The Philippines: History, Geography, Economy & Culture

A tropical archipelago on the borders of Asia and the Pacific. A hundred million people living across thousands of islands. A fusion of island nation people with Spanish and American influences. There isn't a place or people like it anywhere in the world. From Manila to Mindanao, Coron to Boracay. A land of rice paddies and rainforest, barangays and jeepneys. This could only be the Philippines. The Philippines is a highly populated and extensive archipelago on the eastern edge of Southeast Asia. The country was named after King Philip II of Spain when it was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century. For the longest time it was officially called the Philippine Islands, or Las Islas Filipinas, but the island's part was dropped in 1935, leaving just the Philippines. The name of the country in official Filipino language is Pilipinas. The archipelago has been home to a succession of people for tens of thousands of years. The Austronesian peoples that make up the vast majority of the population today are believed to have colonised the islands as early as 2200 BC, and in the succeeding centuries the islands were divided into many chiefdoms, kingdoms, city-states and sultanates which regularly fought one another. This was the state of affairs the Spanish found when Ferdinand Magellan, the explorer that led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe, arrived here in 1521. He claimed the islands for Spain, but was shortly after killed by natives at the Battle of Mactan, near the current city of Cebu. Colonisation efforts began in earnest in the latter part of that century, subjugating the various local polities using their tactics of divide and conquer that they had used so successfully against the Aztecs and Incas of the New World. The Spanish based their capital in Manila, and this city was where their Manila galleons were built, that sent silks from China, spices from Indonesia, and cotton textiles from the islands themselves across the Pacific to Mexico and then on to Spain, the first consistent trade route across the Pacific. The Catholic Church was very active in its conversion of the local populace during this time, with the result that today the majority of the population subscribes to this faith. Part of this process was the locals adopting Spanish family names, which explains why most Filipinos today have such names. In the 1800s, local resentment over colonial rule mounted and finally erupted in the Philippine Revolution that began in 1896 with the foundation of the First Philippines Republic in 1899. Complicating matters though, Spain found itself at war with the United States over Cuba only two years later, and losing that war ceded the Philippines to the USA in 1898. The Americans did not recognise the Philippines Republic, and over the next three years fought against the local revolutionary leaders in the Philippine-American War, which led to the deaths of over 200,000 Filipinos from famine and disease. The American administration ruled over the islands for the next four decades, dramatically changing the culture of the islands by reducing the influence of the Catholic Church and making English the official language, resulting in English replacing Spanish as the most commonly spoken non-native language up to this day. During World War II, the Americans were forced to abandon the islands following the Japanese invasion in early 1942. The islanders suffered terribly under Japanese occupation, with massacres and mass rapes a routine occurrence, while many of the women were forced into prostitution to the occupying forces. The islands were liberated in early 1945, after an estimated one million locals had been killed. Within a year, the Americans granted full independence to the country, providing for a democratic constitution similar to that of the United States. Today, however, Filipinos celebrate their independence day on June 12th, to mark the anniversary of the revolutionary movement's declaration of independence from Spain in 1898. The first decade of independence saw the government dealing with the Hukbalahap, a communist insurgency that had originated in opposition to the Japanese occupation, and was finally defeated in 1954. In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos was elected to the presidency, but rather than step down at the end of his term, imposed martial law in 1972. He ruled in total for just over 20 years, and the time of his illegal tenure was marked by repression, censorship and human rights violations. Most notably, however, he and his wife Imelda were accused of embezzling billions of dollars from the public purse. Imelda's closet of thousands of pairs of shoes, while millions of Filipinos lived in abject poverty, has become a legendary symbol of the corruption of the elites. The couple were forced into exile following the People Power Revolution of 1986. Corazon Aquino, the widow of Marcos' chief rival assassinated in 1983, then assumed the presidency. Presidents have continued to be elected in a democratic fashion since then and up to the present, although millions of Filipinos remain in poverty and feel that they are not represented by what they might regard as a revolving door of elite dynasties being in