Portal:Philippines
Introduction
The Philippines (/ˈfɪləpiːnz/ (
listen) FIL-ə-peenz; Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs] or Filipinas [ˌfɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Vietnam to the west, Palau to the east and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south.
The Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons, but also endows it with abundant natural resources and some of the world's greatest biodiversity. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi), according to the Philippines Statistical Authority and the WorldBank and, as of 2015, had a population of at least 100 million. , it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. Approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, comprising one of the world's largest diasporas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Malay, Indian, Arab and Chinese nations occurred. Then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of datus, rajahs, sultans and lakans.
Selected general articles
Religion in the Philippines is marked by a majority of people being adherents of the Christian faith. At least 92% of the population is Christian; about 81% belong to the Roman Catholic Church while about 11% belong to Protestant, Orthodox, Restorationist and Independent Catholic denominations, such as Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Iglesia ni Cristo, Seventh-day Adventist Church, United Church of Christ in the Philippines and Evangelicals. Officially, the Philippines is a secular nation, with the Constitution guaranteeing separation of church and state, and requiring the government to respect all religious beliefs equally.
According to national religious surveys, about 5.6% of the population of the Philippines is Muslim, making Islam the second largest religion in the country. However, A 2012 estimate by the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) stated that there were 10.7 million Muslims, or approximately 11 percent of the total population. Most Muslims live in parts of Mindanao, Palawan, and the Sulu Archipelago – an area known as Bangsamoro or the Moro region. Some have migrated into urban and rural areas in different parts of the country. Most Muslim Filipinos practice Sunni Islam according to the Shafi'i school. There are some Ahmadiyya Muslims in the country. Read more...- Fiscal policy refers to the "measures employed by governments to stabilize the economy, specifically by manipulating the levels and allocations of taxes and government expenditures. Fiscal measures are frequently used in tandem with monetary policy to achieve certain goals." In the Philippines, this is characterized by continuous and increasing levels of debt and budget deficits, though there have been improvements in the last few years.
The Philippine government’s main source of revenue are taxes, with some non-tax revenue also being collected. To finance fiscal deficit and debt, the Philippines relies on both domestic and external sources. Read more... - The history of the Philippines from 1521 to 1898, also known as the Spanish colonial period, was a period during which Spain controlled the Philippine islands as the Captaincy General of the Philippines, initially under New Spain until Mexican independence in 1821, which gave Madrid direct control over the area. It was also known as Spanish East Indies to the colonialists. It started with the arrival in 1521 of European explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing for Spain, which heralded the period when the Philippines was a colony of the Spanish Empire, and ended with the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1898, which marked the beginning of the American colonial era of Philippine history. Read more...
- This article discusses Filipino inventions and discoveries the details the indigenous arts and techniques, cultural inventions, scientific discoveries and contributions of the people of Philippine islands — both ancient and modern state of the Philippines.
Since ancient times, Filipinos has accumulated knowledge and developed technology stemmed from necessities; from naval navigation knowledge, traditional shipbuilding technology, textile techniques, food processing to Architecture, indigenous arts and techniques, cultural inventions, scientific discoveries and contributions of the people of Philippine archipelago — both ancient and modern state of the Philippines. Read more... 
Crime is present in various forms in the Philippines, and remains a serious issue throughout the country. Illegal drug trade, human trafficking, murder, corruption and domestic violence remain significant concerns. The Philippines has a high rate of murder cases, which is the highest in Southeast Asia as of 2014. Most major cities are plagued with high prevalence of crimes. Read more...
This is a list of islands of the Philippines. The Philippine archipelago comprises about 7,641 islands, of which only about 2,000 are inhabited. They are clustered into the three major island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
More than 5,000 islands of the archipelago are yet to be named. Read more...
Calle Sebastian, a painting of Philippine street by José Honorato Lozano best known for pioneering Filipino paintings which combines East and West style especially Spanish baroque of Spanish art and Late imperial Chinese art.
