Champion Carvers

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Canada-based Filipino ice carvers Armando Baisas and his nephew, Ross Baisas, won first place in the 21st International Ice-Carving competition held in Canada on February 1 to 3, 2008. The duo's winning piece is Tunggalian (Encounter), which depicts the legendary battle of Filipino warrior Lapu-Lapu and Spanish voyager Magellan.

Their impressive ice sculpture placed first in the Pairs category and earned the People’s Choice award, besting 37 other participants in a grueling 30-hour challenge where they carved, chiseled and sawed blocks of ice into masterpieces completely frozen in time. Ross, who hails from the woodcarving town of Paete in Laguna, also brought home gold in the One Block Challenge, a two-hour competition where he transformed one block of ice into an icy sculpture to the theme of Arctic Art.

Armando is currently the chef instructor and sculptor instructor of Le Cordon Bleu, Ottawa ’s premier culinary institute.

Prior to the 21st International Ice-Carving competition the uncle-nephew tandem has joined other sculpting contests.

In the 2003 Designs in Ice competition, they masterfully rendered, from ice, the life-size image of Frodo Baggins and White wizard Gandalf from the movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers where they won gold and $1,000 in cash.

Largest in the Philippines - Biggest Feats

World's Largest Breast-feeding
On May 4, 2006, some 3,738 mothers simultaneously breastfed their babies for one minute at the San Andres Sports and Civic Center in Malate, Manila, breaking the old Guinness World Record set by 1,135 mothers in Berkeley, California on August 3, 2002.

World's Largest Kissing Scene
On February 14, 2004, some 5,327 couples in the Philippines kissed simultaneously for 10 seconds, setting a new record for the Guinness Book of World Records. The participants occupied two kilometers of Roxas Boulevard in Manila. The event was organized by toothpaste maker Close Up.

World's Largest Aerobics Class
On February 16, 2003, some 48,188 individuals participated in a simultaneous aerobics class at the Quirino Grandstand, Rizal Park in Manila, breaking another Guinness World Record.

World's Largest Strawberry Cake
On March 20, 2004, the people of La Trinidad, Benguet baked a strawberry shortcake, weighing 9,642.45 kilos, to set another Guinness World Record. The shortcake also measure 12.31 feet long, 8.42 feet high and 8.69 feet wide, with an average diameter of 9.18 feet. The cake, which had a total of 42,080 slices, consisted of 2,000 kilos of fresh strawberries, 675 kilos of strawberry jam and 1,550 bottles of strawberry extract for the strawberry butter cake. Other ingredients include 1,500 bars of butter, 1,625 kilos of sugar, 9,000 pieces of eggs, 860 cans of evaporated milk, 1,155 kilos of flour, 20 kilos of baking powder, 10 kilos of salt and 250 liters of whipped cream for the icing.

World's Largest Ricecake
On March 28, 2006, the people of Candon City in Ilocos Sur baked the world's biggest ricecake or calamay weighing 2,547 kilos. This reportedly beat the 2,097-kilo ricecake that the Kamaura Food Co. Ltd. baked in Niigata, Japan on March 1, 2002.

World's Longest Bico
On April 23, 2006, the people of Bauang, La Union produced the world's longest bico (sweetened glutinous rice) measuring 195 meters or 640 feet in length. Some 400 people used 600 coconuts, 1,600 kilos of glutinous rice, 728 pieces of sinacob (hardened brown sugar), 200 gallons of water, and 20,000 banana leaves to prepared the world's largest delicacy.

World's Shortest Actor
Filipino actor Weng Weng was recognized as the shortest adult actor in a leading role. He stood only two feet and nine inches tall.

World's Longest Barbecue
On May 3, 2003, Dagupan City in Pangasinan produced the longest barbecue measuring 1,007.56 meters or 3,305.64 feet in total length.

World's Longest Grill
On April 29, 2006, some 40,000 residents of Alcala, Pangasinan took part in building the world's longest single grill - a three-kilometer grill that spanned across seven villages. This reportedly surpassed the 32.84 meter or 107.7 feet grill put up by the people St. Wendel Werschweiler in Germany on May 4, 2004. The Alcala resident used 21,000 sacks of charcoal to grill what they claimed was the world's longest barbecue, consisting of 4,000 kilos of pork, 20,000 pieces of milkfish. This also reportely beat the 1,007.56 meter or 13,305.54 feet barbecue made by Dagupan City on May 3, 2003.

World's Longest Tilapia Barbecue
On March 5, 2006, the people of San Fernando City in Pampanga grilled 26,000 pieces of tilapia, with total length of 1.8 kilometers. They were cooked using 675 grills set up from the Provincial Capitol to Lazatin Boulevard.

World's Longest Eggplant Grill
On January 11, 2006, the people of Villasis, Pangasinan grilled 3,000 kilograms of eggplants, using 500 grills, each measuring one meter, during the town's first-ever Talong Grill Festival. The event was reportedly just a dry run for a bigger attempt to set a Guinness World Record in 2007.

World's Largest Marathon
On July 24, 2005, some 50,000 individuals participated in what was touted as the world's largest marathon - the 42-kilometer Third Manila Marathon. Athlete Roy Vence clocked two hours, 22 minutes and 18 seconds to lead the pack.

World's Largest Photo Mosaic
Toothpast maker Close Up put up the world's largest photo mosaic along EDSA in Makati City. The structure, measuring 15,000 square feet, consisted of 34,560 photos. It reportedly surpassed the previous record of 6,928 square foot mosaic in the United Kingdom.

World's Longest Noodle
On April 24, the people of Aliaga, Nueva Ecija produced the a six kilometer long strand of "pancit canton", repurtedly the world's longest piece of noodle. The record-breaking pancit, which stretched across seven barangays, used 240 kilos of noodles.

World's Largest Canine Gathering
On May 8, 2005, some 7,000 dogs participated in what was billed as the world's largest simultaenous canine gathering in separate locations in the Philippines. The main venue, the Baywalk along Roxas Boulevard in Manila, drew 3,000 dogs that walked for five kilometers. Another 4,000 dogs reportedly participated in simultaneous marathons across the Philippines. The event sought to surpass the record set in the United Kingdom where some 5,017 dogs participated in a 4.8-kilometer dog “marathon” in 2004.

UN cites 165 Filipino soldiers in Liberia
April 12, 2006
Source: Philippine Star
The United Nations has recognized 165 Filipino soldiers deployed to Liberia as peacekeepers for their contribution to the peace process in the country. The Filipino peacekeepers were given commendations by the special representative of the UN secretary-general for Liberia, Alan Doss for their professionalism and dedication to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
There are currently 172 Filipino peacekeepers, including nine women, serving in Liberia.
The Philippines began contributing troops to United Nations’ peacekeeping operations in 1950 in Korea and has since served in over 20 peacekeeping missions in Vietnam, the Congo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, East Timor, Haiti and Liberia.

Greatest Asian Football Player
From Pamela de los Reyes
A contributor sent in this article. A Filipino named Paulino Alcantara who played for the Spanish club Barcelona Giants from 1912 to 1927 was the all-time leading goalscorer with an outstanding 357 goals in 357 matches.
He ripped the goal net with a thunderous strike from 35 yards out in a match between Spain and France on April 30 1922. He is considered the best Asian player in the football history.
Grand Father of Philippine Internet
Dr. William "Bill" Torres is considered as the "Grandfather of Philippine Internet." It was reportedly Torres who promoted the use of Internet in the early 1990s. In 1992, he initiated the first informal negotiations with the US National Science Foundation to bring the Internet to the Philippines.

First Woman PMMA Valedictorian
March 28, 2006
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
For the first time in its 186-year history, the male-dominated Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) in Baguio City honored a woman cadet as the valedictorian of PMA Class 2006.
Cadet First Class Zulaika Mariano Calibjo, 23, led 180 graduates as the first woman to top the graduating class of one of Asia’s oldest maritime institutions.

Outstanding Physicist
Physicist Rommel Bacabac of the Society of Divine Word, crafted US National Aeronautics and Space Administration experiments for zero-gravity effects on bones lofted into space by Soyuz. These have spin-off for osteoporosis and other bone diseases.

Filipino First Lady
March 2006
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
Josepina Padiermos Fitial, the First Lady of Northern Marianas, is a Filipino. She has been married for 22 years to Benigno R. Fitial, the newly installed governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands.
Located in the western Pacific, this island chain of 80,000 people has been her home for about the same period. Josie came to Saipan in the early 1980s as a new graduate of the University of the East, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration.
Filipinos comprise a quarter of the population, and the Chinese make up another quarter in the islands.

Filipino astronomer discovers Jupiter phenomenon
March, 2006
Source: Manila Times
Christopher Go, a 35-year-old Filipino amateur astronomer, has discovered the transformation of a high-pressure storm on Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet. Go, a furniture company owner in Cebu City, gazes at and photographs celestial bodies as a hobby.
On February 24, 2006, Go observed that a white egg-shaped storm system in Jupiter called "Oval BA" changed its color to red, thus it was called "Red Spot Junior." He used an 11-inch telescope and a CCD camera to capture the image. Later, he informed the Jupiter Section of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers of his discovery.

Filipino wins world jazz competition
March 24, 2006
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
Jazz singer Mon David, 52, won the grand prize in the prestigious London International Jazz Competition (LIJC) on March 22, 2006. He beat 106 vocalists from 27 countries.
The native of Pampanga began his performance at the finals-held at the Cadogan Hall in London's Sloane Square-with a few bars of an ethnic chant, singing a cappella the first lines of "Nature Boy," and then crooning "My One and Only Love" and "Lullaby of Birdland."
David was the only Asian among the 12 who made it to the finals. Smart Communications Corp. chairman Manuel Pangilinan helped fund David's trip to London.

