General Information
The Republic of the Philippines is an archipelagic country consisting of 7,170 islands and is situated between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The country is a constitutional republic with a democratically elected presidential system and bicameral Congress.
The Congress of the Philippines is the bicameral legislature of the Philippines and It is consisted of the Senate (Upper House) which is composed of 24 senators and the House of Representatives (Lower House) which is composed of 304 seats.
The Republic of the Philippines is governed as a centralized state with the exception of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao island (BARMM) which was established in 2019.
The President of the Republic functions as the head of the State, the head of the Government and the Commander in chief of the Armed Forces. The President of the Republic is elected by the people for a single 6-year term during which he or she appoints and resides over the Cabinet.
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the country appointed by the President.
History
The islands of the Philippine Archipelago was settled about 30,000 years ago when migrants from Indonesian Archipelago and elsewhere moved to this region. Additional migration took place over the next millennia. Over the centuries Indo-Malay migrants were joined by Chinese traders who migrated to the Archipelago. A major development was the introduction of Islam to the Philippines by traders and proselytizers from the Indonesian islands.
By A.D 1500 Islam had been established in the Sulu Archipelago and spread from there to Mindanao island reaching Manila area by A.D 1565. At that time Christianity was also introduced in the Philippines with the arrival of the Spanish.
The first European that landed on the Philippines was Ferdinand Magellan. He arrived in March 1521 and he claimed the land for the King of Spain. After defeating a local Muslim ruler the Spanish set up their capital in Manila in 1571 and they named the new colony after the King of Spain Philip II.
The Spanish sought to acquire a share in the lucrative spice trade, develop better contacts with China and Japan and convert the local population to Christianity. Trade in the Philippines centered around the Pacific Ocean with Galleons sailing from the Archipelago to the Spanish ports of Mexico. There was no direct trade with Spain and little exploitation of indigenous natural resources.
The Galleon trade stooped in 1815 and from that date inward the Royal Company of the Philippines which was chartered in 1785 promoted direct and tariff-free trade between the islands and Spain.
In 1834 the Royal Company of the Philippines was abolished, and free trade was formally recognized. At the same period the Chinese migration was officially approved and the Philippinos that had travelled abroad to study, brought with them when they returned back, new ideas that merged with folk religion to spur a national resistance.
Nationalist ideas were introduced at the end of the 19th century when Andres Bonifacio established in 1892 Katipunan a secret society that rose against the Spanish rule in 1896. The Katipunan secret society had 30,000 members at that time and was led by Emilio Aguinaldo but was defeated by the Spanish troops.
Two years later in 1898 the Spanish-American war broke out. Although the military forces of Emilio Aguinaldo fought the Spanish forces until the US troops landed in the Philippines, the victory of the U.S over the Spanish State did not open the road to the independence of the Philippines. This development did not stop Emilio Aguinaldo to declare unilaterally the independence of the Philippines on the 12th of June 1898.
The end of the Spanish-American war was sealed with the Treaty of Paris which was signed on December the 10th 1898 according to which Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico were ceded to the United States and the independence of Cuba was recognized by Spain.
Emilio Aguinaldo promulgated a constitution on January 1899 and he was inaugurated as President of the new Republic. The conflict between the forces of Emilio Aguinaldo and the U.S started in February 1899 and ended in 1903.
The U.S rule over the Philippines lasted till 1946 with a brake of approximately of 4 years, between December 1941 - September 1945 when Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines. Independence from the U.S came on July the 4th 1946 and the first President of the new Republic was Manual Roxas of the Liberal Party.
In 1947 the Huk guerillas (an anti-Japanese military force that fought the occupying forces) rose against the Government. The guerillas changed their name to People’s Liberation Army and started officially a rebellion in 1950 with Communist support.
The new President of the Philippines Ramon Magsaysay was elected in 1953 and the next year 1954, the Army managed to neutralize the People’s Liberation Army after four years of fighting. After Magsaysay’s death in 1957 in an aircraft accident he was succeeded by the Vice President Carlos Garcia who was elected in 1957.
In 1961 the Liberal Party’s candidate Diosdado Macapagal was elected President and sought closer relations with Philippines Southeast Asian neighbors. President Diosdado Macapagal started negotiations with the U.S over base rights and hoped to develop a spirit of consensus with Indonesia and Malaysia something that eventually did not happen.
The next President of the country Ferdinand Marcos was elected in 1965 and during his first term he lobbied for economic and military aid from the United States but he resisted the involvement of his country in the Vietnam war. A new communist insurgency started in 1968 led by the new Communist Party of the Philippines Marxist Leninist and its military arm the New People’s Army.
Furthermore in 1969 the Moro National Liberation Front was founded and started an insurgency in the Muslim areas of the country. Marcos was reelected in 1969 and in September 1971 he declared martial law which was lifted in January 1981.