The art of the Philippines refers to the works of art that have developed and accumulated in the Philippines from the beginning of civilization in the country up to the present era. It reflects to its society and non-Filipinos the wide range of cultural influences on the country's culture and how these influences honed the country's arts. The art of the Philippines can be divided into two distinct branches, namely, traditional arts, and non-traditional arts. Each branch is further divided into various categories with subcategories. Read more...
Sports in the Philippines is an important part of the country's culture.
There are six major sports in the Philippines: basketball, badminton, tennis, football, billiards, and volleyball. Despite being a tropical nation, ice skating has recently become a popular sport in the Philippines. Sports such as athletics, weightlifting, aerobics, and martial arts are also popular recreations.
Among other sports are baseball, bowling, swimming, taekwondo, wrestling, underwater diving, American football, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, cockfighting, horse racing, cricket, rugby football, motor racing, sepak takraw, and jai alai are also appreciated. Read more...- In 2004, the Philippines had 225 television stations, 369 AM radio broadcast stations, 583 FM radio broadcast stations, 10 internet radio stations, 5 shortwave stations and 7 million newspapers in circulation.
Some media outlets, such as RPN/IBC (television) and the Philippine Broadcasting Service (radio), are government-run. Most outlets are privately owned. Read more...
The President pro tempore of the Senate of the Philippines is the second highest-ranking official of the Senate of the Philippines. During the absence of the Senate President, the Senate President pro tempore presides over the Senate.
In the current 17th Congress, two senators became Senate President pro tempore and they are Franklin Drilon and Ralph Recto who is the incumbent. Read more...- Traditional Filipino Games or Indigenous games in the Philippines (Tagalog: Laro ng Lahi) are games commonly played by children, usually using native materials or instruments. In the Philippines, due to limited resources of toys for Filipino children, they usually invent games without the need of anything but the players themselves. Their games' complexity arises from their flexibility to think and act.
Laro ng Lahi was coined and popularized by the Samahang Makasining (Artist Club), Inc. (commonly known "Makasining") with the help of National Commission for Culture and the Arts and being used by the other Philippine Local Government Unit, other organizations and other institution. Imparting of these Filipino games to the youth is one of the main objectives of the organization. The Makasining also created time based scoring for five selected games (Patintero, Syatong, Dama, Lusalos and Holen). Read more...
The Philippine Navy (PN; Filipino: Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas) is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,000 active service personnel, including the 7,500-strong Philippine Marine Corps. It shares the responsibility of patrolling the maritime borders with the Philippine Coast Guard, its former attached unit until the latter became a separate maritime law enforcement agency on 1998. Read more...
1922: a shaman of the Itneg people renewing an offering to the spirit (anito) of a warrior's shield (kalasag)
Babaylan (also balian or katalonan, among many other names), were animistic shamans of the various ethnic groups of the pre-colonial Philippine islands. These shamans were almost always women or feminized men (asog or bayok). They were believed to have spirit guides, by which they could contact and interact with the spirits (anito) and the spirit world. Their primary role were as mediums during pag-anito séance rituals. There were also various subtypes of babaylan specializing in the arts of healing and herbalism, divination, and sorcery.
Babaylan were highly respected members of the community, on par with the pre-colonial noble class. Their influence waned when most of the ethnic groups of the Philippines converted to Catholicism and Islam. Under the Spanish Empire, babaylan were often maligned as witches and "priests of the devil" and were persecuted harshly by the Spanish clergy. In modern Philippine society, their roles have largely been taken over by folk healers, which are now predominantly male. Read more...- This is a list of rivers in the Philippines.
The country's longest river is the Agusan River, with a length of 390 kilometres (240 mi), followed by the Cagayan River and Mindanao River, both about 350 kilometres (220 mi). With an area of 27,753 square kilometres (10,715 sq mi), the Cagayan River has the largest drainage basin, followed by the Mindanao (23,169 km2 or 8,946 sq mi), Agusan (11,937 km2 or 4,609 sq mi), and Pampanga Rivers (10,434 km2 or 4,029 sq mi). Read more... 