Filipino-American Actors, Singers, Artists, Dancers, Athletes and Celebrities

Nicole Scherzinger, whose father is a Filipino, is the lead singer of the highly popular girls' pop group Pussycat Dolls. Among the group's chart-topping hits are Don't Cha, Stickwitu, and Get Over Yourself. In 2005, she appeared in the movie Be Cool.

Apl.de.Ap, a member of the hip hop group Black Eyed Peas, actually means Allen Pineda Lindo, a Filipino singer who was born in Angeles City.

Lalaine Ann Vergara-Paras, whose parents are Filipinos, achieved fame as "Miranda Isabella Sanchez" on Disney Channel's popular teen show, Lizzie McGuire, which stars Hilary Duff.

Dean Devlin is the producer/screenwriter of Hollywood blockbuster movies Independence Day, Godzilla, Cellular, The Librarian, The Patriot, Universal Soldier, Eight Legged Freaks, and Stargate.

Cheryl Burke, together with his partner Drew Lachey of 98 Degrees, won the second season of the Dancing with the Stars reality competition on ABC in February 2006. Cheryl's mother, Sherrie Bautista-Burke, is from the Philippines.

Lou Diamond Phillips, who was born in Subic in 1962, starred in such movies as Courage Under Fire, Bats, La Bamba, Supernova, Hollywood Homicide, and Red Water.

Tia Carrere, whose father is from Cebu, starred in hit movies such as True Lies, High School High, Rising Sun, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Wayne's World, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Top of the World, Kull the Conqueror and Lilo & Stitch.

Rob Schneider, an actor and writer whose mother is a Filipino, appeared in such Hollywood hits as Deuce Bigalow, 50 First Dates, Down Periscope, Big Daddy, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Mr. Deeds, The Animal and the Hot Chick.

Jocelyn Enriquez, a Filipino-American singing sensation, popularized the songs Do You Miss Me? and A Little Bit of Esctacy.

Paolo Montalban, an actor who was born in Manila, became famous as Kung Lao in the TV hit series Mortal Kombat: Conquest. He starred along with Daniel Bernhardt and Kristanna Loken. In 1997, he played Prince Charming in the 1997 TV version of Cinderella, co-starring with pop singers Brandy and Whitney Houston and upcoming star Angela Gaylor.

Fritz Friedman, a Filipino-American who was born in Manila, is the senior vice president of worldwide publicity for Columbia TriStar Home Video, the video distribution arm of Sony Corp., owner of Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Sony Picture Classics and Sony Music.

Roman Gabriel, whose father is a Filipino, served as a quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles in 16 years. In 1969, he was named NFL's Most Valuable Player.

Angela Perez Baraquio, a Filipino-American from Hawaii, was crowned Miss America 2001 on October 14, 2000.

How does the telephone work?

Alexander Graham Bell was credited for having invented the telephone on March 10, 1876. It was a magnificent invention, that helped us in so many ways. It is only proper that we give proper recognition to this device by trying to understand how it functions. But we would not go to the extent of explaining acoustics or the science of sound to make our point.

First let us define telephone as a device capable of replicating voice and transmitting it from one point to another in the fastest means possible. Imagine, we can now hear the replicated voice of our relatives on the other side of the planet in a matter of seconds through telephone wires. Yes, the voice we hear on the phone is a product of replication by devices.

Let us try to define some terms in simple language. Human voice is a sound, which is produced by the movement or vibration of our lips, tounge and mouth. Sound wave travels through the air, water or solid objects. It is important to realize that sound can be converted into electrical energy, which we will elaborate later. Telephone is a device that can transform sound into electrical energy and transmit it through copper wires to another point.

Remember that as grade school children, we had for a school project a basic telephone, composed of two cans connected by a string. When we pull the string to form a straight line and make it tight, we can actually communicate through the cans. This is possible because when one student talks into the can, the bottom of the can vibrates back and forth with sound waves that travel through the straight line of string, which the other student who puts his ear near the can hears. The telephone uses the same principle, but instead of string, it uses wire.

Instead of empty cans, the telephone uses a mouthpiece, composed of a transmitter, which is made up of a thin metal diaphragm. Inside the diaphragm is a small chamber filled with carbon granules. When we speak, sound waves cause the granules to compress, which allows a low-voltage electric current to pass. This current comes from batteries at the telephone company. The electric current then travels. The louder we speak, the more the granules are compressed, and the heavier voltage of electric current is released. When the carbon grains are compressed, electric currents pass through them more easily. If we don't make any sound, no sound waves will cause the grains to compress, which would not allow electric currents to pass.

By copying the pattern and loudness of our voice, the release of the electric current through the carbon grains serves as the same pattern when the current hits the diaphragm on the other line. In other words, the vibrations caused by our voice are converted into electrical impulses that travel through wires until they reach the receiver. The receiver (ear-piece), which also has an iron diaphragm, converts the electrical impulses back into sound. Once the electric current hits the electromagnetic field in the receiver, the diaphragm vibrates and produces sound waves almost exactly like the pattern of sound waves at the point of origin.

Simply put, the telephone set has transmitter, receiver, a connection and a switch, which allows us to dial a number and exchange replicated voices.

Keeping Food Cold in Refrigerators

How do freezers produce ice? How do food items get cold inside refrigerators? And how do air-conditioning units release cool air? All these appliances use the same process to function - refrigeration. But to know what refrigeration is, we need to understand the science of thermodynamics in the simplest way possible.

Thermodynamics has something to do with heat? Yes, it is about heat, which is ironically the opposite of coldness, which is our topic. To make it simple, let us define the word "cold" as an adjective characterized by the low degree of heat. Also, let us define refrigeration as the process of removing heat from an object to make it cold. With these twin definitions, we assume that freezers, refrigerators and air-conditioning units are machines that take away heat from an object or a surface. In other words, these machines suck heat out of an enclosed space.

Taking away heat from an object is possible through the system of evaporation. Have you ever observed that it becomes cooler after it had rained. This is because the rain, the perfect result of evaporation, takes away the heat of the soil. Have you ever felt fresher after taking a bath. This is because the water on your body takes away some of the heat from your skin.

Freezers, refrigerators and air-con units follow the same principle of evaporation, but instead of using water, they use refrigerants that vaporize at much colder temperatures. These chemicals - like ammonia, freon, and Greenfreeze - are injected into a tube or evaporator coil inside the machine where they turn from liquid into gas into liquid through evaporation via compression. As they evaporize through compression, these refrigerants absorb and take away heat from the inside surface of the refrigerator and transfer the heat to the outside surface of the refrigerator as they become liquid again while traveling through a coil mostly located at the back or bottom of the machine. The inside surface of the refrigerator thus becomes cool and the outside, hot.

A compressor is responsible for the process of evaporation. Essentially, the compressor machine, powered by an electric motor, squeezes the refrigerants into the coil that extends to the outside part of the machine. It gathers the refrigerant vapor articles inside the coil and compresses them into liquid form again, which in effect releases heat outside the body of the freezer, refrigerator or air-con unit. When the compressed gas passes through the coil on the back or bottom of the machine, the hot gas can lose its heat to the atmosphere outside the machine. Because the refrigerants travel through the tube and the coil endlessly, the whole refrigeration process is repeated over and over again, without allowing the refrigerants to leak.

Here, the common explanation is that when compressing refrigerants to a higher pressure, the temperature of the refrigerants will rise and release heat. By the time the chemicals cool off, significant amount of heat has been released from it. As the refrigerants cool down and condense into liquid form again, they flow through a device called an expansion valve, which has a small opening. The liquid refrigerants become very cold as they travel fast and pick up heat from the surface of the machine. Between the expansion valve and the compressor, there is a low-pressure area because the compressor is pulling the refrigerant gas out of that side. When the liquid refrigerants hit the low pressure area, they boil and changes into a gas. This is called vaporizing. The refrigerants then pass through the coil touching the inside surface of the machine where they cool and absorb heat at the same time, and in the process, pull the heat out of the compartment.

Cooling machines therefore are composed of a compressor, which compresses the refrigerant gas into liquid; expansion valve, where the liquid refrigerants move from a high-pressure zone to a low-pressure zone, so they can expand and evaporate; and the coils, which extend to the outside part of the machine. While evaporating, the refrigerants absorb heat from the inside surface and transfer the heat outside. The cycle repeats endlesslly until the inside surface of the refrigerator or the freezer becomes very cool. Freezers, which are more enclosed than refrigerators, allow their surface to cool to the extent of turning water into ice. In case of the air-conditioning unit, a blower pushes the cool air from the machine into the room.

How is Electricity Produced?

In the Philippines, teachers focus more on the definition of electricity and the people who discovered it than on how it is produced in the first place. We know that Benjamin Fraklin, the greatest American statesman and inventor, was the one who discovered the nature of electricity through his experiments with lightning in 1740s. Thomas Edison applied electricity to light a bulb in 1879 while Nikola Tesla developed a system of generating and transmitting alternating current (AC) electricity in the 19th Century. James Watt, on the other hand, invented the steam engine, which remains the basic structure of most engines and power generators to this day.

But the real challenge for Filipino educators is to explain to their students how electricity is generated. Our crude interpretation is that electricity is a reaction from the process of rubbing two objects. Others call electricity as a form of energy or a force, but this remains debatable. The fact is we need to apply energy or force to release electricity. Lightning is electricity, which is produced by force - the violent movement of winds in the sky. When we rub two stones for a certain period, a spark is produced, and the two objects become hot. Electricity is released.

