I | INTRODUCTION |
Republic of the
Philippines (in Filipino, Republika ng Pilipinas), island republic
in the western Pacific Ocean, within the Malay Archipelago, an island grouping
that extends southward to include Indonesia and Malaysia. The Philippines
comprises more than 7,100 islands, but the 11 largest islands form most of the
country’s land area. The mountainous terrain includes many active volcanoes. The
location of the Philippines just north of the equator gives the country a
moderate tropical climate suited for the cultivation of export crops such as
coconuts and pineapples. Agriculture has long formed the backbone of the
economy. After World War II (1939-1945) the Philippines was one of the first
nations of Southeast Asia to try to industrialize its economy. It subsequently
lagged behind most of its Asian neighbors in economic development. Manila,
located on east central Luzon Island, is the national capital and largest city.
The republic’s cultural institutions, industries, and federal government are
concentrated in this rapidly growing metropolitan area.
The people of the Philippines are called
Filipinos. Most Filipinos are of Malay descent. Filipinos of mixed descent
(through various combinations of Malay, Chinese, and Spanish intermarriage) have
traditionally formed the country’s elite in business and politics. Nearly 83
million people live in the Philippines. The republic has one of the highest
population-growth rates in the world. About 40 percent of the population lives
in poverty while a wealthy minority holds most political power. The official
languages are English and Filipino (formerly spelled Pilipino), which is based
on the indigenous Tagalog language. More than 80 other indigenous languages and
dialects are also spoken, and the people of the Philippines are divided into
regional ethnolinguistic groups. The Philippines is the only predominantly
Christian country in Asia, a result of its colonization by the Spanish Empire in
the 16th century. Muslims, often called Moros, live predominantly in the
southern islands and form a small but significant religious minority.
The first Spanish settlement was established in
the Philippines in 1565, marking the onset of Spanish colonial rule. The
Spanish-American War ended in 1898 with the transfer of the Philippines to
United States control. In 1946, after more than 300 years under foreign rule,
the Philippines became an independent democratic republic. In 1972 Philippine
president Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law, suspending democratic
institutions and restricting civil rights. A four-day protest in Manila known as
the People Power Movement toppled the Marcos regime in 1986, and a new
constitution based on democratic principles was ratified the following year. The
Philippines today is forging its place among the newly industrialized nations of
Asia and seeking greater integration in the region, while its colonial past
means it continues to have many cultural affinities with the West.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
The Philippines is bounded on the east by the
Philippine Sea, on the south by the Sulu and Celebes seas, on the west by the
South China Sea, and on the north by Luzon Strait. The Philippine Islands lie
off the southeastern coast of the Asian mainland, across the South China Sea
from Vietnam and China. The shortest distance to the mainland, from the northern
Philippines to Hong Kong, is about 805 km (500 mi). The Philippines extends
about 1,850 km (1,150 mi) from north to south (between Taiwan and Borneo Island)
and about 1,100 km (700 mi) from east to west. Malaysia and Indonesia, which
each hold territory on Borneo, are the republic’s closest political neighbors.
The Philippines covers a total area, not
including its extensive coastal waters, of 300,000 sq km (116,000 sq mi). More
than 7,100 islands and islets are included in the Philippine archipelago. The 11
largest islands make up more than 90 percent of the total area. Only about 460
islands are larger than 2.6 sq km (1 sq mi), and about 1,000 are populated.
A | Natural Regions |
The Philippines can be divided into three
geographic areas: the northern islands of Luzon and Mindoro, the central islands
of the Visayan Islands (Visayas) and Palawan, and the southern islands of
Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. The national borders of the Philippines form
a rough triangle. The small Batan Islands north of Luzon form the apex of the
triangle. The islands of Palawan, the Sulu Archipelago, and Mindanao (from west
to east) form the base of the triangle.
Luzon and Mindanao are the two largest
islands, anchoring the archipelago in the north and south. Luzon has an area of
104,700 sq km (40,400 sq mi) and Mindanao has an area of 94,630 sq km (36,540 sq
mi). Only nine other islands have an area of more than 2,600 sq km (1,000 sq mi)
each: Samar, Negros, Palawan, Panay, Mindoro, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, and Masbate.
The centrally located Visayan Islands include all of these islands except
Mindoro and Palawan.
A1 | Mountainous Landscapes |
Volcanic in origin, the Philippine
Islands are the higher portions of a partly submerged mountain chain. The
mountains are the principal topographical feature on the smaller islands. The
larger islands, particularly Luzon and Mindanao, have a more diversified
topography, with fertile river valleys in the interior. Mountain ranges
generally parallel the coasts, forming narrow coastal plains. The inland plains
and valleys are the most densely populated areas.
On Luzon the Sierra Madre mountains form
the longest range of the Philippines, extending along the island’s eastern, or
Pacific, coast. The parallel ranges of the Cordillera Central, to the west about
80 km (50 mi) across the Cagayan River Valley, contain Luzon’s highest peak,
Mount Pulog, at 2,930 (9,613 ft). Near this peak, mountainside rice terraces
have been cultivated for hundreds of years. Farther south the important
rice-growing region of the Central Luzon Valley, well irrigated by numerous
rivers, extends from Lingayen Gulf to Manila Bay. The rugged Zambales Mountains,
containing Mount Pinatubo (1,780 m/5,840 ft), form the valley’s western
boundary, leading south to the Bataan Peninsula, the sheltering landmass for
Manila Bay. Luzon becomes narrow at its southern end, curving to the southeast
in a long, mountainous extension called the Bicol Peninsula. Here a string of
volcanoes includes the cone-shaped peak of Mayon Volcano, rising to a height of
2,525 m (8,284 ft) near Legaspi.
Mindanao is similarly formed, with
coastal mountain ranges and inland valleys, notably those of the Agusan and
Mindanao rivers. The Diuata Mountains bordering the eastern coast form the most
prominent range on the island. The country’s highest point, Mount Apo (2,954
m/9,692 ft), rises in the south near the Mindanao River basin. The large
Zamboanga Peninsula extends from western Mindanao, hooking southward toward the
Sulu Archipelago.
The Visayas include seven major islands,
among them the republic’s third largest island, Samar, with an area of 13,100 sq
km (5,100 sq mi). The most easterly of the Visayas, Samar is connected by bridge
to the adjacent island of Leyte; both islands are relatively undeveloped and
have dense jungle forests. To the west are Bohol, site of the tourist attraction
known as the Chocolate Hills, hundreds of cone-shaped hills with vegetation that
turns brown during summer; Cebu, a long, narrow island and the most densely
populated island in the Philippines; Negros, which developed from the mid-1800s
as the center of the Philippine sugar industry; and Panay, where many
agricultural crops are grown in the rich volcanic soils of the densely populated
coastal plain of Iloilo Province. Masbate, in the north central Visayas, is
noted for its gold and copper mines.
Most of the Philippine Islands are
clustered in a predominantly north-south direction. In the southwest, two island
groupings deviate from this predominant direction: the long, narrow island of
Palawan and its offshore islands and, farther south, the approximately 900 small
islands of the Sulu Archipelago. Both island groupings extend southwest toward
Borneo with the Sulu Sea between them. The Sulu Archipelago includes many coral
islands and reefs. Palawan Island is believed to be the first Philippine island
to have been settled by people who migrated from the Southeast Asian mainland
during prehistoric times.
A2 | Pacific “Ring of Fire” |
The Philippine Islands are part of the
so-called Ring of Fire, an area encircling the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes
and volcanic activity result from the movements of tectonic plates, or segments
of Earth’s crust (see Plate Tectonics). To the east of the islands lies
the 10,539-m (34,578-ft) deep Philippine Trench, where one tectonic plate is
being forced beneath another in a process known as subduction. This subduction
causes frequent earthquakes in the Philippines. Large submarine earthquakes are
known to cause tidal waves, or tsunamis, that can strike the coasts.
The Philippines includes about 20 active
volcanoes and many inactive, or dormant, volcanoes. The most active is Mayon
Volcano, with recent eruptions in 1993, 2000, and 2001. Mount Pinatubo caused
widespread damage when it erupted in 1991 after lying dormant for about 600
years. Mount Apo, the country’s highest mountain, is an active volcano with
three peaks.
B | Rivers and Lakes |
The principal islands of the Philippines
are traversed by large rivers, some of which are navigable. The longest river of
the republic is the Cagayan, in north central Luzon. Other important rivers of
Luzon include the Agno and Pampanga, crossing the Central Luzon Valley; the
Chico, flowing through the Cordillera Central and irrigating the mountainside
rice terraces; the Pasig, a commercially important artery flowing through
Manila; and the Bicol, the primary river of the Bicol Peninsula. The principal
rivers of Mindanao are the Mindanao (Rio Grande de Mindanao), which receives the
waters of the Pulangi, and the Agusan.
Laguna de Bay, 13 km (8 mi) southeast of
Manila, is the largest lake of the Philippines. Lake Taal, 56 km (35 mi) south
of Manila, occupies a huge volcanic crater and contains an island that is itself
a volcano, with its own crater lake. Lake Lanao is the largest lake of Mindanao
and the source of the Agusan River, which exits the lake in the spectacular
Maria Christina Falls.
C | Coastline |
With its numerous islands, the Philippines
has a total coastline of about 36,289 km (22,549 mi). The coastline is
irregular, with numerous bays, gulfs, and inlets. Manila Bay, with its superb
naturally sheltered harbor, is the most commercially important. Also significant
is the wide, unsheltered Davao Gulf of southeastern Mindanao.
D | Climate |
The Philippines has a tropical climate. At
sea level, temperatures rarely fall below 27°C (80°F). Interior valleys and
leeward sides of islands tend to be warmer, while mountain slopes and peaks and
windward sides of islands tend to be cooler. Rainfall averages about 2,030 mm
(80 in) a year, with more precipitation in coastal plains than in sheltered
inland valleys. In the western part of the country, the rainy season occurs
during the summer monsoon, from May to November, when the wind blows from the
southwest; the dry season occurs during the winter monsoon, from December to
April, when the wind blows from the northeast. In contrast, the eastern side of
the country receives most of its rainfall during the winter monsoon and has no
true dry season. Tropical storms are common from June to October; each year
about 20 typhoons strike the Philippines, mostly on the eastern coasts of Luzon
and Samar, bringing high winds and flooding that sometimes result in property
damage and loss of life.
E | Natural Resources |
The Philippines has extensive mineral
deposits of copper, gold, silver, nickel, lead, and chromium. Other important,
but less plentiful, deposits of zinc, cobalt, and manganese also exist. Copper
has been mined extensively and is the leading mineral product, but many of the
country’s mineral resources remain unexploited. The Philippines has limited
offshore petroleum and natural gas reserves. About 24 percent of the Philippines
is forested. Logging has seriously depleted forest cover since the early 20th
century. The Philippine waters are abundant with many varieties of fish, which
are an important natural resource as a staple of the Philippine diet and an
export commodity.
F | Plant and Animal Life |
Forests in the Philippines include the
banyan, many varieties of palm, trees yielding rubber, and many indigenous trees
with extremely hard wood such as apitong, yacal, lauan, camagón, ipil, white and
red narra, and mayapis. Bamboo and cinnamon, clove, and pepper plants grow wild,
as do hundreds of species of orchid. Abaca, or Manila hemp, is a commercially
valuable indigenous plant; its fiber is used in making cordage, textiles, and
hats. Mangrove trees and nipa palms grow in coastal swamps. Coarse, hardy
tropical grasses have taken over many upland areas that were cleared of their
original tropical rain forest.
