, syncretized with
Hinduism and
Vajrayana Buddhism, was still the religion of the majority of the Philippine islands. Muslim immigrants introduced a political concept of territorial states ruled by
rajas or
sultans who exercised
suzerainty over the datu. Neither the political state concept of the Muslim rulers nor the limited territorial concept of the sedentary rice farmers of Luzon, however, spread beyond the areas where they originated. When the
Spanish arrived in the 16th century, the majority of the estimated 500,000 people in the islands lived in barangay settlements.
In the service of Spain, Portuguese explorer
Ferdinand Magellan and his crew started their voyage on
September 20,
1519. Magellan sighted
Samar on
March 17,
1521, on the next day, they reached
Homonhon. They reached the island of Limasawa on
March 28,
1521 where the first
Mass in the Philippines was celebrated on
March 31,
1521.
Spanish rule brought political unification to an archipelago of previously independent islands and communities that later became the Philippines, and introduced elements of
western civilization such as the
code of law,
printing and the
calendar. The Philippines was ruled as a territory of
New Spain from 1565 to 1821, but after Mexican independence it was administered directly from
Madrid. During that time numerous towns were founded, infrastructures built, new crops and livestock introduced, and trade flourished. The
Manila Galleon which linked Manila to
Acapulco once or twice a year beginning in the late 16th century, carried silk, spices, ivory and porcelain to America and silver on the return trip to the Philippines. The Spanish military fought off various indigenous revolts and several external colonial challenges, especially from the
British, Chinese pirates, Dutch, and Portuguese.
Roman Catholic missionaries converted most of the inhabitants to
Christianity, and founded numerous schools, universities and hospitals. In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced
public education, creating free public schooling in
Spanish .
The
Propaganda Movement, which included Philippine nationalist
José Rizal, then a student studying in Spain, soon developed on the Spanish mainland. This was done in order to inform the government of the injustices of the administration in the Philippines as well as the abuses of the friars. In the 1880s and the 1890s, the propagandists clamored for political and social reforms, which included demands for greater representation in
Spain. Unable to gain the reforms, Rizal returned to the country, and pushed for the reforms locally. Rizal was subsequently arrested, tried, and executed for
treason on
December 30,
1896. Earlier that year, the
Katipunan, led by
Andrés Bonifacio, had already started a revolution, which was eventually continued by
Emilio Aguinaldo, who established a revolutionary government, although the Spanish governor general
Fernando Primo de Rivera proclaimed the revolution over in
May 17,
1897.
The
Spanish-American War began in
Cuba in 1898 and soon reached the Philippines when Commodore
George Dewey defeated the Spanish squadron at
Manila Bay. Aguinaldo declared the independence of the Philippines on
June 12,
1898, and was proclaimed head of state. As a result of its defeat, Spain was forced to officially cede the Philippines, together with
Cuba (made an independent country, the US in charge of foreign affairs),
Guam and
Puerto Rico to the United States. In 1899 the
First Philippine Republic was proclaimed in
Malolos,
Bulacan but was later dissolved by the US forces, leading to the
Philippine-American War between the United States and the Philippine revolutionaries, which continued the violence of the previous years. The US proclaimed the war ended when Aguinaldo was captured by American troops on
March 23,
1901, but the
struggle continued until 1913 claiming the lives of over a million Filipinos
. The country's status as a territory changed when it became the
Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935, which provided for more self-governance. Plans for increasing independence over the next decade were interrupted during
World War II when
Japan invaded and occupied the islands. After the Japanese were defeated in 1945, returned to the Filipino and American forces in the Liberation of the Philippines from 1944 to 1945, the Philippines was granted independence from the United States on
July 4,
1946.
The return of democracy and government reforms after the events of 1986 were hampered by massive national debt, government corruption, coup attempts, a communist insurgency, and a Muslim separatist movement. The economy improved during the administration of
Fidel V. Ramos, who was elected in 1992. However, the economic improvements were negated at the onset of the
East Asian financial crisis in 1997. The
2001 EDSA Revolution led to the downfall of the following president,
Joseph Estrada. The current administration of president
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been hounded by allegations of corruption and
election rigging.
Politics and government
The Philippines has a
presidential,
unitary (with some modification; there's
one autonomous region largely free from the national government) form of government, where the
President functions as both
head of state and
head of government, and is
commander-in-chief of the
armed forces. The president is elected by popular vote to a single six-year term, during which time she or he appoints and presides over the
cabinet.
Administrative divisions
The Philippines is divided into three island groups:
Luzon,
Visayas, and
Mindanao. These are divided into 17
regions, 81
provinces, 136
cities, 1,494
municipalities and 41,995
barangays.
¹ Names are capitalized because they're
acronyms, containing the names of the constituent provinces or cities (
see Acronyms in the Philippines).
