The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republika sang Filipinas
* ibg, Republika nat Filipinas
* ilo, Republika ti Filipinas
* ivv, Republika nu Filipinas
* pam, Republika ning Filipinas
* krj, Republika kang Pilipinas
* mdh, Republika nu Pilipinas
* mrw, Republika a Pilipinas
* pag, Republika na Filipinas
* xsb, Republika nin Pilipinas
* sgd, Republika nan Pilipinas
* tgl, Republika ng Pilipinas
* tsg, Republika sin Pilipinas
* war, Republika han Pilipinas
* yka, Republika si Pilipinas
In the recognized optional languages of the Philippines:
* es, República de las Filipinas
* ar, جمهورية الفلبين, Jumhūriyyat al-Filibbīn
is an
archipelagic country in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south:
Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
,
Visayas
The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands (Bisayan languages, Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; tl, Kabisayaan ), are one of the three Island groups of the Philippines, principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao ...
, and
Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...
. The Philippines is bounded by the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
to the west, the
Philippine Sea
The Philippine Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippine archipelago (hence the name), the largest in the world, occupying an estimated surface area of . The Philippine Sea Plate forms the floor of the sea. Its ...
to the east, and the
Celebes Sea
The Celebes Sea, (; ms, Laut Sulawesi, id, Laut Sulawesi, fil, Dagat Selebes) or Sulawesi Sea, of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by ...
to the southwest. It shares
maritime border
A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of the Earth's water surface areas using physiographic or geopolitical criteria. As such, it usually bounds areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources,VLIZ Maritime Bound ...
s with
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
to the north,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
to the northeast,
Palau
Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...
to the east and southeast,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
to the south,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
to the southwest,
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
to the west, and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
to the northwest. The Philippines covers an area of and, , it had a population of around 109 million people,
making it the world's
thirteenth-most populous country. The Philippines has diverse
ethnicities
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
and cultures throughout its islands.
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
is the country's capital, while the
largest city
The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metropo ...
is
Quezon City
Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...
; both lie within the urban area of
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...
.
Negrito
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, ...
s, some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by
successive waves of
Austronesian peoples
The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austro ...
. Adoption of
animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...
,
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
and
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
established
island-kingdoms called
Kedatuan
''Kedatuan'' (ancient or Sundanese spelling: ''kadatuan''; Javanese romanization: ''kedaton'') were historical semi-independent city-states or principalities throughout ancient Maritime Southeast Asia in present-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and the ...
,
Raja
''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...
hnates, and
Sultanates
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
. The arrival of
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East ...
, a
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer named the archipelago ' in honor of
Philip II of Spain
Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...
. Spanish settlement through
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming ruled by the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
for more than 300 years. During this time,
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of
trans-Pacific trade. In 1896, the
Philippine Revolution began, which then became entwined with the 1898
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (clock ...
. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, while
Filipino revolutionaries
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
declared the
First Philippine Republic
The Philippine Republic ( es, República Filipina), now officially known as the First Philippine Republic, also referred to by historians as the Malolos Republic, was established in Malolos, Bulacan during the Philippine Revolution against ...
. The ensuing
Philippine–American War
The Philippine–American War or Filipino–American War ( es, Guerra filipina-estadounidense, tl, Digmaang Pilipino–Amerikano), previously referred to as the Philippine Insurrection or the Tagalog Insurgency by the United States, was an arm ...
ended with the United States establishing control over the territory, which they maintained until the
Japanese invasion of the islands during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Following
liberation
Liberation or liberate may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War
* "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode
* "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode
Gaming
* '' Liberati ...
, the Philippines became independent in 1946. Since then, the
unitary
Unitary may refer to:
Mathematics
* Unitary divisor
* Unitary element
* Unitary group
* Unitary matrix
* Unitary morphism
* Unitary operator
* Unitary transformation
* Unitary representation
* Unitarity (physics)
* ''E''-unitary inverse semigroup ...
sovereign state
A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a polity, political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defin ...
has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of
a decades-long dictatorship by
a nonviolent revolution.
The Philippines is an
emerging market
An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or were ...
and a
newly industrialized country
The category of newly industrialized country (NIC), newly industrialized economy (NIE) or middle income country is a socioeconomic classification applied to several countries around the world by political scientists and economists. They represent ...
whose economy is transitioning from being agriculture centered to services and manufacturing centered. It is a founding member of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
,
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation
in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...
,
ASEAN
ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...
, the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economy, economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. forum, and the
East Asia Summit
The East Asia Summit (EAS) is a regional forum held annually by leaders of, initially, 16 countries in the East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian and Oceanian regions, based on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations#ASEAN Plus Three and A ...
. The location of the Philippines as an island country on the Pacific
Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring o ...
that is close to the equator makes it prone to
earthquakes
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
and
typhoons
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
. The country has a variety of natural resources and is home to a globally significant
level of biodiversity.
Etymology
![Portrait of Philip II of Spain by Sofonisba Anguissola - 002b](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Portrait_of_Philip_II_of_Spain_by_Sofonisba_Anguissola_-_002b.jpg)
Spanish explorer
Ruy López de Villalobos
Ruy López de Villalobos (; ca. 1500 – April 4, 1546) was a Spanish explorer who sailed the Pacific from Mexico to establish a permanent foothold for Spain in the East Indies, which was near the Line of Demarcation between Spain and Portugal a ...
, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of
Leyte
Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census.
Since the accessibility of land has be ...
and
Samar
Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...
"'" after
Philip II of Spain, then the
Prince of Asturias
Prince or Princess of Asturias ( es, link=no, Príncipe/Princesa de Asturias; ast, Príncipe d'Asturies) is the main substantive title used by the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the monarchy of Spain, throne of Spain. According to the Sp ...
. Eventually the name "'" would be used to cover the archipelago's Spanish possessions. Before Spanish rule was established, other names such as ' (Islands of the West) and Ferdinand Magellan's name for the islands, ', were also used by the Spanish to refer to islands in the region.
During the
Philippine Revolution, the
Malolos Congress
The Malolos Congress (also known as the Revolutionary Congress), formally known as the National Assembly, was the legislative body of the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines. Members were chosen in the elections held from June 23 to Septe ...
proclaimed the establishment of the ' or the ''
Philippine Republic The term "Philippine Republic" or "Republic of the Philippines" refers to a succession of republics during and after the Philippine Revolution in the Philippines.
The current government of the Philippines recognizes five "Philippine republics" in ...
''. From the period of the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (clock ...
(1898) and the
Philippine–American War
The Philippine–American War or Filipino–American War ( es, Guerra filipina-estadounidense, tl, Digmaang Pilipino–Amerikano), previously referred to as the Philippine Insurrection or the Tagalog Insurgency by the United States, was an arm ...
(1899–1902) until the
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
period (1935–1946), American colonial authorities referred to the country as ''The Philippine Islands'', a translation of the Spanish name.
The United States began the process of changing the reference to the country from ''The Philippine Islands'' to ''The Philippines'', specifically when it was mentioned in the Philippine Autonomy Act or the
Jones Law. The full official title, ''Republic of the Philippines'', was included in the 1935 constitution as the name of the future independent state,
it is also mentioned in all succeeding constitutional revisions.
History
Prehistory (pre–900)
There is evidence of early
hominins
The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas).
The t ...
living in what is now the Philippines as early as 709,000 years ago. A small number of bones from
Callao Cave
Callao Cave () is one of 300 limestone caves located in the Barangays of Magdalo and Quibal in the municipality of Peñablanca, about northeast of Tuguegarao City, the capital of Cagayan province within the Peñablanca Protected Landscape and ...
potentially represent an otherwise unknown species, ''
Homo luzonensis
''Homo luzonensis'', also locally called "Ubag" after a mythical caveman, is an extinct, possibly pygmy, species of archaic human from the Late Pleistocene of Luzon, the Philippines. Their remains, teeth and phalanges, are known only from Callao ...
'', that lived around 50,000 to 67,000 years ago. The oldest
modern human
Early modern human (EMH) or anatomically modern human (AMH) are terms used to distinguish ''Homo sapiens'' (the only extant Hominina species) that are anatomically consistent with the range of phenotypes seen in contemporary humans from extin ...
remains found on the islands are from the
Tabon Caves
The Tabon Caves, dubbed as the ''Philippines' Cradle of Civilization'', are a group of caves located on Lipuun Point, north of Quezon municipality, in the south western part of the province of Palawan on Palawan Island, in the Philippines. They ...
of
Palawan
Palawan (), officially the Province of Palawan ( cyo, Probinsya i'ang Palawan; tl, Lalawigan ng Palawan), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in ...
,
U/Th-dated to 47,000 ± 11–10,000 years ago.
The
Tabon Man
Tabon Man refers to remains discovered in the Tabon Caves in Lipuun Point in Quezon, Palawan in the Philippines. They were discovered by Robert B. Fox, an American anthropologist of the National Museum of the Philippines, on May 28, 1962. Thes ...
is presumably a
Negrito
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, ...
, who were among the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, descendants of the first human migrations out of Africa via the coastal route along
southern Asia Southern Asia may refer to:
* South Asia, a geopolitical macroregion of SAARC countries
* Southern Asia, a geographical subregion in Asia spanning the Iranian Plateau and the Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the phy ...
to the now sunken landmasses of
Sundaland
Sundaland (also called Sundaica or the Sundaic region) is a biogeographical region of South-eastern Asia corresponding to a larger landmass that was exposed throughout the last 2.6 million years during periods when sea levels were lower. It ...
and
Sahul
__NOTOC__
Sahul (), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia, was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands.
Sahul was in the south-we ...
.
The first Austronesians reached the Philippines from Taiwan at around 2200 BC, settling the
Batanes
Batanes, officially the Province of Batanes ( ivv, Provinsiya nu Batanes; Ilocano: ''Probinsia ti Batanes''; fil, Lalawigan ng Batanes, ), is an archipelagic province in the Philippines, administratively part of the Cagayan Valley region. It i ...
Islands and northern
Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
. From there, they rapidly spread southwards to the rest of the islands of the Philippines and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.
This population assimilated with the existing Negritos resulting in the modern
Filipino ethnic groups
The Philippines is inhabited by more than 182 Ethnolinguistic group, ethnolinguistic groups, many of which are classified as "Indigenous Peoples" under the country's Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997. Traditionally-Muslim peoples from the ...
which display various ratios of
genetic admixture
Genetic admixture occurs when previously diverged or isolated genetic lineages mix.⅝ Admixture results in the introduction of new genetic lineages into a population.
Examples
Climatic cycles facilitate genetic admixture in cold periods and gene ...
between Austronesian and Negrito groups.
Genetic signatures also indicate the possibility of migration of
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...
,
Papuan, and South Asian people.
Jade artifacts have been found dated to 2000 BC, with the
lingling-o
''Lingling-o'' or ''ling-ling-o'', is a type of penannular or double-headed pendant or amulet that has been associated with various late Neolithic to late Iron Age Austronesian cultures. Most ''lingling-o'' were made in jade workshops in the Ph ...
jade items crafted in Luzon made using raw materials originating from Taiwan. By 1000 BC, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four kinds of social groups:
hunter-gatherer
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
tribes, warrior societies, highland
plutocracies, and port principalities.
Early states (900–1565)
![Extract from Inskripsyon sa Binatbat na Tanso ng Laguna](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Extract_from_Inskripsyon_sa_Binatbat_na_Tanso_ng_Laguna.jpg)
The earliest known surviving written record found in the Philippines is the
Laguna Copperplate Inscription
The Laguna copperplate inscription ( tl, Inskripsyon sa binatbat na tanso ng Laguna, literal translation: ''Inscription on flattened copper of Laguna'') is an official acquittance inscribed onto a copper plate in the Shaka year 822 (Gregorian A ...
.
By the 14th century, several the large coastal settlements had emerged as trading centers and became the focal point of societal changes.
Some
polities
A polity is an identifiable political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any other group of p ...
had exchanges with other states across Asia.
Trade with China is believed to have begun during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
, and grew more extensive during the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
, and by the second millennium some polities participated in the
tributary system of China
The tributary system of China (), or Cefeng system () was a network of loose international relations focused on China which facilitated trade and foreign relations by acknowledging China's predominant role in East Asia. It involved multiple relati ...
.
Indian cultural traits, such as linguistic terms and religious practices, began to spread within the Philippines during the 10th century, likely via the Hindu
Majapahit
Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was ba ...
empire.
By the 15th century, Islam was established in the
Sulu Archipelago and spread from there.
Polities founded in the Philippines from the 10th–16th centuries include
Maynila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...
,
Tondo,
Namayan
Namayan (Baybayin: Pre-Kudlit: or (''Sapa''), Post-Kudlit: ), also called Sapa,Locsin, Leandro V. and Cecilia Y. Locsin. 1967. ''Oriental Ceramics Discovered in the Philippines.'' Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company. Maysapan or Nasapan, an ...
,
Pangasinan
Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan ( pag, Luyag/Probinsia na Pangasinan, ; ilo, Probinsia ti Pangasinan; tl, Lalawigan ng Pangasinan), is a coastal province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capit ...
,
Cebu
Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 ...
,
Butuan
Butuan (pronounced ), officially the City of Butuan ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Butuan; Butuanon: ''Dakbayan hong Butuan''; fil, Lungsod ng Butuan), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the region of Caraga, Philippines. It is the ''de facto'' ca ...
,
Maguindanao
Maguindanao (, Maguindanao language, Maguindanaon: ''Prubinsya nu Magindanaw''; Iranun language, Iranun'': Perobinsia a Magindanao''; tl, Lalawigan ng Maguindanao) was a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the ...
, Lanao,
Sulu
Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilāya sin Lupa' Sūg''; tl, Lalawigan ng Sulu), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago and part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamor ...
, and
Ma-i
Ma-i or Maidh (also spelled Ma'I, Mai, Ma-yi or Mayi; Baybayin: ; Hanunoo: ; Hokkien ; Mandarin ) was an ancient sovereign state located in what is now the Philippines.
Its existence was first documented in 971 in the Song dynasty documents k ...
. The early polities were typically made up of three-tier social structures: a nobility class, a class of "freemen", and a class of dependent debtor-bondsmen.
Among the nobility were leaders called "
Datu
''Datu'' is a title which denotes the rulers (variously described in historical accounts as chiefs, sovereign princes, and monarchs) of numerous indigenous peoples throughout the Philippine archipelago. The title is still used today, especial ...
s", responsible for ruling autonomous groups called "
barangay
A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolitan ...
" or "dulohan".
When these barangays banded together, either to form a larger settlement
or a geographically looser alliance,
the more esteemed among them would be recognized as a "paramount datu",
rajah
''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested fr ...
, or
sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
which headed the community state. Warfare developed and escalated during the 14th to 16th centuries, and throughout these periods population density is thought to have been low, which was also caused by the
frequency of typhoons and the Philippines' location on the Pacific
Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring o ...