The Philippines has few species of large
mammals. The domesticated water buffalo, or carabao, is common throughout the
islands, while a small species of carabao, the tamarau, is found only in
interior Mindoro. Small mammals are more numerous, including monkeys, rodents,
bats, and shrews; several species of deer, including a dwarf deer; mongooses;
and porcupines, found only on Palawan. Reptiles and birds abound in greater
variety and number than mammals. The islands have 196 species of birds,
including colorful parrots and the endangered monkey-eating eagle. Palawan has
many species of birds found nowhere else in the world. Leeches and insects such
as mosquitoes and grasshoppers are serious pests in some areas.
Coastal and inland waters teem with marine
life, including thousands of species of fish as well as mollusks such as clams.
Pearl oysters are abundant around the Sulu Archipelago, and Sulu pearls are
renowned for their quality. Coral reefs and sponges are also found in many
offshore areas.
G | Environmental Issues |
Deforestation poses the most direct threat
to the remarkable biodiversity of the Philippines. Largely due to loss of
habitat, more than 380 animal species are threatened or endangered. Water
pollution has damaged the fragile marine ecosystems of the country’s coastal
wetlands, mangrove swamps, and coral reefs. Serious air pollution is another
environmental concern, primarily in Manila.
The Philippines has one of the highest
rates of deforestation in the world. At the current rate of deforestation, about
2.1 percent annually, the country’s virgin forests are in danger of disappearing
by 2010. The clearing of forests has contributed to soil erosion, a serious
problem in the Philippines due to heavy monsoon rains. The Philippine government
imposed restrictions on logging in the late 1970s and banned logging in virgin
forests in 1991, but illegal and often corrupt activities undermine these
efforts. Reforestation programs have met with limited success. About 5 percent
of the land in the Philippines is designated for preservation in parks and other
reserves.
III | POPULATION |
Filipinos are primarily descended from
Malayan peoples who migrated to the islands thousands of years ago. During the
past several centuries, a significant number of people have migrated from China.
Some people of Spanish descent settled in the Philippines during the Spanish
colonial period (1565-1898). The term Filipino originally described a
person of Spanish descent born in the Philippines. In the 19th century it began
to refer to the Christianized Malays who constituted the majority of the
population. Although the term remains closely associated with this group, it
also can describe any citizen of the Philippines.
The Philippines had a population of
64,318,120 in 1990. The estimated population in 2008 was 92,681,453. The
population is growing by about 2 percent a year, giving the Philippines one of
the world’s highest population-growth rates. The high birthrate contributes to a
predominantly young population; in 2001 about 57 percent of the population was
under the age of 25. The average population density is 311 persons per sq km
(805 per sq mi). However, the distribution of the population is uneven; some
areas are virtually uninhabited, while others are densely populated. The
percentage of the population living in rural areas has steadily declined in
recent decades. It decreased from 68 percent in 1970 to 57 percent in 1990. By
2000 urban dwellers outnumbered rural residents, with only 42 percent of the
population living in rural areas.
A | Principal Cities |
Manila is the capital of the Philippines
and the country’s chief port, main commercial and cultural center, and largest
city. Other important cities include Quezon City, which is part of the Manila
metropolitan area, and served as the country’s capital from 1948 to 1976; Davao,
a provincial capital and a seaport; Cebu, a seaport and the trade center for a
farming and coal-mining region; and Zamboanga, also a seaport.
B | Cultural Groups |
Filipinos are generally divided along
linguistic, geographic, and religious lines. Different linguistic groups
developed as a result of the original settlement patterns. As the Malayan
peoples spread throughout the archipelago, they dispersed into separate groups
that each developed a distinct vernacular, or regional language. The primary
religious groups are Christians and Muslims.
Christian Filipinos are the largest and
most politically powerful group in the Philippines. They live primarily in
lowland areas, specifically coastal areas and inland plains. They speak many
different regional languages and dialects and are categorized into
ethnolinguistic groups. Intermarriage and internal migration have helped to
reduce language barriers over the years. The largest groups are the Tagalogs,
who predominate in central and southern Luzon, including Manila; the Cebuanos,
who live in Cebu, Bohol, eastern Negros, western Leyte, and in some coastal
areas of Mindanao; and the Ilocanos, who predominate in the coastal areas of
northern Luzon. Other major groups are the Ilongos, who speak Hiligaynon; the
Bicolanos, who speak Bicol; the Waray-Waray; the Pampangans; and the
Pangasinans.
Muslim Filipinos, also known as Moros or
Moro Muslims, constitute the second largest group with a common cultural
identity, although there are many linguistic and cultural differences among
them. The Moros are of Malayan or Indonesian descent and comprise ten major
ethnolinguistic groups, the largest of which are the Maguindanao, Maranao, Tau
Sug, and Samal. The Maguindanao, who live mainly on Mindanao, are the largest
Muslim group in the country. The Maranao, meaning “people of the lake,” live
principally around Lake Lanao on Mindanao. The Tau Sug and Samal live in the
Sulu Archipelago. Although the majority of Muslim Filipinos live in the southern
islands, communities of Muslims live in other areas of the country as well.
The upland tribal groups are the third
largest cultural group in the Philippines. The islands include more than 100
upland tribes, ranging in size from 100,000 to fewer than several hundred
members. The members of the Aeta and Agta tribes are considered to be the
indigenous people of the Philippines. They are descendents of perhaps the first
humans who settled the islands during prehistoric times, before the Malayan
migrations. They are commonly known as Negritos (a term assigned to them during
the Spanish colonial period) and are one of the world’s few remaining Pygmy
people, who are characterized by shorter-than-average height. Their communities
are located mainly on northeastern Luzon. Although most of them were absorbed
into the Malay population through intermarriage, some retreated to the mountains
as the Malayan settlers increased in number. Those who retreated retained a
hunting-and-gathering way of life augmented by a type of nomadic farming known
as slash-and-burn agriculture, whereby they created temporary crop fields by
clearing and burning small areas of forest. Other upland peoples of Malayan
descent followed a similar settlement pattern. Through centuries of relative
isolation, these groups have preserved their traditional ways of life and
distinct cultures. They are engaged in subsistence hunting, fishing, and
farming. Most maintain indigenous belief systems based on animism (the
worship of nature deities and other spirits).
People of Chinese descent comprise the
largest non-Malay group, making up about 1 percent of the population. Chinese
people have settled in the Philippines for centuries. They originally came as
traders, and during the colonial period they began to form an important merchant
class. Many recent arrivals from China live in the Philippines as semipermanent
residents, while others become Philippine citizens. Intermarriage between
Chinese and lowland Filipinos is common. People of mixed Malay and Chinese
descent are known as mestizos. Unlike Chinese who do not intermarry or become
citizens, mestizos have always been readily accepted in Philippine society. They
formed the first Filipino elite during the colonial period, and today they
continue to form an economically and politically important minority.
C | Religion |
The Philippines has the only
predominantly Christian population in Asia, reflecting Spain’s colonization of
the islands in the 16th century. About 94 percent of the people are Christians,
about 5 percent are Muslims, and the remainder are Buddhists, animists, or
nonbelievers.
About 84 percent of all Filipinos are
Roman Catholic. Another 10 percent belong to other Christian denominations, most
notably the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent
Church), an independent Catholic church whose adherents are known as Aglipayans.
Founded by Filipino priest Gregorio Aglipay and formally organized in 1902, this
church broke from Rome’s authority as part of the Filipino struggle for clerical
equity. Smaller groups of nearly every Christian denomination also exist,
notably Protestants and revivalist groups. Another Filipino-founded church, the
evangelical Iglesia ni Kristo (Church of Christ), was founded in 1914 by
Felix Y. Manalo and began to attract a significant membership after World War
II.
The Muslim population of the Philippines
lives mostly in the southern islands of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. Islam
predated Christianity in the region, spreading to the Sulu Archipelago in the
14th century and Mindanao in the 15th century. Islam had some adherents as far
north as Manila by the time the Spanish arrived. After 1571, when Spanish forces
defeated the Muslim ruler of Manila, Muslims were largely confined to the
south.
Spanish colonial authority depended on
locally based Catholic religious orders to help maintain political control, and
this interdependency made the church a powerful institution in the islands.
Although there is an official separation of church and state in the Philippines,
the Roman Catholic Church continues to have an influential role in political
life.
D | Language |
More than 80 indigenous languages and
dialects are spoken in the Philippines. These languages and dialects belong to
the Malayo-Polynesian group of the Austronesian language family. The most widely
spoken are Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bicol, Waray-Waray, Pampangan,
Pangasinan, and Maranao.
English and Filipino (formerly spelled
Pilipino) are the official languages. Filipino is largely based on Tagalog, with
many words adopted from other languages, including English and Spanish. It was
made the national language in 1987 in an attempt to address the fact that no two
of the indigenous languages are mutually comprehensible. Filipino is a required
subject in schools, but English is more commonly used in higher education.
English is also commonly used in government and commerce. Some Filipinos are
trilingual, speaking an indigenous language, Filipino, and English. Many
Filipinos continue to primarily speak their indigenous language, rather than
Filipino. Very few people speak Spanish, despite the country’s colonial history.
Spanish never became a widely used or learned language in the Philippines, in
contrast to the Spanish colonies in the Americas, because the Spanish friars
used the vernacular to introduce Catholicism to the indigenous population.
Arabic and various dialects of Chinese are spoken by a small minority of the
population.
E | Education |
Education in the Philippines is free and
compulsory for children ages 6 through 12. Filipino and English are the primary
languages of instruction. The literacy rate is 96.3 percent of the adult
population, with little variation between males and females.
During the Spanish colonial era, only
the elite population had access to education. After the United States gained
control of the Philippines in 1898, a strong emphasis was placed on public
education. The idea that free and compulsory education would democratize society
took hold in the Philippines. English replaced Spanish as the language of
instruction and as the national medium of communication. Since independence in
1946, the Philippine government has opened schools in even the remotest areas.
Literacy rates in some languages have slowly improved. However, significant
differences in quality of education continue to exist between rural and urban
areas.
Virtually all children aged 6 to 12 are
enrolled in school, and attendance is compulsory. Enrollment for ages 13 through
16 is 84 percent. At the university level, enrollment stands at 30 percent of
the relevant age group. Institutions of higher learning include the University
of the Philippines (1908), in Quezon City; Adamson University (1932), the
University of the East (1946), Far Eastern University (1928), Feati University
(1946), and the University of Santo Tomás (1611), all in Manila; Bicol
University (1969), in Legaspi; the University of Mindanao (1946), in Davao;
Saint Louis University (1911), in Baguio; and Southwestern University (1946), in
Cebu.
F | Social Structure |
Family relationships are the basic
building block of Philippine society. Each Filipino is at the center of a large
circle of relatives, usually extending to third cousins. Marriage is rarely
permitted for members of the same kinship circle. The kinship circle is
customarily enlarged through compadrazgo, or ritual co-parenthood, the
Catholic custom of selecting godparents to sponsor one’s child at baptism. In
the close-knit Filipino family, members are provided assistance when needed and
expected to give their first loyalty to their kin. In rural areas the
barangays (villages) contain sitios, or clusters of households, of
an extended family. The social support provided by these close-knit communities
is reflected in the absence of such institutions as retirement homes and
orphanages.
Filipino women, usually called
Filipinas, have more social equality than women in most countries in Southeast
Asia. Since precolonial times, their social status has been generally equal to
that of men. In the bilateral kinship system that is traditional in the
Philippines, descent is traced equally through both male and female lineages.
Because a woman’s lineage is equally valued, her rights to property and
inheritance are not questioned. Today educated women in the Philippines are
strongly represented in politics, business, and the professions. At home women
usually manage the family income and are the primary caretakers of children.
G | Way of Life |
One of the most notable characteristics
of Filipino society is its strong family and community relationships. These are
strengthened by the traditional Filipino concept of utang na loob, in
which an act of voluntary assistance creates an obligation that the receiver
must attempt to repay through reciprocal assistance. This often creates a
long-term relationship of giving and receiving between individuals or families,
and some obligations can last for generations. The social values of loyalty,
support, and trust are deeply embedded in the Philippine identity. Respect for
others, especially elder members of society and people in positions of
authority, is taught from an early age.
