Republika ng Pilipinas Republic of the Philippines
Motto: Maka-Diyos, Makatao, Makakalikasan, at Makabansa (English: "For God, People, Nature and Country")
Anthem: Lupang Hinirang "Chosen Land"
Capital		Manila 14°35′N, 121°0′E
Largest city		Quezon City
Official languages		Filipino and English
Recognised regional languages		Bikol, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tagalog, Waray-WarayGeneral information. Government of the Philippines. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.  Official Website. Government of the Philippines. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
Demonym		Filipino, Pinoy
Government		Unitary presidential constitutional republic
-	President	Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
-	Vice President	Noli de Castro
Independence		from Spain from United States
-	Established	March 16 1521
-	Declared	June 12 1898
-	Self-government	March 24 1934
-	Independence recognized	July 4 1946
-	Current constitution	February 2 1987
Area
-	Total	300,000 km² World Factbook — Philippines. CIA. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.(72nd) 115,831 sq mi
-	Water (%)	0.61%
Population
-	2000 estimate	88.701 millionReport for selected subjects (Philippines), International Monetary Fund, 2006, <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2007/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=65&pr.y=8&sy=2005&ey=2008&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=566&s=NGDP_RPCH%2CNGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CPPPEX%2CPCPI%2CPCPIPCH%2CPCPIE%2CPCPIEPCH%2CLP&grp=0&a=>. Retrieved on 12 December 2007 (12th)
-	2000 census	76,498,735 2000 Census of Population and Housing (Final Counts), National Statistics Office, Republic of the Philippines, <http://www.census.gov.ph/census2000/c2khighlights_final.html>. Retrieved on 12 December 2007
-	Density	290/km² (32nd) 112/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2006 estimate
-	Total	$466.632 billion (25th)
-	Per capita	$5,365.287 (99th)
GDP (nominal)		2006 estimate
-	Total	$117.562 billion (47th)
-	Per capita	$1,351.718 (117th)
Gini (2003)		44.5 (medium)
HDI (2007/2008)		â–² 0.771Philippines—The Human Development Index - going beyond income, United Nations Development Programme, 2007/2008, <http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_PHL.html>. Retrieved on 14 December 2007 (medium) (90th)
Currency		Peso (Filipino: piso ) (PHP)
Time zone		PST (UTC+8)
Internet TLD		.ph
Calling code		+63
1	Spanish and Arabic are promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.
2	Rankings above were taken from associated Wikipedia pages as of December, 2007, and may be based on data or data sources other than those appearing here.

Philippines Portal

The Philippines (Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Republika ng Pilipinas; 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 is 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 87 million people. Its national economy is the 47th largest in the world with a 2006 gross domestic product (GDP) of over US$117.562 billion. There are more than 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, about 11% of the total population of the Philippines.

The Philippines was formerly a Spanish then an American colony. The Philippine Revolution was an attempt to gain independence from Spain, and later from the U.S. in the Philippine-American War. The Philippines ultimately gained its independence from the United States on July 4, 1946 after the Pacific War via the Treaty of Manila. The Philippines then became a fledging democracy until the authoritarian rule of Ferdinand Marcos led to his overthrow in the People Power Revolution of 1986. Political upheavals alternated with peaceful transition of power on the period that followed.

Today, the Philippines has many affinities with the Western world, derived mainly from the cultures of Spain, Latin America, and the United States. Roman Catholicism became the predominant religion, although pre-Hispanic indigenous religious practices and Islam still exist. The two official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and English.

Etymology

The name Philippines and its Spanish counterpart Filipinas are derived from the name of Philip II of Spain.Gregorio F. Zaide, Sonia M. Zaide (2004), Philippine History and Government, Sixth Edition, All-Nations Publishing Company 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 Filipinas was eventually adopted as the name of the entire archipelago.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Philippine archipelago was collectively known as Maharlika, which may have come from the Old Malay language meaning "noble creation".

The Philippines once contemplated to rename itself as Malaysia, although the present-day Malaysia adopted the name first in 1963 before the Philippines could act further on the matter.Sakai, Manako. Reviving Malay Connections in Southeast Asia.