political control. Government corruption remains a serious issue, and can partly explain why the Philippines, although seeing regular economic growth, did not become one of the tiger economies of Asia like Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea or even Malaysia. In the latest Cato Institute's Human Freedom Index, the Philippines is about mid-table overall, having a ranking of 83 out of 162 nations, with personal freedom being worse than economic, particular concern being over the accessibility to and the fairness of the legal system. For the majority of Filipinos, finding well-paying jobs that allow them to live comfortably is a challenge, and as a result over 10% of Filipinos live abroad. Most container ships plying the ocean waves today have a crew made up of a majority of Filipino men. Filipinas have become internationally well known as nurses, maids and nannies throughout much of Asia, the Middle East and the developed world. Many Filipinas also look for a better life overseas through marriage, facilitated by reputation for beauty among many Western men. The Philippines is a unitary state, meaning that there are no significant powers allocated to states or provinces within the country. The executive is led by the president, elected by the population for a six-year term. The legislature is bicameral, having an upper house of 24 senators elected by national party percentage of the vote to six terms, and a lower house of 304 representatives elected to three-year terms that represent individual districts across the country. The country has a Supreme Court of 14 justices appointed by the president from lists nominated by a council. The country is administered through a succession of regions, provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays. A barangay is a term unique to the Philippines and one you will often hear about or see on maps. It is the smallest unit of an administration, with over 40,000 in the country, and, coming from a local word meaning village, is akin to a council or municipal ward. The flag of the Philippines is a bicolour of blue and red with a white triangle at the hoist enclosing a unique emblem. It evolved during the Philippine Revolution of the late 1890s, but was not official until the American administration permitted its use in 1920. The blue symbolises peace, truth and justice, the red patriotism and valour, and the white triangle liberty, equality and fraternity. The three golden stars represent the three main regions of the country, Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. The eight-rayed sun in the middle represents the eight provinces that played a significant role in the revolution. The coat of arms is a shield containing the same elements of the flag as mentioned, plus the American eagle, and the lion rampant of the Kingdom of Leon of Spain that signal the influences of these two countries in its colonial past. The motto below the shield, in Filipino, reads the Republic of the Philippines. When it comes to physical geography, the Philippine Islands are really quite unique in the world and define the country perhaps more than any other subject. It is the only national archipelago in the world where a high population is spread across so many islands, with perhaps only neighbouring Indonesia being somewhat similar. The total number of islands is just over 7,600, with 95% of the country's total land area of 300,000 km spread across the 11 largest of these. By far the two biggest islands are Luzon in the north, and Mindanao in the south. The distribution of medium-sized islands between these are collectively referred to as the Visayas. Together, Luzon, Mindanao and the Visayas are viewed as the three main divisions in the country. From north to south, the country spans just over 1,500 km, and 15 degrees of latitude, from 5 degrees to 20 degrees north of the equator. The main body of the islands, excluding the outliers of Palawan and the Sulu chain, spans about 420 km. A car journey from extreme north to south, with two ferry crossings, is about 2,200 km, taking almost two days non-stop. The country's highest point is Mount Apo, close to Davao City in the south of Mindanao, at 2,954 m, which is a dormant stratovolcano. Being on the border of the Eurasian Sunda and Philippine Sea tectonic plates, the archipelago itself has formed from their complex interaction in what is referred to as the Philippine Mobile Belt. The situation leads to a number of earthquakes each year, with some historically being large enough to result in significant loss of life. Perhaps more notable, however, are the volcanoes of the Philippines. 