A more precise definition could be electricity is the surge of electrons. Every object is composed of atoms. In every atom there is the nucleus or the center which is surrounded by negatively charged particles called electrons. Inside the nucleus are positively charged particles called protons and uncharged particles called neutrons. Now, a balance between the number of protons and electrons exists in most atoms, but when this balance is disrupted by a force such as the rubbing of two objects, some electrons are released - a process called electric current.

To release electricity, we need to apply force first to drive electrons from an object. The most common force applied to achieve this is magnetism which is also known as electromotive force. Here, the spinning of a copper coil within a magnetic field will produce a force that will push the electrons through a circuit. This push is called voltage.

Most power generators are built this way, with a copper coil spinning within a magnetic field to generate electricity. A coil serves as a conductor. By rotating a magnetic field around the conductor or the conductor within the magnet, electricity is produced and each time the conductor travels through the magnetic field, a voltage is created. The mechanical energy of the spinning coil transforms to electrical energy in the wire. In other words, electricity generation is based on the relationship between magnetism and electricity. When a wire moves across a magnetic field, an electric current occurs in the wire. Put it simply, a power generator needs magnets, coiled copper wire and spinning motion to generate electric current.

But to enable the magnetic field to spin, a force is needed. Most power generators have turbines that are connected to the magnet, so that the spinning will be caused first by the blades of the turbine. What will cause the spinning motion depends on the type of energy source: coal-fired, diesel oil, wind-powered, hydroelectric, gas turbine, nuclear (uranium), geothermal, solar or others.

We can use actual motion or steam to spin the turbine. Wind-mills use the spinning motion to push the turbine blades and turn the copper coil in the generator and eventually generate electric current. The same principle applies to hydroelectric turbine or wheel, where water flows provide the force to move the turbine blades.

In case of fuel-powered plants, a boiler is set up to burn fuel and produce heat, which will transform water stored in long vertical tubes into steam. As the water begins to boil, the highly pressurized steam rises through the pipes and blows against the turbine blades, causing the spinning motion. Fuel includes natural gas, coal and diesel. The same principle of spinning the turbine blades through steam pressures applies to plants powered by nuclear, geothermal, solar and biomass energy. Steam turbines spin at about 3,600 revolutions per minute.

With the spinning motion of the turbine and the copper coil, electricity is generated and runs through the wires or electric circuit which is connected to our homes via transformers. When electricity flows through a light bulb's filament, the electricity appears as light. Power plants' transformers increase the voltage of the electricity to make it travel through the distribution lines more efficiently until the electricity reaches to substations where separate transformers reduce the voltage again for consumer use. Electricity travels at lightning speed.

Households regulate the use of electricity by switches, which open or close the electricity circuit. Basically, electricity consumption is measured by a unit of power called watts. A kilowatt is equal to 1,000 watts. The unit kilowatthour, on the other hand, represents the use of electricity for a certain number of hours.

How do airplanes fly?

Rather than asking students who invented the airplane, it is important that Filipino educators begin explaining to their students what makes an airplane fly? We all know that Orville and Wilbur Wright developed a flying machine that first lifted from the grounds of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and stayed on the air for 12 seconds on December 17, 1903. But it is time for both teachers and students to know how and why that machine flew in the first place.

Instead of using aerodynamics terms to explain the theory of flight, it will be useful to explain it in the simplest way possible. An airplane is able to fly because it applies a force created by a propeller, which is strong enough to make it move forward and uses wings or airfoil to deflect air pressures in such a way that the wind pushes back from underneath the wings to lift the whole airplane.

The propeller creates an aerodynamic force called thrust, which pulls the air past the blades. The movement of the wind around the wing creates a movement called "lift". The plane can fly higher or lower and faster or slower by adjusting the position of the wing to direct air pressures.

The angle of the wing determines how much air pressure it can get from underneath, and how high the airplane can fly. The greater the pressure under the wing, the greater the lift.

Presidents of the Philippines

Emilio Aguinaldo (1898)
Manuel L. Quezon (1935-1944)
José P. Laurel (1943-1945)
Sergio Osmeña (1944-1946)
Manuel Roxas y Acuña (1946-1948)
Elpidio Quirino (1948-1953)
Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957)
Carlos P. Garcia (1957-1961)
Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965)
Ferdinand E. MarcosA0831745 (1965-1986)
Corazon Aquino (1986-1992)
Fidel V. Ramos (1992-1998)
Joseph Estrada (1998-2001)
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001- )

Emilio Aguinaldo (1898) is widely acknowledged as the first president of the Philippines, being the leader of the revolutionary republic during the Spanish-American war. It was in Hong Kong where General Aguinaldo discussed with US Commodore George Dewey a battle plan to takeover the Philippines from Spanish forces. On June 12, 1898, he declared the country's independence in Kawit, Cavite. Unknown to Aguinaldo, the US and Spain signed the Treaty of Paris which involved an agreement for the purchase of the Philippines for US$20 million. When the US refused to recognize the Filipino government, Aguinaldo and his men waged a revolutionary resistance that ended with his capture in March 1901.

Manuel L. Quezon (1935-1944) first served as the Philippine resident commissioner to Washington from 1909 to 1916 before rising to become the Senate president in 1918. With the passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act in 1934, Filipinos had their first taste of self-rule through the Philippine Commonwealth, a transitional government designed to prepare the Filipinos over a ten-year period for independence. In 1934, Quezon returned to the US as chairman of the Philippine
Delegation that negotiated for the passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act which set the date of independence in 1946. By 1935, the Commonwealth was in place with Quezon as its first president. The Philippines also approved a new constitution in the same year. He became president of the Commonwealth until the war broke out. He sought refuge in the US where he died of tuberculosis in August 1944.

Jose P. Laurel (1943-1945) served as the president of the Japanese "puppet" government during the war. Laurel, a graduate of Yale University and Tokyo International University, earned the ire of the Filipino guerrillas fighting the Japanese army. He ran for president in the 1949 election but lost to the more popular Elpidio Quirino.

Sergio Osmena (1944-1946) When Quezon died in New York in 1944, Vice President Osmena automatically became the second president of the Commonwealth. He focused on the rehabilitation of the Philippines after the War. However, his term was cut short by the 1946 presidential election, won by Manuel Roxas, in time for the declaration of an independent Philippine republic, by the US on July 4, 1946.

Manuel A. Roxas (1946-1948) With newfound freedom in 1946, Filipinos elected Manuel A. Roxas, leader of the Liberal Party and one of the seven members of the Constitutional Convention who drafted the 1935 Constitution, as the first president of the independent republic in April 1946. His presidency was focused on rebuilding the cities and municipalities torn by the war, redistributing lands as wealthy landowners returned to reclaim their estates, and confronting the Hukbalahap, which by this time was tagged as a socialist-communist organization. The economy grew at a rapid pace, immediately after the war. He died of a heart attack at Clark Air Force Base in Pampanga on April 15, 1948.

Elpidio Quirino (1948-1953) succeeded Roxas as president in April 1948 and defeated Laurel to keep his post in the 1949 presidential race. It was during Quirino's term that the Minimum Wage Law was enacted and the Central Bank was established to stabilize the peso and consumer prices. The country's gross national product grew by an average of 7.7 percent annually in the early 1960s, on the back of the double-digit increase in the manufacturing sector.

Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957) was a highly popular president who initiated peace talks with the guerillas. He opened the gates of Malacanang Palace to ordinary people. Among his many reforms were the acquisition of land settlements for the poor, lowering the price of consumer goods, and breaking up the big landed estates. He died in a plane crash on Mount Manunggal in Cebu in March 1957, which to this day remains a mystery to many Filipinos.

Carlos P. Garcia (1957-1961) was the vice president when Magsaysay died in a plane crash. He became famous for his First Filipino Policy and Austerity Program, which put the interests of Filipinos ahead those of foreigners. Under his austerity measures, he encouraged temperate spending, which resulted in less imports and more exports. His nationalist policies, however, perpetuated the business interests of the ruling elite in the country and did not encourage local businesses to be competitive. Garcia lost to his vice-president in the 1961 presidential poll. Protectionist policies allowed local manufacturers to control the economy from 1949 to 1962, discouraging them from becoming competitive.

Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965) was vice president when he ran for the 1961 presidential election and defeated President Garcia. Under his term, he declared June 12 as the national Independence Day in memory of General Aguinaldo's declaration of freedom from Spain in 1898.
As president, Macapagal began a five-year socio-economic program by removing imports control and liberalizing foreign exchange. In 1962, he began devaluing the peso by half to around 3.90 to the US dollar. He also initiated a shift in investments from the light industries to chemicals, steel and industrial equipment. Macapagal was also a founding leader of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Ferdinand E. Marcos (1965-1986) defeated Macapagal in the 1965 presidential election. He began military campaigns against insurgents including the communist guerrillas and Moro rebels. With his reelection in 1969, Marcos had to contend with worsening civil strife. Marcos declared Martial Law on September 21, 1972, following a series of bombings in Metro Manila. He abolished Congress, curtailed freedom of the press, imposed curfews, ordered the arrest of his political enemies, prohibited labour unions, and controlled the economy with the help of his cronies. Although he lifted Martial Law in 1981, student activism and violent demonstrations continued. This was exacerbated by the assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino in 1983. A snap presidential election in 1986 pitted Marcos against the senator's widow, Corazon Aquino. When Marcos was declared the winner of the election, thought to be widely rigged, a people power uprising ousted his government. He fled to Hawaii where he died in 1989.