The official name of the islands, however, changed throughout the course of Philippine history. In the Philippine Revolution, the Philippines was officially called the República Filipina 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.

History

Main article: History of the Philippines

Archeological and paleontological discoveries show that Homo sapiens existed in Palawan circa 50,000 BC. The aboriginal people of the Philippines, the Negritos, are an Australo-Melanesian people, which arrived in the Philippines at least 30,000 years ago.

The Philippines had trade relations with China and Japan and strong cultural ties with India through neighboring present-day Malaysia and Indonesia as early as the ninth to twelfth centuries.

Islam was brought to the Philippines by traders and proselytizers from Malaysia and Indonesia. The Islamization of the Philippines is due to the strength of then-Muslim India.Agoncillo 1990, p. 22 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. Magellan arrived at Cebu on April 7, 1521, befriending Rajah Humabon and converting his family and 700 other Cebuanos to Christianity. However, Magellan would later be killed in the Battle of Mactan by indigenous warriors led by Lapu-Lapu, a fierce rival of Humabon.

The beginnings of colonization started to take form when Philip II of Spain ordered successive expeditions. Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565 and formed the first Spanish settlements in Cebu. In 1571 he established Manila as the capital of the new Spanish colony.Kurlansky, Mark. 1999. The Basque History of the World. Walker & Company, New York. ISBN 0-8027-1349-1, p. 64

Model of a Philippine-built ship used for trading around the archipelago before the arrival of the Spanish.

A late 19th century photograph of leaders of the Propaganda Movement: José Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Mariano Ponce.

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 calendarJoaquin, Nick. 1988. Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming. Solar Publishing, Metro Manila. 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, specially 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 US Country Studies: Education in the Philippines.

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.Veltisezar Bautista, "3. The Philippine Revolution (1896-1898)", The Filipino Americans (1763-Present): Their History, Culture and Traditions (2nd ed.), ISBN 0-931613-17-5, <https://bookhaus2.securesites.net/philnewscentral/cgi-bin/redirect.cgi?url=philrev.html>

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 E. San Juan, Jr. (March 22, 2005). U.S. Genocide in the Philippines: A Case of Guilt, Shame, or Amnesia?. San Juan 2007. 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. 

Since 1946, the newly independent Philippine state has faced political instability with various rebel groups. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw economic development that was second in Asia, next to Japan. Ferdinand Marcos was, then, the elected president. Barred from seeking a third term, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972, under the guise of increased political instability and resurgent Communist and Muslim insurgencies, and ruled the country by decree.

Upon returning from exile, opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated on August 21, 1983. In January 1986, Marcos allowed for a snap election, after large protests. The election was believed to be fraudulent, and resulted in a standoff between military mutineers and the military loyalists. Protesters supported the mutineers, and were accompanied by resignations of prominent cabinet officials. Corazon Aquino, the widow of Benigno Aquino, Jr., was the recognized winner of the snap election. She took over the government, and called for a constitutional convention to draft a new constitution, after the People Power Revolution. Marcos, his family and some of his allies fled to Hawaii.Gross, Jane. "Ferdinand Marcos, Ousted Leader Of Philippines, Dies at 72 in Exile", New York Times, September 29, 1989. Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 

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.Gargan, Edward A.. "Last Laugh for the Philippines; Onetime Joke Economy Avoids Much of Asia\'s Turmoil", New York Times, December 11, 1997. Retrieved on 2008-01-25.  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.Bonner, Raymond; Carlos H. Conde. "U.S. in Wary Diplomacy With Besieged Philippine Leader", New York Times, July 22, 2005. Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 

Politics and government

Main article: Politics of the Philippines

The Philippines has a presidential, unitary (with some modification; there is 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.

The bicameral Congress is composed of a Senate, serving as the upper house whose members are elected nationally to a six-year term, and a House of Representatives serving as the lower house whose members are elected to a three-year term and are elected from both legislative districts and through sectoral representation.

The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court, composed of a Chief Justice as its presiding officer and fourteen associate justices, all appointed by the President from nominations submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.

Attempts to amend the constitution to either a federal, unicameral or parliamentary form of government have repeatedly failed since the Ramos administration.