The origin of most of the lakes in the Philippines is closely related to volcanic and tectonic activity. A number of smaller lakes occupy the craters of extinct volcanoes. Some lake basins are developed by subsidence due to tectonic or volcanic activity. Others owe their existence to obstruction of drainage courses by landslides, lava flows and by fragmental volcanic ejecta.
Among the lakes which are known in the Philippines only three, namely, Laguna de Bay in Luzon, Taal Lake in Luzon, and Lake Lanao in Mindanao, stand out prominently because of their size or economic importance. Read more...- The following is a partial list of mountains in the Philippines. Several of these are volcanoes, formed by subducting tectonic plates surrounding the archipelago.Read more...'
The geographical divisions of the Philippines are the three island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Luzon and Mindanao are both named after the largest island in their respective groups, while the Visayas (also the Visayan Islands) are an archipelago. Read more...
This article covers the history of the Philippines following the 1986 People Power Revolution known as the contemporary history of the Philippines. Read more...
The President of the Senate of the Philippines (Filipino: Pangulo ng Senado ng Pilipinas), or more popularly known as the Senate President, is the presiding officer and the highest-ranking official of the Senate of the Philippines, and third highest and most powerful official in the Government of the Philippines. He/she is elected by the entire body to be their leader. The Senate President is second in line in succession for the presidency, behind the Vice President of the Philippines and in front of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines.
The current Senate President of the 17th Congress of the Philippines is Tito Sotto, who was elected on May 21, 2018. Read more...- Pinoy (/ˈpɪnɔɪ/) is an informal demonym referring to the Filipino people in the Philippines and their culture as well as to overseas Filipinos in the Filipino diaspora. A Pinoy with mix of foreign ancestry is called Tisoy, a shortened word for Mestizo.
An unspecified number of Filipinos refer to themselves as Pinoy or sometimes the feminine Pinay instead of the proper word Filipino. Filipino is the proper word to call the people in the Philippines. The word is formed by taking the last four letters of Filipino and adding the diminutive suffix -y in the Tagalog language (the suffix is commonly used in Filipino nicknames: e.g. "Ninoy" or "Noynoy" for Benigno Jr. and III respectively, "Totoy" for Augusto, etc.). Pinoy was used for self-identification by the first wave of Filipinos going to the continental United States before World War II and has been used both in a pejorative sense and as a term of endearment, similar to Chicano. Although Pinoy and Pinay are regarded as derogatory by some younger Filipino-Americans, the terms have been widely used and are in mainstream usage particularly among members of the Filipino masses and the Filipino-American sector. Read more... - This is a list of festivals in the Philippines, known as "fiestas". The majority of fiestas in the Philippines also have their own peryas (trade fairs with temporary amusement parks). The origin of most early fiestas are rooted in Christianity, dating back to the Spanish colonial period when the many communities (such as barrios and towns) of the predominantly Catholic Philippines almost always had a patron saint assigned to each of them. Originally encouraged by the Spanish to coincide with Christian holy days, early festivals became vital instruments in spreading Christianity throughout the country.
Fiestas in the Philippines can be religious, cultural, or both. Several of these are held to honor the local Roman Catholic patron saint, to commemorate local history and culture, to promote the community's products, or to celebrate a bountiful harvest. They can be marked by Holy Masses, processions, parades, theatrical play and reenactments, religious or cultural rituals, trade fairs, exhibits, concerts, pageants and various games and contests. However, festivals in the country are not limited to Christian origins. Many festivals also focus on Islamic or indigenous concepts. There are more than 42,000 known major and minor festivals in the Philippines, the majority of which are in the barangay (village) level. Due to the thousands of town, city, provincial, national, and village fiestas in the country, the Philippines has traditionally been known as the Capital of the World's Festivities. Read more...