25 are currently active, with the perfectly shaped Mount Mayon in just the last year producing spectacular eruptions. Mount Pinatubo in Luzon produced the second largest eruption of the 20th century, when it reawakened in 1991, leading to global temperatures falling by 0.5 Celsius for the next two years. The Philippines is squarely in the path of typhoons that develop across the western Pacific, with an average of 20 hitting the islands every year, with the eastern Visayas the most vulnerable. The worst of these in recent times, the Category 5 typhoon of Haiyan in 2013 killed 6,300 people and left almost 2 million homeless. Combined with the dangers of volcanoes previously mentioned, the country is regarded as one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, made worse by often inadequate infrastructure and disaster response. In terms of its situation in the region, the Philippines is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea, which is really part of the Pacific Ocean, in the south by the Celebes Sea which separates it from Indonesia, and in the south-west by the Sulu Sea, separating it from the island of Borneo and Malaysia. To the west is the South China Sea, that contains the Spratly Islands, in the news recently as a result of China asserting their claim over them. To the north, the Batanes Islands and the Luzon Strait separate the country from Taiwan. The vast majority of the Philippines experience tropical climates of year-round high temperatures. The exceptions to this are the small subtropical highland areas in the highest points of Luzon and Mindanao Islands where relatively mild year-round temperatures are enjoyed. Due to the direction of the prevailing trade winds coming either from the north-east or south-east depending upon the season, the eastern half of the country experiences year-round rain and a tropical rainforest climate. More westerly areas experience a tropical monsoon climate where part of the year is drier, while Palawan in the west and sheltered parts of Luzon have a tropical savanna climate where the dry season is very pronounced. In terms of natural biomes, the islands were once covered in either tropical rainforest where the trees maintain their leaves throughout the year, or tropical seasonal forest where the trees lose their leaves in the dry season. This division broadly follows the presence or absence of dry seasons in the climate areas just mentioned. However, with such a large population occupying a relatively small land area, most of the land is cultivated in some form. As a local once told me, wherever you find land here, you find people. Rice is the principal crop, which can be harvested several times a year in the tropical climate and is perhaps the main reason why the country supports such a large population. At the last census in 2015, the population of the Philippines was just over 100 million people, but with a high birth rate, this figure may now be over 110 million, making it the 13th largest national population in the world. Up to a third of the population can be found in the densely populated conurbation around the national capital of Manila. Davao City in Mindanao and Cebu City in the Visayas make up the other two large cities in the country. The rest of the population is scattered relatively evenly over the islands, with only isolated highland areas and the rugged landscapes of Palawan seeing relatively few people. A product of its geography of islands and mountain ranges that act as barriers to population mingling, it is perhaps no surprise to find that ethnically, the Philippines is one of the most diverse in the world. The original regional groups of people prior to the Spanish conquest have remarkably retained their native languages and dialects to the present day and use them in everyday communication. The largest of these is Tagalog, spoken around Manila and the surrounding regions of Luzon and Cebuano in the Visayas and Mindanao. These two make up almost half of all Filipinos, with the other 180 languages and dialects making up the other half. The Filipino language is a standardised form of Tagalog which, alongside English, is an official language of the country. Spanish, once widely spoken, is now used by only a few, despite the oddity of most Filipinos having Spanish family names, as earlier mentioned. This Spanish influence includes the term itself, Filipino, which is spelt in the Spanish style. In more recent decades, the Tagalog word Pinoy has been self-adopted by many Filipinos to describe themselves, perhaps to assert the local word over a word that ultimately derived from a Renaissance-era Spanish king. The overwhelming majority of the population is of the Austronesian group of peoples, which colonised the islands about 3,500 to 4,000 years ago, and then went on to colonise Indonesia, Madagascar and most of the Pacific Islands. In this regard, Filipinos are related to Malaysians, Indonesians and even Madagascans and the Maoris of New Zealand, although the languages between them are unintelligible and beyond the basic similarities the people are clearly different in appearance. Several tens of thousands of people living in the Philippines today are the remains of even earlier populations prior to the Austronesian colonisation, and have survived in more remote areas such as Palawan and the uplands of Luzon, maintaining their language and traditions, including religious beliefs. On that subject, the majority of Filipinos are Roman Catholic, a result of centuries of missionaries' work during the Spanish colonial period. A small number of Protestant Christians exist, as well as pockets of Muslims in the south. The economy of the Philippines is the 25th to 29th largest in the world, depending upon compilation. Its chief exports are semiconductors and electronic products, along with a number of foods and minerals. The dominance of these high-tech exports demonstrates the recent change that has occurred