In Philippine villages, houses are
traditionally constructed of bamboo and nipa palm thatching and raised above the
ground on poles. Simple wooden houses with galvanized iron roofs are also
common. Except in the remotest areas, rural houses are equipped with electricity
and indoor plumbing. More services and modern facilities are available in towns
and cities. The influence of Western culture is more evident in urban areas,
where lifestyles tend to be more modern.
Farming, fishing, and forestry are the
primary occupations in rural areas. Many of the rural poor are employed as
tenant farmers and landless agricultural workers. Most urban residents are
employed in the service sector or in manufacturing. There is a growing middle
class of government employees, teachers, and small-business owners.
The Philippine diet usually consists of
boiled rice or ground corn, vegetables, fresh or salted fish, and fruits. A
locally made beverage is tuba, a fermented coconut wine.
Traditional sports include arnis,
a kind of fencing with wooden sticks, and sipa, a game much like
volleyball except that the players use only their feet to move the ball.
Cockfighting and boxing are popular spectator sports, and American influence is
seen in the wide popularity of baseball and basketball. Christian holidays such
as the annual patron-saint fiestas and the crucifixion reenactments at Easter
are important and well-attended community events.
H | Social Issues |
Significant economic divisions exist in
the Philippines. About 37 percent of the population lived below the poverty line
in 1997. The wealthiest 10 percent of families earn more than twice as much as
the poorest 40 percent. The wealthy upper class, which includes landowners and
business executives, enjoys a high standard of living. Some wealthy people live
in large homes in guarded subdivisions. Meanwhile, many rural families cannot
afford to provide basic essentials such as clothing and medicine for their
children. Income in urban areas is generally higher than in rural areas, drawing
a constant flow of migrants to the cities. Some migrants live as squatters,
dwelling in crowded slum areas in makeshift housing that lacks running water,
sewerage systems, and electricity. They tend to work as vendors, street hawkers,
and unskilled laborers.
IV | CULTURE |
The arts of the Philippines reflect a
society with diverse cultural influences and traditions. The Malayan peoples had
early contact with traders who introduced Chinese and Indian influences. Islamic
traditions were first introduced to the Malays of the southern Philippine
Islands in the 14th century. Most modern aspects of Philippine cultural life
evolved under the foreign rule of Spain and, later, the United States.
In the 16th century the Spanish imposed a
foreign culture based in Catholicism. While the lowland peoples were
acculturated through religious conversion, the Muslims and some upland tribal
groups maintained cultural independence. Among those who were assimilated arose
an educated elite who began to establish a modern Filipino literary
tradition.
During the first half of the 20th century,
American influence made the Philippines one of the most Westernized nations in
Southeast Asia. The cultural movements of Europe and the United States
profoundly influenced Filipino artists, even after independence in 1946. While
drawing on Western forms, however, the works of Filipino painters, writers, and
musicians are imbued with distinctly Philippine themes. By expressing the
cultural richness of the archipelago in all its diversity, Filipino artists have
helped to shape a sense of national identity.
Many Malay cultural traditions have
survived despite centuries of foreign rule. Muslims and upland tribal groups
maintain distinct traditions in music, dance, and sculpture. In addition, many
Filipino artists incorporate indigenous folk motifs into modern forms.
A | Literature |
The indigenous literature of the
Philippines developed primarily in the oral tradition in poetic and narrative
forms. Epic poems, legends, proverbs, songs, and riddles were passed from
generation to generation through oral recitation and incantation in the various
languages and dialects of the islands. The epics were the most complex of these
early literary forms. Most of the major tribal groups developed an original epic
that was chanted in episodic segments during a variety of social rituals. One
common theme of the epics is a hero who is aided by benevolent spirits. The
epics that have survived are important records of the ancient customs of tribal
society before the arrival of Islam and Christianity.
After the arrival of the Spanish,
Catholic missionaries employed indigenous peoples as translators, creating a
bilingual class known as ladinos. These individuals, notably
poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belen, produced devotional poetry written in
the Roman script, primarily in the Tagalog language. Later, the Spanish ballad
of chivalry, the corridor, provided a model for secular (nonreligious)
literature. Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional
languages for the illiterate majority. They were also written in the Roman
alphabet in the principal languages and widely circulated.
Francisco “Balagtas” Baltazar, generally
considered the first major Filipino poet, wrote poems in Tagalog. His best-known
work, Florante at Laura (Florante and Laura), probably written
between 1835 and 1842, is an epic poem that subversively criticizes Spanish
tyranny. This poem inspired a generation of young Filipino writers of the new
educated class, or ilustrados, who used their literary talents to call
for political and social reform under the colonial system. These writers, most
notably José Rizal, produced a small but high-quality body of Philippine
literature in Spanish. Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me
Not), published in 1886, and its sequel, El Filibusterismo (The
Subversive), published in 1891, helped to shape a new, nationalist identity
during the last years of the 19th century.
The transfer of the Philippines to United
States control in 1898 resulted in a dramatic increase in literacy and,
consequently, literary production. A variety of new literary journals began to
be published. English-language Filipino novels, short stories, and poems were
first published in book form in the 1920s. Many Filipino authors have had
distinguished writing careers. Their works typically explore the Filipino
cultural identity in the context of social and political issues. Filipino
authors often write in more than one literary form and in more than one
language. Major English-language works include Winds of April (1940) and
The Bamboo Dancers (1959) by N. V. M. Gonzalez; Many Voices (1939)
and Have Come, Am Here (1942) by José Garcia Villa; You Lovely
People (1955) and Scent of Apples and Other Stories (1980) by
Bienvenido N. Santos; The Laughter of My Father (1944) and America Is
in the Heart (1946) by Carlos Bulosan; Bitter Country and Other
Stories (1970) by Rosca Ninotchka; The Woman Who Had Two Navels
(1972) and A Question of Heroes (1977) by Nick Joaquin; The God
Stealer and Other Stories (1968) and Tree (1978) by Francisco Sionil
José; A Question of Identity (1973) by Carmen Guerrero Nakpil; and His
Native Coast (1979) by Edith L. Tiempo.
B | Art and Architecture |
During most of the Spanish colonial
period, the art and architecture of the Philippines were strongly influenced by
the patronage of the Roman Catholic Church. Most art emphasized religious
iconography. The church commissioned local craftspeople, often skilled Chinese
artisans, to construct provincial stone churches with bas-relief sculpture and
to carve santos, or statues of saints, and other devotional icons in wood
and ivory. The edifices, statues, and paintings of the period show Chinese and
Malay modifications of Spanish baroque, an elaborate and detailed style.
Philippine painters began to explore
secular themes in the mid-1800s. The painters Juan Luna and Félix Resurrección
Hidalgo produced works in the romantic and early impressionist styles, achieving
recognition in Europe. Painters of the early 1900s—notably Fernando Amorsolo,
Fabián de la Rosa, and Jorge Pineda—produced romanticized landscapes, genre
scenes, and portraits. In the late 1920s Victorio Edades, an American-trained
painter, infused modernism into the Philippine art world. Many Philippine
painters who were influenced by American and European modernism also
experimented with it to reflect Philippine realities, such as Carlos Francisco,
Arturo Luz, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, Vicente Manansala, and Hernando Ocampo. Lee
Aguinaldo and Fernando Zobel de Ayala achieved international recognition in the
1960s and 1970s.
Sculpture took on secular themes in the
early 1900s. The major Filipino sculptor of the American colonial period was
Guillermo Tolentino, who trained in classical sculpture in Rome. In the 1950s
Napoleon Abueva pioneered modernism in Philippine sculpture. Many talented
sculptors were active in the following decades, notably Eduardo Castrillo, whose
large welded-metal sculptures are displayed in Manila’s Memorial Park; Solomon
Saprid, noted for his expressionist series of mythical figures titled
Tikbalang; and Abdulmari Imao, who produced contemporary interpretations
of traditional Muslim designs. More recently, sculptors have tended to utilize
ethnic artifacts and natural materials to produce assemblages with social
themes.
In remote areas, tribal groups have
preserved traditional art forms such as woodcarving, textile weaving, bamboo and
rattan weaving, and metalsmithing. Artistic body adornments such as bead
jewelry, body tattoos, and headdresses are important indications of social
status. In the northern Philippines, the Ifugao people are known for their
sculptural wood carvings of bulul figures, which represent guardian
deities. The figures are ritually placed in rice granaries to bring a plentiful
harvest. The terraced rice fields of the Ifugao are considered a major
architectural feat. The Ifugao built them over a period of centuries by carving
terraces into the mountainsides and reinforcing each level with stone walls.
The Muslim peoples in the south practice
okir, a design tradition that shows evidence of Indian and Islamic
influences. Rendered in hardwood and brass, the okir designs are mostly
figurative, depicting animals, plants, and mythical figures. The style is highly
decorative, with long curvilinear lines and secondary arabesques. The designs
are based in the ancient epics and serve as significant cultural symbols. An
important motif of the Maranaos is the sarimanok design, depicting a bird
holding a fish in its beak or talons. Many okir designs are used as decorative
elements in architecture. The Muslim peoples of the Philippines are noted for
their metalworking skills, producing weaponry such as swords and decorative
containers in brass and silver.
C | Music and Dance |
Filipino classical musical compositions
in many ways epitomize the blending of multicultural influences. The
compositions often embody indigenous themes and rhythms in Western forms, such
as symphonies, sonatas, and concertos. Several composers and conductors in
classical music have achieved international recognition, including Antonio
Molina, Felipe Padilla de Leon, and Eliseo Pájaro. José Maceda is considered the
first Filipino avant-garde composer, liberating Philippine classical music from
the traditional constructs of Western forms.
Traditional types of music are played on
wind, string, and percussion instruments made from local materials. These
include the kulibit, a zither with bamboo strings and tubular bamboo
resonators; wooden lutes and guitars; and the git-git, a wooden
three-string bowed instrument. The Muslim peoples use these and other
instruments to play complex musical compositions that have been passed by memory
from generation to generation.
Most Filipino communities remember the
tunes and lyrics of traditional folk songs. Tagalogs, for example, have more
than a dozen folk songs for various occasions, including the uyayi or
hele, a lullaby; the talindaw, a seafaring song; the
kumintang, a warrior song; the kundiman, a love song; and the
panambitan, a courtship song. Some songs are accompanied by a specific folk
dance.
Formal training in classical dance has
been available in the Philippines since the 1930s. The first noted Filipino
choreographers in classical ballet were Leonor Orosa-Goquingco, Remedios “Totoy”
de Oteyza, and Rosalia Merino-Santos. Orosa-Goquingco is most noted for her
staging of Filipinescas: Philippine Life, Legend and Lore in Dance, which
toured the world in the 1960s. Merino-Santos later turned to modern dance and
founded the Far Eastern University Modern Experimental Dance Troupe. Other dance
companies include Ballet Philippines (formerly the Modern Dance Company),
Hariraya Ballet Company, Dance Theater Philippines, and Pamana Ballet (formerly
the Anita Kane Ballet Company). Several Filipino ballet dancers have achieved
international fame, including Maribel Aboitiz, Eddie Elejar, Lisa Macuja, and
Anna Villadolid.
Choreographer Francisca Reyes-Aquino is
recognized for pioneering research in the documentation of Philippine folk
dances and founding the Philippine Folk Dance Society. She codified the folk
dances into steps, directions, and musical arrangements that are taught in
physical education classes in most schools. Among other folk dance troupes, the
Bayanihan Philippine Dance Company (formerly the Bayanihan Folk Arts Center) and
the Far Eastern University Folk Dance Group perform stylized adaptations of folk
dances in local and international tours. Informal folk dancing is performed for
a variety of occasions, such as harvests, weddings, and religious
celebrations.