The Philippines is a founding and active member of the United Nations since its inception on October 24, 1945 and is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Philippines is also a member of the East Asia Summit (EAS), an active player in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Latin Union, and a member of the Group of 24. The country is a major non-NATO ally of the U.S. but also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Philippines is involved in complex dispute over the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal. It also claims the Malaysian state of Sabah, as it was once part of the Sultanate of Sulu.Philippines\' Claim to Sabah

See also: Foreign relations of the Philippines, President of the Philippines, and Constitution of the Philippines

Further information: Armed Forces of the Philippines

Administrative divisions

Provinces and regions of the Philippines.

Main article: Administrative divisions of the Philippines

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. NCSB Press Release

¹ Names are capitalized because they are 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.

Geography

Main article: Geography of the Philippines

Satellite image of Manila Bay

Mount Apo, the Philippines\' tallest mountain.

Geography of the Philippines

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, and Palau is to the east beyond the Philippine Sea.

The islands are commonly divided into three island groups: Luzon (Regions I to V, NCR and CAR), Visayas (VI to VIII), and Mindanao (IX to XIII and ARMM). The busy port of Manila, on Luzon, is the national capital and second largest city after its suburb Quezon City.

The local climate is hot, humid, and tropical. The average yearly temperature is around 26.5 °C (79.7 °F). There are three recognized seasons: Tag-init or Tag-araw (the hot season or summer from March to May), Tag-ulan (the rainy season from June to November), and Taglamig (the cold season from December to February). The southwest monsoon (May-October) is known as the "habagat" and the dry winds of the northeast monsoon (November-April) as the "amihan".Climate of the Philippines at PAGASA. Accessed September 30, 2006

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.Kee-Chai Chong; Ian R. Smith & Maura S. Lizarondo (1982), "III. The transformation sub-system: cultivation to market size in fishponds", Economics of the Philippine Milkfish Resource System, The United Nations University, ISBN 92-808-346-8, <http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80346e/80346E06.htm>

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 1990 Baguio City Earthquake at City of Baguio. Accessed October 3,2006

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, that connects the islands of Samar and Leyte.Leyte is Famous For... Accessed September 30,2006

Economy

Main article: Economy of the Philippines

The Ayala Triangle in the Makati City central business district.

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 is known for having one of most vibrant BPO industries in Asia.As India gets too costly, BPOs turn to Philippines Philippine Daily Inquirer. Accessed October 2, 2006^{[not in citation given]}. 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.

Cebu City Business Park.

The Asian Financial Crisis affected the Philippine economy to an extent, resulting in a lingering decline of the value of the Philippine peso and falls in the stock market, although the extent to which it was affected is not as severe as that of its Asian neighbors. This is largely due to the fiscal conservatism of the Philippine government partly as a result of decades of monitoring and fiscal supervision from the International Monetary Fund, in comparison to the massive spending of its neighbors on the rapid acceleration of economic growth. By 2004, the Philippine economy experienced six-percent growth in gross domestic product and 7.3% in 2007,RP 2007 GDP grows 7.3%; fastest in 31 yrs, ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, January 31, 2008 in line with the "7, 8, 9" project of the government to accelerate GDP growth by 2009.Philippines Aims to Boost Growth by 2009. forbes.com. Archived from the original on 2007-02-20. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.

In a bid to further strengthen the Philippine economy, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pledged to make the Philippines a developed country by 2010. 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.Large Swiss Firm offers to invest in Philippines Manila Standard. Accessed January 27,2007RP ready for Global Trade, ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, accessed February 17,2007 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,Beyond Imperial Manila, Manila Standard Today, accessed July 25, 2006 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. International Organization Participation CIA World Factbook

Demographics

Population growth of the Philippines.

Main articles: Demographics of the Philippines, Filipino people, and Overseas Filipino

The Philippines is the world\'s 12th most populous country, with a population of over 85 million as of 2005.Philippine Census 2005 Population ProjectionAs of 2007, 8% of Filipinos are living abroad as migrant laborers. Roughly half reside on the island of Luzon. Manila, the capital, is the eleventh most populous metropolitan area in the world. The literacy rate was 92.6% in 2003,