The Fact File

50 Facts About The Philippines That You Should Know

By

Editorial Staff

Last updated on April 19th, 2019

Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It has
an area of 300,000 square km. Manila is its capital and Quezon City is its largest city. Filipino and English
are its official languages. Peso (PHP) is its official currency. The Philippines is the third largest English
speaking country in the world.

From beautiful emerald rice fields to bright sandy beaches, tropical forests filled with wildlife to teeming
mega-cities, the Philippines is a paradise with friendly people and vibrant cultural experiences just
waiting to be explored. Here are 50 facts about the Philippines covering its history, culture, people,
economy, archipelago and some interesting things.

Facts about the Philippines archipelago

1. The Republic of the Philippines is the world’s second largest archipelago made up of over 7,100
islands. The country is divided into three key geographical areas.Luzon is the large island to the north on
which the capital city Manila is located. Mindanao is the large island to the south. The Visayas are the
group of islands lying between them in the middle. The Philippine’s flag has three stars on it to
symbolize these three sections of the country.

2. The Philippine islands are surrounded by the Philippine, South China, Celebes, and Sulu Seas as well as
the Luzon straight. This provides them with 36, 289 kilometers (22,540 miles) of coastline that includes
natural harbors, beautiful coves, and spectacular sandy white beaches. The country has the fifth largest
coastline of any country in the world. Taiwan is directly to the north of the Philippines.

The Philippines on the map

3. Located on the western edge of the Pacific’s Ring of Fire, the Philippines has hundreds of
volcanoes and an average of 20 earthquakes per day (most so faint they can’t be felt). The three most
active volcanoes are Mount Pinatubo, the Taal Volcano, and the Mayon Volcano.

Historical facts about the Philippines

4. The Negritos were the area’s earliest inhabitants in prehistoric times (and still live in nomadic tribes in
the tropical forests today). Exchanges of peoples with Chinese, Indian, Malay and Islamic states then
occurred.

5. Spanish colonization began with Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and in 1543 Spanish explorer de
Villalabos names the archipelago for the crown prince (later King Philip II) of Spain. The Philippines
remained a Spanish colony for over 300 years.

6. As part of the settlement of the Spanish-American war, Spain cedes the Philippines to the United
States in 1898. The U.S. begins to incorporate the islands’ Muslim areas by force.

7. Japan seizes the Philippines in 1941 at the beginning of World War II; U.S. forces retake the islands in
1944. The islands are granted their full independence in 1946 (the first Southeast Asian country to gain
independence after the war) and renamed the Republic of the Philippines. The U.S. military is awarded
bases on the island in 1947.

8. President Ferdinand Marcos is elected in 1965 and declares martial law seven years later. He lives
lavishly while the people live in poverty. He is ousted in 1986 by the “people power” revolt over a stolen
election.

9. Several presidents come and go, some through coups amid corruption allegations. Movie actor
turned President Joseph Estrada is ousted in 2001 by a military–backed uprising of the people
and sentenced to life in prison but later pardoned.

10. Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremists take 20 hostages and troops comb the jungles in the southern island
of Basil for them in 2001. In 2002 the Filipino and U.S. armies hold joint counter-terrorism exercises near
the stronghold of this same Al-Qaeda-linked group.

11. In September 2009 the Army captures a leading figure in the MILF and in November a group of
people on Mindanao are attacked, killing 57. The massacre shocks the country. February 2010 the army
captures the Aby Sayyaf leader of the kidnapping and murder of Christian missionaries in 2001. A former
provincial governor and 195 more people are charged with murder for the Mindanao
massacre. President Benigno Aquino is elected.

Flag of the Philippines

The National flag of the Philippines. Image source – CIA

12. In the southern Philippines in 2015, hundreds of Muslim rebels register to vote in the 2016 elections
under the peace treaty signed to end 40 years of conflict. In October, a typhoon hits the northern
Philippines, killing 59 and causing extensive damage to fisheries and farms.

13. In 2016, an international tribunal rules that claims China made in 2012 to the Scarborough Shoal reef
off the coast of the Philippines in the South China Sea (with its significant gas and oil resources) has no
legal basis.

Culture

14. Filipino culture has been influenced by both the East and the West with significant influences by
Spain and the U.S. also. It owes much to its Malay heritage as well. There are an enormous 184
individual languages spoken in the Philippines but Filipino (Tagalog) and English are the country’s official
languages.