. In 1521, Portuguese explorer
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East ...
arrived in the area, claimed the islands for Spain and was then killed by
Lapulapu
Lapulapu or Lapu-Lapu (ᜎᜉ̰-ᜎᜉ̰), whose name was first recorded as Çilapulapu, was a datu (chief) of Mactan in the Visayas in the Philippines. He is best known for the Battle of Mactan that happened at dawn on April 27, 1521, where h ...
's fighters at the
Battle of Mactan
The Battle of Mactan ( ceb, Gubot sa Mactan; fil, Labanan sa Mactan; es, Batalla de Mactán) was a fierce clash fought in the archipelago of the Philippines on April 27, 1521. The warriors of Lapulapu, one of the Datus of Mactan, overpowered ...
.
Spanish and American Colonial rule (1565–1946)
![Vista del Puente de Manila (1847)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Vista_del_Puente_de_Manila_%281847%29.png)
Colonization began when Spanish explorer
Miguel López de Legazpi
Miguel López de Legazpi (12 June 1502 – 20 August 1572), also known as '' El Adelantado'' and ''El Viejo'' (The Elder), was a Spaniard who, from the age of 26, lived and built a career in Mexico (then the Viceroyalty of New Spain) and, i ...
arrived from Mexico in 1565.
The Spanish forces brought by Legazpi’s five ships were a mix of Spaniards and Novohispanics (Mexicans) from New Spain (modern Mexico).
[
] Many Filipinos were brought back to New Spain as slaves and forced crew. In 1571,
Spanish Manila became the capital of the
Spanish East Indies
The Spanish East Indies ( es , Indias orientales españolas ; fil, Silangang Indiyas ng Espanya) were the overseas territories of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1898, governed for the Spanish Crown from Mexico C ...
, which encompassed Spanish territories in Asia and the Pacific.
The Spanish successfully invaded the different local states by employing the principle of
divide and conquer
Divide and rule policy ( la, divide et impera), or divide and conquer, in politics and sociology is gaining and maintaining power divisively. Historically, this strategy was used in many different ways by empires seeking to expand their terr ...
, bringing most of what is now the Philippines into a single unified administration.
Disparate barangays were deliberately
consolidated into towns, where
Catholic missionaries
Missionary work of the Catholic Church has often been undertaken outside the geographically defined parishes and dioceses by religious orders who have people and material resources to spare, and some of which specialized in missions. Eventually, p ...
were more easily able to convert the inhabitants to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
.
From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as a territory of the
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
-based
Viceroyalty of New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Amer ...
, and later administered from
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
following the
Mexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de México, links=no, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from Spain. It was not a single, co ...
. Manila was the western hub of the
trans-Pacific trade.
Manila galleon
fil, Galyon ng Maynila
, english_name = Manila Galleon
, duration = From 1565 to 1815 (250 years)
, venue = Between Manila and Acapulco
, location = New Spain (Spanish Empire) ...
s were constructed in
Bicol and
Cavite
Cavite, officially the Province of Cavite ( tl, Lalawigan ng Kabite; Chavacano: ''Provincia de Cavite''), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Located on the southern shores of Manila Bay and southwest ...
.
During its rule, Spain quelled
various indigenous revolts,
as well as defending against external military challenges.
War against the Dutch from the west, in the 17th century, together with conflict with the Muslims in the south nearly bankrupted the colonial treasury.
Administration of the Philippine islands was considered a drain on the economy of New Spain,
and there were debates to abandon it or trade it for other territory. However, this was opposed because of economic potential, security, and the desire to continue religious conversion in the islands and the surrounding region. The Philippines survived on an annual subsidy provided by the Spanish Crown,
which averaged 250,000 pesos and was usually paid through the provision of 75 tons of silver bullion being sent from the Americas.
British forces occupied Manila from 1762 to 1764 during the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
, with Spanish rule restored through the
1763 Treaty of Paris.
The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of the
Reconquista
The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...
. The
Spanish–Moro conflict
The Spanish–Moro conflict ( fil, Sagupaang Kastila at Moro) was a series of battles in the Philippines lasting over several centuries. It began during the Spanish Era and lasted until the Spanish–American War, when Spain finally began t ...
lasted for several hundred years. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Spain conquered portions of
Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...
and
Jolo
Jolo ( tsg, Sūg) is a volcanic island in the southwest Philippines and the primary island of the province of Sulu, on which the capital of the same name is situated. It is located in the Sulu Archipelago, between Borneo and Mindanao, and has ...
, and the
Moro Muslims in the
Sultanate of Sulu
The Sultanate of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Kasultanan sin Sūg'', كاسولتانن سين سوڬ; malay language, Malay: ''Kesultanan Sulu''; fil, Sultanato ng Sulu; Chavacano: ''Sultanato de Sulu/Joló''; ar, سلطنة سولك) ...
formally recognized Spanish sovereignty.
![Ilustrados 1890](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Ilustrados_1890.jpg)
In the 19th century, Philippine ports opened to world trade, and shifts started occurring within Filipino society. Shifts in social identity occurred, with the term ''Filipino'' changing from referring to
Spaniards born in the Philippines to a term encompassing all people in the archipelago.
Revolutionary sentiments were stoked in 1872 after
three activist Catholic priests were executed on weak pretences.
[Nuguid, Nati. (1972)]
"The Cavite Mutiny"
in Mary R. Tagle. ''12 Events that Have Influenced Philippine History''. anila
Anila or Anil (Sanskrit: अनिल ' "wind") is one of the Vasus in Hinduism, gods of the elements of the cosmos. He is equated with the wind god Vāyu
Vayu (, sa, वायु, ), also known as Vata and Pavana, is the Hindu god of the ...
National Media Production Center. Retrieved December 20, 2009 fro
StuartXchange Website
This would inspire a
propaganda movement
The Propaganda Movement encompassed the activities of a group of Filipinos who called for political reforms in their land in the late 19th century, and produced books, leaflets, and newspaper articles to educate others about their goals and is ...
in Spain, organized by
Marcelo H. del Pilar
Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaitán (; ; August 30, 1850July 4, 1896), commonly known as Marcelo H. del Pilar and also known by his pen name Pláridel,.''Filipinos in History: Volume II'', National Historical Institute, 1990, p. 101 was a ...
,
José Rizal
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is considered the national he ...
,
Graciano López Jaena
Graciano López y Jaena (; December 18, 1856 – January 20, 1896), commonly known as Graciano López Jaena, was a Filipino journalist, orator, reformist, and national hero who is well known for his newspaper, ''La Solidaridad''.
Philippine h ...
, and
Mariano Ponce
Mariano Ponce y Collantes (March 22, 1863 – May 23, 1918) was a Filipino physician, writer and active member of the Propaganda Movement. In Spain, he was among the founders of ''La Solidaridad'' and ''Asociación Hispano-Filipino''. Among his ...
, lobbying for political reforms in the Philippines. Rizal was executed on December 30, 1896, on charges of rebellion. This radicalized many who had previously been loyal to Spain.
As attempts at reform met with resistance,
Andrés Bonifacio
Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro (, ; November 30, 1863May 10, 1897) was a Filipino Freemason and revolutionary leader. He is often called "The Father of the Philippine Revolution", and considered one of the national heroes of the Philippines ...
in 1892 established the militant secret society called the
Katipunan
The Katipunan, officially known as the Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK; en, Supreme and Honorable Association of the Children of the Nation ...
, who sought independence from Spain through armed revolt.
The Katipunan
started the
Philippine Revolution in 1896. Internal disputes led to
an election in which Bonifacio lost his position and
Emilio Aguinaldo
Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy (: March 22, 1869February 6, 1964) was a Filipino revolutionary, statesman, and military leader who is the youngest president of the Philippines (1899–1901) and is recognized as the first president of the Philippine ...
was elected as the new leader of the revolution.
In 1897, the
Pact of Biak-na-Bato
The Pact of Biak-na-Bato, signed on December 15, 1897, created a truce between Spanish colonial Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera and the revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo to end the Philippine Revolution. Aguinaldo and his fellow re ...
brought about the
exile of the revolutionary leadership to Hong Kong. In 1898, the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (clock ...
began and reached the Philippines. Aguinaldo returned, resumed the revolution, and
declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898.
The
First Philippine Republic
The Philippine Republic ( es, República Filipina), now officially known as the First Philippine Republic, also referred to by historians as the Malolos Republic, was established in Malolos, Bulacan during the Philippine Revolution against ...
was established on January 21, 1899.
![Douglas MacArthur lands Leyte1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Douglas_MacArthur_lands_Leyte1.jpg)
The islands had been
ceded by Spain to the United States along with
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
and
Guam
Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...
as a result of the latter's victory in the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (clock ...
in 1898. As it became increasingly clear the United States would not recognize the First Philippine Republic, the
Philippine–American War
The Philippine–American War or Filipino–American War ( es, Guerra filipina-estadounidense, tl, Digmaang Pilipino–Amerikano), previously referred to as the Philippine Insurrection or the Tagalog Insurgency by the United States, was an arm ...
broke out. The war resulted in the deaths of 250,000 to 1 million civilians, mostly because of famine and disease. After the defeat of the First Philippine Republic in 1902, an
American civilian government was established through the
Philippine Organic Act
The Philippine Organic Act (c. 1369, ) was a basic law for the Insular Government that was enacted by the United States Congress on July 1, 1902. It is also known as the Philippine Bill of 1902 and the Cooper Act, after its author Henry A. Coope ...
.
American forces continued to secure and extend their control over the islands, suppressing an attempted
extension of the Philippine Republic,
securing the Sultanate of Sulu,
and establishing control over interior mountainous areas that had resisted Spanish conquest.
Cultural developments strengthened the continuing development of a national identity,
[Armes, Roy]
"Third World Film Making and the West"
p.152. University of California Press, 1987. Retrieved on October 30, 2020. and Tagalog began to take precedence over other local languages.
Governmental functions were gradually devolved to Filipinos under the
Taft Commission
The Taft Commission, also known as the Second Philippine Commission (Filipino: ''Ikalawang Komisyon ng Pilipinas''), was established by United States President William McKinley on March 16, 1900, following the recommendations of the First Phili ...
and in 1935 the Philippines
was granted Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
status with
Manuel Quezon
Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, (; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier and politician who served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 until his dea ...
as president and
Sergio Osmeña
Sergio Osmeña Sr. (, ; 9 September 1878 – 19 October 1961) was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the fourth president of the Philippines from 1944 to 1946. He was vice president under Manuel L. Quezon. Upon Quezon's sudden ...
as vice president. Quezon's priorities were defence, social justice, inequality and economic diversification, and national character.
Tagalog was designated the
national language
A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...
,
women's suffrage was introduced, and land reform mooted.
[Manapat, Carlos, et al.'' Economics, Taxation, and Agrarian Reform''. Quezon City: C&E Pub., 2010.Print.]
During World War II the
Japanese Empire
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...
invaded
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
, and the
Second Philippine Republic
The Second Philippine Republic, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines ( tl, Repúbliká ng Pilipinas; es, República de Filipinas; ja, フィリピン共和国, ''Firipin-kyōwakoku'') and also known as the Japanese-sponsored Phi ...
, under
Jose P. Laurel
José Paciano Laurel y García (; March 9, 1891 – November 6, 1959) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, and judge, who served as the president of the Japanese-occupied Second Philippine Republic, a puppet state during World War II, from 1943 ...
, was established as a
puppet state
A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its o ...
. From 1942 the
Japanese occupation of the Philippines
The Japanese occupation of the Philippines (Filipino: ''Pananakop ng mga Japones sa Filipinas''; ja, 日本のフィリピン占領, Nihon no Firipin Senryō) occurred between 1942 and 1945, when Imperial Japan occupied the Commonwealth of the ...
was
opposed by large-scale
underground guerrilla activity.
Atrocities and war crimes were committed during the war, including the
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March (Filipino: ''Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan''; Spanish: ''Marcha de la muerte de Bataán'' ; Kapampangan: ''Martsa ning Kematayan quing Bataan''; Japanese: バターン死の行進, Hepburn: ''Batān Shi no Kōshin'') was ...
and the
Manila massacre
The Manila massacre ( fil, Pagpatay sa Maynila or ''Masaker sa Maynila''), also called the Rape of Manila ( fil, Paggahasa ng Maynila), involved atrocities committed against Filipino civilians in the City of Manila, the capital of the Philip ...
. Allied troops
defeated the Japanese in 1945. It is estimated that over one million Filipinos had died by the end of the war.
On October 11, 1945, the Philippines became one of the
founding members of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
.
On July 4, 1946, the Philippines was officially recognized by the United States as an independent nation through the
Treaty of Manila, during the presidency of
Manuel Roxas
Manuel Acuña Roxas (born Manuel Roxas y Acuña; ; January 1, 1892 – April 15, 1948) was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the fifth president of the Philippines, who served from 1946 until his death due to heart attacks in 194 ...
.
Independence (1946–present)
Efforts to end the
Hukbalahap Rebellion
The Hukbalahap Rebellion was a rebellion staged by former Hukbalahap or ''Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon'' (People's Army against the Japanese) soldiers against the Philippine government. It started during the Japanese occupation of the Philippin ...
began during
Elpidio Quirino
Elpidio Rivera Quirino (born Elpidio Quirino y Rivera; ; November 16, 1890 – February 29, 1956) was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the sixth president of the Philippines from 1948 to 1953.
A lawyer by profession, Quirino enter ...
's term, however, it was only during
Ramon Magsaysay
Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr. (August 31, 1907 – March 17, 1957) was a Filipino statesman who served as the seventh president of the Philippines, from December 30, 1953, until his death in an aircraft disaster on March 17, 1957. An automo ...
's presidency that the movement was suppressed. Magsaysay's successor,
Carlos P. Garcia
Carlos Polestico Garcia (November 4, 1896 – June 14, 1971) was a Filipino teacher, poet, orator, lawyer, public official, political economist, guerrilla and Commonwealth military leader who was the eighth president of the Philippines. A l ...
, initiated the
Filipino First Policy Filipino First ( tgl, Pilipino Muna) refers to a policy first introduced and implemented by the administration of then Philippine President Carlos P. Garcia. Under the policy, Filipino-owned business is prioritized over its foreign counterparts, an ...
, which was continued by
Diosdado Macapagal
Diosdado Pangan Macapagal Sr. (; September 28, 1910 – April 21, 1997) was a Filipino lawyer, poet and politician who served as the ninth president of the Philippines, serving from 1961 to 1965, and the sixth vice president, serving from 19 ...
, with celebration of Independence Day moved from July 4 to June 12, the date of Emilio Aguinaldo's declaration,
and pursuit of
a claim on the eastern part of
North Borneo
North Borneo (usually known as British North Borneo, also known as the State of North Borneo) was a British Protectorate, British protectorate in the northern part of the island of Borneo, which is present day Sabah. The territory of North Borneo ...
