Links Page on Philippines

Outline

  1. History
  2. Physical Geography
  3. Human Geography

History

First Arrival – Archeological and paleontological evidence suggests that Homo sapiens existed in Palawan about 50,000 BC.  The Aetas are thought to have arrived in the Philippines more than 30,000 BC through land bridges, possibly from China or the Andaman Islands.

Independence – Emilio Aguinaldo declared the independence of the Philippines on June 12th, 1898, and was proclaimed head of state.  After several wars, including the defeat of Japan in 1945, the Philippines achieved independence form the United Sates on July 4th, 1946.

Government – The return of democracy and government reforms after the events of 1986 was hampered by massive national debt, government corruption, coup attempts, a communist insurgency, and a Muslim separatist movement.  The current administration of president, Gloria Macapaal-Arroyo, has been hounded by allegations of corruption and election rigging.

Physical Geography

Archipelago of Islands – The Philippines constitutes an archipelago of 7,107 islands with a total land area of approximately 116,000 square miles.  It lies between 116° 40’ and 126° 34’ E longitude, and 4° 40’ and 21° 10’ N latitude, and borders the Philippine Sea on the east, on the South China Sea the west, and the Celebes Sea on the south.

Three Island Groups – The islands are commonly divided into Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.  The busy port of Manila, on Luzon, is the national capital and second largest city after its suburb Queszon City.

Climate – The local climate is hot, humid, and tropical.  The average yearly temperature is around 79.7°F.  There are three recognized seasons: Tag-init or Tag-araw (the hot season or summer from March to May), Tag-ulan (the rainy season from June to November), and Taglamig (the cold season from December to February).

Human Geography

Ethnic Groups – The people of the Philippines are called Filipinos.  Most Filipinos are descended from the various Austronesian-speaking migrants who arrived in successive waves over a thousand years ago from Taiwan, genetically most closely related to the Ami tribe.

Languages – More than 170 languages are spoken in the country, almost all of them belonging to the Western Malayo-Polynesian language group of the Austonesian language family.  According to the 1987 Constitution, Filipino, heavily based on Tagalog, and English are both the official languages.

Religion – The Philippines is one of the only two majority Roman Catholic countries in Asia (the other being East Timor).  About 90% of Filipinos are Christians, where81% belong to the Roman Catholic Church, and the 9% composed of Protestant denominations, the Philippine Independent Church, and Iglesia ni Cristo.

Submitted by Tyler Rozeboom and Sarah Wilson on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007.