² These regions formed the former
Southern Tagalog region, or Region IV.
³ Palawan was moved from Region IV-B as known as MIMAROPA to Region VI. From November 2005, Region IV-B would be called MIMARO, decreased from five to four provinces and Region VI increased from six to seven provinces.
there are groups called the AP throughout the USA with members
Geography
The Philippines constitutes an
archipelago of 7,107 islands with a total land area of approximately 300,000 square kilometers (116,000
sq mi). It generally lies between 116° 40' and 126° 34' E. longitude, and 4° 40' and 21° 10' N. latitude, and borders the
Philippine Sea on the east, the
South China Sea on the west, and the
Celebes Sea on the south. The island of
Borneo lies a few hundred kilometers southwest and
Taiwan directly north. The
Moluccas and
Sulawesi are to the south/southwest, and
Palau is to the east beyond the
Philippine Sea.
Most of the mountainous islands used to be covered in
tropical rainforest and are volcanic in origin. The highest point is
Mount Apo on Mindanao at 2,954 metres (9,692 ft). There are many active
volcanos such as
Mayon Volcano,
Mount Pinatubo, and
Taal Volcano. The country also lies within the
typhoon belt of the Western Pacific and about 19 typhoons strike per year.
Lying on the northwestern fringes of the
Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activities. Some 20
earthquakes are registered daily in the Philippines, though most are too weak to be felt. The last great earthquake was the
1990 Luzon earthquake.
The longest river is the
Cagayan River in northern Luzon.
Manila Bay is connected to
Laguna de Bay by means of the
Pasig River.
Subic Bay, the
Davao Gulf and the
Moro Gulf are some of the important bays. Transversing the
San Juanico Strait is the
San Juanico Bridge (considered a point of vital national infrastructure and capacity), that connects the islands of
Samar and
Leyte.
Economy
The Philippines is a
newly industrialized country with an economy anchored on
agriculture but with substantial contributions from
manufacturing,
mining,
remittances from overseas Filipinos and
service industries such as
tourism and, increasingly,
business process outsourcing, to which it's known for having one of most vibrant
BPO industries in Asia. The Philippines is listed in the roster of "
Next Eleven" economies.
Historically, the Philippine economy has largely been anchored on the
Manila galleon during the Spanish era, and bilateral trade with the United States during the American era. Pro-Filipino economic policies were first implemented during the tenure of
Carlos P. Garcia with the "Filipino First" policy. By the 1960s, the Philippine economy was regarded as the second-largest in Asia, next only to Japan. However, the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos would prove disastrous to the Philippine economy, sliding the country into severe economic
recession, only to recover starting in the 1990s with a program of economic liberalization and the breaking of Marcos-era monopolies and the system of cronyism under Fidel V. Ramos. in line with the "7, 8, 9" project of the government to accelerate GDP growth by 2009.
In a bid to further strengthen the Philippine economy, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pledged to make the Philippines a
developed country by 2020. As part of this goal, she instituted five economic "
super regions" to concentrate on the economic strengths of various regions of the Philippines, as well as the implementation of
tax reforms, continued privatization of state assets, and the building-up of
infrastructure in various areas of the Philippines.
Despite the growing economy, the Philippines will have to address several chronic problems in the future. Strategies for streamlining the economy include improvements of infrastructure, more efficient tax systems to bolster government revenues, furthering deregulation and
privatization of the economy, and increasing trade integration within the region and across the world. The Philippine economy is also heavily reliant on remittances as a source of foreign currency, surpassing even foreign direct investment.
China and
India have emerged as major economic competitors, siphoning away investors who would otherwise have invested in the Philippines, particularly telecommunications companies. Regional development is also somewhat uneven, with Luzon and Metro Manila in particular gaining most of the new economic growth at the expense of the other regions, although the government has taken steps to distribute economic growth by promoting investment in other areas of the Philippines.
The Philippines is a founding member of the
Asian Development Bank, playing home to its headquarters. It is also a member of the
World Bank, the IMF, the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the
World Trade Organization (WTO), the
Colombo Plan, and the
G-77, among others.
Demographics
The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country, with a population of over 90 million as of 2008. and about equal for males and females. The
Malayo-Polynesian-speaking peoples, a branch of
Austronesian, migrated to the Philippines and brought their knowledge of rice agriculture and ocean-sailing technology. Filipinos to this day are composed of various
Malayo-Polynesian-speaking ethnic groups, including but not limited to the
Visayans, the
Tagalog, the
Ilocano, the
Moro, the
Kapampangan, the
Bicolano, the
Pangasinense, the
Igorot, the
Lumad, the
Mangyan, the
Ibanag, the
Badjao, the
Ivatan, and the
Palawan tribes. The
Negritos, including the
Aetas and the
Ati, are considered as the aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippines though they're estimated to be fewer than 30,000 people (0.03%).