.
In 1965, Macapagal lost the presidential election to
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
. Early in his presidency, Marcos initiated numerous infrastructure projects but, together with his wife
Imelda, was accused of corruption and embezzling billions of dollars in public funds. Nearing the end of his last constitutionally-allowed term, Marcos declared
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
on September 21, 1972. This period of his rule was characterized by political repression, censorship, and
human rights violations
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
.
Numerous
monopolies
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
controlled by
crony businessmen were established in key industries, including
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
, coconuts, bananas, telephones, and broadcasting;
a sugar monopoly led to
a famine on the island of Negros.
Marcos’ heavy borrowing early in his presidency resulted in
numerous economic crashes, capped by a massive recession in the early 1980s which culminated in the economy contracting by 7.3% in both 1984 and 1985.
On August 21, 1983, Marcos' chief rival, opposition leader
Benigno Aquino Jr.
Benigno "Ninoy" Simeon Aquino Jr., (; November 27, 1932 – August 21, 1983) was a Filipino politician who served as a senator of the Philippines (1967–1972) and governor of the province of Tarlac. Aquino was the husband of Corazon Aquino ...
, was
assassinated on the tarmac at
Manila International Airport
Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA , ; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Ninoy Aquino or ''Pandaigdigang Paliparan ng Ninoy Aquino''; ), originally known and still commonly referred to as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main ...
. Marcos called a snap
presidential election in 1986.
Marcos was proclaimed the winner, but the results were widely regarded as fraudulent.
The resulting protests led to the
People Power Revolution
The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...
,
which forced Marcos and his allies to flee to
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, and Aquino's widow,
Corazon Aquino
Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; ; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipina politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People P ...
, was installed as president.
![Pinatubo91eruption plume](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Pinatubo91eruption_plume.jpg)
The return of democracy and government reforms beginning in 1986 were hampered by national debt, government corruption, and
coup attempts. A
communist insurgency and a military conflict with
Moro separatists persisted, while the administration also faced a series of disasters, including the sinking of the ''
MV Doña Paz
MV ''Doña Paz'' was a Japanese built and Philippine-registered passenger ferry that sank after colliding with the oil tanker ''Vector'' on December 20, 1987. Built by Onomichi Zosen of Hiroshima, Japan, the ship was launched on April 25, 1963 ...
'' in December 1987,
and the eruption of
Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains, located on the tripoint boundary of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga, all in Central Luzon on the northern island of Luzon. Its eruptive history w ...
in June 1991. Aquino was succeeded by
Fidel V. Ramos
Fidel Valdez Ramos (, ; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022), popularly known as FVR and Eddie Ramos, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military ...
, whose economic performance, at 3.6% growth rate,
was overshadowed by the onset of the
1997 Asian financial crisis
The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...
.
Ramos' successor,
Joseph Estrada
Joseph Ejercito Estrada, (; born Jose Marcelo Ejercito; April 19, 1937), also known by the nickname Erap, is a Filipino politician and former actor. He served as the 13th president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, the 9th vice preside ...
, was overthrown by the
2001 EDSA Revolution
The Second EDSA Revolution, also known as the Second People Power Revolution, EDSA 2001, or EDSA II (pronounced ''EDSA Two'' or ''EDSA Dos''), was a political protest from January 17–20, 2001, which peacefully overthrew the government of Jose ...
and succeeded by his vice president,
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal Arroyo (, born April 5, 1947), often referred to by her initials GMA, is a Filipino academic and politician serving as one of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, House Deputy Spe ...
, on January 20, 2001. Arroyo's 9-year administration was marked by economic growth but was tainted by corruption and political scandals. On November 23, 2009, 34 journalists and several civilians were
killed in Maguindanao.
Economic growth continued during
Benigno Aquino III
Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...
's administration, which pushed for good governance and transparency. In 2015, a
shootout in Mamasapano resulted in the death of 44 members of the
Philippine National Police
The Philippine National Police ( fil, Pambansang Pulisya ng Pilipinas, acronymed as PNP) is the armed national police force in the Philippines. Its national headquarters is located at Camp Crame in Bagong Lipunan ng Crame, Quezon City. Current ...
-
Special Action Force
The Special Action Force (SAF) is the elite unit of the Philippine National Police founded by Fidel V. Ramos, later the twelfth president of the Philippines.
History
Formed on May 12, 1983, by the now-defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC) as th ...
, which caused a delay in the passage of the
Bangsamoro Organic Law
The Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL; fil, Batayang Batas para sa Rehiyong Awtonomo ng Bangsamoro), also known as the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), and officially designated as Republic Act No. 11054, is a Philippine law that provided for the establis ...
.
Former
Davao City
Davao City, officially the City of Davao ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Dabaw; ), is a first class highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of lan ...
mayor
Rodrigo Duterte
Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson ...
won the
2016 presidential election, becoming the first president from Mindanao.
Duterte launched
an anti-drug campaign and
an infrastructure program. The implementation in 2018 of the Bangsamoro Organic Law led to the creation of the autonomous
Bangsamoro
ar, منطقة بانجسامورو ذاتية الحكم فى مسلمى مينداناو
, native_name =
, settlement_type = Autonomous region
, anthem = Bangsamoro Hymn
, image_skyline ...
region in Mindanao.
In early 2020, the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
reached the country
causing the gross domestic product to shrink by 9.5%, the country's worst annual economic performance since records began in 1947.
Marcos' son,
Bongbong Marcos
Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. ( , , ; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials PBBM or BBM, is a Filipino politician who is the 17th and current president of the Philippines. He previously served as a senat ...
, won the
2022 presidential election, together with Duterte's daughter,
Sara Duterte
Sara Vicenta Zimmerman Duterte-Carpio (, ; born May 31, 1978), commonly known as Inday Sara, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who is the 15th and current vice president of the Philippines. She is the third female vice president, the third ...
, as
vice president
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
.
Geography and environment
![Relief Map Of The Philippines](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Relief_Map_Of_The_Philippines.png)
The Philippines is an
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
composed of about 7,640
islands
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
,
covering a total area, including inland bodies of water, of around ,
with cadastral survey data suggesting it may be larger. The
exclusive economic zone of the Philippines
The Philippines has an exclusive economic zone that covers of sea. It claims an EEZ of from its shores. This is due to the 7,641 islands comprising the Philippine archipelago. The total land area, including inland bodies of water, of the Phil ...
covers . Its coastline gives it the world's
fifth-longest coastline.
[Central Intelligence Agency. (2009)]
"Field Listing : Coastline"
Washington, DC. It is located between 116° 40', and 126° 34' E longitude and 4° 40' and 21° 10' N latitude and is bordered by the
Philippine Sea
The Philippine Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippine archipelago (hence the name), the largest in the world, occupying an estimated surface area of . The Philippine Sea Plate forms the floor of the sea. Its ...
to the east, the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
to the west, and the
Celebes Sea
The Celebes Sea, (; ms, Laut Sulawesi, id, Laut Sulawesi, fil, Dagat Selebes) or Sulawesi Sea, of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by ...
to the south. The island of
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
is located a few hundred kilometers southwest, and Taiwan is located directly to the north.
Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
is located to the southwest, and
Palau
Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...
is located to the east of the islands.
The
highest mountain
Currently, There are at least 108 mountains on Earth with elevations of or greater above sea level. The vast majority of these mountains are located on the edge of the Indian plate, Indian and Eurasian plate, Eurasian plates in China, India, ...
is
Mount Apo
Mount Apo, also known locally as Apo Sandawa, is a large solfataric, dormant stratovolcano on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. With an elevation of above sea level, it is the highest-mountain in the Philippine Archipelago, Mindanao and 2 ...
, measuring up to above sea level and located on the island of
Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...
. Running east of the archipelago, the
Philippine Trench
The Philippine Trench (also Philippine Deep, Mindanao Trench, and Mindanao Deep) is a submarine trench to the east of the Philippines. The trench is located in the Philippine sea of the western North Pacific Ocean and continues NNW-SSE. It has a ...
extends down at the
Emden Deep
The Emden Deep, also known as the Galathea Deep or Galathea Depth, is the portion of the Philippine Trench exceeding depths in the south-western Pacific Ocean.
Originally discovered by the German ship ''Emden'' in 1927, it was first explored ...
. The
longest river is the
Cagayan River
The Cagayan River, also known as the Río Grande de Cagayán, is the longest river and the largest river by discharge volume of water in the Philippines. It has a total length of approximately and a drainage basin covering . It is located in t ...
in northern
Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
, measuring about .
Manila Bay
Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Phili ...
,
[Jacinto, G.S., Azanza, R.V., Velasquez, I.B. and Siringan, F.P.(2006). "Manila Bay:Environmental Challenges and Opportunities" in Wolanski, E.(ed.) The Environment in Asia Pacific Harbours. Springer: Dordrecht, Netherlands. p309-328.] upon the shore of which the capital city of Manila lies, is connected to
Laguna de Bay
Laguna de Bay (Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon/Lake of Bay, Laguna, Bay"; tl, Lawa ng Bay, ), also known as Laguna Lake, is the List of lakes of the Philippines, largest lake in the Philippines. It is located southeast of Metro Manila, b ...
, the
largest lake
Large means of great size.
Large may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics
* Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers
* Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (or ...
in the Philippines, by the
Pasig River
The Pasig River ( fil, Ilog Pasig) is a water body in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for , it bisects the Philippine capital of Manila and Metro Manila, its surrounding urban area into northern and souther ...
.
The
Puerto Princesa Subterranean River
The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is a protected area in the Philippines.
The park is located in the Saint Paul Mountain Range on the western coast of the island of Palawan, about north of the city of Puerto Princesa, and ...
, which runs underground through a
karst
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...
landscape before reaching the ocean, is a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
![The Mayon Volcano](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/The_Mayon_Volcano.jpg)
Situated on the western fringes of the Pacific
Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring o ...
, the Philippines experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The Philippine region is
seismically active and has been progressively constructed by
plates converging towards each other in multiple directions.
Around five earthquakes are registered daily, though most are too weak to be felt.
The
last major earthquakes were the
1976 Moro Gulf earthquake
The 1976 Moro Gulf earthquake and tsunami took place on near the islands of Mindanao and Sulu, in the Philippines. Its magnitude was calculated as being as high as 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale.
It was the deadliest and strongest earthquak ...
and the
1990 Luzon earthquake
The 1990 Luzon earthquake struck the island of Luzon in the Philippines at 4:26 p.m. on July 16 ( PDT) or 3:26 p.m. ( PST) with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.7 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent'') and produced a 1 ...
. There are
many active volcanoes such as
Mayon
Mayon ( bcl, Bulkan Mayon; tl, Bulkang Mayon, ), also known as Mount Mayon and Mayon Volcano ( es, Monte Mayón, Volcán Mayón), is an active stratovolcano in the province of Albay in Bicol, Philippines. A popular tourist spot, it is renown ...
,
Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains, located on the tripoint boundary of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga, all in Central Luzon on the northern island of Luzon. Its eruptive history w ...
, and
Taal Volcano.
The
eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991 produced the
second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century.
The Philippines is the world's second-biggest
geothermal energy producer behind the United States, with 18% of
the country's electricity needs being met by geothermal power.
The country has valuable
mineral deposits as a result of its complex geologic structure and high level of seismic activity. The Philippines is thought to have the second-largest gold deposits after South Africa, along with a large amount of copper deposits,
and the world's largest deposits of
palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...
.
Other minerals include chromite, nickel, and zinc. Despite this, a lack of law enforcement, poor management, opposition because of the presence of indigenous communities, and past instances of environmental damage and disaster have resulted in these mineral resources remaining largely untapped.
Biodiversity
![Pithecophaga jefferyi front](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Pithecophaga_jefferyi_front.jpg)
The Philippines is a
megadiverse country.
[ Retrieved February 15, 2010 from gbgm-umc.org.] Eight major types of forests are distributed throughout the Philippines;
dipterocarp
Dipterocarpaceae is a family of 16 genera and about 695 known species of mainly tropical lowland rainforest trees. The family name, from the type genus ''Dipterocarpus'', is derived from Greek (''di'' = two, ''pteron'' = wing and ''karpos'' = fru ...
, beach forest,
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...
forest,
molave forest,
lower montane forest, upper montane or
mossy forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...
,
mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...
s, and ultrabasic forest. As of 2021, the Philippines has 7 million hectares of forest cover, according to official estimates, though experts contend that the actual figure is likely much lower.
Deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...
, often the result of
illegal logging
Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a pro ...
, is
an acute problem in the Philippines. Forest cover has declined from 70% of the Philippines's total land area in 1900 to about 18.3% in 1999. With an estimated 13,500 plant species in the country, 3,200 of which are unique to the islands,
Philippine rainforests have an array of flora,
including many rare
types of orchids and
rafflesia
''Rafflesia'' () is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flowers i ...
.
Around 1,100 land vertebrate species can be found in the Philippines including over 100 mammal species and 243 bird species not thought to exist elsewhere.
The Philippines has among the highest rates of discovery in the world with sixteen new species of mammals discovered in the last ten years. Because of this, the
rate of endemism for the Philippines has risen and likely will continue to rise. Parts of its marine waters contain the highest diversity of shorefish species in the world.
Large reptiles include the
Philippine crocodile
The Philippine crocodile (''Crocodylus mindorensis''), also known as the Mindoro crocodile, the Philippine freshwater crocodile, the ''bukarot'' in Ilocano, and more generally as a ''buwaya'' in most Filipino lowland cultures, is one of two spec ...
and
saltwater crocodile
The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats and brackish wetlands from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It has been listed ...
. The largest crocodile in captivity, known locally as
Lolong
Lolong (died 10 February 2013) was the largest crocodile in captivity. He was a saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') measured at , and weighed , making him one of the largest crocodiles ever measured from snout-to-tail.
In November 201 ...
, was captured in the southern island of Mindanao, and died on February 10, 2013, from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
and
cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possib ...
. The
national bird
This is a list of national birds, including official birds of overseas territories and other states described as nations. Most species in the list are officially designated. Some species hold only an "unofficial" status.
National birds
See al ...
, known as the
Philippine eagle
The Philippine eagle (''Pithecophaga jefferyi''), also known as the monkey-eating eagle or great Philippine eagle, is a critically endangered species of eagle of the family Accipitridae which is endemic to forests in the Philippines. It has br ...
, has the longest body of any eagle; it generally measures 86 to 102 cm (2.82 to 3.35 ft) in length and weighs 4.7 to 8.0 kg (10.4 to 17.6 lb).