The Manila Symphony Orchestra accompanies
many dance performances. The Philippine Cultural Center in Manila provides an
important venue for the performing and applied arts.
D | Libraries and Museums |
In addition to the university libraries,
the major libraries of the country are the Manila City Library, the National
Library, and the library of the Science and Technology Information Institute,
all in Manila. The Lopez Memorial Museum and Library, in Pasay, has collections
of paintings by major Filipino artists, as well as the letters and manuscripts
of José Rizal. The Santo Tomás Museum, in Manila, has major archaeological and
natural-history collections, illustrating the history of the islands. The
National Museum, in Manila, has divisions of anthropology, botany, geology, and
zoology, along with art collections and a planetarium.
V | ECONOMY |
Before World War II (1939-1945) the economy
of the Philippines was based on the production and export of a narrow range of
primary commodities, mainly agricultural and forest products. The Supreme Court
of the United States ruled in the early 20th century that Philippine goods could
enter the American market without tariff restraints. In the trade that followed,
the United States imported Philippine agricultural goods and provided the
Philippines with most manufactured items. The Philippines had virtually no
manufacturing other than the processing of food products, primarily for the
United States market.
After independence in 1946, the Philippines
initially remained dependent on free-trade access to United States markets for
its agricultural commodities, especially sugar. Government restrictions on
import spending spurred an increase in manufacturing for the domestic market.
During the 1950s the Philippines tried to become an industrialized nation. In
the long term, however, protectionist economic policies provided little
incentive for the development of labor-intensive export manufacturing. In the
1970s the government implemented a policy to encourage export manufactures and
foreign investment, and the rate of economic growth accelerated. The country’s
foreign debt rose dramatically, however, and by the mid-1970s the country faced
problems meeting payments on its international loans. This problem was
compounded by a worldwide recession in the early 1980s. The recession resulted
in less demand for Philippine manufactures, and the economy moved into a deep
recession in the mid-1980s.
At this time the Philippine economy also
suffered from more than a decade of economic mismanagement under President
Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled by decree after declaring martial law in 1972. Under
Marcos the government greatly expanded the number of public-sector enterprises.
Government-mandated monopolies were set up in various sectors, while subsidies
and special privileges were awarded to close associates of Marcos. This
concentration of ownership and control among the president’s closest business
associates, friends, and relatives became known as crony capitalism. The
system allowed for rampant corruption. During the economic recession of the
1980s, many of the crony enterprises experienced severe financial difficulties.
This in turn undermined the viability of the big government-owned banks and led
to an economic crisis.
Major structural reforms implemented during
succeeding government administrations dismantled the monopolies and promoted
privatization. Measures to stabilize the economy involved compliance with a
severe austerity program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Economic
reforms reduced government intervention in the economy and stimulated the
private sector. By the mid-1990s the Philippine economy had largely recovered
and was experiencing steady growth. It contracted much less dramatically than
other Asian countries from the regional financial crisis of 1997. It was also
slower to rebound, however, due to drought conditions that caused a sharp fall
in agricultural output in 1998. The modest pace of economic recovery was
adversely affected by corruption in government and a global economic downturn in
the early 2000s that reduced demand for Philippine manufactures by the country’s
two largest trading partners, the United States and Japan.
In the early 2000s the government was
pursuing economic reforms to help the Philippines match the pace of development
in the so-called newly industrialized economies of East Asia. The strategy
includes improving infrastructure, revamping the tax system to increase
government revenues, promoting further deregulation and privatization of the
economy, and expanding trade ties in the region.
The estimated governmental budget in 2006
included revenues of $19 billion and expenditures of $20.5 billion. Gross
domestic product (GDP) in 2006 was $117.6 billion, or $1,362.80 per person.
A | Labor |
In 2006 the labor force of the Philippines
numbered 38.4 million people. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing employed 37
percent of the labor force; manufacturing, construction, and mining, 15 percent;
and services, 48 percent. The unemployment rate was 10.9 percent in 2004.
Employment opportunities associated with
the modern economy, mostly services and manufacturing, are concentrated in a few
urban centers, especially the Manila metropolitan area. The country’s high rate
of population growth results in large additions to the labor force each year in
an economy with a high rate of unemployment and even higher underemployment. The
shortage of employment opportunities has resulted in large-scale migrations of
Filipino workers, both sophisticated professionals and unskilled workers, to
countries such as the United States and Malaysia. Approximately 6 million
Filipinos work abroad. Many of them send a portion of their earnings to
relatives in the Philippines, infusing the economy with a significant source of
foreign exchange. The migration of vitally needed professionals has created a
serious “brain drain” in the Philippines.
The Trade Union Congress of the
Philippines (TUCP) is the largest union body in the Philippines, with about 1.5
million members and 39 affiliated labor and trade unions. In the late 1990s the
Philippines had more than 8,000 trade unions with a total membership of 3.6
million.
B | Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing |
In 2006 agriculture, forestry, and fishing
contributed 14 percent of the GDP. About 19 percent of the total land area of
the Philippines is arable, or suitable for cultivation. The most important
subsistence crops are rice, corn, cassava, and sweet potatoes. Rice paddies and
cornfields occupy about half of the arable land of the Philippines. Coconuts are
one of the most important cash crops, and the Philippines is one of the world’s
leading exporters of coconut products, including coconut oil and copra (dried
coconut). Bananas and pineapples are also important commercial crops, both of
which are grown on large plantations owned by multinational companies. Other
crops include sugarcane, abaca (Manila hemp), coffee, tobacco, and mangoes.
Livestock on farms include carabao (water buffalo), cattle, chickens, goats,
horses, and hogs. Many farmers are tenants, who rent the land and pay the
landowner a share of the crop. Other farmworkers include seasonal migrant
laborers.
Sugar was the most important agricultural
export of the Philippines from the mid-1800s to the mid-1970s. Much of the
modernization of the country took place to facilitate the processing and
transport of this export crop. For many years, the Philippines had access to a
protected and subsidized U.S. market for its sugar. The decline of the sugar
industry involved many factors, including the expiration of a U.S. quota system
on sugar imports in 1974 followed by a sharp decline in world sugar prices.
Hardwood trees such as mahogany were once
one of the country’s most valuable resources, but now this resource is severely
depleted. The government banned the export of unprocessed hardwood logs in 1986
in an effort to stimulate domestic processing of raw lumber into finished
products. Initially this policy was successful, and products such as wood veneer
became important exports. However, illegal logging and unsuccessful
reforestation programs depleted the hardwood forests, and output from
lumber-processing industries declined. Other forestry industries remain viable
because their products are based on more easily renewable sources than hardwood,
such as bamboo, rattan, and the ceiba (kapok) tree. Bamboo and rattan are used
in making furniture, baskets, floor mats, and other household goods. The ceiba
tree, also known as the silk-cotton tree, is cultivated and harvested for its
fiber, which is used in the manufacture of finished goods such as insulation and
upholstery.
Fishing is an important industry in the
Philippines. The average annual fish catch exceeds 2 million metric tons. Nearly
half of the total catch is made by municipal and subsistence fishers who operate
small boats in shallow coastal waters. The surrounding and inland seas of the
Philippines yield crab, sardines, anchovies, tuna, scad, and mackerel. Shrimp,
milkfish, and tilapia are raised in artificially created fishponds, in the
fish-farming industry known as aquaculture. Much of the total catch is for
domestic consumption, and about half of the protein in the Philippine diet comes
from fish and other seafood. Shrimp and prawn exports to Japan are a significant
source of foreign exchange. The pollution of coastal and inland waters and
depletion of fish populations through overfishing have reduced the fishing
sector’s productivity in some areas of the Philippines.
C | Mining |
The Philippines has extensive deposits of
valuable metallic and mineral ores, including copper, gold, silver, chromium,
lead, and nickel. Copper is the country’s leading mineral product. In 2004 the
Philippines produced 6,000 metric tons of copper. The mining industry grew
rapidly in the 1970s in response to government initiatives. In the mid-1980s,
however, output in the metallic sector entered an overall decline as world
prices for metals weakened. The nonmetallic sector, meanwhile, was stimulated by
a rising domestic demand for coal. The country’s plentiful coal deposits were
explored as an alternative to costly petroleum imports, and the mining of coal
increased substantially after 1979. In 2003 the Philippines produced 2.03
million metric tons of coal.
D | Manufacturing |
In 2006 manufacturing contributed 23
percent of the GDP. The manufacturing sector accounts for a larger share of
national income than agriculture, fishing, and forestry combined. However, more
people are employed in those traditional sectors than in manufacturing. Since
the mid-1950s, manufacturing has not substantially increased its share of either
output or employment.
The manufacturing sector expanded
significantly during the post-World War II reconstruction of the Philippine
economy. Government controls on imports promoted the development of light
industries that produced consumer goods for the domestic market. In the 1970s
the government created four special economic zones designed to stimulate
manufacturing for the export market. Industries in these export-processing zones
receive incentives to produce nontraditional (mainly nonagricultural) exports.
The zones have helped to stimulate foreign investment in the Philippine economy,
in part because they are exempt from certain taxes and restrictions on foreign
ownership of businesses. The success of these zones has led to the creation of
other types of special economic zones, such as large industrial estates.
Businesses receive tax exemptions and other incentives in these zones. The
former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay, for example, is now a huge
industrial-commercial zone known as the Subic Bay Metropolitan Area (SBMA). Its
modern port facilities and duty-free economic zone have attracted new
export-focused industries and foreign investment. The Philippines has some heavy
industries, including a copper smelter-refinery and chemical and fertilizer
plants. They were built under a government-funded industrial-development program
and were in operation by the early 1980s.
Nondurable goods such as processed food,
textiles, and tobacco products make up the largest percentage of manufacturing
output. Other major products include refined petroleum, chemicals, construction
materials, and clothing. The Philippines has increased its production of durable
items, especially electrical and electronic equipment and components,
nonelectrical machinery, transport equipment, and furniture. The manufacture of
electronic items, especially computer components such as microchips and circuit
boards, increased substantially in the 1990s for the export market, constituting
62 percent of all exports in 1999. The Philippine economy was therefore affected
by the worldwide slump in demand for these items in the early 2000s.
E | Services |
In 2006 services contributed 54.2 percent
of the GDP. The services sector includes transportation, wholesale and retail
trade, the hospitality and tourism industries, currency and banking, and foreign
trade. Skilled Filipino labor has prompted some multinational companies to set
up service operations in the country to serve consumers in Europe and the United
States.
E1 | Currency and Banking |
The unit of currency is the Philippine
peso, which is divided into 100 centavos (51.30 pesos equal U.S.$1; 2006
average). The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines)
serves as the country’s monetary authority. It has sole control of the credit
and monetary supply. Other financial institutions include commercial banks and
private development banks. The country’s largest commercial bank is the
Philippine National Bank. The banking industry includes domestically owned banks
as well as a limited number of foreign banks. The Philippine Stock Exchange is
located in Makati, a suburb of Manila.
E2 | Foreign Trade |
In 2003 imports to the Philippines
totaled $39.5 billion, while exports reached $36.2 billion. Import quotas were
eliminated in the early 1980s, and tariffs on imports were substantially reduced
in the 1990s. The leading imports are petroleum, machinery, transportation
equipment, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs, and textiles. In 1999 manufactured
products constituted nearly 90 percent of Philippine exports. The main exports
are electrical and electronic components, textiles, coconut products, and fish.
Principal purchasers of the country’s exports are the United States, Japan,
Singapore, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, and Thailand; leading sources of
imports are Japan, the United States, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Korea,
Germany, and Malaysia. The country is a member of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional trade organization.