15. From their Austronesian ancestors Filipinos are their famous “bayanihan”; a warm spirit of
camaraderie and kinship they exhibit as a culture. From the Chinese comes their close emphasis on
family ties and support. Their Catholic religion comes from the Spaniards who brought their Christian
faith with them in the 1500s.

16. Though officially the Philippines are a secular state, Christianity is the dominant faith and over 80
percent of the population is Catholic. Traditional district festivals (barrio fiestas) that commemorate
patron saints’ feast days are common. The Moraines and Sinology fiestas are two of the better-known
community celebrations and they include music and dancing as well as feasting.

17. Traditional Philippine folk dances like the “sigil” and the “tinkling” (featuring clashing bamboo poles
and jumping patterns) are being preserved by the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company.
Filipinos still dress up and wear their national costumes of special occasions, with women dressed in a
“tern” (a long dress with flared skirt and butterfly sleeves) and men wearing slacks and a “barong
tagalong”, which is a special shirt with sleeves made out of pineapple pulp.

18. As of the 2000 census, 28 percent of the country’s population was Tagalog, 12 percent were
Cebuano, and Ilocano, Visayas, Bicol, and Hiligaynon were all less than ten percent each. Another 25
percent of the population can be broken down into more than ten non-tribal and indigenous people
groups.

19. The national dish of the Philippines may well be the adobo, a stew of port or chicken cooked with
soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, bay leaf and peppercorns. “Adobo” means sauce in Spanish but the Filipino
version was indigenous to the islands long before the arrival of Magellan. Other popular dishes
includesinging, halo-halo, lumpier, fish sauce and milkfish.

20. Meals are typically eaten three or four times each day. Besides breakfast, lunch and dinner a family
might have “merienda” which is a late afternoon dessert or snack time. Rice is important in the Filipino
diet and may be eaten at every meal.

21. Children go for six years to elementary school and then for four years to high school for
their mandatory education. The University of Santo Tomas in Manila was founded in 1611 and the
University of San Carlos in 1595, making them both older than Harvard University, which was not
opened until 1636. Most of the students in the Philippines’ universities are female; they earn two-thirds
of all master’s degrees awarded and most all of the doctorates.
22. The Filipinos celebrate secular holidays as well as Christian, Chinese and Muslim ones. Some notable
ones are the Day of Valor, in which Boy Scouts re-enact and honor those on the Bataan Death March;
Independence Day on June 12 and National Heroes Day on August 30, in addition to all the religious
holidays.

23. Christmas season in the Philippines starts in September and ends with the Feast of the Three Kings in
January. Christmas feasts (Noche Buena) are said to compare to American’s Thanksgiving dinner.

24. Basketball is the Filipinos’ most popular sport but cockfighting (or sabong) is also quite popular
(particularly with men). Sabong existed in the islands before the Spanish arrived. The Philippines own
Manny Pacquiao is currently regarded as the world’s best boxer and when his bouts are on
television, crime drops to almost zero in the cities.

25. Social media is important to Filipinos. The Philippines is now considered the text capital of the
world. With more than 450 million SMS messages sent by the residents daily, they surpass the daily
texts sent in Europe and the U.S. combined.

Facts about Filipinos

26. On July 27, 2014, the birth of a baby girl made the population of the Philippines officially become
100 million. The Philippians was the twelfth country in the world to reach this number.

27. Half of the Philippines population is estimated to live on the island of Luzon. The population is
densest in the city of Manila.

28. As of 2007, there were an estimated 12 million native Filipinos living and working overseas. The
money sent home by these people accounts for approximately 11 percent of the economy of the
Philippines.

29. The Philippines supplies the rest of the world with approximately 25 percent of all the overseas
nursesthat are available worldwide.

30. The Philippines struggles with human trafficking. It has the fourth largest number of children who
are prostituted in the world. There are an estimated 375,000 girls and women in the sex trades. They
range in age between 15 and 20, with some as young as 11 years old.

Facts for Kids

31. The national symbol of the Republic of the Philippines is the national bird of the country, the
monkey-eating eagle (or Philippine eagle). This is the largest of all the eagles with a wingspan of almost
seven feet wide. Because this eagle is critically endangered, killing one is punishable by 12 years in
prison as well as a heavy fine. It is estimated there are only 180 to 500 of these eagles remaining.
32. The only place in the world where skunks are found other than America is Indonesia and the
Philippines, where they are called stink badgers.