The recorded history of the Philippines begins with the creation of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI) in 900, the first written document found in an ancient Philippine language. The inscription itself identifies the date of its creation, and on its deciphering in 1992 moved the boundary between Philippine history and prehistory back 600 years. The Philippines is classified as part of the Indosphere and the Sinosphere, making its many cultures sophisticated and intermixed. Prior to the LCI, the earliest record of the Philippine Islands corresponded with the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Magellan's arrival marks the beginning of the Spanish colonial period.
Prior to Spanish occupation, the islands were composed of different kingdoms, rajahnates and sultanates. Some are even part of a larger Empire outside of the modern day map of what is now the Philippines, for example; Manila was once part of the Bruneian Empire. Another example is many parts of the modern day Mindanao is theorized to be part of the Majapahit empire with its capital being located in East Java in the modern day Indonesia. It was the Spaniards that named the collection of Southeast Asian islands they conquered as Las Islas Filipinas, the geographical locations of which the modern day country of the Philippines based its territories today. Read more...- The total primary energy consumption of the Philippines in 2012 was 30.2 Mtoe (million Tonnes of oil equivalent), most of which came from fossil fuels. Electricity consumption in 2010 was 64.52 TWh, of which almost two-thirds came from fossil fuels, 21% from hydroelectric plants, and 13% from other renewable sources. The total generating capacity was 16.36 GW.
The population of the Philippines is over 101 million people, and as a rapidly developing nation, has seen a rapid increase in GDP, averaging 6.1% from 2011 to 2015.
Energy-intensive manufacturing and retail industries are the driving factors of the Philippines' economic growth.
Given its large population and rapidly growing economy, the country's energy needs are significant and growing rapidly. According to the Philippines Department of Energy, the Philippines consumed 75,266 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in 2013.
Of this, 27.39% went to powering residential areas, 24.31% to commercial establishments and 27.46% to the industrial sector. With 72.84% of electrical energy being consumed by Luzon, 14.75% by Visayas, and 12.41% by Mindanao in 2013. Read more...
The Senate of the Philippines (Filipino: Senado ng Pilipinas, also Mataas na Kapulungan ng Pilipinas or "upper chamber") is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, the Congress; the House of Representatives is the lower house. The Senate is composed of 24 senators who are elected at-large with the country as one district under plurality-at-large voting.
Senators serve six-year terms with a maximum of two consecutive terms, with half of the senators elected every three years to ensure that the Senate is maintained as a continuous body, though staggered. When the Senate was restored by the 1987 Constitution, the 24 senators who were elected in 1987 served until 1992. In 1992 the 12 candidates for the Senate obtaining the highest number of votes served until 1998, while the next 12 served until 1995. Thereafter, each senator elected serves the full six years. Read more...
The Supreme Court of the Philippines (Filipino: Kataas-taasang Hukuman ng Pilipinas; colloquially referred to as Korte Suprema) is the highest court in the Philippines. It is presided over by a Chief Justice and is composed of fifteen (15) Justices, including the Chief Justice. Pursuant to the Constitution, the Supreme Court has "administrative supervision over all courts and the personnel thereof".
The Supreme Court Complex, which was formerly the part of the University of the Philippines Manila campus, occupies the corner of Padre Faura Street and Taft Avenue in Manila, with the main building directly fronting the Philippine General Hospital. Until 1945, the Court met in Cavite. Read more...
The National Flag of the Philippines (Filipino: Pambansang Watawat ng Pilipinas) is a horizontal flag bicolor with equal bands of royal blue and scarlet, and with a white, equilateral triangle at the hoist. In the center of the triangle is a golden-yellow sun with eight primary rays, each representing a Philippine province. At each vertex of the triangle is a five-pointed, golden-yellow star, each of which representing one of the country's three main island groups—Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the central star originally referred to Panay.
A unique feature of this flag is its ability to indicate a state of war if it is displayed with the red side on top, which is effectively achieved by flipping the flag upside-down. Read more...
The Philippines suffers from widespread corruption. Means of corruption include graft, bribery, embezzlement, backdoor deals, nepotism, and patronage. Read more...
