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About the Philippines
The Philippines is an archipelago of over
7,100 islands stretching from the south of China to the northern tip of Borneo.
It has over 100 ethnic groups and a mixture of foreign influences, mainly Malay,
Spanish, Chinese and American. It is divided into three geographical areas:
Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It has 15 regions, 77 provinces, and 65 cities with
the city of Manila as the premier international gateway and the nation's
political, social, cultural, commercial and transportation capital. Total
population of the Philippines is around 70 million with about 10 million
concentrated in the metropolitan Manila area.
Before the Spanish explorers came, Indo-Malays and Chinese merchants had settled
in the Philippines. In 1521, the Spaniards - led by Ferdinand Magellan -
discovered the islands and established a colonial government first in Cebu in
1565, then in Manila in 1571 when the seat of government was transferred. The
Filipinos resisted the Spanish colonizers and waged Asia's first nationalist
revolution when on 12 June 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo declared the country
independent from Spain and proclaimed himself its first President.
After 333 years of Spanish rule, the Filipinos were ruled for almost 50 years by
the Americans until 04 July 1946 when the Americans recognized Philippine
independence. On 12 June 1998, the Philippines celebrated the centennial of its
independence.
The Philippines has a presidential form of government with the President as the
Chief Executive and Head of State elected for a single term of 6 years. The
other main branches of government are the Judiciary under the supervision of the
Supreme Court, and the law-making Congress composed of two houses: the Senate
and the House of Representatives.
Pilipino is the national language with English widely spoken and extensively
used in business and government thus ranking the Philippines as the
third-largest English-speaking country in the world.
Despite the recent financial crisis that has adversely affected several
countries in the region, the Philippine economy has consistently posted positive
growth figures and has kept its inflation rate at a manageably low single-digit
level. Forecasts by leading economists indicate that the Philippines has managed
to weather the crisis relatively well and that its economy will continue to
grow.
The top 10 Philippine export markets are: 1) USA 2) Japan 3) Netherlands 4)
Singapore
5) UK 6) Taiwan 7) Hong Kong 8) Malaysia 9) Germany 10) Thailand
The top 10 sources of imports are: 1) USA 2) Japan 3) UK 4) Netherlands
5) Singapore 6) Taiwan 7) China 8) Malaysia 9) Germany 10) Thailand
The Philippines is affiliated with a number of international organizations,
among the major ones are the UN, ASEAN, APEC, NAM, ASEM and others.
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