Corazon C. Aquino (1986-1992) was the first woman president of the Philippines. A military-backed people power uprising installed her as the 11th president. She ordered the drafting of the 1987 Constitution, which restored the presidential system of government with a bicameral legislature composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives and an independent judiciary headed by the Supreme Court chief justice. To avoid a replication of Marcos' excesses, the Constitution limited the president's stay in office to one six-year term. Although the economy was revived in the first year of the Aquino administration, the series of failed coup attempts against her presidency created a perception of political instability, discouraging foreign investments. Her term ended in a dark period literally, because of the 1992 power crisis. Aquino chose her defense secretary General Fidel Ramos as her preferred successor.

Fidel V. Ramos (1992-1998) began his term by resolving the power shortage. This he was able to resolve by inviting foreign investors to take part in the so-called build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme, which would later serve as a model of private sector participation in government projects. In 1995, the Ramos administration also had to contend with a rice shortage, as a result of low agricultural production and poorly managed importation program. Since then, the government has authorised the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice at will in order to prepare for any shortage in domestic stock. Among the economic reforms initiated under his term were the privatisation of government assets, trade and banking liberalisation and deregulation. By 1996, the Philippines was described as a newly industrialising economy along with the likes of Thailand and Malaysia. The economy would have achieved higher growth in 1997 and 1998, when the Asian financial crisis caught up with the Philippines.

Joseph E. Estrada (1998-2001) was a popular actor before he became a politician. He sold his government as "pro-poor", although most of his allies were rich Chinese businessmen. His government actually benefited from the economic reforms initiated by the Ramos administration. But rumours of "midnight deals" at Malacanang Palace during his term dampened investor confidence. Analysts believed that what brought down the Estrada administration was not his economic policies, seen by many as not substantially different from those of Ramos, but the perception of wide corruption in his administration. In October 2000, a former ally implicated Estrada in illegal gambling payoffs and kickbacks. Reports that he has many wives housed in different mansions also got Estrada indifferent treatment from the Church, which was a force behind the 1986 People's Power Revolution. Although an impeachment trial in December 2000 failed to prove his guilt, Estrada was forced to leave his post in January 2001, when his vice president, Gloria Arroyo, joined forces with his political enemies.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001 - ) was a daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal. A holder of a PhD in economics from the University of the Philippines, Arroyo replaced Joseph Estrada with a promise to clean the government of corrupt officials and bring down the number of poor Filipinos. She faced numerous challenges starting with the May 1 rebellion in 2001, instigated by the Estrada camp to regain the presidency. The rebellion proved futile, as the highly politicised military and the police remained loyal to Arroyo. While she kept her post in the 2004 presidential election, accusation that she cheated her way to the presidency, would be used in an impeachment case against her. She barely survived the political turbulence in June and July 2005. On the economic front, her administration actually made headway in promoting growth, arresting the fiscal crisis, and curbing inflation amid soaring crude oil prices. As this was being written, President Arroyo faces pressures to step down from her post or call for a snap presidential election. She remains tough against such calls, with suggestions that her political opponents join her instead in pushing for the amendments to the 1987 Constitution to allow a shift in the form of government into a federal, parliamentary system.

Beauty Queens of the Philippines

Lia Andrea Ramos - Miss Photogenic (Miss Universe), 2006
Justine Vinluan Gabionza - Miss Tourism Queen International, 2006
Precious Lara Quigaman - Miss International, 2005
Gionna Cabrera - Miss Photogenic (Miss Universe), 2005
Abbygale Arenas - Miss Photogenic (Miss Universe), 1997
Aileen Damiles - Miss Photogenic (Miss Universe), 1996
Michelle Aldana - Miss Asia Pacific, 1993
Lorna legaspi - Miss Asia Pacific, 1989
Gloria Dimayacyac - 1983
Ines Zaragoza - 1982
Melanie Marquez - Miss International, 1979
Margie Moran - Miss Photogenic and Miss Universe, 1973
Vida Valentina Doria - Miss Photogenic (Miss Universe), 1971
Aurora Pijuan - Miss International, 1970
Gloria Diaz - Miss Universe, 1969
Gemma Cruz - Miss International, 1965

Philippine Presidents, History of the Philippines

The Philippines, a group of over 7,000 islands with combined land area encompassing 300,000 square kilometres, grew into a nation under more than three centuries of Spanish conquest and 42 years of American rule. It is the first country outside the New World that closely witnessed the United States’ rise to power following the 1898 Spanish-American War.

Situated 800 kilometres southeast of mainland Asia, the archipelago, named after King Philip II of Spain, was discovered in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, the same explorer who had discovered the Pacific Ocean in search of the so-called “Spice Islands” and is now widely considered the first navigator to have cruised around the planet.

Ironically, the Filipinos, after having been subdued for centuries by foreign colonizers as a result of Magellan’s voyage, would emerge as the best seafarers in the world, manning a third of all international vessels today. Some 7.8 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and Filipino migrants would help rebuild cities in many countries and bring back over US$10 billion in annual remittances to their families in the Philippines.

The country’s geographical location and long exposure to foreign influences has placed the Philippines on a unique cultural base in Asia. It is now the only predominantly Catholic country in the region, with 70 million out of its total population of 85 million (as of 2005) confessing to be Catholic. There are also large numbers of Protestants and Born-Again Christians in the country while the Muslim population is concentrated in southern Mindanao.

Early Trade
The first inhabitants of the Philippines were the Negritos who traveled from mainland Asia over a land bridge that is now underwater. Migrants from other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia later followed and established a Malayan culture that flourished before the Spaniards came. Chinese and Arab merchants helped establish markets at the community level.

A sultanate system, first established in the southern island of Sulu in the 14th century, is believed to have reached the islands of Luzon and Visayas, giving way to the rise of the Islamic faith. The Spaniards would later drive the Muslims to the south and establish Catholicism as the main religion in the north and central parts of the country.

Local villages, known as barangay, traded agricultural and fishery products with each other. The Igorot tribe in Northern Luzon carved the marvellous Banaue Rice Terraces from the mountains, a proof of their advanced agriculture technology. Communities near the shore exchanged goods with Chinese and Arab merchants, who came aboard large ships. These communities traded slaves, gold, beeswax, betel nuts, pearls, and shells for porcelain, silk, iron, tin and semi-precious stones.

The Philippine islands were a part of an extensive trade route used by Chinese merchants as early as the 10th century. By the time Magellan arrived in the islands, regular trade and cultural contact between Chinese traders and local chieftains were firmly instituted. Many Chinese merchants settled in the country and shared their crafts with the natives. Some historians claim that an Italian Franciscan priest, named Father Odorico, was actually the first European to have reached the Philippines in 1324 when his ship bound for China took refuge from a storm in Bolinao Island in northern part of Luzon.

Aside from the Banaue Rice Terraces in the Cordillera Mountains, early settlers did not leave any giant monument, and this is what makes conservative historians doubt the existence of the rich kingdoms in the country hundreds of years ago. However, it cannot be denied that early Filipinos were learned individuals who expressed their beliefs and sentiments in rich languages. According to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), there are actually 78 language groupings and over 500 dialects in the Philippines.

Feudal Society
Magellan, who claimed the archipelago for Spain in 1521, died in a battle with a group of local warriors led by Lapu Lapu at Mactan Island. It was Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, in the fourth Spanish expedition, who named the territory as Filipinas after the heir to the Spanish throne in 1543. In 1565, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi led an expedition to colonize the islands and by 1571, most parts of the archipelago came under Spanish rule.

The Spaniards established the colonial government first in Cebu in 1565 and then in Manila in 1571. Historians claim that University of San Carlos in Cebu and University of Sto. Tomas in Manila are the oldest universities teaching European type of education in Asia. Jesuit and Dominican priests established the two institutions.

Under Spanish rule, Catholicism became the dominant religion. Catholic friars not only lorded over the congregations; they enjoyed vast political and economic influence, which they eventually used to repress Filipino peasants’ uprisings in the largely feudal Philippine society at that time. The Spaniards also quelled a number of rebellions instigated by the Chinese migrants. The friars distributed lands to Spanish families, who later comprised the landowning class. To perpetuate their economic interests, this class would also rise to become the political elite that would remain in power to this day.

This gave way to the hacienda system in the Philippines, where cacique or landowners managed large tracts of lands tilled by peasant workers. Under the system, farmers were supposed to receive half of the harvest, but they usually ended up with much less because they had to pay for large interests on debt incurred from the cacique. This would be later corrected with a system of land reform, which, however, remains to be fully implemented to this day.

Galleon Trade
The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade became the major trading system between Asia and the Americas for nearly two centuries. Manila became a transhipment point of American silver to China. It was through this trade that the first Chinese silk and porcelain reached the shores of the New World. There were unverified claims that Filipinos helped build the city of Los Angeles in America. The Chinese and Filipinos would later become the two largest Asian migrant groups in the United States.

Coconut became the country’s top agricultural product, because of Spain’s huge need for charcoaled coconut shells used for the caulking of the galleons. In 1642, the colonial government issued an edict requiring each Filipino to plant 200 coconut trees all over the country. By 1910, coconut exports would account for a fifth of total Philippine exports and to this day, coconut oil remains the country’s top agricultural shipment.

The Galleon Trade lasted for about 200 years until 1815. It is during this period that rice and tropical fruits from the Philippines such as mango and banana made their way to Latin America. Beginning 1750, Spanish priests encouraged the development of plantations to grow abaca (hemp), tobacco, coffee and sugar. Sugar barons from the Visayas would later emerge as among the richest clans in the country.