Pterocarpus indicus (commonly known as Amboyna wood, Malay padauk, Papua New Guinea rosewood, Philippine mahogany, Andaman redwood, Burmese rosewood, narra, angsana, or Pashu padauk) is a species of Pterocarpus native to southeastern Asia, northern Australasia, and the western Pacific Ocean islands, in Cambodia, southernmost China, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Pterocarpus indicus was one of two species (the other being Eysenhardtia polystacha) used as a source for the 16th- to 18th-century traditional diuretic known as lignum nephriticum. Read more...- Water supply is the process of providing water in a systematic way through installed pumps and pipe lines. Before water is provided to a specific area, it undergoes a process called sanitation to ensure that the quality of water received is safe for human consumption. The Philippines’ water supply system dates back to 1946 after the country achieved its independence. Government agencies, local institutions, non-government organizations, and other corporations are primarily in charge in the operation and administration of water supply and sanitation in the country. Read more...
The Philippine peso, also referred to by its Filipino name piso (Philippine English: /ˈpɛsoʊ/, /ˈpiː-/, plural pesos; Filipino: piso [ˈpiso, pɪˈso]; sign: ₱; code: PHP), is the official currency of the Philippines. It is subdivided into 100 centavos or sentimos in Filipino. As a former colony of the United States, the country used English on its currency, with the word "peso" appearing on notes and coinage until 1967. Since the adoption of the usage of the Filipino language on banknotes and coins, the term "piso" is now used. From September 2017 to 2 August 2018, the ISO 4217 standard referred to the currency by the Filipino term "piso". It has since been changed back to "peso".
The peso is usually denoted by the symbol "₱". Other ways of writing the Philippine peso sign are "PHP", "PhP", "Php", or just "P". The "₱" symbol was added to the Unicode standard in version 3.2 and is assigned U+20B1 (₱). The symbol can be accessed through some word processors by typing in "20b1" and then pressing the Alt and X buttons simultaneously. This symbol is unique to the Philippines as the symbol used for the peso in countries like Mexico and other former colonies of Spain in Latin America is "$". Read more...
The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands with a land area of 300,000 sq. kilometers. Owing to its numerous islands, the country has an irregular coastline that stretches 334,539 kilometers. It is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on the east, the South China Sea on the north and the west and the Celebes Sea on the south.
The islands' rugged coastlines provide several bays and inlets listed below. Read more...- The Cabinet of the Philippines (Filipino: Gabinete ng Pilipinas, usually referred to as the Cabinet or Filipino: Gabinete) consists of the heads of the largest part of the executive branch of the national government of the Philippines. Currently, it includes the secretaries of 20 executive departments and the heads of other several other minor agencies and offices that are subordinate to the President of the Philippines.
The Cabinet secretaries are tasked to advise the President on the different affairs of the state like agriculture, budget, finance, education, social welfare, national defence, foreign policy, and the like. Read more...
The Philippine Air Force (PAF; Filipino: Hukbong Himpapawid ng Pilipinas) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Read more...
Jasminum sambac (Arabian jasmine or Sambac jasmine) is a species of jasmine native to a small region in the eastern Himalayas in Bhutan and neighbouring Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. It is cultivated in many places, especially across much of South and Southeast Asia. It is naturalised in many scattered locales: Mauritius, Madagascar, the Maldives, Cambodia, Indonesia, Christmas Island, Chiapas, Central America, southern Florida, the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles.
Jasminum sambac is a small shrub or vine growing up to 0.5 to 3 m (1.6 to 9.8 ft) in height. It is widely cultivated for its attractive and sweetly fragrant flowers. The flowers may be used as a fragrant ingredient in perfumes and jasmine tea. It is the national flower of the Philippines, where it is known as sampaguita, as well as being one of the three national flowers of Indonesia, where it is known as melati putih. Read more...
This is a list of protected areas of the Philippines administered by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Biodiversity Management Bureau under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992. As of 2013, there are 240 protected areas in the Philippines covering a total area of 54,500 square kilometres (21,000 sq mi) – 14.2% of the Philippines' total area. Read more...