in the economy, which has seen a dramatic shift toward industrialisation in the last 20 years. This, along with consistent economic growth, have led some economists to label the country as an Asian tiger-cub economy, since the Philippines was not a part of the original club of Asian tigers of Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea that grew explosively in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Poor infrastructure, hampered by the difficult natural geography of the archipelago, along with high levels of corruption, are still preventing the country from realising the potential that the original Asian tigers now enjoy. About a third of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, with most of the food being for internal consumption, and rice being the dominant crop. As well as crewing most of the world's merchant fleet, the Philippines is now a major shipbuilding nation, being the fourth largest in the world in this respect. Mining is also a large industry, with the country being the second largest producer of nickel and fourth of cobalt. Over a quarter of the country's electricity is produced by geothermal power, taking advantage of its seismically active situation, and is second only to the United States in terms of megawatts produced in this way. In terms of the service sector, the Philippines has now surpassed India as the core centre capital of the world, a product of low labour costs and a population that speaks English. Lastly, tourism is now considered to be the country's biggest untapped resource, and prior to the current travel situation, tourism to the country was growing dramatically. With such abundant natural beauty and the friendliness and gentle nature of the people, it's actually a wonder that the country had not been a magnet for international tourism many years earlier. The nation's currency is the Philippine peso, which at the time of this video had an exchange rate of 50 to the US dollar. Filipino culture is unique, being a fusion of the already distinctive culture of the islands, with Spanish and American influences, being strong from their respective periods of colonisation. Because of the fragmented geographical nature of the archipelago, as well as individual regional languages still being used, the cultures of each island can be very different, manifested in traditional costume and festivals, cuisine and manners. One well-known example of this fusion is the unique phenomenon of the jeepney. These pimped out, chrome and coloured vehicles are conversions of jeeps left behind by US forces in World War II, and the originals and their descendants are a ubiquitous sight in towns and cities across the islands, being shared taxis where local commuters can hop on or off at any time, and often in violation of local traffic ordinances. In part due to their many connections between the United States and the Philippines, as well as their propensity for good looks, many well-known celebrities of today are from here or have Filipino mothers or fathers. These include, singer-songwriter and X-Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger, Dreamgirl actress Sharon Leal, singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, Christine Gambito aka Happy Slip of YouTube fame, theatrical and Disney Princess singer Lea Salonga, high-score musical singer Vanessa Hudgens, Black Eyed Pea Alan Pineda aka Apple The App, stand-up comedian Joe Coy, multi-platinum award-winning singer Enrique Iglesias, businesswoman and co-founder of Flickr Katerina Fake, world-renowned fashion designer Monique Louislier, La Bamba & Young Guns actor Lou Diamond Phillips, Journey lead singer and songwriter Arnel Pineda, electronics and computing pioneer Dado Banatao, actress and Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach, and last but not least, multi-weight title winning boxer Manny Pacquiao, who currently serves as a senator of the Philippines. So how to summarise the Philippines and its people? In my opinion, both the islands and its people are truly unique. Many countries and nationalities are similar to others, but the peculiar blend of island nation people mixed with Spanish and American colonial influences, and the geographical nature of the compact archipelago itself really have no likeness to anything else that I can think of. And because of the Philippine diaspora, their culture has influenced the developed world in many subtle ways that we may not be aware of. I very much enjoyed my time spent there a few years ago. The islands are simply stunning in their beauty, and I don't think I can think of a more welcoming and friendly people, anywhere in the world. And that's the Philippines. I hope you enjoyed this whirlwind tour of these unique islands and their people. Please like and share this video if you enjoyed it, or found it useful, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments, especially if you are from these islands and if I missed out anything that you feel is important. If you haven't already done so, then please click the subscribe button so you don't miss future episodes. You can also support future development of this channel by becoming a Patreon supporter for as little as $2 a month. Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you in the next episode.