Welcome to the Philippines!
The Philippines is a beautiful archipelago country located in southeast Asia and the western Pacific Ocean, that consists of more than 7,641 islands, with a territory spanning more than 300,000 kilometers (Philippine Government, n.d.). The archipelago stretches about 1,850 kilometers north to south and about 700 miles from east to west at its widest point. Interestingly, of the more than 7,641 islands, only two-fifths of the islands have names (Cullinane, 2020). The largest island of the Philippine archipelago is Luzon, and the second largest is Mindanao. Because of the many islands that make up the beautiful country of the Philippines, the country boasts an astonishing 22,550 miles of coastline (Cullinane, 2020). The capital of the Philippines is Manila; however, the most populous city is Quezon City (Cullinane, 2020).
Population Demographics
The population of the Philippines as of August 2020 was 109,770,544, which is equivalent to 1.41% of the total world population and ranks thirteenth in the list of the world’s most populated countries (Worldometer, 2020). The population density of the Philippines is 368 people per square kilometer, with 45% or approximately 52,008,603 people living in urban areas (Worldometer, 2020). In 2020, the growth rate of the Philippines was 1.35% and the fertility rate was 2.1 children per woman (World Population Review, 2020).
​
The people of the Philippines are collectively called Filipinos, whose ancestors were of Malay and Indonesian decent; however, there are nearly 100 cultural and linguistically distinct ethnic groups (Cullinane, 2020). The Tagalog and the Cebuano are the largest ethnic groups, which make up about one-fifth of the Philippines total population (Cullinane, 2020). According to World Population Review (2020), based on data gathered from the 2000 census, these were the total population of the ethnic groups:
-
Tagalog: 28.1%
-
Cebuano: 13.1%
-
Ilocano: 9%
-
Bisaya: 7.6%
-
Hiligaynon: 7.5%
-
Bikol: 6%
-
Waray: 3.4%
-
Other: 25.3%
The other percentage of the population are Filipinos with Chinese or Spanish descent, or are emigrants from India, Chinese, or American nationals (Cullinane, 2020).
​
Because of the wide array of ethnic groups, there are approximately 150 native languages and dialects spoken throughout the Philippines. The most common language of the central Philippines is Tagalog and Cebuano, and the most common language of the northern region of the Philippines is Ilocano (Cullinane, 2020). The Philippines is the third largest English-speaking country in the world, making it a popular vacation destination for Americans (Morgan, 2020).
Religion plays a major part in the Filipino culture. As of 2015, 79.5% of Filipinos practiced Roman Catholicism, 6% were Muslim, 2.6% were Iglesia ni Cristo, 2.4% were Evangelical, and 9.5% identified with other religions, such as Christianity and Buddhism (Cullinane, 2020).
Climate
The Philippines is characterized by high temperatures, high humidity, and abundant rainfall, giving it a tropical and maritime climate. The meal annual temperature of the Philippines is 26.6 degrees Celsius, with January being the coolest month and May being the warmest month of the year (Philippine Government, n.d.). Rainfall amounts vary throughout the country and depend greatly on the location of mountains and the direction of moisture-bearing winds. The meal annual rainfall of the Philippines varies between 965 to 4,064 millimeters (Philippine Government, n.d.). There are two major seasons in the Philippines, which are the rainy season from June to November and the dry season, which is from December to May. The dry season is further divided into the cool dry season from December to February and the hot dry season, from March to May (Philippine Government, n.d.). Typhoons, originating from the Marianas and Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean, contribute to the climate and weather conditions of the Philippines. Typhoon season in the Philippines is from June to December, with an average of 25 typhoons striking parts of the Philippines during this time (Cullinane, 2020). Typhoons are generally accompanied by flooding and high winds, which cause great loss of property and lives (Cullinane, 2020).
The aftermath of Typhoon Kammuri , the 20th typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2019.