The Philippine eagle is part of the family
Accipitridae
The Accipitridae is one of the three families within the order Accipitriformes, and is a family of small to large birds with strongly hooked bills and variable morphology based on diet. They feed on a range of prey items from insects to medium-s ...
and is endemic to the rainforests of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao. The Philippines has the third highest number of endemic birds in the world (behind Indonesia and Australia) with 243 endemics. Notable birds include the
Celestial monarch
The celestial monarch (''Hypothymis coelestis'') is a species of bird in the family Monarchidae, and one of the most attractive of all the monarch flycatchers, with its spectacular blue crest and large greenish-yellow wattle. It is endemic to th ...
,
flame-templed babbler
The flame-templed babbler (''Dasycrotapha speciosa'') is a species of bird of the family Zosteropidae, in the genus ''Dasycrotapha''. It is one of the most remarkable and distinctive birds with its complex head markings with orange crown tufts, b ...
,
Red-vented cockatoo
The red-vented cockatoo (''Cacatua haematuropygia''), also known as the Philippine cockatoo and locally katala, abukay, agay or kalangay, is a species of cockatoo. It is endemic to the Philippines though pressured by various environmental degradat ...
,
Whiskered pitta
The whiskered pitta (''Erythropitta kochi'') is a rare species of bird in the family Pittidae. It is endemic to Luzon in the Philippines. This bird is the largest pitta in the country reaching 23 cm long and 116 g in mass. It has a bro ...
,
Sulu hornbill
The Sulu hornbill (''Anthracoceros montani''), or Montano's hornbill, is a species of hornbill in the family Bucerotidae. It is endemic to the Sulu archipelago in the Philippines, with the remaining populations in Tawi-Tawi with it believed to ...
,
Rufous hornbill
The rufous hornbill (''Buceros hydrocorax''), also known as the Philippine hornbill and locally as kalaw (pronounced KAH-lau), is a large species of hornbill endemic to the Philippines (the largest hornbill in the country). The are referred by lo ...
,
Luzon bleeding-heart
The Luzon bleeding-heart or punay (''Gallicolumba luzonica'') is one of a number of species of ground dove in the genus ''Gallicolumba'' that are called "bleeding-hearts". The native name in Tagalog is punay. It is also known as ''paloma de pun ...
and the
Flame-breasted fruit dove
The flame-breasted fruit dove (''Ptilinopus marchei'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to the Philippines only being found in the mountains of Luzon.This is a large dove reaching 42 cm long, being the largest fru ...
.
Philippine maritime waters produce unique and diverse marine life
and is an important part of the
Coral Triangle
The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in ea ...
ecoregion.
The total number of corals and marine fish species in this ecoregion is estimated at 500 and 2,400 respectively.
New records and species discoveries continue. The
Tubbataha Reef
The Tubbataha Natural Park, also known as the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park ( fil, Bahurang Tubbataha), is a protected area of the Philippines located in the middle of the Sulu Sea. The marine and bird sanctuary consists of two huge atolls (named ...
in the Sulu Sea was declared a World Heritage Site in 1993. Philippine waters also sustain the cultivation of fish, crustaceans, oysters, and seaweeds. One species of oyster,
Pinctada maxima
''Pinctada maxima'' is a species of pearl oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae, the pearl oysters. There are two different color varieties: the Silver-lipped oyster and the Gold-lipped oyster. These bivalves are the largest ...
, produces pearls that are naturally golden in color. Pearls have been declared a "national gem".
Climate
![Koppen-Geiger Map PHL present](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Koppen-Geiger_Map_PHL_present.svg)
The Philippines has a tropical maritime climate that is usually hot and humid. There are three seasons: a hot
dry season
The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...
from March to May; a
rainy season
The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs.
Rainy Season may also refer to:
* ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King
* "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni
* ''T ...
from June to November; and a cool dry season from December to February. The southwest
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
lasts from May to October and the northeast monsoon from November to April. Temperatures usually range from to . The coolest month is January; the warmest is May.
The average yearly temperature is around . In considering temperature, location in terms of latitude and longitude is not a significant factor, and temperatures at sea level tend to be in the same range. Altitude usually has more of an impact. The average annual temperature of
Baguio
Baguio ( ,
), officially the City of Baguio ( ilo, Siudad ti Baguio; fil, Lungsod ng Baguio), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. It is known as the "Summer Capital of the Philippines", ...
at an elevation of above sea level is , making it a popular destination during hot summers.
Annual rainfall measures as much as in the mountainous east coast section but less than in some of the sheltered valleys.
Sitting astride the
typhoon belt
A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
, the islands experience 15–20 typhoons annually from July to October,
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
– Federal Research Division
The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress.
The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Unite ...
. (March 2006)
''Country Profile: Philippines''
Retrieved July 30, 2020. with around 19 typhoons entering the
Philippine area of responsibility
The Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) is an area in the Northwestern Pacific where PAGASA, the Philippines' national meteorological agency, monitors weather occurrences. Significant weather disturbances, specifically tropical cyclones tha ...
in a typical year and 8 or 9 making landfall.
[''Monthly Typhoon Tracking Charts'']
(2010). Retrieved April 24, 2010 from the National Institute of Informatics
The is a Japanese research institute located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. NII was established in April 2000 for the purpose of advancing the study of informatics. This institute also works on creating systems to facilitate the spread of scienti ...
, Kitamoto Laboratory, Digital Typhoon Website. Historically typhoons were sometimes referred to as ''baguios''. The wettest recorded typhoon to hit the Philippines dropped in Baguio from July 14 to 18, 1911. The Philippines is highly
exposed to climate change and is among the world's ten countries that are most
vulnerable to climate change risks.
Government and politics
The Philippines has a
democratic government in the form of a constitutional
republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
with a
presidential system
A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separati ...
.
The
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
functions as both
head of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...
and
head of government
The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...
and is the
commander-in-chief of the
armed forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
.
The president
is elected by
direct election
Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they desire to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are cho ...
for a single six-year term.
The president appoints and presides over the
cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
.
The
bicameral
Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
is composed of the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, serving as the
upper house
An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...
, with members elected to a six-year term, and the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
, serving as the
lower house
A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...
, with members elected to a three-year term.
Philippine politics tends to be dominated by those with well-known names, such as members of
political dynasties or celebrities.
["The Philippines' celebrity-obsessed elections"]
(April 26, 2007). ''The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
''. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
Senators are elected
at-large
At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...
while the representatives are elected from both
legislative districts
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...
and through
sectoral representation.
The judicial power is vested in the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, composed of a
chief justice as its presiding officer and fourteen
associate justices
Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some state ...
,
all of whom are appointed by the president from nominations submitted by the
Judicial and Bar Council
The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC; fil, Sangguniang Panghukuman at Pang-abogasya) of the Philippines is a constitutionally-created body that recommends appointees for vacancies that may arise in the composition of the Supreme Court, other lowe ...
.
There have been
attempts to change the government to a
federal
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
,
unicameral
Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one.
Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...
, or
parliamentary government
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
since the Ramos administration. There is a significant amount of
corruption in the Philippines
The Philippines suffers from widespread corruption, which developed during the Spanish colonial period. According to GAN Integrity's ''Philippines Corruption Report'' updated May 2020, the Philippines suffers from many incidents of corruptio ...
, which some historians attribute to the system of governance put in place during the Spanish colonial period.
Foreign relations
As a
founding and active member of the United Nations, the country has been elected to the
Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and ...
.
Carlos P. Romulo
Carlos Peña Romulo Sr. (January 14, 1898 – December 15, 1985) was a Filipino diplomat, statesman, soldier, journalist and author. He was a reporter at the age of 16, a newspaper editor by 20, and a publisher at 32. He was a co-founder of t ...
was a former president of the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
. The country is an active participant in
peacekeeping
Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare.
Within the United N ...
missions, particularly in
East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...
. Over 10 million Filipinos live and work overseas.
The Philippines is a founding and active member of
ASEAN
ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
[. (1999). ''3 ASEAN Informal Summit''. Archived fro]
the original
on December 17, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2009. It has hosted several
summits
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used only for a ...
and is an active contributor to the direction and policies of the bloc. It is also a member of the
East Asia Summit
The East Asia Summit (EAS) is a regional forum held annually by leaders of, initially, 16 countries in the East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian and Oceanian regions, based on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations#ASEAN Plus Three and A ...
, the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economy, economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. , the
Group of 24
The Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development, or The Group of 24 (G-24) was established in 1971 as a chapter of the Group of 77 in order to help coordinate the positions of developing countries on ...
, and the
Non-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
The movement originated in the aftermath o ...
.
The country is also seeking to obtain observer status in the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived from ...
.
The Philippines has a long
relationship with the United States, covering economics, security, and people-to-people relations.
A
Mutual Defense Treaty
A defense pact (or defence pact in Commonwealth spelling) is a type of treaty or military alliance in which the signatories promise to support each other militarily and to defend each other.Volker Krause, J. David Singer "Minor Powers, Allianc ...
between the two countries was signed in 1951 and supplemented with the
1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2016
Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement
The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is an agreement between the United States and the Philippines intended to bolster the American–Philippine alliance. The agreement allows the United States to rotate troops into the Philippines ...
. The Philippines supported American policies during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
and participated in the
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
and
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
wars. In 2003 the Philippines was designated a
major non-NATO ally
Major non-NATO ally (MNNA) is a designation given by the United States government to close allies that have strategic working relationships with the US Armed Forces but are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While the s ...
. Under President Duterte, ties with the United States have weakened with military purchases instead coming from China and Russia, while Duterte states that the Philippines will no longer participate in any U.S.-led wars. In 2021, it was revealed the United States would defend the Philippines including the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
.
The Philippines attaches great importance to its
relations with China and has established significant cooperation with the country. Japan is the biggest bilateral contributor of
official development assistance
Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure aid, foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in ...
to the country. Although historical tensions exist because of the events of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, much of the animosity has faded.
[Dolan, Ronald E. (Ed.). (1991)]
"Relations with Asian Neighbors"
''Philippines: A Country Study''
Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. Retrieved January 5, 2010 fro
Country Studies US Website
Historical and cultural ties continue to affect
relations with Spain. Relations with Middle Eastern countries are shaped by the high number of Filipinos working in these countries, and by issues related to the Muslim minority in the Philippines; concerns have been raised regarding issues such as domestic abuse and war affecting
the approximately 2.5 million overseas Filipino workers in the region.
The Philippines
has claims in the
Spratly Islands
The Spratly Islands ( fil, Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; zh, c=南沙群島/南沙群岛, s=, t=, p=Nánshā Qúndǎo; Malay, id, Kepulauan Spratly; vi, Quần đảo Trường Sa) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed o ...
which overlap with claims by China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The largest of its controlled islands in
Thitu Island
Thitu Island, also known as Pag-asa Island ( tl, Pulo ng Pag-asa, lit=Island of Hope; pag, Ilalo, having an area of , is the second largest of the naturally occurringNote that in 2014 the PRC embarked on a number of reclamation projects in the ...
, which contains the Philippines's smallest village.
The
Scarborough Shoal
Scarborough Shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc (in Spanish language, Spanish), Panatag Shoal ( fil, Kulumpol ng Panatag, lit=serene cluster), Huangyan Island (Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin zh, c=黄岩岛, p=Huáng Yán Dǎo, l=yellow rock isl ...
standoff in 2012, where China took control of the shoal from the Philippines, led to an
international arbitration case which the Philippines eventually won but China had rejected, and has made the shoal a prominent symbol in the wider dispute.
Military
![BRP Jose Rizal at RIMPAC 2020 005](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/BRP_Jose_Rizal_at_RIMPAC_2020_005.jpg)
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) consist of three branches: the
Philippine Air Force
The Philippine Air Force (PAF) ( tgl, Hukbong Himpapawid ng Pilipinas, , Army of the Air of the Philippines) ( es, Ejército Aérea del Filipinas, , Ejército de la Aérea de la Filipinas) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Armed Forc ...
, the
Philippine Army
The Philippine Army (PA) ( Tagalog: ''Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas''; in literal English: ''Army of the Ground of the Philippines''; in literal Spanish: ''Ejército de la Tierra de la Filipinas'') is the main, oldest and largest branch of the ...
, and the
Philippine Navy
The Philippine Navy (PN) ( tgl, Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas, , Sea Army of the Philippines) ( es, Armada de Filipinas, , Ejército del Mar de las Filipinas) is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an e ...
.
The AFP is a
volunteer force
The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated ...
. Civilian security is handled by the
Philippine National Police
The Philippine National Police ( fil, Pambansang Pulisya ng Pilipinas, acronymed as PNP) is the armed national police force in the Philippines. Its national headquarters is located at Camp Crame in Bagong Lipunan ng Crame, Quezon City. Current ...
under the
Department of the Interior and Local Government
The Department of the Interior and Local Government ( fil, Kagawaran ng Interyor at Pamahalaang Lokal), abbreviated as DILG, is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for promoting peace and order, ensuring public saf ...
.
, $2.843 billion, or 1.1 percent of GDP is spent on military forces. As of 2021, this number has increased to $4.40 billion.
In Bangsamoro, the largest separatist organizations, the
Moro National Liberation Front
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF; ar, الجبهة الوطنية لتحرير مورو) is a political organization in the Philippines that was founded in 1972. It started as a splinter group of the Muslim Independence Movement. The M ...
and the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF; ar, ''Jabhat Taḥrīr Moro al-ʾIslāmiyyah'') is a group based in Mindanao seeking an autonomous region of the Moro people from the central government. The group has a presence in the Bangsamoro r ...
, were engaging the government politically in the 2000s. Other more militant groups like the
Abu Sayyaf
Abu Sayyaf (; ar, جماعة أبو سياف; ', ASG), officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that follows the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It is based i ...
have kidnapped foreigners for ransom, particularly in the Sulu Archipelago. Their presence decreased through successful security provided by the Philippine government. The
Communist Party of the Philippines
The Communist Party of the Philippines ( fil, Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas) is a far-left, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionary organization and communist party in the Philippines, formed by Jose Maria Sison on 26 December 1968. It is desi ...
and its military wing, the
New People's Army
The New People's Army ( fil, Bagong Hukbong Bayan), abbreviated NPA or BHB, is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), based primarily in the Philippine countryside. It acts as the CPP's principal organization, aimi ...
, have been waging
guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
against the government since the 1970s, reaching its apex in 1986, when communist guerrillas gained control of a fifth of the country's territory before significantly dwindling militarily and politically after the return of democracy in 1986.
Administrative divisions
The Philippines is governed as a
unitary state
A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create (or abolish) administrative divisions (sub-national units). Such units exercise only th ...
, with the exception of the
Bangsamoro
ar, منطقة بانجسامورو ذاتية الحكم فى مسلمى مينداناو
, native_name =
, settlement_type = Autonomous region
, anthem = Bangsamoro Hymn
, image_skyline ...
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), although there have been several steps towards decentralization within the unitary framework. A 1991 law devolved some powers to
local governments
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
.
The country is divided into 17
regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
, 82
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
, 146
cities
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
, 1,488
municipalities
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
, and 42,036
barangay
A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolitan ...
s. Regions other than Bangsamoro serve primarily to organize the provinces of the country for administrative convenience.