From 1762 to 1764, the British briefly captured Manila during the Seven Years War. The treaty of Paris ended the British occupation and returned the colony to the hands of their original colonial masters.

Plantation Crops
In 1781, the Spanish governor established the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines, which would become a major source of revenue for the colonial government. From 1820 to 1870, the Philippines would be transformed to an agricultural export economy. Located on the oceanic trading routes connecting Asia to other parts of the world, the Philippines became a transhipment point of merchandise goods from all over Southeast Asia on their way to Europe.

The Philippines exported plantation crops such as sugar, abaca, other fibres, tobacco, coffee, and coconut products to China, Spain, United States, United Kingdom and British East Indies. In return, it imported textiles and rice.

Historians claim that Spain administered the Philippine affairs through Mexico. Spanish administrators in the country were actually reporting to the Viceroyalty of Mexico. After Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, Madrid directly governed its only Asian colony and even allowed rich Filipinos to study in Europe. The Spanish rule gave way to the rise of a small but highly powerful elite class, which to this day, controls most of the Philippine economy. The elite families, which own large plantations, were able to send their children to Europe for education.

Foreign Investors
Investors from Spain, Germany, Britain and other European countries laid the groundwork for utility companies in steam navigation, cable, telegraphy, railroads and electricity in the country. They also invested heavily in rice and sugar milling, textile and banking. The local elite developed the brewing industry, which would become one of the most profitable sectors in the economy.

Although the educated Filipinos who studied in Europe shunned the use of force to topple the colonial government, their writings provoked nationalist sentiments among young men, who eventually formed a revolutionary movement against Spain. In 1896, the war between Spanish and Filipino soldiers escalated following the death of novelist Jose Rizal and rebel leader Andres Bonifacio. Emilio Aguinaldo, the new leader of the revolutionary forces, forged a pact with US Commodore George Dewey in Hong Kong to defeat the Spanish army.

American Colony
The Americans entered the scene because of its conflict with Spain over Cuba. With the outbreak of the Spanish-American war in the Pacific, the Philippines had to be taken by the US, lest other European countries such as Britain, France and Germany would fight for their next Southeast Asian colony. On June 12, 1898, Aguinaldo, first backed by American forces, declared the independence of Kawit, Cavite, the seat of the revolutionary Filipino government at that time, from Spanish rule. The Americans took possession of Manila on August 13, 1898.

While armed clashes with Spanish forces continued in other parts of the country, the Americans and the Spaniards were negotiating for the purchase of the Philippines for US$20 million. In the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the US.

Filipinos felt insulted at the fact that their country has been passed from one colonial master to another for only US$20 million. When the US, which had not conquered any country before, made known its intention to succeed Spain as the next colonizer of the Philippines, Aguinaldo and his men waged a revolutionary resistance that ended with his capture in March 1901. The American soldiers easily subdued the remaining factions of rebellion with the help of their powerful weapons and their divide-and-conquer tactic.

As an archipelago of 7,000 islands, the Philippines is home to different ethnic groups which do not speak the same language. The national government’s attempt to declare Tagalog (spoken in Central and Southern Luzon including Metro Manila) as the national language would not easily win the support of other regions.

The Philippine-American war took the lives of 4,234 American and 16,000 Filipino soldiers. The death toll was much higher on the civilian population, with as high as 200,000 casualties. Although local resistance persisted until 1903, the US ended its military rule on July 4, 1901.

American Way
Under American civilian rule, the Philippines was introduced to US-type of education, Protestant religion, and later to the concept of democracy. Placed under US control were most parts of the country, except in the southern portion of Mindanao where Muslim rebels held strong resistance.

William Howard Taft, the 27th US president, was the first American Civil Governor in the Philippines. Taft was praised for establishing a civil service system, creating a national legislature, suppressing prices, upgrading health standards, and sponsoring land reform and road building in the country.

In 1907, the First Philippine Assembly composed of educated and rich Filipinos with vast landholdings. Manuel L. Quezon, who represented the Philippines in the US Congress, lobbied for the passage of the Jones Law, which in 1916 abolished the Philippine Assembly to give way for a bicameral legislature made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

With the passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act in 1934, Filipinos had their first taste of self-rule through the Philippine Commonwealth, a transitional government designed to prepare the Filipinos over a ten-year period for independence. By 1935, the Commonwealth was in place with Quezon as its first president. The Philippines also approved a new constitution in the same year.

The United States is credited for helping establish the Republic of the Philippines, the first democratic government in Asia. Economically, the Philippines was ahead of its Asian neighbours, who were still subjects of European colonial powers before the war.

Japanese Invasion
In December 1941, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Philippines and drove the Commonwealth Government from Manila. While Quezon continued to head the government-in-exile until his death in New York in August 1944, the Japanese forces handpicked Jose P. Laurel, a graduate of Yale University and Tokyo International University, to head a new government under their control.

The Philippines was dragged into the war because of Japan’s military ambition to become the dominant force in Asia and the Pacific. Japan wanted to be the leader of an economic zone in East Asia, which would be the source of its raw materials. The US presence in the Philippines, known for its strategic location in Southeast Asia, was the largest threat to the Japanese forces, following the destruction of the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

While the American forces were regrouping in the United States, Filipino soldiers formed a guerrilla organization called Hukbalahap (People's Anti-Japanese Army). Some 30,000 guerrillas at that time engaged the Japanese army in intermittent clashes. The Hukbalahap would later adopt the communist ideology and rule in the countryside.

Meanwhile, Sergio Osmeña replaced Quezon as the head of the government-in-exile and joined General Douglas MacArthur in the liberation of Manila. General MacArthur returned to the Philippines via the island province of Leyte, along with 174,000 army and navy servicemen on October 20, 1944.

The liberation of Manila took almost 20 days from February 3 to 23, 1945 and the fierce battle destroyed much of the city, with its ruins now often compared to the ruins of Warsaw, Poland in Europe. The Japanese army, however, continued to fight in the provinces, until September 2, 1945 when General Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya who was believed to have hidden vast amount of treasures during the war, surrendered in Baguio City.

It is estimated that the battle of Manila cost the lives of 1 million Filipinos, 300,000 Japanese and 60,000 Americans. The intensity of the US-Japan war would force the former to drop an atomic bomb in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and in Nagasaki three days later.

US Bases
By February 1945, Osmeña restored the Commonwealth in the Philippines but it was only on July 4, 1946 that the US granted the Philippines its independence, coinciding with the celebration of the Independence Day in America.

However, US military bases would remain in the country for the next 45 years. On March 14, 1947, Manila and Washington signed the Treaty of General Relation, which provided the US to construct military bases for a lease period of 99 years. In 1959, the agreement was amended to shorten the lease period until 1991, after which both sides were to renegotiate the contract.

When the US sought a ten-year extension of the lease period in 1991, the Philippine Senate, led by Senate President Jovito Salonga, rejected the proposal in a historic casting of vote on September 16, ending US military bases in the country.

With newfound freedom in 1946, Filipinos elected Manuel A. Roxas, leader of the Liberal Party and one of the seven members of the Constitutional Convention who drafted the 1935 Constitution, as the first president of the independent republic in April 1946. His presidency was focused on rebuilding the cities and municipalities torn by the war, redistributing lands as wealthy landowners returned to reclaim their estates, and confronting the Hukbalahap, which by this time was tagged as a socialist-communist organization. The economy grew at a rapid pace, immediately after the war.

Special Treatment
Close economic ties between Manila and Washington continued after the war on the back of agreements providing for preferential tariffs for American exports and special treatment for US investors in the Philippines. In the 1946 Philippine Trade Act, the Americans were granted duty-free access to the Philippine market and special rights to exploit the country’s natural resources. Because of the Trade Act, the Philippines suffered a huge trade deficit with the influx of American imports. In 1949, the Philippine government was forced to impose import controls, after getting the consent of Washington.

Roxas’ two-year presidency ended with his death, following a heart attack while delivering a speech at Clark Air Force Base in Pampanga province in April 1948. Vice president Elpidio Quirino succeeded Roxas as president and defeated Jose P. Laurel to keep his post in the 1949 presidential race. It was during Quirino’s term that the Minimum Wage Law was enacted and the Central Bank was established to stabilize the peso and consumer prices. The country’s gross national product grew by an average of 7.7 percent annually in the early 1960s, on the back of the double-digit increase in the manufacturing sector.

In the 1953 presidential election, Ramon Magsaysay, who had served as defense secretary under the Quirino administration, won by a landslide. The charismatic Magsaysay initiated peace talks with the Hukbalahap, which would later evolve into a communist organization. He became popular for opening the gates of Malacanang Palace to ordinary people. He died in a plane crash on Mount Manunggal in Cebu in March 1957, which to this day remains a mystery to many Filipinos.

While the standard of living in the Philippines was below that of the Western World, the country was often cited as the second richest economy in Asia, after Japan in the 1960s. However, ill-advised economic policies, poor governance and rapid population growth in the country would allow other Asian economies such as Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and China not only to catch up with but to leave the Philippines behind in the race towards industrialization.

Filipino First
Vice President Carlos P. Garcia assumed the country’s top government post following the death of Magsaysay. Garcia was known for his First Filipino Policy and Austerity Program, which put the interests of Filipinos ahead those of foreigners. Under his austerity measures, he encouraged temperate spending, which resulted in less imports and more exports. His nationalist policies, however, perpetuated the business interests of the ruling elite in the country and did not encourage local businesses to be competitive. Garcia lost to his vice-president in the 1961 presidential poll. Protectionist policies allowed local manufacturers to control the economy from 1949 to 1962, discouraging them from becoming competitive.