In 1979 the United States reaffirmed Philippine’s sovereignty over U.S military bases and continued to provide military and economic aid to the Government of the country. Marcos was re-elected in 1981 but his power started to be questioned after the assassination of the leader of the opposition Benigno Aquino on August 21, 1983.
The assassination of Aquino became the focus of popular indignation against the Marcos Government. The Catholic Church, a coalition of old political opposition groups the business elite the left wing and factions of the Armed Forces began to exert pressure to the Government.
In response to this opposition movement in late 1985 Marcos called a snap election for February 7, 1986, and when the Marcos dominated National Assembly proclaimed Marcos the winner Cardinal Jaime Sin and key military leaders rallied around the apparent majority vote winner Corazon Aquino the widow of Benigno Aquino and with the assistance of the People Power Movement a non-violent mass demonstration movement, ousted Marcos in February 25, 1986.
Corazon Aquino became the new President of Philippines and during her Presidency, the Philippine Senate rejected a treaty that would have allowed a 10-year extension of the U.S. military bases in the country. As a result, to that the United States returned back to Philippines the Naval base at Sudic Bay and Clark Air Base in 1992.
She was succeeded in 1992 by President Fidel Ramos a retired General and supporter of Corazon Aquino. President Fidel Ramos managed to convince mutinous right-wing soldiers, communist insurgents and Muslim separatists to cease their armed activities against the Government and were granted amnesty. Furthermore, the New President manage to revitalize and renew international confidence in the Philippine economy.
The next Presidential elections took place in 1998 and Ramo’s Vice President, Joseph Estrada was elected. The new President was accused in 2000 by Senate investigators of having accepted bribes from illegal gambling business and was forced to resign on January 20, 2001.
He was succeeded by the Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who during her first erm had to deal with a military mutiny in Manila in July 2003 that led her to declare a month-long nationwide state of rebellion. Although Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared in December 2003 that she will not contest the May 2004 elections eventually she decided to run and was re-elected for six years.
She was succeeded in 2010 by Benigno Simeon Aquino III the son of the ex-President of the country Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. He tried to promote major reforms that would bring greater transparency, reduced poverty, reduced corruption, and a booming market which will give birth to a newly industrialized nation.
In 2014 his Government signed with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro hoping to bring peace in the islands of Mindanao and the Sulu.
The same year his Government signed with the United States the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, paving the way for the return of United States Armed Forces bases into the country.
During his presidency the Philippines has had controversial clashes with the People's Republic of China on a number of issues such as the standoff in Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and the dispute over the Spratly islands.
Philippines decided to file a sovereignty case against China in a global arbitration tribunal and on the 12th of July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippines in its case against China's claims in the South China Sea.
Benigno Simeon Aquino III was succeeded by Rodrigo Roa Duterte who won the elections on May 9, 2016. A significant part of his policy is the infrastructure development and industrialization of the country and his Government is estimated to spend between US$160 Billion to US$180 Billion up to 2022 for the public investments in infrastructure.
He also legislated into law and ratified in 2019 the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which was provided for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The Bangsamoro transition 3-years period paved the way for the formal creation of the Bangsamoro ARMM (BARMM).
Geography and Climate
The Philippines is an island country of Southeast Asia in the Western Pacific Ocean. The Archipelago of the Philippines is bounded by the Philippine Sea to the east the Celebes Sea to the south, the Sulu Sea to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the west and north.
The 7,100 islands of the Archipelago spread out in the shape of a triangle and the total area of the country 300,000 km² of which land is 99.38% and internal water surface is 0.62% while the coastline is 36,290 km long. The islands of Palawan, the Sulu Archipelago and the island of Mindanao consist the southern base of the triangle and the Bataan islands to the north of Luzon forming its apex.
The Archipelago of Philippines stretches about 1,850 km from north to south and its widest east-west extent at its southern base is 1,130 km.
The large islands of the Archipelago can be divided in three groups, (a) the Luzon group in the north and west consisting of Luzon, Mindoro and Palawan, (b) the Visayas group in the center consisting of Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Masbate, Negros Panay and Samar and (c) Mindanao in the south.
Philippines is a mountainous country with narrow and interrupted coastal plains, rivers and lakes. The islands are composed primarily of volcanic rock and coral, while the mountain ranges for the most part run north to south. The most prominent mountain range of Luzon, the biggest island of the country, is the Cordillera Central running north to the Luzon Strait from the northern boundary of the central plain.
The Cordillera Central mountain chain it consists two and in places three parallel ranges each with an average elevation of about 1,800 meters. The Sierra Madre is the longest mountain range of the country extending along the Pacific coast from northern to central Luzon. That range and the Cordillera Central merge in north-central Luzon to form the Caraballo Mountains.