F | Infrastructure |
The infrastructure of the Philippines is
inadequate for the economic development sought by the government, international
agencies, and multinational corporations. Some large-scale improvements were
made in the past to the country’s schools, health centers, bridges, roads, and
irrigation works. However, government investment in infrastructure has not kept
pace with population growth and modern technologies. Roads remain unpaved in
most rural areas. Cities lack sufficient public transportation, garbage
collection, energy resources, potable water, and sewerage treatment. Resources
for infrastructure-development projects are often limited because of the
country’s huge payments on its foreign debt.
G | Energy |
Since the early 1970s the Philippines has
developed a variety of domestic energy resources, including geothermal
resources, hydroelectric power, offshore oil reserves, and coal fields.
Increased production of domestic energy reduced the country’s dependence on
imported petroleum from 95 percent of the energy supply in 1973 to about half
that amount by the end of the century.
Offshore exploration for oil reserves was
spurred by sharp increases in international petroleum prices in 1973 and 1979.
Oil was discovered near the island of Palawan in 1976, and commercial production
began in 1979. The domestic oil wells produce relatively insignificant amounts
of crude petroleum, however, and the Philippines must import most of the
petroleum it consumes. A natural-gas field off western Palawan was estimated to
contain abundant reserves and held promise for future production. The major
potential of undersea fields in the South China Sea is diminished by competing
claims from China, Vietnam, and Malaysia. In addition to petroleum and natural
gas, fossil-fuel plants utilize the country’s coal resources. However, the coal
is of generally poor quality for electricity production. Thermal plants
utilizing fuels such as coal and oil generated 61 percent of the country’s
electricity in 1999.
The Philippine government has also pursued
the development of alternative sources of energy. The Philippines has
significant geothermal resources. The country’s installed capacity for
geothermal power is exceeded only by the United States, and most of its
geothermal resources remain unexploited. Geothermal, solar, and wind sources
generated 20 percent of the country’s electricity in 2003. Hydroelectric sources
generated 16 percent.
In 1990 a shortage in
electricity-generating capacity on Luzon resulted in frequent power outages in
the Manila metropolitan area. This threatened the stability of the country’s
economy because many important industries are concentrated in this area. The
government of President Fidel Ramos managed to construct new fossil-fuel plants
to meet the burgeoning demand for electricity. Construction of a nuclear power
plant on the Bataan Peninsula, on Luzon Island west of Manila, was never
completed because the plant’s location on seismic fault lines was deemed a
hazard to public safety. Accelerating economic and population growth in the
Manila region continues to put pressure on the energy supply.
H | Transportation |
Despite the difficult terrain, the
Philippines has an extensive road system; however, only about 22 percent of
roads are paved. The Pan-Philippine Highway, also called the Maharlika Highway,
is a system of roads, bridges, and ferries that connects the islands of Luzon,
Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao. The rail system, concentrated on Luzon, is limited.
A light-rail transit system known as Metrorail was opened in Manila in 1985 to
help reduce traffic congestion. The national air carrier is Philippine Airlines
(PAL). The country’s international airports are Ninoy Aquino International
Airport in Manila and Mactan International Airport near the city of Cebu. Subic
Bay International Airport, near Manila, serves international commercial flights
as well as domestic passenger flights. The country has many seaports, the
busiest at Manila, Davao, Cebu, Iloilo, and Zamboanga.
I | Communications |
The Philippines has 82 daily newspapers.
Many are published in Manila in both Filipino and English. The Manila
Bulletin, founded in 1900, is the longest-running daily newspaper. Other
large-circulation dailies include Abante, People Tonight, Ang Pilipino
Ngayon, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Tempo. Some regional
publications are written in local languages, including Ilocano, Hiligaynon, and
Cebuano. The official Islamic news journal is The Voice of Islam, founded
in 1973 and published in Davao. Freedom of the press is guaranteed under the
constitution. The country has an extensive broadcasting system, with hundreds of
radio stations and several national television networks.
VI | GOVERNMENT |
The Philippines is a democratic republic
governed under a 1987 constitution. This constitution is modeled on the
commonwealth constitution of 1935 that set up a system of government similar to
that of the United States. It includes many restrictions on term lengths and
presidential powers as a way to safeguard against authoritarian rule. All
Philippine citizens age 18 or older may vote.
During the Marcos regime, the military was
politicized and used to sustain his power. This set a precedent of military
influence that has continued to be a destabilizing factor in Philippine politics
and government.
A | Executive |
The head of state and chief executive of
the Philippines is a president, elected by popular vote to a nonrenewable
six-year term. The vice president, who is also directly elected, may serve no
more than two consecutive six-year terms. The president and vice president are
elected by separate ballot and may belong to different political parties. The
president nominates appointments for heads of government departments, or
ministries, to form a cabinet. The Commission on Appointments, composed of 24
members of Congress, reviews and votes on the nominations. The approved cabinet
oversees the day-to-day functions of government. The president has limited
emergency powers and may place the republic under martial law for no more than
60 days.
B | Legislature |
The Philippines has a bicameral
(two-chamber) legislature called the Congress of the Philippines. The upper
house, or Senate, has 24 members who are directly elected to serve six-year
terms. Senators are limited to two consecutive terms. The lower house, or House
of Representatives, has a maximum of 260 members who serve three-year terms; 208
representatives are directly elected and 52 are indirectly elected from
party-list nominees of indigenous minority groups. House members are limited to
three consecutive terms. A two-thirds vote of Congress is required to overrule a
presidential veto of proposed legislation.
C | Judiciary |
The highest tribunal in the Philippines
is the Supreme Court, made up of a chief justice and 14 associate justices, all
appointed by the country’s president. The mandatory retirement age for Supreme
Court justices is 70. Other judicial bodies include a court of appeals, courts
of the first instance, and municipal courts.
D | Local Government |
For administrative purposes the
Philippines is divided into regions, provinces, and chartered cities. Regions
include the National Capital Region, encompassing the Manila metropolitan area;
the Cordillera Administrative Region, a semiautonomous region of upland tribal
groups in northern Luzon; and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM),
encompassing four provinces in Mindanao. The ARMM is a quasi self-governing
region that was formed in 1989. It has an elected legislative assembly and is
headed by a governor with limited executive powers. Provinces are headed by
governors, and chartered cities are headed by mayors.
Philippine provinces are subdivided into
cities and municipalities. Unlike chartered cities, which are accountable to the
national government, cities and municipalities are responsible to the government
of the surrounding province. Each provincial city or municipality is headed by
an elected mayor.
The smallest unit of local government is
the barangay. In rural areas the barangay is a village, and in urban
areas it is a neighborhood. Each city or municipality contains numerous
barangays, and there are thousands of barangays in the Philippines. Each
barangay is administered by a chief executive and a community council, whose
members are elected by the residents of the barangay.
E | Political Parties |
Political parties in the Philippines are
extensions of the key politicians who control them, rather than institutions
focused on particular ideologies or political viewpoints. Political loyalties
are given to individuals, and rarely to the parties. Politicians often switch
party allegiances for personal gain or regional advantage.
Two opposing coalitions dominated the
2001 legislative and provincial elections: the People Power Coalition and the
Puwersa ng Masa (Power of the Masses). The People Power Coalition of President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo included the Lakas ng EDSA (Power of EDSA)-National
Union of Christian Democrats (Lakas-NUCD), the Partido Para sa Demokratikong
Reporma (PDR), and two small parties. In 2000 these parties had joined in what
was known as the United Opposition against then-President Joseph Estrada, who
was subsequently forced from office. To contest the 2001 elections, Estrada and
his supporters formed an opposition coalition, the Puwersa ng Masa, comprising
the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) and Estrada’s party, the Partido ng
Masang Pilipino (PMP).
F | Health and Welfare |
Pervasive poverty detracts from the
overall health of the people of the Philippines. Malnutrition is a continuing
concern of health-care professionals and the government, which provides some
food assistance for young children and new mothers. Most cities of the
Philippines have modern health facilities, but rural areas are generally
underserved. Residents of rural areas have less access to safe drinking water
and sanitation. In 2004 the country had 1 physician for every 860 people. Many
Filipinos also consult traditional healers in times of illness. The average life
expectancy in the Philippines is 68 years. The government manages a social
security system that includes post-retirement health-care benefits, but most
agricultural workers are not included in the system because they tend to be
self-employed or underemployed.
G | Defense |
In 2004 the armed forces of the
Philippines included an army of 66,000 members, a navy of 24,000, and an air
force of 16,000. Military service is voluntary. The Philippine National Police
(PNP) is divided into regional units under a provincial commander.
VII | HISTORY |
Little is known of the early human
settlement of the Philippines. Scientific evidence remains inconclusive. It is
generally accepted that the first significant human settlement occurred sometime
during the most recent ice age, the Pleistocene Epoch. At that time sea levels
were lower, creating land bridges that connected the Southeast Asian mainland to
some of the present-day islands of the Malay Archipelago, south of the
Philippine Islands. Historians theorize that Paleolithic hunters from the
mainland may have followed herds of wild animals across these land bridges,
later finding their way to the Philippine Islands.
Some of these early migrations to the
Philippine Islands were made by the ancestors of the present-day people of the
Aeta and Agta tribes. These people continue to be primarily hunters and food
gatherers, much as their ancestors were thousands of years ago. They are one of
the world’s few remaining populations of Pygmies, who are characterized by
shorter-than-average height. The Spanish colonizers of the 16th century called
them Negritos, a term that is still widely used today.
People of Malay descent, who now make up
the majority of the population, are believed to have settled in the Philippines
in several waves of migration after the 3rd century bc. Their languages developed
independently because they settled in widely scattered villages. Each village
included from 30 to 100 families and was ruled by a datu, or chieftain.
The economy was one of subsistence, with each village producing most of what it
needed, and land was held in common. The villagers engaged in both shifting
(slash-and-burn) and settled agriculture. Religion was animistic, or based on
the worship of ancestors and other spirits, such as nature deities.
Communities in the islands eventually
established trade contacts with states in East and Southeast Asia, particularly
China. By the 12th century ad the
powerful Sumatra-based Malay kingdom of Sri Vijaya had extended its considerable
influence to the Philippines. In the 14th century traders and settlers from the
Malay Peninsula and Borneo introduced Islam to the southern islands of the Sulu
Archipelago. In the 15th century Islam was established on the island of
Mindanao. By the 16th century the islands had several Muslim principalities,
including one in the Manila area of Luzon. However, no major political
entity—kingdom, sultanate, or empire—was established in the islands until the
imposition of Spanish rule in the 16th century.
A | Arrival of Europeans |
In 1521 a Spanish expedition led by
explorer and navigator Ferdinand Magellan made the first recorded European
contact with the Philippine Islands. Magellan was on a mission for Spanish king
Charles I (also Holy Roman emperor as Charles V) to establish a westward route
to the Moluccas, also known as the Spice Islands. Located south of the
Philippines in present-day Indonesia, these islands were prized for their spices
in the trade rivalry between Spain and Portugal, the foremost maritime powers of
the time. Magellan’s ships reached the Philippine Islands on an intermediate leg
of the voyage, which ultimately accomplished the first circumnavigation of the
world. On the Philippine island of Zugbo (now Cebu), Magellan secured the
baptism of the local chieftain, Humabon, and then supported Humabon in waging a
battle against a rival chieftain, Lapulapu of Mactan. Lapulapu’s warriors, in
defending their island, killed Magellan. Lapulapu is remembered as a national
hero for successfully resisting the first European invasion of the
Philippines.
Other expeditions followed as Spain
sought to establish trade routes across the Pacific from its new colonies in the
Americas. Ruy López de Villalobos, the commander of an expedition that sailed
from New Spain (now Mexico) in 1542, claimed the islands for Spain and named
them Islas Filipinas, in honor of Charles I’s son and heir Philip, who
reigned as Philip II of Spain from 1556 to 1598.