The history of the Philippines, from 1965–1986, covers the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, also known as Ferdinand Marcos Administration. The Marcos era includes the final years of the Third Republic (1965–72), the Philippines under martial law (1972–81), and the majority of the Fourth Republic (1981–86).
By its end, the country was experiencing a debt crisis, extreme poverty, and severe underemployment. Read more...- The Philippines has four main classes of elected administrative divisions, often lumped together as local government units (LGUs). They are, from the highest to the lowest division:
- Autonomous regions
- Provinces (lalawigan, probinsiya) and independent cities (lungsod, siyudad/ciudad, dakbayan, lakanbalen)
- Municipalities (bayan, balen, bungto, banwa, ili) and component cities (lungsod, siyudad/ciudad, dakbayan, dakbanwa, lakanbalen)
- Barangays (also known as barrio)
Beyond the above divisions, there other divisions that are frequently mentioned but differ in significant ways. Specifically, they do not have separate governments or independent budgets. The national government groups provinces and independent cities into national government regions, e.g. Metro Manila or Region VI. Also. a barangay may be informally or formally sub-divided into sitios and puroks. Neither the national government's regions nor a barangay's sitios or puroks have elected leaders or government branches. Read more...
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA Tagalog pronunciation: [piˈdea]; Filipino: Ahensiya ng Pilipinas sa Pagpapatupad ng Batas Laban sa Bawal na Gamot) is the lead anti-drug law enforcement agency, responsible for preventing, investigating and combating any dangerous drugs, controlled precursors and essential chemicals within the Philippines. The agency is tasked with the enforcement of the penal and regulatory provisions of Republic Act No. 9165 (R.A. 9165), otherwise known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
PDEA is the implementing arm of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB). The DDB is the policy-making and strategy-formulating body in the planning and formulation of policies and programs on drug prevention and control. PDEA and DDB are both under the supervision of the Office of the President of the Philippines. Read more...
The Ramsar Convention (formally, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat) is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational value. It is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the Convention was signed in 1971.
The Philippines enforced the Ramsar Convention in its whole territory on November 8, 1994. Since then, Ramsar has designated 7 Ramsar sites in the country. Two Ramsar sites in the Philippines have been declared by UNESCO as world heritage sites, namely Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, and Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park. Read more...- Foreign relations of the Philippines are administered by the President of the Philippines and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Philippine international affairs are influenced by ties to its Southeast Asian neighbors, China, the United States, and the Middle East.
The Philippines is a founding member of the United Nations; an elected member of the Security Council
and participant in the FAO, International Labour Organization (ILO), UNESCO and World Health Organization. Like most nations, the Philippines is a signatory of Interpol. The Philippines is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and East Asia Summit. It was formerly a member of the now-defunct Latin Union and the SEATO. Declaring itself as independent of any major power block of nations, the Philippines is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Read more... - The history of the Philippines from 1898 to 1946 began with the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April 1898, when the Philippines was still part of the Spanish East Indies, and concluded when the United States formally recognised the independence of the Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946.
With the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. The interim U.S. military government of the Philippine Islands experienced a period of great political turbulence, characterised by the Philippine–American War. Beginning in 1901, the military government was replaced by a civilian government—the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands—with William Howard Taft serving as its first Governor-General. From 1901 to 1906 there also existed a series of revolutionary governments that lacked significant international diplomatic recognition. Read more... - The Filipino value system or Filipino values refers to the set of values or the value system that a majority of the Filipino have historically held important in their lives. This Philippine values system includes their own unique assemblage of consistent ideologies, moral codes, ethical practices, etiquette and cultural and personal values that are promoted by their society. As with any society though, the values that an individual holds sacred can differ on the basis of religion, upbringing and other factors.
As a general description, the distinct value system of Filipinos is rooted primarily in personal alliance systems, especially those based in kinship, obligation, friendship, religion (particularly Christianity) and commercial relationships. Read more... - This article discusses Filipino inventions and discoveries the details the indigenous arts and techniques, cultural inventions, scientific discoveries and contributions of the people of Philippine islands — both ancient and modern state of the Philippines.