Luzon island has two more mountain ranges, Malayan lying close along the west coast of northern Luzon with elevation above 1,500 meters and the Zambales Mountains. The highest peak of the island of Luzon is Mayon Volcano (2,462 meters) located near the city of Legaspi at the south part of the island.
The most important mountain ranges of Mindanao, the second largest island of the Philippines are the Diuta Mountains located along the eastern coast of the island, the Butig Mountains, the Mount Apo located at the south-central coast of the island. The Mountain Apo is the highest peak in the Philippines with elevation of 2,954 meters.
There are 25 active volcanos in the Philippines of which more than 10 are known to be active. The most important rivers of the Philippines are Cagayan, Agno, Pampanga, Pasig and Bicol on Luzon and Mindanao and Agusan on Mindanao. The largest lake in the archipelago with an area of 922 km² is Laguna de Bay on the island of Luzon.
The climate of the Philippines is tropical and strongly monsoonal. In general rain-bearing winds blow from the southwest from approximately May to October and drier winds come from the northeast from November to February. Temperatures remain relatively constant from north to south during the year and seasons consist of periods of wet and dry.
The Ethnic Groups of the Population of Philippines
According to the Commission on Population of Philippines the estimated population of the country as of 31st of December 2018 based on the latest population census of 2015 was 107,190,081 and according to the World Bank the population was increased to 108,116,615 in 2019.
The population was increased from 1990 to 2008 approximately by 28 million a 45% growth in that time frame. Between 1990 and 2000 the average annual population growth rate was 2.34% decreased to an estimate 1.90% for the 2000-2010 period.
The population median age is 22.7 years with 60.9% aged from 15 to 64 years old. Life expectancy at birth is 69.4 years 73.1 years for females and 65.9 years for males. Poverty incidence dropped to 21.6% in 2015 from 25.2% in 2012.
The population of the Philippines are called Filipinos and the ancestors of the vast majority were of Malay descent and came from the Southeast Asian mainland as well as from what is now Indonesia. Contemporary Filipino society consists of nearly 100 culturally and linguistically distinct ethnic groups.
Of these ethnic groups the largest are the Tagalog of Luzon and the Cebuano of the Visayan islands each of which constitutes about 1/5 of the country’s total population.
Other prominent groups include the Ilocano of northern Luzon and the Hiligaynon of the Visayan islands of Panay and Negros comprising roughly 1/10 of the population each. The Waray-Waray of the Samar islands and Leyte in the Visayas and the Bicol of the Bicol Peninsula together account for another 1/10 of the population.
Filipino mestizos and the Kapampangans of south-central Luzon each make up small proportions of the population.
The national language of the country is Filipino based on Tagalog and shares a place with English as an official language and medium of instruction. Besides Tagalog approximately 150 native languages and dialects are spoken in the Philippines.
Some 79.5% (based on the census of 2015) of Filipinos profess Roman Catholicism, 6% profess Muslim, 2.6% Iglesia ni Cristo, 2.4% Evangelical and 9.5% other.
One third of the population of the country resides in the Metro Manila and its immediately neighboring regions. The Metropolitan area of Manila is the most populous of the 3 defined metropolitan areas in the Philippines and the 5th most populous in the world.
Based on the census of 2015 the population of the Metropolitan area of Manila was 12,877,253 constituting almost 13% of the national population. Including the suburbs of Manila, the population of the wider region is around 23,088,000. Across the country the Philippines has a total urbanization rate of 51.2%.
According to the Government Census of 2015 the biggest cities of the Philippines are:
- Quezon City (National Capital Region) with 2,936,116 population
- Manila (National Capital Region) with 1,780,148 population
- Davao City (Davao Region) with 1,632,991 population
- Caloocan (National Capital Region) with 1,583,978 population
- Cebu City (Central Visayas) with 922,611 population
- Zamboanga City (Zamboanga Peninsula) with 861,799 population
- Taguig National (Capital Region) with 804,915 population
- Antipolo (Calabarzon) with 776,386 population
- Pasig (National Capital Region) with 755,300 population
- Cagayan de Oro (Northern Mindanao) with 675,950 population
The population’s median age is 22.7 years with 60.9% aged from 15 to 64 years old. The life expectancy at birth is 69.4 years and more specifically 73.1 years for females, and 65.9 years for males. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica in 2018 Philippines age breakdown was as follows: Under the age of 15 years old 33.1%, 15-29 years old 27.4%, 30-44 years old 20%, 45-49 years old 12.2%, 60-74 years old 5.9% 75-84 years old 1.2% and 85 years old and over 0.2%. Poverty incidence dropped to 21.6% in 2015 from 25.2% in 2012.
Foreign Relations of the Philippines
The Republic of Philippines became member of the United Nations in 1945 since the country was one of the signatories of the 1942 UN Declaration, from which the U.N. Charter of 1945 was based on.