Diosdado Macapagal, father of incumbent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was the president from 1961 to 1965. Before he became president, he authored the land reform program as a legislator and was vice-president to Garcia. As president, Macapagal began a five-year socio-economic program by removing imports control and liberalizing foreign exchange. It was Macapagal who declared June 12 as the national Independence Day. In 1962, the Macapagal administration began devaluing the peso by half to around 3.90 to the US dollar.

Macapagal initiated a shift in investments from the light industries to chemicals, steel and industrial equipment. He was also one of the proponents of the MAPHILINDO, a trade bloc of three South East Asian countries – the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia. This bloc later expanded to what is now the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). By 1965, foreign capital was present in nearly a third of the country’s capital stock.

Martial Law
Ferdinand Marcos, the Senate president, defeated Macapagal in the presidential election to become the country’s tenth president in November 1965. A close ally of the United States, Marcos launched military campaigns against the insurgents including the communist Hukbalahap and Moro rebels in Mindanao. In August 1967, Manila hosted a summit that led to the creation of the ASEAN.

With his reelection in 1969, Marcos had to contend with worsening civil strife. An ideologist named Jose Ma. Sison founded the Communist Party of the Philippines on December 26, 1968. It was during the same year that University of the Philippines Nur Misuari founded the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the armed wing of Islamic resistance movement.

In June 1971, the government convened the Constitutional Convention to amend the Constitution. Ironically, Marcos declared Martial Law on September 21, 1972, following a series of bombings in Metro Manila, He abolished Congress, curtailed freedom of the press, imposed curfews, ordered the arrest of his political enemies, prohibited labour unions, and controlled the economy with the help of his cronies. Although his wife Imelda was credited for building some of the country’s finest monuments, she was criticized for personal extravagance, a form of which was maintaining a collection of 3,000 pairs of shoes.

Green Revolution
The so-called green revolution in the early 1970s, which introduced new farming technologies, enabled the Philippines to export rice to its neighbours. The International Rice Research Institute was established in Los Banos town, Laguna province where Thai, Vietnamese and other Asian researchers trained to develop their own rice production. Thailand would later become the world’s largest rice exporter and the Philippines one of the largest rice importers.

With the introduction of new farming technologies, the Philippines became heavily dependent on importer fertilizers, which are mostly fuel-based. The increase in world crude oil prices also pushed prices of fertilizers, to the detriment of Filipino farmers trying to adopt the modern technologies.

Chinese Tycoons
On June 9, 1975, the Marcos administration signed a joint communiqué with Communist China to restore official diplomatic relations. The Communiqué recognized that “there is but one China, of which Taiwan is an integral part. In return, China vowed not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Philippines and refrained from providing any substantial support to the Communist Party of the Philippines, the largest insurgent group in the country.

The largest success story in the Philippines actually involved Chinese merchants who left China in pursuit of business opportunities abroad. Unlike rich American investors, Chinese migrants came to the Philippines with little money but large determination that the country’s democratic society would help them become rich. True enough, they found goldmine in the Philippines. Today, the richest individuals in the Philippines have Chinese names, including billionaires such as Lucio Tan, Henry Sy, John Gokongwei, and George Ty. Together, they are the largest group of investors in the Philippines and control most of the largest companies in the country.

Overseas Workers
Under Martial Law, one man other than Marcos would singularly define labour relations in the Philippines and the role of the Filipino workers in the world. Labour Minister Blas Ople, a former journalist, authored the Labor Code on November 1, 1974 and launched the overseas employment program in 1976, which would send young and talented Filipinos who could not find work at home to other countries for dollar-earning jobs.

Ople obtained the permission of Marcos to deploy thousands of Filipino workers overseas to meet the growing need of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates for skilled workers and the rising demand for Filipino seamen in flag-of-convenience vessels. Hesitant at first, Marcos later conceded to the proposal, if only to tame the growing militancy building among the hearts of the young and intelligent Filipinos who could not find job opportunities in their own land.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) were established to intensify recruitment of Filipino workers. This would make the Philippines the third largest destination of dollar remittances in the world, next to the more populous countries of India and Mexico.

The Marcos administration also tried to court foreign investors, by committing guarantees against nationalization and imposing restrictions on trade-union activity. However, the blatant record of human rights abuses by the military under his administration was a big turnoff among foreigners. Under Martial law, the military and the police killed, abused, or arrested at least 10,000 Filipinos, including some of the brightest students and intellectuals. Many had disappeared without a trace.

While Marcos lifted martial law on January 17, 1981 in time for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Manila in February, he maintained most of his powers as a dictator. Benigno Aquino, an opposition senator living in asylum in the US, decided to return to Manila in 1983. His death, from assassins’ bullets at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport, sparked adverse sentiments against the Marcos administration.

Bankruptcy
As the economy stagnated under the Marcos administration because of a mix of bad economic policies, corruption and uncontrolled population growth, the government had to resort to foreign borrowing to finance the fiscal deficit. In October 1983, the Central Bank notified its creditors about its plan to default payment on debt amounting to US$24.6 billion. With the growing loss of confidence by the business community, the peso depreciated by as much as 21 percent in 1983. The gross domestic product shrank by 6.8 percent in 1984 and by 3.8 percent in 1985.

Emboldened by Marcos’ dipping popularity, the opposition gathered around Aquino’s widow, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, who would later challenge Marcos in the 1986 snap presidential election. When Batasang Pambansa (National Assembly) declared Marcos the winner amid allegations of widespread electoral fraud, protesters, buoyed by Manila archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, trooped to the streets.

Following the defection of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces vice chief Fidel Ramos from Marcos, protesters began converging along EDSA near Ortigas Avenue, which would culminate in the ouster of Marcos from Malacanang Palace on February 25, 1986. The media called the bloodless uprising as the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution - something that political groups would later thought could be replicated time and again.

Democratic Rule
After Marcos, his family and his cronies fled from the Philippines, Aquino became president, organized a new government, freed the political prisoners and tried to restore democratic rule in the country. In February 1987, her government approved a new Constitution, which would later be subjected to heated debates over its restrictive provisions on foreign participation in the economy.

The 1987 Constitution restored the presidential system of government with a bicameral legislature composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives and an independent judiciary headed by the Supreme Court chief justice. To avoid a replication of Marcos’ excesses, the Constitution limited the president’s stay in office to one six-year term. It also created the autonomous regions of Muslim Mindanao and Cordillera and put agrarian reform as the cornerstone of the government’s plan for social transformation.

A renegade faction in the Philippine military launched a series of coup attempts against the Aquino presidency. Perception of political instability dampened economic activities and refrained the economy from matching the large strides taken by its Asian neighbors in the 1980s and 1990s. By this time, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have overtaken the Philippines in the race towards industrialization.

The Arroyo administration, while taking pride of having restored democracy, failed to bring the economy on track towards industrialization, and one of the factors singled out was the president’s political inexperience and lack of consistency in pushing for economic reforms. In the 1992 presidential election, Aquino endorsed the candidacy of her chosen successor – Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos.

In June 1991, Mount Pinatubo’s powerful eruption sent tons of ashes around the planet’s atmosphere. Subsequent lava/lahar flow buried several towns in Central Luzon and jolted the economy. The natural tragedy also forced American soldiers at Clark Field and Subic Bay to withdraw from their bases earlier than stipulated. The US turned over to the Philippine government the two bases with total assets amounting to US$1.3 billion. The Philippine government later transformed the two bases into special economic zones.

Liberalisation
In 1992, Fidel Ramos was elected President. He began his term amid an energy crisis, which plunged the country literally into darkness. This he was able to resolve by inviting foreign investors to take part in the so-called build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme, where they would serve as independent power producers (IPPs) enjoying a lot of incentives and guaranteed market. While it brought light to Filipino households, the scheme would later translate to high electricity rates.

In 1995, the Ramos administration also had to contend with a rice shortage, as a result of low agricultural production and poorly managed importation program. Since then, the government has authorised the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice at will in order to prepare for any shortage in domestic stock.

The Ramos presidency was also responsible for economic reforms such as privatisation of government assets, trade and banking liberalisation and deregulation, which would push annual trade growth at double-digit levels and draw in large-ticket foreign investments. By 1996, the Philippines was described as a newly industrialising economy along with the likes of Thailand and Malaysia.

It was also under the Ramos presidency that communism was legalised, and some leftist organisations would later join Congress as partylist groups. The government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) headed by Nur Misuari would sign a peace agreement that would establish a peace zone in southern Philippines. However, other militant rebel groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Abu Sayyaf would continue waging a war against the government for a Islamic state in the south.

What Ramos failed to accomplish is the amendment to the 1987 Constitution to remove the restriction on foreign ownership of land and public utilities, which limits maximum ownership to 40 percent. The opposition party accused him of trying to tinker with the charter to remove the six-year term limit of the president and in the process perpetuate his stay in power. In the end, he had to give up such attempt under the weight of public opinion.

Financial Crisis
With the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis, the Philippine economy contracted by 0.6 percent in 1998, the same year Joseph Estrada, a popular politician with links to the movie industry, became president. The economy actually grew although at a slower pace at 3.4 percent in 1999 and at 4 percent in 2000 even as the inflation and interest rates began to decline. In comparison, growth reached 5.2 percent under the Ramos presidency in 1997.

While Estrada got the backing of Filipino-Chinese businessmen by reducing the problem of kidnapping, he did not get the same support from other “elite” businessmen. Despite appointing top economists, Estrada, a former college dropout, could not convince the “high society” that he could resolve the country’s economic woes.

