Geography

The Philippine islands are an archipelago of over 7,000 islands lying about 500 mi (805 km) off the
southeast coast of Asia. The overall land area is comparable to that of Arizona. Only about 7% of the
islands are larger than one square mile, and only one-third have names. The largest are Luzon in
the north (40,420 sq mi; 104,687 sq km), Mindanao in the south (36,537 sq mi; 94,631 sq km), and
Visayas (23,582 sq mi; 61,077 sq km). The islands are of volcanic origin, with the larger ones
crossed by mountain ranges. The highest peak is Mount Apo (9,690 ft; 2,954 m) on Mindanao.

Government
Republic.

History
The Philippines' aboriginal inhabitants arrived from the Asian mainland around 25,000 BCThey were
followed by waves of Indonesian and Malayan settlers from 3000 BC onward. By the 14th
century AD , extensive trade was being conducted with India, Indonesia, China, and Japan.

Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain, explored the Philippines in
1521. Twenty-one years later, a Spanish exploration party named the group of islands in honor of
Prince Philip, who was later to become Philip II of Spain. Spain retained possession of the islands
for the next 350 years.

The Philippines were ceded to the U.S. in 1899 by the Treaty of Paris after the Spanish-American
War. Meanwhile, the Filipinos, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, had declared their independence. They
initiated guerrilla warfare against U.S. troops that persisted until Aguinaldo's capture in 1901. By
1902, peace was established except among the Islamic Moros on the southern island of Mindanao.

The first U.S. civilian governor-general was William Howard Taft (1901–1904). The Jones Law
(1916) established a Philippine legislature composed of an elective Senate and House of
Representatives. The Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934) provided for a transitional period until 1946, at
which time the Philippines would become completely independent. Under a constitution approved by
the people of the Philippines in 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines came into being with
Manuel Quezon y Molina as president.

On Dec. 8, 1941, the islands were invaded by Japanese troops. Following the fall of Gen. Douglas
MacArthur's forces at Bataan and Corregidor, Quezon instituted a government-in-exile that he
headed until his death in 1944. He was succeeded by Vice President Sergio Osmeña. U.S. forces
under MacArthur reinvaded the Philippines in Oct. 1944 and, after the liberation of Manila in Feb.
1945, Osmeña reestablished the government.