The Philippines belongs to a number of international organizations, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank; and the World Trade Organization Asian Development Bank (ADB), Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF), Bank for International Settlements (BIS), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Criminal Court (ICCt), International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), International Development Association (IDA), International Maritime Organization (IMO) among others
Foreign relations of the Philippines are administrated by the President of the country and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The international affairs of the country are influenced by the ties of the Philippines to its Southeast Asian neighbors China, the U.S and the Middle East.
The foreign policy of the Philippines is based on the advancement of Filipino ideals and values which include the advancement of democracy and advocacy for human rights ;p[u worldwide.
Currently the foreign policy of the country is focused on the establishment of good relations with its regional neighbors in Southeast Asia through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with the intention of strengthening regional harmony stability and prosperity.
The 1987 Philippine Constitution which pertain to the framing of Philippine foreign policy includes the following important provisions:
- Article II, Section 2: "The Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national policy, adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land and adheres to the policy of peace, equality, justice."
- Article II, Section 7: "The State shall pursue an independent foreign policy. In its relations with other states the paramount consideration shall be national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interest, and the right to self-determination."
- Republic Act No. 7157, otherwise known as "Philippine Foreign Service Act of 1991", gives mandate to the Department of Foreign Affairs to implement the three pillars of the Philippine Foreign Policy, as follows: (i) Preservation and enhancement of national security, (ii) Promotion and attainment of economic security, (iii) Protection of the rights and promotion of the welfare and interest of Filipinos overseas.
These pillars overlap and cannot be considered apart from each other. These three pillars are reinforced by eight foreign policy realities and must be addressed as one whole. These eight foreign policies are:
- China, Japan, and the United States and their relationship will be a determining influence in the security situation and economic evolution of East Asia.
- Philippine foreign policy decisions have to be made in the context of ASEAN.
- The international Islamic community will continue to be important for the Philippines.
- The coming years will see the growing importance of multilateral and inter-regional organizations to promote common interests.
- As an archipelagic state the defence of the nation’s sovereignty and the protection of its environment and natural resources can be carried out only to the extent that it asserts its rights over the maritime territory and gets others to respect those rights.
- The country’s economic policy will continue to be friendly to both domestic and foreign direct investments.
- The Philippines can benefit most quickly from international tourism.
- Overseas Filipinos will continue to be recognized for their critical role in the country’s economic and social stability.
For decades, the Republic of the Philippines has been considering itself as a close ally of the U.S.A and supported many points of the American foreign policy. Both countries inked the 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty (MDT) to allow for better cooperative measures against forces hostile to U.S national interests in the Asia-Pacific region.
The treaty paved the way for more detailed implementing agreements such as the 1988-1989 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) the 2002 Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, the 2007 Kapit Bising Agreement and the 2014 Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The Armed Forces of the Philippines have participated in the Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq War, and the War on Terror next to the U.S military forces.
But in recent years the Philippines started playing great importance in its relations with People’s Republic of China (PRC) and established significant cooperation with the country although both countries have many differences in several land and water territories in the South China Sea. Currently the Philippines is in dispute with the PRC over the Camago and Malampaya gas fields. The two countries are also in dispute over the Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly islands.
In recent years, the Republic of the Philippines has been distancing itself from the West, although its relations and defence treaty ally the United States of America remains vigorously strong.
Under the Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s administration who was elected in 2016, the Government of the country calculatingly distanced itself from its long-time strategic ally the U.S. trying to achieve a balanced neutral foreign policy that will give to the Philippines benefits from both sides, the PRC and the U.S.
The Duterte administration normalized its ties with China in 2018 and expects to benefit of being part of the Beijing Belt and Road Initiative. The new foreign policy of the Republic of Philippines resulted to the rapid increase of the volume of Chinese investment in the country from US$570,000 in 2015 to US$200 Million in 2020. Since the warming of the ties between the Philippines and China approximately US$24 Billion worth of economic deals have reportedly been signed.
Although the Rodrigo Roa Duterte administration has been antagonistic towards the U.S. the Trump Government came to aid the Philippines military in 2017 when Manilla was engrossed battling religious fundamentalists in the southern city of Marawi.
Furthermore in 2020, the U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that the Mutual Defence Treaty (MDT) sufficiently applies to the South China Sea dispelling the ambiguity of U.S commitment in the region.
Regarding the relations of the country with other Asian nations, the Republic of the Philippines has close ties with Japan, South Korea thanks to the large South Korean expatriate community and India which is an important economic partner.
The country has developed more active role in the Non-Aligned Movement and the G-77. Manila has been supporting East Timor since its independence and has also expanded its trade links with its traditional allies such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Relations with Vietnam and Cambodia have thawed in the 1990’s after their entry into the ASEAN.