B | Spanish Settlement and Rule |
The first permanent Spanish settlement
in the Philippines was established on Cebu in 1565 by Miguel López de Legazpi, a
Spanish expedition commander. This settlement, at present-day Cebu City, became
the capital of the new Spanish colony, with Legazpi as its first governor. In
1571 Spanish forces defeated the Muslim ruler Rajah Soliman, who controlled an
area of Luzon that contained an ideal harbor for Spanish trade. There Legazpi
named Manila as the new capital of the Spanish colony. Within a few years
Spanish authority extended over much of Luzon and the central Visayan Islands.
As a by-product of this conquest, Spain discovered the best route back to New
Spain was via the Japan Current (see Kuroshio Current), which took
sailing ships north past Japan and then south along the American coasts. This
new route compelled the newly emergent power in Japan, the Tokugawa dynasty, to
close Japan to outside contact for 250 years.
The Philippines was Spain’s only colony
in Asia. It was ruled as a gobernación, a territory administered by a
governor, and was officially subordinate to the Spanish viceroy of New Spain.
Spain initially had three principal objectives in colonizing the islands: to
secure a share of the spice trade in the Moluccas, to provide a base from which
to convert Asians to Christianity, and to convert the people of the Philippine
Islands. Spain never realized the first two objectives and only partially
succeeded in the third. Most of the lowland population was rapidly converted to
Christianity, while the upland tribes were only nominally converted. The Muslims
of southern Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago were never baptized and actively
resisted Spanish rule for more than 300 years.
As in Spanish America, the various Roman
Catholic religious orders—Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and
Jesuits—were in charge of the conversion of the population to Christianity. In
accordance with the terms of the patronato real, or royal patronage of
the Catholic Church, the government assumed the financial burden of
evangelization, paying a stipend to each missionary and subsidizing missionary
work. It acquired in return the privilege of nominating the occupants of all
important ecclesiastical posts and regularly assigned to friars, or parish
priests, civil as well as religious functions. Over time, the religious orders
also gained large areas of land through donations from the Spanish colonial
elite (the principalía, or “principal ones”), and many indigenous
parishioners worked for the friars as tenant farmers.
B1 | Manila Galleons and Spanish Trade |
Although Spain did not capture a share
of the profitable Moluccas spice trade, it did use the Philippines as a base for
trade between Asia and the Americas and as a way to challenge the Portuguese
maritime monopoly. Manila played an important role as a port for the Manila
galleons, huge Spanish trading ships that voyaged between Manila and Acapulco,
on the west coast of New Spain. The galleons sailed from Manila with Chinese
goods, mainly silk textiles and porcelain, and returned from Acapulco with
silver bullion and minted coins, which purchased more Chinese goods. The galleon
trade was a government monopoly that had exclusive trading rights with the
Philippines, and no direct trade with Spain was allowed. The colonial treasury
of the Philippines received a subsidy, consisting mainly of customs duties paid
at Acapulco, that was the colony’s main source of income. The galleon trade
presented new opportunities for Chinese merchants, who formed an economically
important community in Manila by the 1590s. They outnumbered the Spanish and
were subject to residence restrictions and periodic deportations.
In 1762, when Spain became involved in
the Seven Years’ War on the side of France against Great Britain, the British
East India Company captured Manila. The treaty that ended the war restored
Manila to Spain in 1764. The British occupation, although brief, exposed the
resentment of Spanish authority and discrimination felt by local peoples,
especially the Chinese, some of whom openly supported the British. After Spanish
rule was restored, the colonial government implemented a series of reforms to
promote the economic development of the islands through commercial agriculture
and household industries. The establishment of a state monopoly of the
cultivation, manufacture, and sale of tobacco in 1782 enabled the colonial
government to balance its budget and send substantial subsidies to Spain. The
galleon trade, already much diminished, ended in 1815. Trade was opened to the
world, and the links to Latin America weakened rapidly after Spain’s colonies
there won independence.
B2 | Open Trade and the New Filipino Elite |
In the 19th century the Industrial
Revolution transformed the world. Modern methods of production and
transportation, notably sugar mills and steamships, opened the Philippines for
economic development. British, French, Dutch, and North American traders began
to demand Philippine agricultural products, including sugar, cigars, and abaca
(Manila hemp). Sugar became the leading export crop. In 1834 Spain lifted
restrictions on trade between foreign nations and the Philippines.
Chinese merchants in Manila helped to
finance and shape the new export opportunities, often acting as intermediaries
between foreign traders and local producers. In 1839 the colonial government
issued a decree granting Chinese freedom of occupation and residence. Many
Chinese emigrated to the Philippines after the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) in
China. Aware of the political and social advantages enjoyed by Roman Catholics
in the colony, many Chinese converted to Catholicism and married Filipina women.
Their descendants, called mestizos (a Spanish term for racially mixed people),
were readily accepted by society. Through the acquisition of land, they became
an economically privileged class in the new cash-crop economy. These mestizos
formed the major component of a new Filipino elite of planters, merchants, and
civil servants.
C | Filipino Resistance to Colonial Rule |
In 1863 the colonial government
introduced a system of free primary-school education. Institutions of higher
learning remained limited, however, and only a few admitted non-Spaniards. The
new Filipino elite became known as ilustrados (Spanish for “the
enlightened ones”) because they could afford higher education. Some ilustrados
studied abroad in Spain.
By the second half of the 19th century
the ilustrados had begun to agitate for reforms in both the civil and
ecclesiastical establishments. In Spain the revolution of 1868 had produced a
democratic constitution that provided for equality and civil and political
rights. In the Philippines the ilustrados asked that these rights be extended to
Filipinos. Filipino priests also agitated for reforms. They wanted the church to
follow official Vatican policy, which dictated that religious orders would
relinquish control to indigenous diocesan priests in places that had been
successfully converted to Christianity. The Spanish friars in the Philippines
held considerable power, forming what was called a friarocracy. They conducted
many functions of government on the local level, controlled education at all
levels, and were the largest landholders. They resented that their influence was
being questioned by Filipino priests, and their response was increasingly
racist. They successfully resisted the local movement to replace them.
C1 | Filipino Reformists |
In 1872 the colonial government
arrested hundreds of ilustrados and priests after an uprising by workers at the
military fort of Cavite. Three Filipino priests were convicted of organizing the
uprising and executed. This crackdown by the colonial authorities intensified
the nationalist character of the reform movement. Filipino liberals who were
sent into exile in Europe and ilustrados attending European universities formed
the Propaganda Movement, using publications such as La Solidaridad
(Solidarity) to call for social and political reform. The Filipino
intellectuals Graciano López Jaena, M. H. del Pilar, and José Rizal were the
foremost leaders of the movement. Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere
(1886; Touch Me Not, translated 1961) and El Filibusterismo (1891;
The Subversive, translated 1962) exposed to the world the injustices
imposed on Filipinos under the colonial regime.
C2 | Katipunan Revolutionaries |
By the time Rizal returned to Manila
in 1892, it was apparent that Spain, itself in the throes of domestic unrest,
was unwilling to undertake substantial colonial reforms. Considered a threat to
the colonial regime, Rizal was arrested shortly after his return and sent into
exile on Mindanao. Soon after Rizal’s exile, Andrés Bonifacio, a self-educated
man of the urban working class, organized a secret society called Katipunan,
short for Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan
(The Highest and Most Respectable Society of the Sons of the People). The
Katipunan, which advocated revolution rather than reform, gained a popular base
of support, with membership concentrated among urban and rural workers. Spanish
officials discovered, through an informant parish priest, the existence of the
Katipunan in August 1896. Bonifacio, realizing the Katipunan could no longer
hide its activity, proclaimed the beginning of the revolution. Katipunan members
first attacked Spanish military installations, and then the insurrection spread
throughout the provinces of central Luzon. Rizal was arrested and convicted by a
military tribunal on fabricated charges of involvement with the Katipunan. His
execution by a firing squad on December 30 merely served to spread the revolt to
the entire country. Rizal, as a martyr, became the ultimate symbol of Filipino
nationalism.
Leadership of the Katipunan passed
from Bonifacio to its most successful general, Emilio Aguinaldo, a former
schoolteacher. A year of fighting between Katipunan forces, which used guerrilla
tactics, and government troops ended in a negotiated truce, the Pact of
Biac-na-bató, in 1897. In accordance with the pact, Aguinaldo and his staff went
into voluntary exile in Hong Kong, while the Spanish authorities promised
reforms within three years.
D | The Spanish-American War |
In April 1898 war broke out between
Spain and the United States over their competing imperialist interests in Cuba,
then also a Spanish colony where an independence movement was taking place. In
May U.S. Commodore (later Admiral) George Dewey commanded the Asiatic Squadron
into Manila Bay, where it easily destroyed the antiquated Spanish fleet at
anchor there. Lacking adequate ground troops, however, Dewey sent for Aguinaldo
in Hong Kong and encouraged him to reactivate his rebel forces.
Aguinaldo believed the United States
would help Filipinos achieve independence. He organized a revolutionary
government that issued a declaration of independence on June 12, and his forces
surrounded the Spanish garrison at Manila. By that time, Manila had become the
focus of the Spanish-American War. Negotiations between U.S. military commanders
and the Spanish governor resulted in a secret agreement to end the conflict in a
mock battle, staged in August, in which Spanish forces surrendered control of
Manila. The arrangement specifically excluded the Filipino nationalists.
Aguinaldo had meanwhile established a capital at the Luzon city of Malolos, and
in September his government convened a constituent assembly to draft a
constitution.
Peace negotiations between Spain and the
United States began in late September. By the Treaty of Paris, signed in
December, Spain ceded the Philippines and other territories to the United
States. In return, the United States gave Spain $20 million. United States
president William McKinley then issued a proclamation declaring U.S. policy to
be one of “benevolent assimilation.”
The Filipinos refused to recognize the
transfer of sovereignty, however, and fighting broke out on February 4, 1899.
More than 125,000 American soldiers eventually went into combat in the conflict
known as the Philippine-American War. Filipino troops, who used tactics of
guerrilla warfare, were of indeterminate numbers. United States forces soon
secured major ports, lowland areas, and urban centers. Malolos fell to the
United States in March 1899. With the capture of Aguinaldo in March 1901,
organized Filipino resistance collapsed and the war ended. More than 4,000
American and 16,000 Filipino soldiers died in combat, while thousands of
Filipino civilians died from the effects of the war, including famine and
disease.
E | United States Rule |
The United States moved quickly to
establish a political administration in the Philippines. In 1901 William Howard
Taft, later president of the United States, was appointed the first civilian
governor-general, replacing the military governor, General Arthur MacArthur. The
governor-general was vested with executive powers and served as head of the
Philippine Commission, a body appointed by the U.S. president that served as an
executive cabinet and held legislative powers. The commission passed many new
laws to set up the fundamentals of a national government, including a judicial
system, legal code, civil service, and police force. Elections were held for
municipal and provincial governments, and political and bureaucratic positions
were opened to Filipinos. In 1907 an elected legislative assembly became the
lower house of a bicameral legislature. The appointed Philippine Commission
formed the upper house. In 1916 an elected senate replaced the commission.
Monetary, military, and foreign policies were controlled by the U.S. Congress
and president. In all other matters, bills passed by the new legislature became
law upon approval by the governor-general.
E1 | Elites, Education, and Economy |
The United States defined and
justified its colonial role as one of tutelage; that is, preparing the
Philippines for eventual independence. While a few Filipinos remained opposed to
American colonial control, virtually all of the ilustrados, who made up the
educated and wealthy classes, saw economic and political opportunity under
American tutelage. Many of the U.S. policies in the Philippines reinforced the
dominant position of the ilustrados within Philippine society. Most of the vast
landholdings of the friar estates, which the civilian administration purchased
from the Vatican in 1904, were sold to members of the already wealthy ilustrado
elite. Most agricultural workers, meanwhile, continued to toil the land as
tenants. In addition, most government positions at all levels were held by
ilustrados, who were able to wield their wealth and influence to gain political
power.