Since ancient times, Filipinos has accumulated knowledge and developed technology stemmed from necessities; from naval navigation knowledge, traditional shipbuilding technology, textile techniques, food processing to Architecture, indigenous arts and techniques, cultural inventions, scientific discoveries and contributions of the people of Philippine archipelago — both ancient and modern state of the Philippines. Read more... - "Lupang Hinirang" ([ˈlupaŋ hiˈniɾaŋ], English: "Chosen Land"; originally Marcha Nacional Filipina, the "Philippine National March") is the national anthem of the Philippines. Its music was composed in 1898 by Julián Felipe, and the lyrics were adapted from the Spanish poem Filipinas, written by José Palma in 1899. Originally written it did not have lyrics when it was adopted as the anthem of the revolutionary First Philippine Republic and subsequently played during the proclamation of Philippine independence on June 12, 1898.
Under the American period, the Flag Act of 1907 prohibited the public display of flags, banners, emblems, or devices used by revolutionaries in the Philippine–American War. Under this law, the colonial government banned the song from being played. The Flag Law was repealed in 1919. Under the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Act № 382, approved on September 5, 1938, officially adopted the musical arrangement and composition by Julián Felipe as the national anthem. Read more... 
This is a list of provinces of the Philippines, including Metro Manila, in order of their Human Development Index (HDI). Read more...
The Philippine Marine Corps (PMC; Filipino: Hukbong Kawal Pandagat ng Pilipinas) is the marine corps of the Philippines, a naval infantry force under the command of the Philippine Navy. It conducts amphibious and expeditionary warfare, as well as special operation missions. Read more...
The Government of the Philippines (Filipino: Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas) is the national government of the Philippines. It is governed as unitary state under a presidential representative and democratic and a constitutional republic where the President function as both the head of state and the head of government of the country within a pluriform multi-party system.
The government has three interdependent branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. The powers of the branches are vested by the Constitution of the Philippines in the following: Legislative power is vested in the two-chamber Congress of the Philippines—the Senate is the upper chamber and the House of Representatives is the lower chamber. Read more...- The policy of ‘’’taxation in the Philippines’’’ is governed chiefly by the Constitution of the Philippines and three Republic Acts.
- Constitution: Article VI, Section 28 of the Constitution states that “the rule of taxation shall be uniform and equitable” and that “Congress shall evolve a progressive system of taxation.”
- national law: National Internal Revenue Code—enacted as Republic Act No. 8424 or the ‘’Tax Reform Act of 1997’’ and subsequent laws amending it; the law was most recently amended by Republic Act No. 10963 or the ‘’Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act‘’; and,
- local laws: major sources of revenue for the local government units (LGUs) are the taxes collected by virtue of Republic Act No. 7160 or the ‘’Local Government Code of 1991’’, and those sourced from the proceeds collected by virtue of a local ordinance.
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Did you know...
- ... that members of the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf used the Inabanga River, the largest waterway in Bohol, Philippines, for a planned incursion into the province in 2017?
- ... that Typhoon Betty killed 101 people in the Philippines?
- ... that Smart Connect Interchange is the largest cloverleaf interchange in the Philippines?
- ... that historian and educator Tomas Fonacier had the longest public service record in the Philippines, spanning more than six decades?
- ... that President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos took a siesta in the master bedroom of the Mercado Mansion during a campaign sortie in the 1960s?
- ... that Typhoon Joe and Typhoon Kim struck the Philippines within a week of each other in July 1980?
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Selected images
Percussion instruments that make up the Philippine kulintang ensemble, an example of pre-Hispanic musical tradition
Topography of the Philippines
Sungka, a traditional Filipino game.
Rafflesia speciosa is endemic to the island of Panay.
General Douglas MacArthur landing ashore during the Battle of Leyte on October 20, 1944.
The University of Santo Tomas, established in 1611, has the oldest extant university charter in Asia.
A participant of the Ati-Atihan Festival.