Ironically, what brought down the Estrada administration was not his economic policies, seen by many as not substantially different from those of Ramos, but the perception of wide corruption in his administration. In October 2000, a former ally implicated Estrada in illegal gambling payoffs and kickbacks. Reports that he has many wives housed in different mansions also got Estrada indifferent treatment from the Church, which was a force behind the 1986 People’s Power Revolution.

EDSA 2
In December 2000, the House of Representatives impeached Estrada. The subsequent impeachment trial at the Senate was aborted when senators from the opposition party walked out of the courtroom, triggering street demonstrations reminiscent of the 1986 revolt. Within hours after the walkout, the crowd at EDSA grew into millions of anti-Estrada protesters. When political and military leaders withdrew their support from Estrada, Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide swore Vice President Gloria Mapacagal Arroyo as the next president on January 20, 2001.

Arroyo, a daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal, came to Malacanang with a promise to clean the government of corrupt officials and bring down the number of poor Filipinos, which represents a third of the total population. In her first year in office, she faced numerous challenges starting with the May 1 rebellion, instigated by the Estrada camp to regain the presidency. The rebellion proved futile, as the highly politicised military and the police remained loyal to Arroyo.

She also had to contend with Muslim extremists, who began to target cities in their attacks. Following the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, the Philippines was one of the first countries to express support for a US-led international campaign against terrorism.

On the economic front, Congress passed the liberalisation of the retail trade sector and the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, which aims to privatise the state-owned National Power Corporation. The Arroyo administration also promoted business process outsourcing (BPO), information technology, tourism, and mining as key investment areas for foreign companies. Trade with other Asian countries was also given importance in view of the declining trade volume with the United States.

Telecommunications
One particular industry, which has led economic growth since 2000 is telecommunications, although this proved to be a bane for other industries as Filipinos cut their expenditures on other items to buy mobile phones and pay for monthly network services. By 2005, it is estimated that half of the 85 million Filipinos would have mobile phones, a high penetration rate for a developing market.

Because of the global economic slump following the September 11 attacks, the GDP grew by merely 1.8 percent in 2001. Growth reached 4.3 percent in 2002 and 4.7 percent in 2003 even as the Arroyo administration confronted communist and Islamic insurgency problems and a shocking military coup in July 2003.

After surviving the coup, Arroyo won the May 2004 presidential election over Estrada’s close friend and popular actor Fernando Poe Jr. Economic growth reached 6.1 percent in 2004, the highest in 15 years, although this was negated by high inflation and uncontrolled unemployment rates which were more felt by the poor.

Fiscal Deficit
Pressed by economists to narrow the burgeoning fiscal deficit, President Arroyo urged Congress to pass a package of tax reform measures aimed at achieving a balanced budget by the end of her term in 2010. Because of a long history of budget deficits, the public debt hit more than 130 percent of the GDP in 2003 and has been rising since then. Different sectors, however, criticised the administration for passing a heavier burden of taxation on the people at a time crude oil prices were hovering at historic high levels and pushing prices of goods and services beyond the capacity of ordinary consumers.

By the second half of 2005, there were signs that the fiscal deficit was narrowing, even with the delay in the implementation of the Expanded Value Added Tax (EVAT) law, which raised by 2 percentage points the tax rate on consumer products and services to 12 percent and by 3 percentage points the corporate income tax to 35 percent. The new EVAT law, which was expanded to cover fuel and electricity, took effect on November 1, 2005.

New Constitution
As the popularity of President Arroyo dipped to the lowest level amid allegations that she bought her way to the presidency in the 2004 presidential elections, she was given an option to correct the loopholes in the political system by amending the 1987 Constitution. She formed a Consultative Commission to recommend charter amendments focusing on lifting all restrictions to foreign investments and paving the way for a shift in the form of government from a presidential, central system into a parliamentary, federal system.

Philippine population

Does size matter?
By RODERICK T. DELA CRUZ
TODAY Reporter
November 16, 2004
“Too many people doesn’t cause poverty; bad governance and policies do.”
Thus claimed a group of economists at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) who insist that population growth has nothing to do with the grave poverty situation in the Philippines.
In their paper, the UA&P economists said they have found no evidence that “supports the claim that a large, fast-growing population causes more poverty.”
“Moreover, we have found that it is bad governance and bad economic policies that have caused poverty,” the authors said.
The paper was written by Roberto de Vera, Emilio Antonio, Ronilo Balbieran, Enrico Basilio, Jovi Dacanay, Stephen Huang, Maia Tyche King, Winston Stan Padojinog, Cherrylyn Rodolfo, Kimberly San Agustin, Leandro Tan, Cid Terosa, Peter Lee U and Bernardo Villegas.
In its 1999 report, the World Bank noted that many Filipino economists concurred that the country’s high population growth rate was a major cause of the widespread poverty, particularly in the rural areas. It is estimated that the Philippines has a population of over 80 million people, which increases by 1.7 million or close to 2 percent every year.
Analysts said the economy, with its dwindling resources, cannot support the expansion of the population, resulting in the increasing number of poor people.
Data from the National Statistics Office show that as of 2000, 34 percent of the Philippine population and 28.4 percent of all Filipino families are living in poverty.
Figures from the United Nation Development Program are more alarming, with 46.4 percent of Filipinos reportedly living on less than $2 a day.
MOST IMPORTANT CHALLENGE
Ernesto Pernia, the former lead economist of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and now a professor at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, said the single most important challenge for the Philippines has been and continues to be high poverty incidence.
In his paper “Population: Does It Matter? Revisiting an Old Issue,” which was presented at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Pernia said that because it has neglected the issue of population growth, the Philippines has not made any significant demographic transition.
“The country’s average per capita income and labor productivity [average output per worker] today are at the same levels as in the early 1980s. Why is this so? Population does matter. It matters to the question whether we will remain in a low-level equilibrium trap or get out of it,” Pernia said.
“The country has remained in a low-level equilibrium trap which involves a chain of low economic growth, high unemployment, low productivity, persistent poverty, declining human capital and high fertility feeding back into low economic growth and so on and so forth,” he said.
In order to break this vicious chain, he said a clear and consistent population policy, matched by an adequately funded action program, is needed.
“In the other East and Southeast Asian economies, sharp reductions in poverty have occurred as a consequence of rapid and sustained growth, attributable to sound economic policies coupled with strong population policy. These countries have been benefiting from a ‘demographic bonus’ resulting from an increasing share of workers [population aged 15-64] relative to young dependents [ages 0-14],” he said.
On the other hand, Pernia said the Philippines continues to be burdened by a “demographic onus” or large share of young dependents relative to workers.
“The lack of a clear and consistent population policy starkly sets the Philippines apart from the rest of East and Southeast Asia and partly explains its anemic economic growth and persistent mass poverty,” he said.
TWO-CHILD POLICY
Pernia acknowledged that some observers would point to problems of poor governance, corruption and political economy or to exogenous shocks brought about by trade liberalization and the World Trade Organization rules as the culprit.
The counter argument to this, he said, is that these problems or circumstances have also beset or affected the other Asian economies. And so the question remains: Why have they consistently performed better than the Philippines
To address poverty, Pernia gave three suggestions:
Reduce unwanted fertility (or meet unmet needs for? contraception) through a strong national family planning program, that includes both traditional and artificial methods of contraception;
Change the preference for large family? size through an incentive structure that raises the investment per child and lowers the demand for children; and
Reduce population momentum through promoting later age at? marriage, later childbearing, and wider birth spacing, made possible by a responsive family planning program.
The Population Commission warned that at its present pace of growth, the Philippine population would double from the present 84 million to around 168 million in 29 years. At present, the Philippines is ranked as the 12th most populated nation in the planet.
A study made by the Asian Institute of Management showed that if the population grows by 2 million a year, the Philippine economy has to expand by at least 10 percent annually over the next 10 years to be where Thailand is today.
Alarmed by these figures, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman filed early this year House Bill 16, otherwise known as the Reproductive Health Care Act of 2004, which proposes a two-child policy. The bill seeks to limit the size of families to two children.
The bill also seeks to provide scholarship grants for children at the tertiary level of couples who can comply with the two-child policy.
The Catholic Church vehemently opposed the bill, saying that the roots of poverty in Philippine society go much deeper than the growing population.
DEBUNKING ASSERTIONS
In response, the economists from the UA&P, an institution that subscribes to the Opus Dei theology, denied the following assertions:
• A larger population worsens poverty. “On the contrary, poverty incidence actually went down as our population got larger,” de Vera said, explaining that as the population increased threefold from 27 million in 1961 to 76 million in 2000, the proportion of poor families fell from 59 percent in 1961 to 34 percent of all families in 2000. “It is true that poverty incidence increased from 32 percent in 1997 to 34 percent in 2000, but this increase was most likely due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis,” he added.
• Higher population densities mean lower personal incomes. De Vera argued that thickly populated areas can exhibit higher incomes and greater economic activity, noting that densely populated cities like Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao provide higher income opportunities than the less densely populated regions. For instance, Metro Manila, which had a population density of 15,617 persons per square kilometer, had a per capita income of P66,173 in 2000. This was more than thrice the per capita income of P19,291 in Central Visayas, which had a population density of 381 persons per square kilometer.
The case is similar in other countries, he said. For instance, there are countries, such as Bolivia, Kenya and Ethiopia, with lower population densities than the Philippines yet have lower personal incomes. Countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, with higher population densities also have higher personal incomes than the Philippines, he added.
De Vera said that based on their statistical analysis using population density and personal income, an average increase of 100 persons per square kilometer is associated with an increase of P292 to its personal income.
• Higher population growth leads to lower economic growth. De Vera said economic studies do not support this seemingly logical assertion, citing the 1966 book Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure and Spread by Nobel prize winner Simon Kuznets who said there is no clear association between rates of growth of population and of product per capita. Other studies, de Vera added, support Kuznets’s argument.
“So if population growth doesn’t affect economic growth, what will? Good governance and well-implemented economic policies do,” he said, adding that this is evident in the cases of East and West Germany, North and South Korea, and China and Taiwan. “In 1950, both the communist and noncommunist countries had practically the same birthrates and the centrally planned economies had less population pressure than their market-directed counterparts as measured by population per square kilometer.”
“Yet the economic growth of West Germany, South Korea and Taiwan was better than their counterpart centrally planned economies... Due to faster economic growth, personal incomes in Taiwan and South Korea were roughly double than those in China and North Korea, respectively while those in West Germany was more than 10 percent larger than East Germany’s in the 1980s,” he added.
• A larger population means more hungry and malnourished people. De Vera said that on the contrary, data from the Food and Agriculture Organization show that food supply available for consumption has increased and that the historical trend shows it will continue to outpace population growth in the future.
He said that the calories per person per day in the Philippines went up from 1,745.0 in 1961 to 2,379.3 in 2002 while the grams of protein per person increased from 40.6 to 56.1. “These national trends follow world trends,” he added.
“In some cases, it may in fact be sparse population that makes it difficult for people to access food supplies. This was the case of the famine in Sahel, West Africa in the 1970s,” he said.
• A larger population means less funds for education. De Vera said people get worried about this, since government funds may not be sufficient to provide the education needed by their citizens. However, he noted that based on the 1994 World Bank Policy Research Paper prepared by Lant Pritchett, there is no correlation between population growth and years of schooling.
In order to raise funds to construct the 18,000-classroom backlog, he said the government should instead focus its efforts in stopping tax evasion which amounted to P193.7 billion in 2001 alone and corruption, which cost the government over $48 billion over the past 20 years.
• Our population will double in 29 years. “We should not worry about this at all. First, the mere fact that our population is growing means that people are living longer,” de Vera said.
“Our growth rate is not out of control, for it is actually expected to go down, thanks to the fact that parents rationally adjust their family size based on the child mortalities and economic opportunities they face,” he said.
De Vera pointed out that the Philippines is far from reaching a “standing room only” situation. “We can fit the 2050 population of the whole Philippines in Luzon with a population density that is less than one-tenth the 2000 density of Metro Manila,” he said.
Moreover, he said the 6.396 billion people in the world today can fit on the island of Luzon, with each person getting 16 square meters of living space.
He noted that there are projections that the Philippine population will reach 166 million in 2033, or double the 83 million in 2004. However, this figure is way above the United Nations projection of only 130 million for 2033.
De Vera also said the fertility rates in the Philippines would drop from 2.36 percent in 1995-2000 to 1.98 percent in 2000-05 to 1.2 percent in 2030-35 and down to 0.92 percent in 2045-50.
• Larger families are poor families. While this may be true, de Vera insists that it would be poor judgment to use this observation as a basis for limiting the family size of poor people.
“It is not proven that a larger family size is what makes a poor family,” he said. “The more likely reason why some families are poor is the limited schooling of the household head.”
Data, he said, show that 78 percent to 90 percent of the poor households in each family size had heads with no high-school diplomas. “In other words, poor families are poor not because they are large but because most of their heads have limited schooling which prevents them from getting good paying jobs,” he said.
• Instituting a two-child policy will significantly reduce poverty. De Vera asserted that successfully implementing the two-child policy will not hasten the economic growth that will reduce poverty.
“Implementing this population control policy will put the country on a practically irreversible course of population decline and ageing whose consequences we would want to avoid,” he said.
De Vera said that according to Joseph Chamie, director of the UN Population Division, 60 countries or a third of the countries in the world have period fertility rates of below 2.1 percent. Fertility rates below the replacement rate of 2.1 percent means that these countries will eventually experience the decline and aging of their populations.
Among these countries, de Vera said, are Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Poland, South Korea and Taiwan. He noted that the population of these countries started to decline because of the two-child policy.
“Instead of implementing a two-child population policy, we should focus our efforts on cashing in on a possible demographic dividend,” he said. This exists when a previously fast growing population decreases it growth rate and thus results in the labor force growing faster than the dependent population of children and elderly.
“If the proper policies are in place during this demographic stage, then the expected increase in savings and labor supply can be harnessed to sustain rapid economic growth that reduces poverty,” he said.
The Philippines, de Vera said, has a 35-year window of opportunity to reap this possible demographic dividend.
“Thus, nongovernment organizations, firms and government should focus their efforts on providing these future workers with access to education and training programs to prepare them to take well-paid jobs,” he concluded.