Filipinos of
Chinese descent, who had been settling in the Philippines since pre-colonization, currently forms the largest non-Austronesian ethnic group, claiming about 1.5% of the population. Other significant minorities, ranked according to population, include
Spanish,
British,
Americans,
Japanese,
Asian Indians,
Koreans,
Arabs and
Indonesians. Chinese mestizos are those in the Philippines of mixed Chinese and either indigenous Filipino or Spanish (or both) ancestry. They make up between 10-20% of the country's total population.
Throughout the country's history, various ethnic groups as well as immigrants and colonizers have intermarried, producing
Filipino mestizos. These mestizos, apart from being of mixed indigenous Austronesian and European ancestry, can be descended from any
ethnic foreign forebears. The percentage of Filipinos with foreign ancestry is unknown since there are no credible sources for the percentage of Philippine mestizos residing in the Philippines. The number of Filipino mestizos that reside outside the Philippines is also unknown. However, due to major historical factors, such as the Spanish colonization, the American occupation, and Chinese immigration after World War II; many Filipino mestizos that reside in the Philippines are now of Spanish, American and Chinese descent.
Languages
Filipino and
English are the official languages of the Philippines, but more than 180 languages and dialects are spoken in the archipelago, almost all of them belonging to the
Borneo-Philippines group of the
Malayo-Polynesian language branch of the
Austronesian language family.
According to the
1987 Constitution,
Filipino and
English are both the official languages. Many Filipinos understand, write and speak English, Filipino and their respective regional languages.
Filipino is the
de facto standardized version of
Tagalog spoken in Metro Manila and urban centers and one of the official languages in the country. English, the other official language, is widely used as a
lingua franca throughout the country.
Twelve major regional languages are the auxiliary official languages of their respective regions, each with over one million speakers:
Tagalog,
Cebuano,
Ilocano,
Hiligaynon,
Waray-Waray,
Kapampangan,
Bikol,
Pangasinan.
Kinaray-a,
Maranao,
Maguindanao and
Tausug.
English was imposed by Americans during the U.S. intervention and colonization of the archipelago. English is used in education, churches, religious affairs, print and broadcast media, and business, though the number of people who use it as a second language far outnumber those who speak it as a first language. Still, English is the preferred medium for textbooks and instruction for secondary and tertiary levels. Movies and TV programs in English are not subtitled but many films and TV programs are produced in Filipino. English is the sole language of the law courts.
Spanish was the original official language of the country for more than three centuries, and became the
lingua franca of the Philippines in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Spanish was the language of the
Philippine Revolution, and the 1899 Malolos Constitution proclaimed it as the official language. However, Spanish was spoken by a total of 60% of the population in the early 1900s as a first, second or third language. Following the American occupation of the Philippines, its use declined after 1940. Currently, only a few
Mestizos of Spanish or Hispanic origin speak it as their first language, although a few others use it together with Filipino and English.
Both
Spanish and
Arabic are used as
auxiliary languages in the Philippines. The use of Arabic is prevalent among
Filipino Muslims and taught in
madrasah (Muslim) schools.
Religion
East Timor. The Philippines is separated into
dioceses of which the
Archdiocese of Manila enjoys primacy. About 90% of Filipinos identify themselves as Christians, with 81% belonging to the
Roman Catholic Church. 2% are composed of Protestant denominations and 11% either to the
Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayan),
Iglesia ni Cristo and others. While Christianity is a major force in the culture of the Filipinos, indigenous traditions and rituals still influence religious practice.
The Philippines is also well-known for its
Baroque Churches. They are a part of the long list of
UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These churches are:
- San Agustin Church, Intramuros, Manila;
- Paoay Church, Paoay, Ilocos Norte;
- Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion (Santa Maria) Church Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur;
- Santo Tomas de Villanueva (Miag-ao) Church, Miag-ao, Iloilo
Approximately 5% of Filipinos are
Muslims,), and
Chowking (acquired by Jollibee in 2000
). Modern day Filipinos also listen to contemporary American music and watch American movies. However, Original Pilipino Music (also known as OPM) and
Philippine movies are also widely appreciated.
Filipinos honor national heroes whose works and deeds contributed to the shaping of the Filipino nation.
José Rizal is the most celebrated
ilustrado, a Spanish-speaking reformist visionary whose writings contributed greatly in nurturing a sense of national identity and awareness. His novels
Noli Me Tangere and
El Filibusterismo originally written in Spanish, are required readings for Filipino students, and provide vignettes of colonial life under the Spanish rule.
As with many cultures,
music (which includes
traditional music) and leisure activities are an important aspect of the Filipino society. Various
sports are also enjoyed, including
boxing,
basketball,
badminton,
billiards,
football (soccer) and
ten-pin bowling being popular games in the country.
Further Information
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