33. In June of 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted and sent up a mushroom cloud of ash twenty five miles
high.The effects of this destructive eruption were felt throughout the world as 20 million tons of toxic
sulfur dioxide remained in the earth’s atmosphere for more than a year, lowering its temperature by a
degree for the same amount of time. There were 184 people injured and over 847 people killed when it
erupted and more than a million people left homeless.

34. It is the only country in the world whose flag is flown upside down when the country is at war.

35. There are no large predator animals in the Philippines except for snakes (cobras and pythons), birds
of prey (like the monkey-eating eagle), and salt water crocodiles.

Interesting and unusual facts

36. On these volcanic islands, mineral deposits are abundant but remain largely untapped presently. The
Philippines is believed to have one of the largest copper deposits in the world and the second- largest
gold deposits after South Africa. It also has a supply of chromite, zinc and nickel. The country is,
however, the world’s second-largest geothermal energy producer (after the U.S.).

37. The Philippines is one of the world’s ten most biologically megadiverse countries due to its huge and
diverse range of flora and fauna, including more than 170 species of birds and 100 species of mammals
not found to exist anywhere else on earth so far. (Megadiverse indicates a country that harbors a high
number of endemic species.) This country has one of the highest rates of discovery in the world; sixteen
new mammal species have been discovered in the last decade.

38. The Philippines’ waters are an important part of the Coral Triangle. The Sulu Sea’s Tubbataha Reef is
a 1993 World Heritage Site. It sustains the cultivation of seaweeds, crabs and pearls. Seven of the
world’s eight giant clam species are found in the country’s waters. The most expensive and rarest
seashell in the world is from the Philippines. The Conus gloriamus sold at auction for around $5,000.

39. One acute problem found in the country is deforestation, making the Philippines both a
megadiversity country as well as a biodiversity hotspot for global conservation. (A hotspot has a critical
need to conserve endangered and threaten species.)

40. The rice terraces of the Cordillleras remain has they were in pre-colonial times and are considered by
the Filipinos to be the eighth wonder of the world. They were built over 2,000 years ago and are a
UNESCO World Heritage Site today.

41. Before the discovery of an underground river in Mexico, Palawan’s Puerto Princesa Subterranean
River in the Philippines was the longest underground waterway in the world. It is five miles (over eight
kilometers) long. Mexico’s is over six miles long.
42. Not only is the country home to the longest snake in the world, it is also the world’s longest
reptile. The Reticulated Python can grow to be as much as almost 29 feet in total length.

43. The Philippines’ capital city of Manila gets its name from the Nilad, a tree with star-shaped white
flowers sometimes called the Indigo tree because it yields blue dye.

44. American soldiers can back from World War II with a new word in their vernacular: “boondocks”. If
you live out in the “boonies”, you are isolated from others. The Word actually is based on a Filipino
Tagalog word that means “mountain” – bundok.

45. After World War II, the Jeeps American GIs drove in the Philippines were left behind and converted
into the Philippine Jeepney for carrying multiple passengers.Today’s 2nd and 3rd generation Jeepneys
include air conditioning and closely resemble colorful mini-buses.

46. Three of the ten largest shopping malls in the entire world are located in the Philippine islands. They
are SM Mall of Asia, SM North Edsa, and SM Megamall.

47. Filipino Pedro Flores introduced the modern form of the yo-yo as a popular toy but it actually had its
beginning as an ancient studded hunting weapon attached to a long rope. The name is from the Ilocano
language and means “come back”.

48. Filipino Dr. Abelardo Aguilar invented the antibiotic erythromycin in 1949. When he sent a sample to
the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company (his employer), they quickly patented it. It is used for people who
are allergic to penicillin and has saved millions of peoples’ lives.

49. In 1975 Filipino Roberto del Rosario patented the “Sing Along System”, the first working karaoke
machine. The Japanese later translated the name to “karaoke”, meaning “singing without
accompaniment”.

50. Ferdinand Marcos, the country’s first elected president, died two decades ago yet hasn’t been
properly buried yet. He is “on ice” while officials decide if he should be buried with other past presidents
and the Philippines’ heroes in the cemetery reserved specifically for them or not.

A fusion of a variety of cultures creates the uniqueness that is the Philippines. From its majestic active
volcanoes to the colorful Jeepneys that carry you from place to place, the Philippines are waiting to be
discovered.