,
Calabarzon
Calabarzon (), formally known as the Southern Tagalog Mainland, is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region IV-A. The region comprises five provinces: Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, and Rizal; and one highly urban ...
was the most populated region while the
National Capital Region
A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...
(NCR) was the most densely populated.
Demographics
The Commission on Population estimated the country's population to be 107,190,081 as of December 31, 2018, based on the latest population census of 2015 conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The population increased from 1990 to 2008 by approximately 28 million, a 45% growth in that time frame.
[CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion]
Population 1971–2008
pdf
page 86); page 86 of the pdf, IEA (OECD/ World Bank) (original population ref OECD/ World Bank e.g. in IEA Key World Energy Statistics 2010 page 57) (archived fro
the original
on October 12, 2009) The first
official census in the Philippines was carried out in 1877 and recorded a population of 5,567,685.
A third of the population resides in
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...
and its immediately neighboring regions.
The 2.34% average annual population growth rate between 1990 and 2000 decreased to an estimated 1.90% for the 2000–2010 period. Government attempts to reduce population growth have been a
contentious issue.
The population's median age is 22.7 years with 60.9% aged from 15 to 64 years old.
Life expectancy at birth is 69.4 years, 73.1 years for females and 65.9 years for males.
Poverty incidence dropped to 18.1% in 2021 from 25.2% in 2012.
The capital city of the Philippines is
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
and the most populous city is
Quezon City
Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...
, both within the single urban area of
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...
. Metro Manila is the most populous of the
3 defined metropolitan areas in the Philippines and the
5th most populous in the world.
[Demographia. (June 2020)]
''Demographia World Urban Areas (World Agglomerations) Population & Projections''
(Edition 16). Retrieved July 15, 2020. p. 23. Census data from 2015 showed it had a population of 12,877,253 constituting almost 13% of the national population.
Including suburbs in the adjacent provinces (
Bulacan
Bulacan, officially the Province of Bulacan ( tl, Lalawigan ng Bulacan), is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the city of Malolos. Bulacan was established on August 15, 1578, and part of the Metr ...
,
Cavite
Cavite, officially the Province of Cavite ( tl, Lalawigan ng Kabite; Chavacano: ''Provincia de Cavite''), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Located on the southern shores of Manila Bay and southwest ...
,
Laguna
Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to:
People
* Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay
* Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist
* Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...
, and
Rizal
Rizal, officially the Province of Rizal ( fil, Lalawigan ng Rizal), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Its capital is the city of Antipolo. It is about east of Manila. The p ...
) of
Greater Manila
The Greater Manila Area is the contiguous urbanization region surrounding the Metropolitan Manila area. This built-up zone includes Metro Manila and the neighboring provinces of Bulacan to the north, Cavite and Laguna to the south, and Rizal ...
, the population is around 23,088,000.
Across the country, the Philippines has a total urbanization rate of 51.2%.
Metro Manila's
gross regional product
Gross regional product (GRP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a region or subdivision of a country in a period (quarterly or yearly) of time.
A metropolitan area's GRP (gross metropolitan prod ...
was estimated to be
₱
The Philippine peso sign (₱) is the currency symbol used for the Philippine peso, the official currency of the Philippines. The symbol resembles a Roman letter P with two horizontal strokes. It differs from the currency symbol used for the pe ...
6.158 trillion (at constant 2020 prices).
Ethnic groups
![Peoples of the Philippines en](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Peoples_of_the_Philippines_en.svg)
There is substantial ethnic diversity with the Philippines, a product of the seas and mountain ranges dividing the archipelago along with significant foreign influences.
According to the 2010 census, 24.4% of
Filipinos
Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or othe ...
are
Tagalog, 11.4%
Visayans
Visayans (Visayan: ''mga Bisaya''; ) or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. When taken as a single ethnic group, ...
/
Bisaya
Visayans (Visayan: ''mga Bisaya''; ) or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. When taken as a single ethnic group, ...
(excluding
Cebuano,
Hiligaynon and
Waray Waray may refer to:
* Waray people of the Philippines
* Waray language, the fifth most spoken native language of the Philippines, spoken by the Waray people
* Waray literature
* Warray language
Warray (Waray) was an Australian language spoken ...
), 9.9% Cebuano, 8.8%
Ilocano, 8.4% Hiligaynon, 6.8%
Bikol, 4% Waray, and 26.2% are "others",
which can be broken down further to yield more distinct nontribal groups like the
Moro,
Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to:
*Kapampangan people of the Philippines
*Kapampangan language
Kapampangan or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary ...
,
Pangasinense,
Ibanag, and
Ivatan. There are also
indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
like the
Igorot
The indigenous peoples of the Cordillera Mountain Range of northern Luzon, Philippines are often referred to using the exonym Igorot people, or more recently, as the Cordilleran peoples. There are nine main ethnolinguistic groups whose domains ar ...
, the
Lumad
The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous people in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (Literally: "indigenous people"), the autonym officially adopte ...
, the
Mangyan
Mangyan is the generic name for the eight indigenous groups found on the island of Mindoro, southwest of the island of Luzon, the Philippines, each with its own tribal name, language, and customs. The total population may be around 280,001, ...
, and the
tribes of Palawan
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
.
Negrito
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, ...
s are considered among the earliest inhabitants of the islands.
[Dolan, Ronald E. (Ed.). (1991)]
"Ethnicity, Regionalism, and Language"
''Philippines: A Country Study''
Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. Retrieved April 8, 2010 fro
Country Studies US Website
These minority aboriginal settlers are an
Australoid
Australo-Melanesians (also known as Australasians or the Australomelanesoid, Australoid or Australioid race) is an outdated historical grouping of various people indigenous to Melanesia and Australia. Controversially, groups from Southeast Asia an ...
group and are left over from the first human migration out of Africa to Australia and were likely displaced by later waves of migration. At least some Negritos in the Philippines have
Denisovan
The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Denisovans are known from few physical remains and consequently, most of what is known ...
admixture in their genomes. Ethnic Filipinos generally belong to several Southeast Asian ethnic groups classified linguistically as part of the
Austronesian or
Malayo-Polynesian
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...
speaking people.
There is some uncertainty over the origin of this Austronesian speaking population. It is likely that ancestors related to
Taiwanese aborigines
Taiwanese may refer to:
* Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien
* Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa)
* Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan
* Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan
* Taiwanese people, ...
brought their language and mixed with existing populations in the area.
The Lumad and Sama-Bajau ethnic groups have ancestral affinity with the
Austroasiatic
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...
Mlabri Mlabri can refer to:
* Mlabri people
* Mlabri language
Mlabri is a language spoken by the Mlabri people in the border area between Thailand and Laos.
It is usually classified as a Khmuic language, a subgroup of the Austroasiatic languages. Ling ...
and
Htin peoples of mainland Southeast Asia. There was a westward expansion of Papuan ancestry from
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
to eastern Indonesia and Mindanao detected among the
Blaan and
Sangir.
Under Spanish rule there was some immigration from elsewhere in the empire, especially
from the Spanish Americas.
According to the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health (RPGEH), a substantial proportion of Filipinos sampled have "modest" amounts of European descent consistent with older admixture.
[ Subsection: (Discussion) "For the non-Hispanic white individuals, we see a broad spectrum of genetic ancestry ranging from northern Europe to southern Europe and the Middle East. Within that large group, with the exception of Ashkenazi Jews, we see little evidence of distinct clusters. This is consistent with considerable exogamy within this group. By comparison, we do see structure in the East Asian population, correlated with nationality, reflecting continuing endogamy for these nationalities and also recent immigration. On the other hand, we did observe a substantial number of individuals who are admixed between East Asian and European ancestry, reflecting ∼10% of all those reporting East Asian race/ethnicity. The majority of these reflected individuals with one East Asian and one European parent or one East Asian and three European grandparents. In addition, we noted that for self-reported Filipinos, a substantial proportion have modest levels of European genetic ancestry reflecting older admixture."] In addition to this, the
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
project concluded in 2016 that people living in the Philippine archipelago carried
genetic marker A genetic marker is a gene or DNA sequence with a known location on a chromosome that can be used to identify individuals or species. It can be described as a variation (which may arise due to mutation or alteration in the genomic loci) that can be ...
s in the following percentages: 53%
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
and
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
, 36%
Eastern Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
, 5% Southern
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, 3%
Southern Asia Southern Asia may refer to:
* South Asia, a geopolitical macroregion of SAARC countries
* Southern Asia, a geographical subregion in Asia spanning the Iranian Plateau and the Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the phy ...
, and 2% Native American (From
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
).
Chinese Filipino
Chinese Filipinos; tl, Tsinoy, / Tsinong Pilipino, ; Philippine Hokkien , Mandarin (also known as Filipino Chinese in the Philippines) are Filipinos of Chinese descent, mostly of southern Fujianese ancestry, where the majority are bor ...
s are mostly the descendants of immigrants from
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
in China after 1898, numbering around 2 million, although there are an estimated 20% of Filipinos who have partial Chinese ancestry, stemming from precolonial and colonial Chinese migrants. While a distinct minority, Chinese Filipinos are well integrated into Filipino society.
As of 2015, there are 220,000 to 600,000
American citizens
Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...
living in the country. There are also up to 250,000
Amerasian
An Amerasian may refer to a person born in Asia to an Asian mother and a U.S. military father. Other terms used include War babies or G.I. babies. There are also those who may have mothers in the U.S. military or have Amerasian ancestry through the ...
s scattered across the cities of
Angeles, Manila, and
Olongapo
Olongapo, officially the City of Olongapo ( fil, Lungsod ng Olongapo; ilo, Siudad ti Olongapo; xsb, Siyodad nin Olongapo), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. Located in the province of Zambales ...
. Other important non-indigenous minorities include
Indians and
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
. There are also
Japanese people
The are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Japanese archipelago."人類学上は,旧石器時代あるいは縄文時代以来,現在の北海道〜沖縄諸島(南西諸島)に住んだ集団を祖先にもつ人々。" () Jap ...
, which include escaped Christians (
Kirishitan
The Japanese term , from Portuguese ''cristão'' (cf. Kristang), meaning "Christian", referred to Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used in Japanese texts as a historiographic term for Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries.
M ...
) who
fled the persecutions of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The descendants of mixed-race couples are known as ''
Tisoy
In the Philippines, Filipino Mestizo ( es, mestizo (masculine) / mestiza (feminine); Filipino/ tl, Mestiso (masculine) / Mestisa (feminine)) or colloquially ''Tisoy'', is a name used to refer to people of mixed native Filipino and any foreign ...
''.
Languages
''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
'' lists 186 individual languages in the Philippines, 182 of which are living languages, while 4 no longer have any known speakers. Most native languages are part of the Philippine branch of the
Malayo-Polynesian languages
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...
, which is a branch of the
Austronesian language family.
[Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). (2015)]
Ethnologue: Languages of the World
' (18th ed.). Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Retrieved April 13, 2015. In addition, various Spanish-based creole varieties collectively called
Chavacano
Chavacano or Chabacano is a group of Spanish-based creole language varieties spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speakers. ...
exist. There are also many
Philippine Negrito languages
The Negrito peoples of the Philippines speak various Philippine languages. They have more in common with neighboring languages than with each other, and are listed here merely as an aid to identification.
Classification
The following languages are ...
that have unique vocabularies that survived Austronesian acculturation.
Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
are the official languages of the country.
Filipino is a standardized version of
Tagalog, spoken mainly in Metro Manila. Both Filipino and English are used in government, education, print, broadcast media, and business, with third local languages often being used at the same time.
The Philippine constitution provides for the promotion of
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
and Arabic on a voluntary and optional basis.
Spanish, which was widely used as a lingua franca in the late nineteenth century, has since declined greatly in use,
although Spanish
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s are still present today in Philippine languages, while Arabic is mainly taught in Islamic schools in Mindanao.
Nineteen regional languages act as auxiliary official languages used as media of instruction:
Aklanon,
Bikol,
Cebuano,
Chavacano
Chavacano or Chabacano is a group of Spanish-based creole language varieties spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speakers. ...
,
Hiligaynon,
Ibanag,
Ilocano,
Ivatan,
Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to:
*Kapampangan people of the Philippines
*Kapampangan language
Kapampangan or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary ...
,
Kinaray-a
The Karay-a language ( krj, label=none, Kinaray-a, krj, label=none, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or krj, label=none, Hinaraya; en, Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique, Il ...
,
Maguindanao
Maguindanao (, Maguindanao language, Maguindanaon: ''Prubinsya nu Magindanaw''; Iranun language, Iranun'': Perobinsia a Magindanao''; tl, Lalawigan ng Maguindanao) was a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the ...
,
Maranao
The Maranao people (Maranao: mәranaw Filipino: ''Maranaw''), also spelled Meranao, Maranaw, and Mëranaw, is the term used by the Philippine government to refer to the southern indigenous people who are the "people of the lake", a predomin ...
,
Pangasinan
Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan ( pag, Luyag/Probinsia na Pangasinan, ; ilo, Probinsia ti Pangasinan; tl, Lalawigan ng Pangasinan), is a coastal province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capit ...
,
Sambal
Sambal is an Indonesian chilli sauce or paste, typically made from a mixture of a variety of chilli peppers with secondary ingredients, such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice. ''Sambal'' is an Indo ...
,
Surigaonon, Tagalog,
Tausug,
Waray Waray may refer to:
* Waray people of the Philippines
* Waray language, the fifth most spoken native language of the Philippines, spoken by the Waray people
* Waray literature
* Warray language
Warray (Waray) was an Australian language spoken ...
, and
Yakan Yakan may refer to:
* Yakan people, a community of the Philippines
* Yakan language, a language of the Philippines
* Cape Yakan, in Russia
People with the name
* Adly Yakan Pasha (1864–1933), Egyptian politician
* Fathi Yakan (1933–2009), Le ...
.
[DepEd adds 7 languages to mother tongue-based education for Kinder to Grade 3](_blank)
GMA News
GMA Integrated News and Public Affairs (formerly known as ''RBS News Department'', ''GMA Radio-Television News'' and ''GMA Rainbow Satellite News''; and commonly GMA (Integrated) News) is the news division of the GMA Network Inc.
The division ...
. July 13, 2013. Other indigenous languages such as,
Cuyonon
Cuyonon is a regional language, regional Bisayan languages, Bisayan language spoken on the coast of Palawan and the Cuyo Islands in the Philippines. ,
Ifugao
Ifugao, officially the Province of Ifugao ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ifugao; tl, Lalawigan ng Ifugao), is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Lagawe and it borders Benguet to the wes ...
,
Itbayat
Itbayat, officially the Municipality of Itbayat, ( ivv, Kavahayan nu Itbayat; tl, Bayan ng Itbayat), is a 5th class municipality in the province of Batanes, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 3,128 people.