Natural Resources
The waters surrounding the Philippines provide abundant resources for the country. Crabs, seaweed, and pearls are some of the resources that provide the country with commercial value (Morgan, 2020). In addition, the Philippine waters contain approximately 2,400 different species of fish, which the Filipinos use 65 varieties for commercial value (Philippine History, 2020). The land of the Philippines is full of valuable minerals, with an estimated 21.5 billion metric tons of metal deposits and 19.3 billion metric tons of nonmetal minerals in the ground (Morgan, 2020). Metallic minerals commonly found include gold, iron ore, lead, zinc, chromite, and copper, with smaller amounts of silver, nickel, mercury, molybdenum, cadmium, and manganese also present in the ground (Cullinane, 2020). Nonmetallic materials commonly found are limestone, marble, asphalt, salt, sulfur, asbestos, guano, gypsum, phosphate, and silica (Cullinane, 2020). The primary mineral of the Philippines is copper (Cullinane, 2020). The tropical weather and climate of the Philippines makes the land throughout the country an ideal location to grow agriculture for domestic use and export. Rice, corn, sugarcane, abaca, pineapples, bananas, and tobacco are the chief crops of the Philippines, which the Filipinos use as major exports, except for the rice and corn (Morgan, 2020).
Fishing in the Philippines.
Rice is widely grown and cultivated in the Philippines.
A Brief History of the Philippines
The first people of the Philippines were hunters and gatherers. These people learned to farm and domesticate animals and traded with Chinese and Arab merchants, thus introducing Islam to the Philippines (Lambert, 2020).
The country of the Philippines is named after King Philip II, after it was claimed for the country of Spain in 1521 by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (“History”, n.d.). At that time, the Philippines was actually called Las Felipinas (“History”, n.d.). From here, the Philippines remained a Spanish colony for over 300 years (Lambert, 2020).
The Spaniards made a tremendous impact on the country. They built the city of Intramuros, which would later become the capital of Manila, the conquistadors created a feudal system, and friars converted Filipinos to Catholicism, as well as, built schools and universities in the country (Lambert, 2020). The Philippines became a British territory for two brief years in 1762-1764, before giving it back to Spain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which was signed in 1763 (Lambert, 2020). Filipinos grew tired of Spanish rule in their country and started a revolution, with one of the most well-known revolutionists being a writer named Jose Rizal, who wrote two novels about nationalism (Lambert, 2020). Spanish rule over the Philippines eventually ended on June 12, 1898, when Spain gave the Philippines to the United States as part of a peace treaty.
The Americans also had an impact in the Philippines, by sending American teachers aboard a ship called the Thomas to the Philippines with the goal of increasing literacy, which was accomplished (Lambert, 2020). The Philippines eventually became an independent country on July 4, 1946 with Manual Roxas becoming the first president of the independent Philippines (Lambert, 2020).
Manuel Roxas
Politics of the Philippines
The Filipino political scene is made up of an ever-changing group of politicians that are constantly forming, re-forming, merging, and separating into factions (Cullinane, 2020). The prominent political parties are the Liberal Party, the Lakas Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats, the Nacionalista Party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, and the Force of the Filipino Masses, also known as Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (Cullinane, 2020). Political victories are often achieved through party coalitions (Cullinane, 2020). There are also armed political organizations throughout the Philippines and the two main ones are the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Cullinane, 2020). The Philippines has universal suffrage for its citizens who are at least 18 years old and have lived in the country for at least a year; women were granted suffrage in 1937 and have held prominent government roles, including presidency (Cullinane, 2020).
References
Cullinane, M. (2020). Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Philippines
History of the Philippines. (n.d.) Discovery of the Philippines by the west and revolution. Retrieved from https://www.csub.edu/pacificrim/countryprospectus/history.htm
​
Lambert, T. (2020). A brief history of the Philippines. Retrieved from http://www.localhistories.org/philippines.html
​
Morgan, L. (2020, August 19). List of natural resources in the Philippines. Retrieved from https://traveltips.usatoday.com/list-natural-resources-philippines-54929.html
​
Philippine Government. (n.d.) About the Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.gov.ph/web/guest/about-the-philippines
​
Philippine Government. (n.d.) Climate of the Philippines. Retrieved from http://bagong.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/information/climate-philippines#:~:text=The%20Climate%20of%20the%20Philippines,high%20humidity%20and%20abundant%20rainfall.&text=The%20coolest%20months%20fall%20in,mean%20temperature%20of%2028.3oC.
​
Philippine History. (2020). About the Philippines. Retrieved from http://www.philippine-history.org/about-philippines.htm
​
Worldometer. (2020). Population of the Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/philippines-population/#:~:text=the%20Philippines%202020%20population%20is,(and%20dependencies)%20by%20population.
​
World Population Review. (2020). Philippines population 2020. Retrieved from https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/philippines-population