The idea for the modern Philippine flag’s design came in 1897 from General
Emilio Aguinaldo
1. The Philippines is the world’s leading producer of coconuts, having
produced19.5 million tons of the fruit in 2010.
2. According to the 2000 census, 52 million people in the Philippines speak
English, making it the fifth largest English-speaking nation behind the U.S., India,
Pakistan, and the U.K.
3. Of the top 10 largest shopping malls in the world, three are found in the
Philippines: SM Megamall, SM North Edsa, and SM Mall of Asia.
4. The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River in Palawan is 8.2 kilometers long.
Until the discovery of a 10-kilometer underground river in Mexico, the Puerto
Princesa River was the longest subterranean waterway in the world.
5. Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines in 1521, marking the start of the
archipelago’s colonization under Spanish rule, a 377-year period that lasted until
1898.
6. The islands were dubbed “the Philippines” after King Philip II of Spain.
7. As a result of the Spanish influence, the country is predominantly Christian
with 90% of the population practicing some mode of Christianity, the vast
majority being Roman Catholic.
8. The world’s largest Christmas lantern was illuminated in San Fernando,
Pampanga on Dec. 24, 2002. The structure was 26.8 meters in diameter and cost
five million Philippine pesos.
9. Pope John Paul II offered a mass to about five million Filipinos on Jan. 18, 1995,
at Luneta Park in Manila. The event went into the Guinness Book of World
Records as the Biggest Papal Crowd at the time.
10. In 2009, about 1.39 billion SMS messages were being sent in the Philippines
daily. The country was one of the earliest adopters of text messaging, earning the
moniker “text capital of the world” from the mid ’90s to the early 2000s.
11. The English word ‘boondocks’ is actually a Filipino loanword: the Tagalog
word for ‘mountain’ is ‘bundok.’
12. The word entered the North American vernacular in the 1940s, just as the
Philippines became involved in the Second World War.
13. Taal Volcano in Talisay, Batangas, is one of the world’s 17 Decade Volcanoes
— volcanoes that need to be looked after given their active state and explosive
history. It’s also located in a lake, and has a lake inside it, with an even smaller
island in it!
14. The amount of sulfur dioxide expelled by Mount Pinatubo during its eruption
on Jun. 15, 1991, created a two-year haze of sulfuric acid all over the world. It
caused global temperatures to drop by 0.5 °C (0.9 °F).
15. A Filipino named Roberto del Rosario made the karaoke machine in 1975, but
a Japanese musician invented it four years earlier. Del Rosario, however, was the
first to patent the product, which makes him the first patented producer of the
karaoke.
16. In the province of Camiguin, there are more volcanos (seven) than towns
(five). There hasn’t been an eruption since the mid 1950s, but the island has the
most number of volcanoes per square kilometer in the world.
17. The positioning of the Philippine flag’s colors indicate a message. If it is flown
with the red stripe on top, the nation is in a state of war. Otherwise, during
peacetime, the blue is on top.
18. The modern yo-yo takes its name from a word in the Philippine language
Ilocano, yóyo.
19. The University of San Carlos in Cebu City was founded by Spanish Jesuits in
1595, making it the oldest school in the Philippines.
20. Then in 1611, the University of Santo Tomas (or, lovingly, “Usté”)
wasfounded in Manila by the Dominican Order. It is the world’s largest Catholic
university in terms of population. Both it and University of San Carlos are older
than Harvard, which was not founded until 1636.
21. The cone of the sea snail Conus gloriamaris is a highly valued collector’s item,
the first examples of which were found in the Philippines and sold at auction for
upwards of $5,000.
22. In 2002, the world’s biggest pair of shoes were made in Marikina City. The
wingtips clock in at about 5.3 meters in length, 2.4 meters in width, and almost 2
meters in height. They cost two million Philippine pesos.
23. Manila, the capital city of the country, takes its name from a white flower that
grew on mangrove trees, locally known as nilad. ‘May nilad’ can be translated to
mean ‘there are nilad there.’
24. The rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. The terraces were built about 2,000 years ago and — thanks to the rough
terrain keeping settlers out — remain as they would have been in pre-colonial
times.
25. The Philippines has won at least eight major international beauty pageant
titles: two for Miss Universe; five for Miss International; and at least one for Miss
World, the current titleholder being Megan Young.
26. About 25 years before the first book was printed in the United States, the
Tagala, the first Filipino-Spanish dictionary, was printed in 1613.
27. After the Second World War, the Philippine jeepney was born out of the G.I.
Jeeps American soldiers brought to the country in the 1940s. It’s Pinoy upcycling!
28. The Philippines’ approximately 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi.)
of land area are spread over 7,107 islands.
29. This gives the country 36,289 kilometers (22,549 mi.) of coastline and puts
the Philippines at fifth place for the longest discontinuous coastline in the world.
30. Depending on the method of classification, there are 125 to 170 languages in
use in the Philippines, such as Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bicolano,
Waray, and Kapampangan.
31. The Philippines welcomed its 100-millionth citizen on July 27, 2014, making
the country the seventh most populated country in Asia and the 12th in the
world.
Miss Philippines winners in the Big Four international beauty pageants

Gloria Diaz (1969)

Miss Universe Margarita Moran (1973)

Pia Wurtzbach (2015)

Miss World Megan Young (2013)

Karla Henry (2008)

Miss Earth Jamie Herrell (2014)

Angelia Ong (2015)
 Gemma Cruz (1964)

Aurora Pijuan (1970)

Miss International Melanie Marquez (1979)

Lara Quigaman (2005)

Bea Santiago (2013)