Itbayat ...
,
Kalinga Kalinga may refer to:
Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology
* Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India
** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature
** Kalinga script, an ancient writin ...
,
Kamayo
Kamayo (Kinamayo or alternatively spelled Camayo), also called Kadi, Kinadi, or Mandaya, is a minor Austronesian language of the central eastern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines.
Distribution
Spoken in some areas of Surigao del Sur (the cit ...
,
Kankanaey,
Masbateño,
Romblomanon,
Manobo
The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous people in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (Literally: "indigenous people"), the autonym officially adopte ...
, and several
Visayan languages
The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the languages of the Philippines, Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog language, Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which ar ...
are prevalent in their respective provinces.
Article 3 of Republic Act No. 11106 declared the
Filipino Sign Language
Filipino Sign Language (FSL) or Philippine Sign Language ( fil, Wikang pasenyas ng mga Pilipino), is a sign language originating in the Philippines. Like other sign languages, FSL is a unique language with its own grammar, syntax and morphology; ...
as the national sign language of the Philippines, specifying that it shall be recognized, supported and promoted as the medium of official communication in all transactions involving the deaf, and as the language of instruction of deaf education.
Religion
![St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/St._Agustine_Paoay_Church_02.jpg)
The Philippines is a
secular state
A secular state is an idea pertaining to secularity, whereby a State (polity), state is or purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion. A secular state claims to treat all its citizens ...
which protects
freedom of religion
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...
.
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
is the dominant faith,
shared by about 89% of the population.
["Philippines In Figures"]
Philippine Statistics Authority
The Philippine Statistics Authority (Filipino: ''Pangasiwaan ng Estadistika ng Pilipinas''), abbreviated as PSA, is the central statistical authority of the Philippine government that ''collects, compiles, analyzes and publishes statistical inf ...
. , the country had the
world's third largest Roman Catholic population, and was the
largest Christian nation in Asia. Census data from 2015 found that about % of the population professed
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
Around 37% of the population regularly attend
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
. 29% of self-identified Catholics consider themselves very religious.
An
independent Catholic
Independent Catholicism is an independent sacramental movement of clergy and laity who self-identify as Catholic (most often as Old Catholic or as Independent Catholic) and form "micro-churches claiming apostolic succession and valid sacrament ...
church, the
Philippine Independent Church
, native_name_lang = fil
, icon = Logo of the Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayan Church).svg
, icon_width = 80px
, icon_alt = Coat of arms of the Philippine Independent Church
, image ...
, has around 756,225 adherents.
Protestants
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
were 9.13% of the population in 2015. % of the population are members of
Iglesia ni Cristo.
The combined following of the
Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
comes to % of the total population.
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
is the second largest religion. The Muslim population of the Philippines was reported as % of the total population according to census returns in 2015.
Conversely, a 2012 report by the National Commission of Muslim Filipinos stated that about 10,700,000 or 11% of Filipinos are Muslims.
The majority of Muslims live in Mindanao and nearby islands.
Most practice
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...
under the
Shafi'i school
The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by A ...
.
The percentage of combined
positive atheist and
agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
people in the Philippines was about 3% of the population as of 2008. The 2015 Philippine Census reported the religion of about % of the population as "none".
A 2014 survey by
Gallup International Association
The Gallup International Association (GIA) is an association of polling organizations registered in Zurich, Switzerland. The Gallup International Association was founded in 1947 in Loxwood Hall, Sussex, UK. Dr. George H. Gallup served as its fir ...
reported that 21% of its respondents identify as "not a religious person". Around % of the population practice
indigenous Philippine folk religions
Indigenous Philippine folk religions are the distinct native religions of various ethnic groups in the Philippines, where most follow belief systems in line with animism. Generally, these indigenous folk religions are referred to as Anito or An ...
,
whose practices and folk beliefs are often syncretized with Christianity and Islam.
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
is practiced by around % of the population,
concentrated among Filipinos of Chinese descent.
Health
In 2016, % of healthcare came from private expenditures while % was from the government (12.4% from the national government, 7.1% from the local government, and 17.4% from social health insurance). Total health expenditure share in GDP for the year 2021 was 6%. Per capita health expenditure in 2021 was , higher than the 8,511.52 in 2020. The budget allocation for Healthcare in 2019 was ₱98.6 billion and had an increase in budget in 2014 with a record high in the collection of taxes from the House Bill 5727 (commonly known as
Sin tax
A sin tax is an excise tax specifically levied on certain goods deemed harmful to society and individuals, such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, candies, soft drinks, fast foods, coffee, sugar, gambling, and pornography. In contrast to Pigovian tax ...
Bill).
There were 101,688 hospital beds in the country in 2016, with government hospital beds accounting for 47% and private hospital beds for 53%.
In 2009, there were an estimated 90,370 physicians or 1 per every 833 people, 480,910 nurses and 43,220 dentists.
Retention of skilled practitioners is a problem; seventy percent of nursing graduates go overseas to work. Since 1967, the Philippines had become the largest global supplier of nurses for export. The Philippines suffers a triple burden of high levels of communicable diseases, high levels of non-communicable diseases, and high exposure to natural disasters.
In 2018, there were 1,258 hospitals licensed by the
Department of Health
A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...
, of which were government-run and private. A total of 20,065 barangay health stations and 2,590 rural health units provide primary care services throughout the country as of 2016.
Cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, ...
account for more than 35% of all deaths. 9,264 cases of
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
were reported for the year 2016, with 8,151 being asymptomatic cases. At the time the country was considered a low-HIV-prevalence country, with less than 0.1% of the adult population estimated to be HIV-positive.
HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
cases increased from 12,000 in 2005
United States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...
. (May 2008)
''USAID Country Health Statistical Report – Philippines''
. Retrieved July 13, 2020. to 39,622 as of 2016, with 35,957 being asymptomatic cases.
There is improvement in patients access to medicines due to Filipinos' growing acceptance of
generic drug
A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire. Because the active ch ...
s, with 6 out of 10 Filipinos already using generics. While the country's
universal health care
Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized ar ...
implementation is underway as spearheaded by the state-owned
Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) was created in 1995 to implement universal health coverage in the Philippines. It is a tax-exempt, government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) of the Philippines, and is attached to ...
, most healthcare-related expenses are either borne out of pocket or through health maintenance organization (HMO)-provided health plans. The enactment of the Universal Health Care Act in 2019 by President Rodrigo Duterte facilitated the automatic enrollment of all Filipinos in the national health insurance program; as of March 2022, 94.79 million individuals were covered by these plans.
Education
![Main Bulding of the University of Santo Tomas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Main_Bulding_of_the_University_of_Santo_Tomas.jpg)
As of 2019, the Philippines had a basic
literacy
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...
rate of 93.8% among five years old or older, and a
functional literacy
Functional illiteracy consists of reading and writing skills that are inadequate "to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level". Those who read and write only in a language other than the predominant ...
rate of 91.6% among ages 10 to 64. Education takes up a significant proportion of the national budget. In the 2020 budget, education was allocated PHP17.1 billion from the PHP4.1 trillion budget.
The
Commission on Higher Education lists 2,180 higher education institutions, among which 607 are public and 1,573 are private.
[Republic of the Philippines. Commission on Higher Education. (August 2010). . ''Official Website of the Commission on Higher Education''. Retrieved April 17, 2011.] Primary and secondary schooling is divided between a 6-year elementary period, a 4-year junior high school period, and a 2-year senior high school period. The
Department of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
covers elementary, secondary, and non-formal education. The
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA ; fil, Pangasiwaan sa Edukasyong Teknikal at Pagpapaunlad ng Kasanayan) serves as the Philippines' Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) authority. As a government a ...
administers middle-level education training and development. The Commission on Higher Education was created in 1994 to, among other functions, formulate and recommend development plans, policies, priorities, and programs on
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
and research. In 2004,
madaris were mainstreamed in 16 regions nationwide, mainly in Muslim areas in Mindanao under the auspices and program of the Department of Education.
Public universities are all non-sectarian entities and are classified as State Universities and Colleges or Local Colleges and Universities.
The
University of the Philippines
The University of the Philippines (UP; fil, Pamantasan ng Pilipinas Unibersidad ng Pilipinas) is a state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by Republic Act No. 9500 (UP Charter of 200 ...
, a system of eight constituent universities, is the
national university
A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state.
Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...
system of the Philippines.
[Republic of the Philippines. (Approved: April 29, 2008)]
''Republic Act 9500 – An Act to Strengthen the University of the Philippines as the National University''
Chan Robles Law Library. The country's top ranked universities are as follows: University of the Philippines,
Ateneo de Manila University
, mottoeng = Light in the Lord
, type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution
, established = December 10, 1859
, religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuits)
, academic_aff ...
,
De La Salle University
De La Salle University ( fil, Pamantasang De La Salle or Unibersidad ng De La Salle), also referred to as DLSU, De La Salle or La Salle, is a private university, private, Catholic Church, Catholic coeducational research university run by the I ...
, and
University of Santo Tomas
The University of Santo Tomas (also known as UST and officially as the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila) is a private, Catholic research university in Manila, Philippines. Founded on April 28, 1611, by Spanish friar Miguel ...
. The University of Santo Tomas, established in 1611, has the oldest
extant
Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to:
* Extant hereditary titles
* Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English
* Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...
university charter in the Philippines and Asia.
Economy
![Philippines Product Exports (2019)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Philippines_Product_Exports_%282019%29.svg)
, the Philippine economy produced an estimated
gross domestic product
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjec ...
(nominal) of $367.4 billion.
Primary exports in 2019 included integrated circuits, office machinery/parts, insulated wiring, semiconductors, transformers; major trading partners included China (16%), United States (15%), Japan (13%), Hong Kong (12%), Singapore (7%), Germany (5%).
Its unit of
currency
A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins.
A more general def ...
is the
Philippine peso
The Philippine peso, also referred to by its Tagalog name ''piso'' (Philippine English: , , plural pesos; tl, piso ; sign: ₱; code: PHP), is the official currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 ''sentimo'', also called ce ...
(₱ or PHP).
A
newly industrialized country
The category of newly industrialized country (NIC), newly industrialized economy (NIE) or middle income country is a socioeconomic classification applied to several countries around the world by political scientists and economists. They represent ...
,
the Philippine economy has been transitioning from one based upon agriculture to an economy with more emphasis upon services and manufacturing.
Of the country's 2018 labor force of around 43.46 million, the
agricultural sector
The primary sector of the economy includes any industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining.
The primary sector tends to make up a larger portion of the economy in de ...
employed 24.3%, and accounted for 8.1% of 2018 GDP.
The industrial sector employed around 19% of the workforce and accounted for 34.1% of GDP, while 57% of the workers involved in the services sector were responsible for 57.8% of GDP.
The
unemployment rate
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...
, stands at 4.5%. The inflation rate eased to 1.7% in August 2019. Gross international reserves as of October 2022 are $94.074 billion. The
debt-to-GDP ratio
In economics, the debt-to-GDP ratio is the ratio between a country's government debt (measured in units of currency) and its gross domestic product (GDP) (measured in units of currency per year). While it is a "ratio", it is technically measured i ...
continues to decline to 37.6% as of the second quarter of 2019 from a record high of 78% in 2004. The country is a net importer
but is also a creditor nation. Manila hosts the headquarters of the
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...
.
![0123jfCalipahan Sicsican Rice Fields San Pascual Talavera Ecijafvf 04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/0123jfCalipahan_Sicsican_Rice_Fields_San_Pascual_Talavera_Ecijafvf_04.JPG)
The
1997 Asian financial crisis
The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998–1 ...
affected the economy, resulting in a lingering decline of the value of the peso and falls in the stock market. The effects on the Philippines was not as severe as other Asian nations because of the
fiscal conservatism
Fiscal conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and ''laissez-faire'' economics.M. O. Dickerson et al., ''An ...
of the government, partly as a result of decades of monitoring and fiscal supervision from the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
, in comparison to the massive spending of its neighbors on the rapid acceleration of economic growth.
Remittance
A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their home country or homeland. Money sent home by migrants competes wit ...
s from
overseas Filipinos
An overseas Filipino ( fil, Pilipino sa ibayong-dagat) is a person of full or partial Filipino origin—i.e., people who trace back their ancestry to the Philippines but living or residing outside the country. This term generally applies to b ...
contribute significantly to the Philippine economy;
in 2021, it reached a record US$34 billion, accounting for 8.9% of the national GDP. Regional development is uneven, with Luzon – Metro Manila in particular – gaining most of the new economic growth at the expense of the other regions.
Service industries such as
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
and
business process outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
(BPO) have been identified as areas with some of the best opportunities for growth for the country.
The business process outsourcing industry is composed of eight sub-sectors, namely, knowledge process outsourcing and back offices, animation,
call centers
A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. ...
, software development, game development, engineering design, and
medical transcription
Medical transcription, also known as MT, is an allied health profession dealing with the process of transcribing voice-recorded medical reports that are dictated by physicians, nurses and other healthcare practitioners. Medical reports can be vo ...
. , the Philippines was reported as having eclipsed India as the main center of BPO services in the world.
Science and technology
The
Department of Science and Technology is the governing agency responsible for the development of coordination of science and technology-related projects in the Philippines. Research organizations in the country include the
International Rice Research Institute
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its wor ...
, which focuses on the development of new rice varieties and rice crop management techniques. The Philippines bought its first satellite in 1996. In 2016, the Philippines first micro-satellite,
Diwata-1
Diwata-1 also known as PHL-Microsat-1 was a Philippine microsatellite launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 23, 2016, and was deployed into orbit from the ISS on April 27, 2016. It was the first Philippine microsatellite an ...
, was launched aboard the United States'
Cygnus spacecraft.
The Philippines has a high concentration of cellular phone users.
["Asia's Fab 50 Companies: PLDT-Philippine Long Distance Telephone"](_blank)
''Forbes''. September 3, 2008. Retrieved 2009-13-14. Text messaging
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible compute ...
is a popular form of communication and, in 2007, the nation sent an average of one billion
SMS
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
messages per day. The country has a high level of mobile financial services utilization.
[Teves, Oliver. (October 29, 2007)]
Cell phones double as electronic wallets in Philippines
''USA Today''. Associated Press. Retrieved July 6, 2020. The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, commonly known as
PLDT
PLDT, Inc., formerly known as the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company ( fil, Kompanya ng Teleponong Pangmalayuan ng Pilipinas), is a Philippine telecommunications, internet and digital service holdings company. It is one of the country's ...
, is a formerly nationalized telecommunications provider.
It is also the largest company in the country. The
National Telecommunications Commission
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC; fil, Pambansang Komisyon sa Telekomunikasyon) is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology responsible for the supervision, adjudication and control over ...
is the agency responsible for the supervision, adjudication and control over all
telecommunications services throughout the country.