Education was touted as the means by
which all Filipinos could achieve a rising standard of living. The United States
established a national public school system, building on the existing parochial
schools. Thousands of American teachers arrived to teach courses in the
secularized and expanded system. English was the primary medium of instruction.
Filipinos from every walk of life sought a secular education, and functional
literacy increased from about 20 percent in 1901 to 50 percent in 1941. A middle
class developed as upward mobility presented new, but still limited,
opportunities.
Unrestricted free trade between the
Philippines and the United States, established in 1913, had a decisive influence
on the Philippine economy, which became an agricultural export economy producing
sugar, abaca, copra, and tobacco for the U.S. market. Except for gold mining,
there was little development of industry; manufactured goods were supplied by
the United States on a duty-free basis. Economic development under U.S. rule
tended to encourage large landholdings among a relatively small elite, leading
to an increase in tenant farming among landless peasants. The global economic
depression of the 1930s worsened the plight of the rural population.
The United States also established
military garrisons in the Philippines, which became a strategic base for U.S.
forces in the Pacific. The deep-water harbor at Subic Bay, near Manila, became a
major anchorage for the U.S. naval fleet. The cavalry base at Fort Stotsenberg
in central Luzon was transformed into an air-force installation, Clark Air
Base.
E2 | Shifting American Policies |
United States politics soon began to
influence the course of events in the islands. Taft and his immediate successors
were unwilling to delegate full authority to the Filipinos. With the election of
Woodrow Wilson to the United States presidency in 1912, a new policy was
adopted. In 1916 the Jones Act instituted an elected Philippine senate and
promised eventual independence. These moves, however, were slowed with the
election of Warren G. Harding as president of the United States in 1920. The
following year Harding appointed a commission, headed by General Leonard Wood,
to investigate the political and economic situation in the islands. The
commission reported that immediate independence would be disastrous both for the
Filipino people and for U.S. interests in the western Pacific. Wood, who was
appointed governor-general of the Philippines in 1921, found himself bitterly
opposed by the Filipino advocates of independence. The call for independence was
led within the political establishment by Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, president
of the Philippine Senate; Sergio Osmeña, speaker of the House of Representatives
before 1922; and Manuel Roxas y Acuña, the speaker after 1922. These politicians
belonged to the Nationalist Party, which dominated Philippine politics from its
founding in 1907 until the emergence of the Liberal Party after World War II
ended in 1945.
E3 | Commonwealth of the Philippines |
With the election of Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1932 as president of the United States, the official policy changed
once again. On January 13, 1933, the Congress of the United States passed the
Hare-Hawes-Cutting Bill granting Philippine independence after 12 years, but
reserving military and naval bases for the United States and imposing tariffs
and quotas on Philippine exports. The bill was rejected by Quezon for domestic
political advantage. The Philippine Senate then advocated a new bill that won
Roosevelt’s support. The resulting Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 stipulated that
the Philippines would become an independent republic on July 4, 1946. Until then
a commonwealth government, with a constitution and an elected Filipino
president, would have autonomy in all affairs except foreign policy. In November
1935 the commonwealth government was inaugurated with Quezon as president and
Osmeña as vice president.
F | World War II and Japanese Occupation |
On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces
attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, marking the beginning
of Japan’s involvement in World War II. Just ten hours later, Japanese air
forces struck Clark Air Base in the Philippines, destroying the American B-17
bombers stationed there. Japanese ground troops entered Luzon at Lingayen Gulf
on December 22 and occupied Manila on January 2, 1942.
Just before the Pearl Harbor attack,
President Roosevelt recalled General Douglas MacArthur into active service,
making him commander in chief of the Allied forces in the Philippines. MacArthur
was a former U.S. chief of staff who was in the Philippines serving as field
marshal, at Quezon’s invitation, to help build a commonwealth army.
MacArthur withdrew all his forces, which
included many Filipino soldiers, to the island fortress of Corregidor, in Manila
Bay, and the nearby Bataan Peninsula. The United States, at the time
concentrating its forces in Europe, lacked the fleet that MacArthur hoped for to
fight the war in the Philippines. In 1942, when it became clear that the
American forces were being completely overwhelmed at Bataan and Corregidor,
Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to evacuate Quezon and Osmeña and directed him to
lead the war against Japan from Australia. The American and Filipino troops who
were left behind surrendered at Bataan in April and at Corregidor in May. The
Japanese forced their prisoners of war on an infamous Death March across
treacherous terrain to a prison camp near Cabunatuan. Thousands of American and
Filipino soldiers died of malnutrition, illness, and torture.
While Quezon set up a
government-in-exile in the United States, the Japanese secured the collaboration
of some officials who had stayed behind. In 1943 Japan recognized a nominally
independent Philippine republic with José P. Laurel as president.
Although some Filipinos became known as
collaborators, others waged guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. Across the
archipelago, guerrilla bands organized into a highly effective guerrilla
movement aided by the fragmented island geography and inaccessibility of
mountain bases. Formed in 1942, the Hukbalahaps, or Huks (short for Hukbo ng
Bayan Laban sa Hapon, or People’s Anti-Japanese Party), were one of the most
effective guerrilla groups. The Huk forces were primarily the rural poor of
central and southern Luzon.
When MacArthur returned to the
Philippines in October 1944, it was as commander of a massive invasion force.
The ensuing naval battle of Leyte Gulf was one of the largest ever fought. In
February 1945 U.S. troops reached Manila, which was devastated in fighting that
continued until July. World War II ended with the Japanese surrender to the
Allies on September 2. Manila was the second most destroyed city of World War
II, after Warsaw, Poland. With the destruction of Manila’s urban
infrastructure—universities, hospitals, newspaper printing plants, government
offices, factories and port facilities—the Philippines was left without its most
modern sector.
G | Republic of the Philippines |
In 1944 Osmeña succeeded Quezon, who
died in the United States, as president of the government-in-exile. Osmeña
returned to Manila in 1945, and plans went forward to inaugurate the independent
Republic of the Philippines. Manuel Roxas challenged the elderly Osmeña for the
presidency and split from the Nationalist Party to form the Liberal Party. Roxas
won the election of April 1946 and became the first president of the new
republic, with Elpidio Quirino as vice president. The Republic of the
Philippines was formally proclaimed on July 4, 1946.
The postwar administration faced
staggering problems. The country’s infrastructure and economy were in ruins. To
help in the republic’s rehabilitation, the United States established
preferential trade relations and awarded the new nation several hundred million
dollars in war damage and rehabilitation aid. As a condition of receiving the
aid, the Philippines was forced to agree to give U.S. investors parity, or equal
economic rights with Filipinos. The parity privileges included the right to
exploit the country’s natural resources, which required an amendment to the
Philippine constitution. Other trade agreements and contingencies also tied the
Philippine economy to that of the United States. In addition, the United States
maintained a military presence in the Philippines. In 1947 the U.S. government
secured an agreement allowing it to retain jurisdiction over numerous military
installations, including Clark Air Base and Subic Bay, for a period of 99 years.
In 1959 the Philippines amended the agreement, giving the United States a new
25-year lease for fewer bases.
G1 | The Hukbalahap Insurgency |
In addition to economic problems, the
Philippines faced growing tensions between landowners and the rural poor. During
the war the Hukbalahap had become a powerful guerrilla force with strong
rural-based support. The organization was associated with the Communist Party of
the Philippines (CCP) but was mostly composed of a radicalized peasantry who
held many grievances against agrarian landlords. The authority of Philippine
landlords had been disrupted during the wartime occupation, and after the war
they tried to reimpose their authority. The leadership of the Hukbalahap, which
was renamed the People’s Liberation Army in 1946, demanded the collective
ownership of farmland and abolition of tenant farming. Widespread fighting broke
out as the Philippine police and landlord militias battled Huk guerrillas and
their supporters. In February 1948 Roxas, who had played a role in the
Japanese-sponsored wartime government, resolved a raging controversy over
collaboration by pardoning all those who had served the Japanese. The following
month, Roxas declared the Hukbalahap to be an illegal organization and stepped
up counterinsurgency measures.
Roxas died in April 1948 and was
succeeded by Vice President Quirino, who then won the presidency in 1949 in an
election marred by corruption. When the Huk insurgency intensified to the point
of threatening the stability of the Philippine government, Quirino appointed
Ramón Magsaysay secretary of national defense. Magsaysay had gained visibility
as an able guerrilla leader during World War II and then served two terms in the
Philippine legislature. He enthusiastically took on the mission to crush Huk
resistance, using solutions such as tenancy reform to erode the rural support
base of the Huks. His initiative to improve the training of the Philippine armed
forces won help from the United States, which considered the Huks to be a
Communist threat to the stability of the Philippines. In 1950 police forces
captured the core of the Huk leadership. Huks who surrendered were offered
amnesty. The insurgency effectively ended in May 1954 with the surrender of Huk
leader Luis Taruc.
G2 | Changing Leadership: Magsaysay to Marcos |
Magsaysay was the clear winner in the
1953 presidential election, running as the Nationalist Party candidate against
Quirino of the Liberal Party. Magsaysay, who came from humble origins rather
than the elite, was a widely popular figure. His victory ushered in a period of
enthusiasm and expectation. Magsaysay emphasized domestic reforms to improve
conditions for tenant farmers and implemented small-scale public works projects
in rural areas. The government purchased land on Mindanao and launched a program
to encourage landless farm workers on Luzon to resettle on the southern island.
The program, which was instituted in various forms in the ensuing years, led to
resentment among the Muslim population on Mindanao. The influx of Christian
homesteaders from the north ultimately made the Muslims a minority on Mindanao.
Magsaysay died in a plane crash in
March 1957. He was succeeded by his vice president, Carlos García, who was
elected president in his own right in November 1957. García imposed import
controls on foreign manufactured goods, which led to a spurt of
industrialization but also to a great deal of corruption. In 1961 García lost
the presidency to Diosdado Macapagal, the Liberal Party candidate who campaigned
on the corruption issue. Macapagal lifted the import controls and began to
implement economic reforms. A 1966 amendment to the agreement on the U.S.
military bases extended the deadline for U.S. withdrawal to 1991.
G3 | The Marcos Regime |
The 1965 elections gave the presidency
to Ferdinand E. Marcos, the Senate president and Nationalist Party candidate.
Rapid economic development created by the American military buildup in Vietnam
and ambitious public-works projects, financed by foreign loans, brought
prosperity during Marcos’s first term. He was easily reelected in 1969, making
him the first Philippine president to win a second term. The Marcos government
soon faced several challenges on the domestic front, however. Government debt
led to lackluster economic growth, while criticism increased over the dominant
U.S. economic position in the Philippines. Many Filipinos actively opposed the
continued presence of the U.S. military bases and Marcos’s support for United
States policy in Vietnam. In addition, by the early 1970s two separate forces
were waging guerrilla war on the government: the New People’s Army (NPA), the
militant wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) that included
former Huks, and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim separatist
movement based in the southern islands.
Meanwhile, government and opposition
political leaders agreed to draft a new constitution to replace the
American-authored constitution of 1935. That constitution limited the president
to two terms. The delegates in charge of drafting the new constitution never
finished their work, however, and the 1973 presidential elections never took
place. Marcos, citing the need for national security, declared martial law on
September 21, 1972. Congress was dissolved, opposition leaders arrested, and
strict censorship imposed. A new constitution was promulgated in January 1973,
but transitional provisions attached to it gave Marcos continued absolute power,
and elections were indefinitely postponed. Marcos ruled by decree.
The United States continued providing
military and economic aid to the Philippine government. The country’s continued
borrowing and eventual inability to repay its foreign debts led to a severe
economic recession in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, monopolies were established in
most sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, media, construction,
financial services, and agriculture. Marcos and his wife, Imelda, and their
closest associates and relatives controlled these monopolies through a system
known as crony capitalism.