St. Luke's Medical Center – Global City has been described as one of the "World's Most Beautiful Hospitals" by the US based magazine Healthcare Management News and Insights.
José Rizal is a pioneer of Philippine Revolution through his literary works.
Philippine tarsier (Tarsius syrichta), one of the smallest primates.
A section of the Tarlac–Pangasinan–La Union Expressway.
Filipinos planting rice. Agriculture employs 30% of the Filipino workforce .
A Boxer Codex image illustrating the ancient kadatuan or tumao (noble class).
Cariñosa, a Hispanic era dance for traditional Filipino courtship.
An IRRI researcher studying rice DNA under ultraviolet light.
The University of the Philippines Diliman, the flagship constituent university of the University of the Philippines System, where various Philippine contemporary figures studied.
Banaue Ifugao rice god (bulol) carved from wood.
Ambuklao Dam in Bokod, Benguet.
The historical Paoay Church in Paoay, Ilocos Norte. It is declared as a National Cultural Treasure by the Philippine government in 1973 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the collective group of Baroque Churches of the Philippines in 1993.
The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo is the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
A PBA game at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Dominant ethnic groups by province
President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. President Donald Trump discuss matters during a bilateral meeting in Pasay, 2017.
Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Super Typhoon Yolanda, is one of the strongest typhoons that hit the Philippines.
A Line 2 train at Santolan Station.
Colonial houses in Vigan.
A depiction of the Battle of Paceo during the Philippine–American War.
Tabon Caves are the site of one of the oldest human remains found in the Philippines: Tabon Man
Population density per province per square kilometer.
The Spoliarium (1884) by Juan Luna.
The landing of the Spanish expedition to Sulu by Antonio Brugada.
A sketch of a Manila galleon used during the Manila-Acapulco Trade.
The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, c. 900. The oldest known historical record found in the Philippines, discovered at Lumban, Laguna.
An old oil painting on the inside of a wooden chest, circa 1640-1650, depicting Intramuros, a walled city that was built over the burnt ruins of Bruneian controlled Maynila, center of the Spanish colony.
Rodrigo Duterte takes his oath as he is sworn in as the 16th President of the Philippines
Brillante Mendoza is a prominent Filipino film director.
Limestone cliffs of El Nido, Palawan.
Mayon is the Philippines' most active volcano.
Singkil, a Pre-Hispanic dance depicting the Maranao nobility.
The Butuan Ivory Seal (c. 1002) was recovered in the 1970s in Butuan.
The main office of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines in Pasay.
Proclamation of Philippine independence from the United States (1946).
A proportional representation of the Philippines' exports, 2012.
Tanghalang Pambansa (National Theater) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
The Ifugao/Igorot people utilized terrace farming in the steep mountainous regions of northern Philippines over 2000 years ago.
Photograph of armed Filipino revolutionaries known as Katipuneros.
Malacañang Palace is the official residence of the President of the Philippines.
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In the news
- 6 February 2019 – 2019 Philippines measles outbreak
- The Philippines Department of Health declares a measles outbreak attributed to the drop in trust in vaccines due to the Dengvaxia controversy. (The Philippine Star)
- 2 February 2019 – Moro conflict
- Five soldiers and three militants die in an attack that also injured several others in Patikul, Sulu, in The Philippines. (Al Jazeera)
- 30 January 2019 –
- A grenade is lobbed in a Zamboanga mosque in the Philippines, killing two people and injuring four others. No group has claimed responsibility. (Al Jazeera)
- 27 January 2019 – 2019 Jolo Cathedral bombings
- Two bombs at the Roman Catholic Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo, Philippines, kill 20 people, fifteen civilians and five soldiers, and injure 81 others. Abu Sayyaf is suspected to be behind the attack. (Sky News)
- 25 January 2019 – 2019 Bangsamoro Autonomous Region creation plebiscite
- The ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law is proclaimed paving the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in the Philippines. (Rappler)
- 6 January 2019 –
- The death toll from a storm that devastated the Philippines shortly after Christmas rises to 126. (News24)
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