Tourism
![Big lagoon entrance, Miniloc island - panoramio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Big_lagoon_entrance%2C_Miniloc_island_-_panoramio.jpg)
The tourism sector contributed 5.2% of the country's GDP in 2021, lower than the 12.7% recorded in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and provided 5.7 million jobs in 2019. 8,260,913 international visitors arrived from January to December 2019, up by 15.24% for the same period in 2018. of these came from East Asia, came from North America, and came from other ASEAN countries.
The island of
Boracay
Boracay (; often locally shortened to Bora) is a resort island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines, located off the northwest coast of Panay. It has a total land area of , under the jurisdiction of three barangays in Malay, Akla ...
, popular for its beaches, was named as the best island in the world by ''
Travel + Leisure
Travel + Leisure Co. (formerly Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) is an American timeshare company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownershi ...
'' in 2012.
The Philippines is a popular retirement destination for foreigners because of its climate and low cost of living.
Infrastructure
Transportation
Transportation in the Philippines
Transportation in the Philippines covers the transportation methods within this archipelagic nation of over 7,500 islands. From a previously underdeveloped state of transportation, the government of the Philippines has been improving transporta ...
is facilitated by road, air, rail and waterways. As of December 2018, there are of roads in the Philippines, with only of roads paved. The
Strong Republic Nautical Highway
Strong may refer to:
Education
* The Strong, an educational institution in Rochester, New York, United States
* Strong Hall (Lawrence, Kansas), an administrative hall of the University of Kansas
* Strong School, New Haven, Connecticut, United St ...
, an integrated set of highway segments and ferry routes covering 17 cities, was established in 2003. The
Pan-Philippine Highway
The Pan-Philippine Highway, also known as the Maharlika Highway ( tl, Daang Maharlika; ceb, Dalang Halangdon), is a network of roads, expressways, bridges, and ferry services that connect the islands of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao in t ...
connects the islands of Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao, forming the backbone of land-based transportation in the country. Roads are the dominant form of transport, carrying 98% of people and 58% of cargo. A
network of expressways extends from the capital to other areas of Luzon. The
Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway
The Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), also known as the Cebu–Cordova Bridge and the Third Cebu–Mactan Bridge (or simply, the Third Bridge), is an toll bridge expressway in Metro Cebu. The bridge connects the South Road Properties in C ...
in
Cebu
Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 ...
opened in April 2022. Traffic is a significant issue facing the country, especially
within Manila and on arterial roads connecting to the capital.
Public transport in the country include buses,
jeepney
Jeepneys (), sometimes called jeeps (), are minibus-like public utility vehicles, serving as the most popular means of public transportation in the Philippines. They are known for their crowded seating and kitsch decorations, which have become ...
s,
UV Express
UV Express (formerly known as FX, Metered Taxi, and GT Express) is a license to operate utility vehicles, particularly vans, as an alternative mode of public transportation in the Philippines. The term also refers to the vehicles themselves. This ...
, TNVS, Filcab, taxis, and
tricycle
A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) three-wheeled vehicle.
Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for passenger transport) and freight trikes, ...
s. Jeepneys are a popular and iconic public utility vehicle.
Jeepneys and other public utility vehicles which are older than 15 years are
being phased out gradually in favor of a more efficient and environmentally friendly
Euro 4
The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards for pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and EEA member states and the UK, and ships in EU waters. The standards are defined in a ser ...
compliant vehicles.
Despite wider historical use,
rail transportation in the Philippines
Rail transportation in the Philippines is currently used mostly to transport passengers within Metro Manila and provinces of Laguna and Quezon, as well as a commuter service in the Bicol Region. Freight transport services once operated in the c ...
is limited, being confined to transporting passengers within Metro Manila, and the provinces of
Laguna
Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to:
People
* Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay
* Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist
* Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...
and
Quezon
Quezon, officially the Province of Quezon ( tl, Lalawigan ng Quezon), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon Regions of the Philippines, region on Luzon. Kalilayan was the first known name of th ...
, with a separate short track in the
Bicol Region
Bicol, known formally as the Bicol Region or colloquially as Bicolandia ( bcl, Rehiyon kan Bikol; Rinconada Bikol: ''Rehiyon ka Bikol''; Waray Sorsogon, Masbateño: ''Rehiyon san Bikol''; tl, Rehiyon ng Bikol), is an administrative region of ...
. There are plans to revive
freight rail
Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers.
A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...
to reduce road congestion. , the country had a railway footprint of only 79 kilometers, which it had plans to expand up to 244 kilometers. Metro Manila is served by three rapid transit lines:
LRT Line 1,
LRT Line 2
The Light Rail Transit Line 2, also known as LRT Line 2 (LRT-2) or Megatren, is a rapid transit line in Metro Manila in the Philippines, generally running in an east–west direction along the Radial Road 6 and a portion of the Circumferential ...
and
MRT Line 3.
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlem ...
. (1993)
''Provision of Travelway Space for Urban Public Transport in Developing Countries''
UN–HABITAT. pp. 15, 26–70, 160–179. . The
PNR South Commuter Line transports passengers between Metro Manila and Laguna. Railway lines that are under construction include the
MRT Line 7
The Metro Rail Transit Line 7, also known as MRT Line 7 or MRT-7, is a rapid transit line under construction in the Philippines. When completed, the line will be long, with 14 stations, and the first line to have a third rail electrification. ...
(2020), the
Metro Manila Subway
The Metro Manila Subway, formerly known as the Mega Manila Subway (MMS), is an under-construction underground rapid transit line in Metro Manila, Philippines. The line, which will run north–south between Quezon City, Pasig, Makati, Taguig, ...
(2025), and the PNR
North–South Commuter Railway
The North–South Commuter Railway (NSCR), also known as the Clark–Calamba Railway, is a urban rail transit system under construction in the island of Luzon, Philippines. Running from New Clark City in Capas to Calamba, Laguna with 36 sta ...
which is divided into several phases, with partial operations to begin in 2022. The civil airline industry is regulated by the
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP, ; fil, Pangasiwaan sa Abyasyong Sibil ng Pilipinas) is the civil aviation authority of the Philippines and is responsible for implementing policies on civil aviation to assure safe, econo ...
.
Philippine Airlines
Philippine Airlines (PAL), a trade name of PAL Holdings, Inc. ( PSEPAL (Philippine Air Lines until 1970), is the flag carrier airline of the Philippines. Headquartered at the PNB Financial Center in Pasay, the airline was founded in 1941 and i ...
is Asia's oldest commercial airline still operating under its original name.
Cebu Pacific
Cebu Air, Inc., operating as Cebu Pacific (), is a low-cost airline of the Philippines. Founded in 1988, it is Asia's oldest low-cost airline. It offers scheduled flights to both domestic and international destinations. The airline operates fl ...
is the countries leading
low-cost carrier
A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...
.
As an archipelago, inter-island travel using watercraft is often necessary. Boats have always been important to societies in the Philippines.
Most boats are
double-outrigger
A trimaran (or double-outrigger) is a multihull boat that comprises a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls (or "floats") which are attached to the main hull with lateral beams. Most modern trimarans are sailing yachts designed for recreati ...
vessels, which can reach up to in length, known as ''banca''
/''bangka'',
''parao'', prahu, or ''balanghay''. A variety of boat types are used throughout the islands, such as
dugouts
Dugout may refer to:
* Dugout (shelter), an underground shelter
* Dugout (boat), a logboat
* Dugout (smoking), a marijuana container
Sports
* In bat-and-ball sports, a dugout is one of two areas where players of the home or opposing teams sit whe ...
(''baloto'') and house-boats like the ''lepa-lepa''.
Terms such as ''bangka'' and ''baroto'' are also used as general names for a variety of boat types.
Modern ships use plywood in place of logs and motor engines in place of sails.
These ships are used both for fishing and for inter-island travel.
The principal seaports of
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
,
Batangas
Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( tl, Lalawigan ng Batangas ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region on Luzon. Its capital is the city of Batangas, and is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and La ...
,
Subic Bay
Subic Bay is a bay on the west coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines, about northwest of Manila Bay. An extension of the South China Sea, its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility, U.S. Naval Base Subi ...
,
Cebu
Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 ...
,
Iloilo
Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...
,
Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, and
Zamboanga form part of the ASEAN Transport Network. The
Pasig River Ferry
The Pasig River Ferry Service (PRFS) is a public water bus service based in Metro Manila, the Philippines. It is currently the only water-based transportation service in Metro Manila that cruises the length of the Pasig River and Marikina River, ...
serves the cities of Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasig and Marikina in Metro Manila.
Water supply and sanitation
![Ambuklao Dam captured by Mitchell Yumul](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Ambuklao_Dam_captured_by_Mitchell_Yumul.jpeg)
In 2015, it was reported by the
Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation
The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation by WHO and UNICEF is the official United Nations mechanism tasked with monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal Number 6 (SDG 6) since 2016.
Previously, u ...
that 74% of the population had access to
improved sanitation
Improved sanitation (related to but distinct from a " safely managed sanitation service") is a term used to categorize types of sanitation for monitoring purposes. It refers to the management of human feces at the household level. The term was co ...
, and that "good progress" had been made between 1990 and 2015.
As of 2016, 96% of Filipino households have an improved source of drinking water, and 92% of households had sanitary toilet facilities, although connections of these toilet facilities to appropriate sewerage systems remain largely insufficient especially in rural and urban poor communities.
Culture
![Ati-Atihan Festival Participant](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Ati-Atihan_Festival_Participant.jpg)
There is significant cultural diversity across the islands, reinforced by the fragmented geography of the country.
The cultures within Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago developed in a particularly distinct manner, since they had very limited Spanish influence and greater influence from nearby Islamic regions. Despite this, a
national identity
National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...
emerged in the 19th century, the development of which is represented by
shared national symbols and other cultural and historical touchstones.
One of the most visible
Hispanic legacies is the prevalence of
Spanish names and surnames among Filipinos; a Spanish name and surname, however, does not necessarily denote Spanish ancestry. This peculiarity, unique among the people of Asia, came as a result of a colonial edict by Governor-General
Narciso Clavería y Zaldua, which ordered the systematic distribution of family names and implementation of
Hispanic nomenclature on the population.
The names of many locations are also Spanish or stem from Spanish roots and origins.
There is a substantial American influence on modern Filipino culture.
The common use of the English language is an example of the American impact on Philippine society. It has contributed to the influence of American pop cultural trends. This affinity is seen in Filipinos' consumption of
fast food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...
and American film and music. American global fast-food chain stalwarts have entered the market, but local fast-food chains like
Goldilocks
"Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (originally titled "The Story of the Three Bears") is a 19th-century English fairy tale of which three versions exist. The original version of the tale tells of an obscene old woman who enters the forest home ...
and most notably
Jollibee
Jollibee is a Filipino chain of fast food restaurants owned by Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC). As of December 2021, JFC had a total of about 1,500 Jollibee outlets worldwide, with restaurants in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, East Asia ...
, the leading fast-food chain in the country, have emerged and compete successfully against foreign chains.
Nationwide festivals include
Ati-Atihan,
Dinagyang
The Dinagyang Festival is a religious and Festival, cultural festival in Iloilo City, Philippines, held annually on the 4th Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog in Cebu City, Cebu and the Ati-Atihan Festival in Kalibo, Aklan. It is one o ...
,
Moriones and
Sinulog
The Sinulog-Santo Niño Festival is an annual cultural and religious festival held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City and is the centre of the Santo Niño Catholic celebrations in the Philippines.
The festival is considered to be the fi ...
.
Values
![Core Value](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Core_Value.JPG)
As a general description, the distinct
value system
In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics in ethics), or to describe the significance of dif ...
of Filipinos is rooted primarily in personal alliance systems, especially those based in kinship, obligation, friendship, religion (particularly Christianity), and commercial relationships.
[''Social Values and Organization'']
Philippines, Country Studies US. Online version of print book Ronald E. Dolan, ed. ''Philippines: A Country Study''. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. Filipino values are, for the most part, centered around maintaining social harmony, motivated primarily by the desire to be accepted within a group. The main sanction against diverging from these values are the concepts of "''Hiya''", roughly translated as 'a sense of shame', and "''Amor propio''" or 'self-esteem'.
Social approval, acceptance by a group, and belonging to a group are major concerns. Caring about what others will think, say or do, are strong influences on social behavior among Filipinos.
[Hallig, Jason V]
''Communicating Holiness to the Filipinos: Challenges and Needs''
, The Path to a Filipino Theology of Holiness, pp. 2, 10. Other elements of the Filipino value system are optimism about the future, pessimism about present situations and events, concern and care for other people, the existence of friendship and friendliness, the habit of being hospitable, religious nature, respectfulness to self and others, respect for the female members of society, the fear of God, and abhorrence of acts of cheating and thievery.
[ File dated April 8, 2000. In ]
Architecture
Spanish architecture
Spanish architecture refers to architecture in any area of what is now Spain, and by :Spanish architects, Spanish architects worldwide. The term includes buildings which were constructed within the current borders of Spain prior to its existenc ...
has left an imprint in the Philippines in the way many towns were designed around a
central square or ''plaza mayor'', but many of the buildings bearing its influence were demolished during World War II.
Four Philippine
baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
churches are included in the list of UNESCO
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s: the
San Agustín Church in Manila,
Paoay Church
Paoay, officially the Municipality of Paoay ( ilo, Ili ti Paoay; fil, Bayan ng Paoay), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 25,001 people.
The town is hom ...
in
Ilocos Norte
Ilocos Norte, officially the Province of Ilocos Norte ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ilocos Norte; tl, Lalawigan ng Ilocos Norte), is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region. Its capital is Laoag City, located in the northwest corner of ...
,
Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Santa María) Church in
Ilocos Sur
Ilocos Sur, officially the Province of Ilocos Sur ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ilocos Sur; tl, Lalawigan ng Ilocos Sur), is a province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the capital o ...
, and
Santo Tomás de Villanueva Church in
Iloilo
Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...
.
Vigan
Vigan, officially the City of Vigan ( ilo, Siudad ti Vigan; fil, Lungsod ng Vigan), is a 4th class component city and capital of the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 53,935 people.
Loc ...
in Ilocos Sur is known for the many Hispanic-style houses and buildings preserved there.
American rule introduced new architectural styles. This led to the construction of government buildings and
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
theaters. During the American period, some semblance of city planning using the architectural designs and master plans by
Daniel Burnham
Daniel Hudson Burnham (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the '' Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been, "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ...
was done on the portions of the city of Manila. Part of the Burnham plan was the construction of government buildings that resembled
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
or
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
. In Iloilo, structures from both the Spanish and American periods can still be seen, especially in
Calle Real
Calle means "street" in Spanish and Venetian.