Marcos ended martial law in 1981, but
he retained sweeping emergency powers. Most opposition groups boycotted the
elections held in June of that year, and Marcos won another six-year term as
president. In 1983 the widely popular opposition leader Benigno Aquino was
assassinated upon his return from years in exile. The political archrival of
Marcos, he was one of the first opposition leaders to be arrested after the
declaration of martial law.
The assassination led to mass
demonstrations in Manila and revitalized the political opposition. For the first
time the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church openly opposed the Marcos
regime. Regular strikes and demonstrations demanded Marcos’s resignation.
Legislative elections were held in 1984 and, despite a boycott by some
opposition groups and widespread government vote rigging, opposition parties
registered large gains. Meanwhile, a commission concluded that Aquino’s murder
was the result of a military conspiracy. However, all 25 defendants were
summarily acquitted in 1985.
G4 | People Power Movement |
In a bold attempt to bolster his
power, Marcos called for a “snap,” or unscheduled, presidential election to be
held in February 1986. He calculated that a fragmented opposition and a
corrupted electoral process would allow him victory. Contrary to his
expectations, however, the United Nationalist Democratic Front (UNIDO), the
coalition of opposition parties, chose just one candidate to run against him,
Corazon Aquino, the widow of Benigno Aquino. After the elections, the two
monitoring bodies, one sponsored by a U.S.-based group and the other an official
government commission, reported contradictory election results. Both candidates
claimed victory, but the national assembly recognized Marcos as the winner.
Days later the Roman Catholic Church
issued a statement claiming the election had been “a fraud unparalleled in
history.” The minister of national defense, Juan Ponce Enrile, and other leading
military figures, including Deputy Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos, publicly turned
against Marcos and seized the two main military installations at Quezon City
near Manila. Troops loyal to Marcos moved to suppress this mutiny. Jaime
Cardinal Sin, the archbishop of Manila, issued the definitive blow to the Marcos
regime when he called on the citizens of Manila to help prevent a Marcos
victory. Throngs of civilians staged a four-day protest, confronting the
loyalist troops and preventing them from taking any action. This massive protest
was centered on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). It became known as the
People Power Movement, or simply EDSA.
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos fled the
country in late February. The Marcoses were widely believed to have amassed huge
personal wealth by plundering the Philippine economy. They also left the country
with $27 billion in external debt and in a deep economic recession.
G5 | Aquino Presidency |
Aquino took office amid high
expectations that she would undo all of the wrongs of the Marcos years. She
quickly used her presidential powers to free all political prisoners, abolish
censorship of the media, replace many officials installed under Marcos, and
institute legal proceedings to try to recover Marcos’s ill-gotten wealth.
Domestic support for Aquino was severely undermined in January 1987, however,
when about 15,000 demonstrators gathered at Manila’s Mendiola Bridge to demand
land reform. In what became known as the Mendiola Massacre, government security
forces opened fire on the protesters and killed at least 20 people. The incident
illustrated that the military was not under Aquino’s control. The public’s
disillusionment only intensified after the incident when Aquino turned the issue
of land reform over to the mostly conservative legislature.
A new constitution, endorsed by
Aquino, was approved in a national referendum in February 1987. It provided for
a bicameral legislature and a president as chief executive. It limited the
president to one term of six years and gave Aquino a mandate to govern until
June 1992. Aquino won a vote of confidence in the May 1987 legislative elections
when parties allied with her Lagas ng Bayan (People’s Power Movement, an
opposition party founded in 1978 by Benigno Aquino) won a majority of seats in
both houses.
Meanwhile, the Philippines faced
massive foreign debt accrued during the Marcos years. The Aquino government was
obliged to seek debt relief from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which
required severe austerity measures and structural reform. The government
dismantled monopolies established under Marcos, eliminated a wide range of tax
exemptions that had benefited Marcos’s associates, and sought to decentralize
state participation in the economy in order to stimulate the private sector.
However, the government failed to institute substantive reforms to alleviate the
poverty in which most Filipinos continued to live. A land reform law approved by
the legislature in 1988 was largely ineffectual due to loopholes and lack of
enforcement.
Another initiative of the Aquino
government was to negotiate a cease-fire with Muslim rebels who had been
fighting a secessionist war in the southern Philippines since the 1970s. In
August 1986 the government agreed to grant autonomy to four Muslim provinces on
Mindanao as part of a cease-fire truce with the Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF); however, subsequent negotiations became deadlocked. The MNLF demanded
autonomy in 23 provinces, while other Muslim guerrilla groups that were excluded
from the negotiations continued to demand complete independence. In November
1989 the government arranged a plebiscite in 13 provinces to vote on the
proposal of autonomy. The MNLF appealed to Muslims to boycott the vote. However,
four of the provinces voted in favor of the government proposal for autonomy and
became the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The Philippine military was hostile to
Aquino’s policy initiative to negotiate with the rebels. Aquino survived several
coup attempts, most of which were led by dissident factions in the armed forces.
The unwavering loyalty of Aquino’s defense minister, Fidel Ramos, and continued
United States support helped Aquino stay in power. In December 1989 U.S. Air
Force jets assisted Philippine government forces in suppressing a coup attempt
that included officers loyal to Marcos. Juan Ponce Enrile, whom Aquino had
dismissed as minister of national defense after a 1986 coup attempt, was
implicated in the abortive coup and arrested in February 1990. Meanwhile, the
Supreme Court declared Benigno Aquino’s murder trial a mistrial and a new
investigation was initiated. In September 1990 a special court convicted 16
military officials of the murder, as well as the murder of Benigno’s alleged
assassin.
In June 1991 the unexpected eruption
of Mount Pinatubo in central Luzon killed hundreds of people and caused massive,
widespread damage. The United States evacuated nearby Clark Air Base, which the
eruption had rendered unusable. In September the Philippine Senate adjudged the
U.S. bases to be infringements of Philippine sovereignty and refused to renew
the leases. United States forces departed from Subic Bay Naval Station in 1992,
and Clark Air Base remained closed.
G6 | Ramos Presidency |
Aquino endorsed Fidel Ramos for the
1992 presidential elections. In the political maneuvering leading up to the
election, Ramos failed to win the nomination of the ruling party, Laban ng
Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), and registered a new political party, EDSA-LDP.
His party then changed its name to Lakas ng EDSA (Power of EDSA) and became part
of a multiparty electoral alliance called Lakas-NUCD (National Union of
Christian Democrats). Ramos narrowly won the election against several candidates
who were Marcos loyalists, including widowed Imelda Marcos.
Ramos was the first former
professional military officer to become president of the Philippines. He used
his knowledge of the Philippine military to reestablish a tradition of civilian
control over the armed forces. He also built on the process of restoring
democracy to the Philippines by addressing the nation’s most difficult economic
and structural problems. Ramos pursued an ambitious economic reform program
based on privatization and deregulation, opening banking and business to foreign
investment and transferring government assets to private ownership. He moved
quickly to resolve the country’s serious electric-power shortage, which had been
a detriment to economic growth, by investing in the domestic power-generating
infrastructure. His government improved tax-collection policies and practices,
and this combined with the growing economy to generate higher tax revenues for
the government. In 1994 and 1995 the country had its first consecutive
government budget surpluses. Despite many improvements, however, unemployment
remained a serious problem because population growth continued to outpace the
creation of new jobs. Voters signaled their support of the largely successful
economic reforms by electing a majority of Ramos-backed candidates to the
legislature in 1995.
In the early 1990s, meanwhile,
secessionist Muslim groups renewed their guerrilla war in Mindanao. Negotiations
between the Ramos government and the MNLF formally began in 1993 and resulted in
a lasting peace agreement, signed in September 1996. Other rebel groups,
including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Abu Sayyaf, continued
guerrilla activities. The MILF demanded an expansion of the Muslim autonomous
region, while the more radical Abu Sayyaf group demanded a separate Islamic
state.
In 1997 supporters of Ramos explored
the possibility of amending the constitutional stipulation that restricted the
president to a single term in office. Corazon Aquino and Cardinal Sin organized
a demonstration to protest the proposed amendment, leading Ramos and his
supporters to drop the issue. For the 1998 elections, Ramos and the ruling
coalition, Lakas-NUCD, gave their support to Jose de Venecia, the House speaker.
Joseph Estrada, vice president under Ramos and a populist politician, entered
the race as a candidate of his own party, the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (Party
of the Filipino Masses), which entered a coalition with two leading opposition
parties. Estrada campaigned on promises to work toward improving the lives of
poor Filipinos. He won the election with the widest margin ever in Philippine
politics. The office of vice president went to Lakas-NUCD candidate Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, a former senator and daughter of former president Diosdado
Macapagal. Although Lakas-NUCD won a majority of congressional seats, more than
half of the members defected to Estrada’s coalition, Laban ng Masang Pilipino
(LMP; Struggle for Filipino Masses), after the elections. Macapagal-Arroyo then
represented the political opposition, led by Lakas-NUCD, which also drew support
from Aquino and Cardinal Sin.
G7 | Recent Developments |
Ongoing peace negotiations with the
MILF collapsed in 1999 when President Estrada adopted an all-out-war policy
against all rebel groups. The military offensive displaced approximately 600,000
people in central Mindanao. By this time, more than 120,000 people were
estimated to have died during the three decades of ongoing hostilities between
Muslim rebels and the Philippine government.
Meanwhile, the Estrada government
faced a downturn in the economy brought on by the Asian financial crisis of
1997. This was compounded by a drought that negatively impacted agricultural
output. The government sought to take steps toward fulfilling its promises to
alleviate poverty and undertake land reform and agricultural development. At the
same time, it needed to reassure the business community that it would continue
the economic reforms that the two preceding administrations had pursued.
A major focus of the Estrada
administration was “food security,” which involved agricultural modernization
and major infrastructure-development projects. Despite its rhetoric, however,
the government did not make much progress in implementing its “pro-poor”
platform. The opposition became more outspoken in its criticism of Estrada, and
his administration became embroiled in allegations of cronyism and corruption.
The corruption allegations led to Estrada’s impeachment by the House of
Representatives in November 2000. His trial in the Senate was suspended in
mid-January 2001, however, after the prosecution team resigned to protest the
suppression of evidence. Thousands of Filipinos then took to the streets of
Manila to demand Estrada’s resignation; however, Estrada retained strong support
among the urban and rural poor.
Meanwhile, Vice President
Macapagal-Arroyo formed a strong opposition alliance, the United Opposition,
within the government. The massive demonstrations, resignation of most of the
president’s cabinet, and loss of support among top military officials led to
Estrada’s ouster on January 20, after the Supreme Court declared the presidency
vacant. Macapagal-Arroyo was immediately sworn in as president.
Early in her presidency,
Macapagal-Arroyo declared a suspension of offensive military operations against
the MILF and pursued a policy of reconciliation with the group. In August 2001
the two sides signed a cease-fire agreement, and peace negotiations continued,
with Malaysia acting as intermediary. The government, meanwhile, continued its
military crackdown on the secessionist Abu Sayyaf group, which was linked to
terrorist activities, such as kidnappings and bombings. In the 2001 legislative
elections, Macapagal-Arroyo won a popular mandate to govern the country when
candidates she had endorsed won control of the Senate. The people of the
Philippines elected her to a full, six-year term in the presidential election of
2004.
In 2005 Macapagal-Arroyo survived an
impeachment effort mounted by her political opposition. The opposition entered
impeachment complaints against Macapagal-Arroyo, alleging that she had
interfered in the 2004 elections to secure her own victory. Her administration
also came under a cloud in a separate incident when her husband, son, and
brother-in-law were accused of corruption. But in September 2005 the House of
Representatives threw out the impeachment complaints. See also Filipino
Americans.
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