Calle may also refer to:
Places
*Calle-Calle River, southern Chile
*Stations of the TransMilenio mass-transit system of Bogotá, Colombia:
**Suba Calle 95 (TransMilenio)
** Suba Calle 100 (TransMilen ...
. Certain areas of the country like
Batanes
Batanes, officially the Province of Batanes ( ivv, Provinsiya nu Batanes; Ilocano: ''Probinsia ti Batanes''; fil, Lalawigan ng Batanes, ), is an archipelagic province in the Philippines, administratively part of the Cagayan Valley region. It i ...
have slight differences as both Spanish and Filipino ways of architecture assimilated differently because of the climate. Limestone was used as a building material, with houses being built to withstand typhoons.
Music and dance
In general, there are two types of Philippine
folk dance, stemming from traditional tribal influences and from Spanish influence. Spanish-influenced music are mostly
bandurria
The bandurria is a plucked chordophone from Spain, similar to the mandolin and bandola, primarily used in Spanish folk music, but also found in former Spanish colonies.
Instrument development
Prior to the 18th century, the bandurria had a round ...
-based bands that us 14th string guitars. One example of such type is the
Cariñosa
The ''cariñosa'' (, meaning loving or affectionate) is a Philippine dance of colonial-era origin from the Maria Clara suite of Philippine folk dances, where the fan or handkerchief plays an instrumental role as it places the couple in a roma ...
. A Hispanic Filipino dance, unofficially considered as the "National Dance of the Philippines". Another example is the
Tinikling
Tinikling is a traditional Philippine folk dance which originated during the Spanish colonial era. The dance involves at least two people beating, tapping, and sliding bamboo poles on the ground and against each other in coordination with on ...
. While native dances had become less popular over time,
a revival of folk dances began in the 1920s.
In the modern and post-modern time periods, dances may vary from the delicate
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
up to the more street-oriented styles of
breakdancing
Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...
.
During the Spanish era
Rondalya
The rondalla is an ensemble of stringed instruments played with the plectrum or pick and generally known as plectrum instruments. It originated in Medieval Spain, especially in the ancient Crown of Aragon: Catalonia, Aragon, Murcia, and Valencia. ...
music, where traditional string orchestra
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
type instruments were used, was widespread.
[Filipino Arts & Music Ensemble](_blank)
, Filipino Heritage, The Making of a Nation, Volume 9, 1978, famenyc.org Kundiman
Kundiman is a genre of traditional Filipino love songs. The lyrics of the kundiman are written in Tagalog. The melody is characterized by a smooth, flowing and gentle rhythm with dramatic intervals. Kundiman was the traditional means of sere ...
developed in the 1920s and 1930s
and had a renaissance in the postwar period. The American colonial period exposed many Filipinos to
U.S. culture and
popular forms of music.
Rock music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...
was introduced to Filipinos in the 1960s and developed into Filipino rock, or "
Pinoy rock
Pinoy rock, or Filipino rock, is the brand of rock music produced in the Philippines or by Filipinos. It has become as diverse as the rock music genre itself, and bands adopting this style are now further classified under more specific genres or c ...
", a term encompassing diverse styles such as
pop rock
Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...
,
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
,
heavy metal,
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
,
new wave,
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
, and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
. Martial law in the 1970s produced several
Filipino folk rock bands and artists who were at the forefront of political demonstrations. The 1970s also saw the birth of
Manila Sound and
Original Pilipino Music
The music of the Philippines ( fil, Musika ng Pilipinas) includes the musical performance arts in the Philippines and the music of Filipinos composed in various local and international genres and styles. Philippine musical compositions are ofte ...
(OPM).
Filipino hip-hop
Filipino hip-hop or Pinoy hip hop (also known as Pinoy rap) is hip hop music performed by musicians of Filipino descent, both in the Philippines and overseas, especially by Filipino-Americans.
The Philippines is known to have had the first hi ...
traces its origins back to 1979, entering the mainstream in 1990.
Karaoke
Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...
is a popular activity in the country. From 2010 to 2020, Philippine pop music or
P-pop went through a metamorphosis in its increased quality, budget, investment, and variety, matching the country's rapid economic growth and an accompanying social and cultural resurgence of its Asian identity. This was heard by heavy influence from
K-pop
K-pop (), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It includes styles and genres from around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, gos ...
and
J-pop
J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...
, growth in Asian style ballads, idol groups, and
electronic dance music, and less reliance on Western genres, mirroring the
Korean wave and similar Japanese wave popularity among millennial Filipinos and mainstream culture.
Locally produced spoken dramas became established in the late 1870s. Around the same time, Spanish influence led to the introduction of ''
zarzuela
() is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular songs, as well as dance. The etymology of the name is uncertain, but some propose it may derive from the name of ...
'' plays which integrated musical pieces,
and of ''
comedia'' plays which included more significant dance elements. Such performances became popular throughout the country
and were written in a number of local languages.
American influence led to the introduction of
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
and ballet.
During the 20th century the
realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
genre became more dominant, with performances written to focus on contemporary political and societal issues.
Literature
![Jose Rizal full](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Jose_Rizal_full.jpg)
Philippine literature comprises works usually written in Filipino, Spanish, or English. Some of the most known were created from the 17th to 19th century. ''
Ibong Adarna
Ibong Adarna is a 16th-century Philippines, Filipino Epic poetry, epic poem. It is about an eponymous magical bird. The longer form of the story's title during the History of the Philippines (1521–1898), Spanish era was "''Korido at Buhay na ...
'', for example, is a famous epic about an eponymous magical bird allegedly written by José de la Cruz or "
Huseng Sisiw
José de la Cruz (December 21, 1746 – March 12, 1829), more popularly known as Huseng Sisiw, was one of the great Tagalog writers during the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
Biography
De la Cruz was born in Tondo, Manila on December 21, ...
".
Francisco Balagtas
Francisco Balagtas y de la Cruz (April 2, 1788 – February 20, 1862), commonly known as Francisco Balagtas and also as Francisco Baltasar, was a Filipino Tagalog litterateur and poet during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is ...
, the poet and playwright who wrote ''
Florante at Laura
''Florante at Laura'' (full title: ''Pinagdaanang Buhay ni Florante at ni Laura sa Kahariang Albanya''; English: The History of Florante and Laura in the Kingdom of Albania) is an 1838 awit written by Tagalog poet Francisco Balagtas. It is cons ...
'', is recognized as a preeminent writer in the Tagalog language.
José Rizal
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is considered the national he ...
wrote the novels ''
Noli Me Tángere'' (''Touch Me Not'') and ''
El filibusterismo'' (''The Filibustering'', also known as ''The Reign of Greed'').
The term "Philippine literature" refers to works of literature that have been connected to the country throughout prehistory through the colonial era and up to the present. Epics that were originally passed down orally are what can be considered pre-Hispanic Philippine literature. However, wealthier families were able to preserve transcriptions of these epics as family heirlooms, particularly in Mindanao. The
Darangen
''Darangen'' is a Maranao epic poem from the Lake Lanao region of Mindanao, Philippines. It consists of 17 cycles with 72,000 lines in iambic tetrameter or catalectic trochaic tetrameter. Each cycle pertains to a different self-contained story. Th ...
, a Maranao epic, was one such example.
Philippine mythology
Philippine mythology is the body of stories and epics originating from, and part of, the indigenous Philippine folk religions, which include various ethnic faiths distinct from one another. Philippine mythology is incorporated from various ...
has been handed down primarily through the traditional
oral folk literature of the Filipino people. Some popular figures from Philippine mythologies are
Maria Makiling
Maria Makiling, more properly Mariang Makiling, is a '' diwata'' (anito) or ''lambana'' (fairy) in Philippine mythology, associated with Mount Makiling in Laguna, Philippines. She is the most widely known ''diwata'' in Philippine mythology and ...
,
Lam-Ang, and the
Sarimanok
The Sarimanok (Pronunciation: sá·ri·ma·nók), also known as papanok in its feminine form, is a legendary bird of the Maranao people, who originate from Mindanao, an island in the Philippines, and part of Philippine mythology. It comes from ...
.
Cinema
Philippine cinema began at the end of the 19th century and made up around 20% of the domestic market during the second half of the 20th century. During the 21st century however, the industry has struggled to compete with larger budget foreign films. Critically acclaimed Philippines films include ''
Himala
''Himala'' (English: ''Miracle'') is a 1982 Filipino film directed by Ishmael Bernal and produced by the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines. It stars Nora Aunor as a young woman living in the province who claims to have seen a Marian appari ...
'' (''Miracle''). Moving pictures were first shown in the Philippines on January 1, 1897. Films were all in Spanish since Philippine cinema was first introduced during the final years of the Spanish era of the country. Antonio Ramos was the first known movie producer.
Jose Nepomuceno
Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods.
* Jose ben Abin
* Jose ben Akabya
*Jose the Galile ...
was dubbed as the "Father of Philippine Movies". His work marked the start of the local production of movies. Production companies remained small during the era of
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
, but 1933 saw the emergence of sound films and the arrival of the first significant production company. The postwar 1940s and the 1950s are regarded as a high point for Philippine cinema.
The growing dominance of
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
films and the cost of production has severely reduced local filmmaking.
[A bleak storyline for the Filipino film industry](_blank)
Conde, Carlos H. ''International Herald Tribune''. February 11, 2007. (archived fro
the original
on April 1, 2007)
. Vanzi, Sol Jose. ''Newsflash''. January 15, 2006. Nonetheless, some local films continue to find success.
Mass media
Philippine media uses mainly Filipino and English, though
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
has shifted to Filipino.
There are large numbers of both
radio stations
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-b ...
and List of newspapers in the Philippines, newspapers.
The top three newspapers by nationwide readership as well as credibility are the ''Philippine Daily Inquirer'', ''Manila Bulletin'', and ''The Philippine Star''. While freedom of the press is protected by the constitution, the country is very dangerous for journalists.
[Country profile: The Philippines](_blank)
(January 9, 2018). ''BBC News''. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
The dominant television networks were ABS-CBN and GMA Network, GMA, both being free-to-air.
ABS-CBN, at the time the largest network
was shut down following a cease and desist order issued by the National Telecommunications Commission on May 5, 2020, a day after the ABS-CBN franchise renewal controversy, expiration of the network's franchise. Prior to this move, President Rodrigo Duterte accused ABS-CBN of being biased against his administration and vowed to block the renewal of their franchise. Critics of the Duterte administration, human rights groups, and media unions said the shutdown of ABS-CBN was an attack on press freedom.
On July 10, 2020, the House of Representatives declined a renewal of ABS-CBN's TV and radio franchise, with a vote of 70–11.
TV, the Internet, and Social media use in the Philippines, social media remain the top source of news and information for the majority of Filipinos.
English broadsheets are popular among executives, professionals and students;
cheaper Tagalog tabloids, which feature crime, sex, gossips and gore, saw a rise in the 1990s, tend to be popular among the masses, particularly in Manila,
although newspaper readership continues to decline.
67% of Filipinos, or 73.91 million, had Internet access in early 2021, with an overwhelming majority of users accessing the Internet via smartphones. Social networking and watching videos are among the most frequent Internet activities.
The Philippine population is the world's top internet user. The Philippines was ranked 51st in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, it has increased its ranking considerably since 2014, where it was ranked 100th.
Cuisine
Regional variations exist throughout the islands, for example rice is a standard starch in Luzon while cassava is more common in Mindanao.
Filipino taste buds tend to favor robust flavors centered on sweet, salty, and sour combinations.
Unlike other East or Southeast Asian countries, most Filipinos do not eat with chopsticks; they use Western cutlery. Since rice is the primary staple food and stews and broths are very common in Filipino cuisine, the main of utensils are spoons and forks, not knife and fork.
The traditional way of eating with the hands known as ''kamayan'' (using the hand for bringing food to the mouth) was previously more often seen in the less urbanized areas.
Introduction of Filipino food to people of other nationalities, as well as to Filipino urbanites, has popularized ''kamayan''. This recent trend also sometimes incorporates the "boodle fight" concept (as popularized and coined by the Philippine Army), wherein banana leaves are used as giant plates on top of which rice portions and Filipino viands are placed all together for a filial, friendly or communal ''kamayan'' feasting.
Sports
![Gilas Cadets 2015 SEA Games](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Gilas_Cadets_2015_SEA_Games.jpg)
Basketball in the Philippines, Basketball is played at both amateur and professional levels and is considered to be the most popular sport in the Philippines. In 2010, Manny Pacquiao was named "Sugar Ray Robinson Award#2000s, Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
The national Filipino martial arts, martial art and sport of the country is Arnis. cockfight, Sabong or cockfighting is another popular entertainment especially among Filipino men and was documented by Magellan's voyage as a pastime in the kingdom of Taytay.
The Philippines national football team, men's national football team has participated in one 2019 AFC Asian Cup, Asian Cup. In January 2022, the Philippines women's national football team, women's national football team qualified in their first FIFA Women's World Cup—the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup—upon defeating Chinese Taipei women's national football team, Chinese Taipei 4–3 in a penalty shootout after finishing 1–1 in extra time.
Beginning in Philippines at the 1924 Summer Olympics, 1924, the Philippines has competed in every Summer Olympic Games, except when they sat out during the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics. The Philippines is the first Tropical nations at the Winter Olympics, tropical nation to compete at the Winter Olympic Games Philippines at the 1972 Winter Olympics, debuting in the 1972 Olympics. In 2021, the country tallied its first ever Olympic gold medal via Olympic weightlifting, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz's victory at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tokyo Olympics.
See also
* Outline of the Philippines
Notes
References
Citations
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External links
Government
Official website of the National Government of the Republic of the PhilippinesOfficial Gazette of the Republic of the PhilippinesOfficial website of the Senate of the PhilippinesOfficial website of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
Official website of the Supreme Court of the PhilippinesOfficial website of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines)Official website of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)
Official website of the Philippine National Police (PNP)
Official website of the Department of Tourism
Trade
World Bank summary of trade statistics: Philippines
General information
Philippines profilefrom the BBC News
* at UCB Libraries GovPubs
Philippines ''The World Factbook''. Central Intelligence Agency.
*
Philippinesat ''Encyclopædia Britannica''
*
Key Development Forecasts for the Philippinesfrom International Futures
Books and articles
History of the Philippine Islandsin many volumes, from Project Gutenberg (indexed under Emma Helen Blair, the general editor)
* About the influence of the Spanish people and language
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Wikimedia
* meta:Wikimedia Philippines, Wikimedia Philippines
*
Others
Filipinana.net – Free digital library and a research portalWikiSatellite view of Philippinesat WikiMapia
{{Good article
Philippines,
English-speaking countries and territories
Former colonies in Asia
Former Spanish colonies
Island countries
Maritime Southeast Asia
Member states of ASEAN
Member states of the United Nations
Newly industrializing countries
Republics
Southeast Asian countries
Spanish East Indies
States and territories established in 1565
States and territories established in 1898
States and territories established in 1946
Volcanic arc islands
Countries in Asia
Former Japanese colonies