Symbols of the Philippines, Philippine Symbols

The Philippine Flag

It was first unfurled during the proclamation of Philippine independence in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898. The flag consists of blue and red horizontal stripes, representing the love for peace and bravery of the Filipinos. In times of peace, the flag is hoisted with blue stripe at the top, and when in war, the red stripe is on top. A white equilateral triangle on the left hoist side has a yellow sunburst with eight rays in its centre, representing the first eight provinces that took up arms against Spain – Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Tarlac. Three yellow stars near the angles of the triangle symbolize the three major island groupings – Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The National Anthem

The Philippine Flag is raised to the tune of the Philippine National Anthem, which was first played by the musical band of San Francisco de Malabon on June 12, 1898. Music teacher Julian Felipe is recognized as the composer of the national anthem while poet Jose Palma wrote its Spanish lyrics. From the original Spanish lyrics, Felipe de Leon translated the poem into an elegant Tagalog version – Lupang Hinirang - the one sung at the opening ceremony of formal occasions to this day.

Other National Symbols

National Costumes. Barong Tagalog or the national costume for men consists of elegantly embroidered fabric. This is worn in formal occasions and public offices. Baro't Saya is the national costume for women. This combination of blouse and long skirt is worn only during formal occasions.

Bahay Kubo (Nipa Hut) consists of nipa and bamboo components. It has for a long time symbolized the national architectural design of houses in the Philippines. To this day, however, only a few houses in the provinces are made from nipa and bamboo.

Jeepney – Although it is not officially recognized as a national symbol, it is the most common type of vehicle on Philippine streets. The word "jeep" evolved from the military designation, general-purpose or G.P., of a light vehicle first used by the Americans in World War II. After the war, these vehicles were left by the Americans and converted by the Filipinos into longer public utility vehicles, with artistic and indigenous designs.

Tinikling is the official national dance of the Philippines. This folk dance involves two long pieces of bamboos where dancers gracefully move their feet without being trapped.

Sipa is the national sport, although it is rarely played in the Philippines today. This sport involves a round ball made of local materials that has to be kept in the air by kicking for the longest time possible.

Sampaguita, a flower of Jasmine variety (Jasminium sambac), was declared as the National Flower of Philippines in 1934. Known for its strong fragrance, sampaguita is used as an ornament and deodorizer in public utility vehicles.

Lechon or roasted pig is regarded as a national dish of the Philippines, although it is common in many countries. Lechon is a must in lavish parties, including feasts and weddings.

Mango or Mangifera indica in scientific term is recognised as the national fruit of the Philippines, although the country’s major fruit exports are bananas and pineapples. In 1995, the Guinness Book of World records listed the Carabao Mango of the Philippines as the sweetest fruit in the world.

Bangus or Chanos chanos in scientific term is known around the world as milkfish. For many years, this fish has been abundant in the Philippines and is a common item in a typical meal of the Filipinos. However, bangus now has a strong competitor – tilapia, the most widely cultivated species in the country’s growing aquaculture industry.

Philippine Eagle, considered as the second largest in the world, is endemic to the Philippines. With scientific name Pithecophaga jefferyi, the Philippine eagle lives in the rainforests of Isabela, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao. It has similarities with Papua New Guinea's Harpy Eagle (Harpyopsis novaeguinea). Included in the endangered list, the Philippine Eagle was declared as the national bird to ensure its protection and continued existence in the future.

Carabao or Bubalus bubalis in scientific term is a domesticated type of water buffalo, which for a long time has played a crucial part in the livelihood of the Filipino farmers. It is recognized as the national animal.

Narra or Pterocarpus indicus in scientific term is the source of the toughest and most expensive lumbers in the world. It is the national tree of the Philippines.

Cultural Champions

Madrigal Singers
The Madrigal singers won the grand prize in the Florilège Vocal de Tours 2006 in Tours, France. It also won the grand prize in the 1997 European Grand Prix.

Choir
The UA&P Chorale won three golds in three separate categories - Mixed Choir, Mixed Youth Choir, and Chamber Choir - in the 23rd International Choral Festival of Preveza held in Greece in July 2005.

Loboc Choir
The Loboc Children's Choir of Bohol garnered the first prize at the 6th International Folksong Choir Festival in Barcelona, Spain.

Dancers
The 72-member Shirley Halili-Cruz School of Ballet took the overall title in the 2006 Asia-Pacific Ballet Dance competition in Singapore and brought home 23 gold trophies and 35 medals.
The group won in all five categories including neoclassical ballet, classical ballet, modern ballet, natural ballet and demi-character ballet.

Ballerina
Christine Joy Rocas won the silver medal at the 8th New York
International ballet competition.

Photographers
Filipino scuba divers Scott Tuason and Eduardo Cu Unjieng, who published the book "Anilao" won the International Prize for Underwater Images at the 27th World Festival of Underwater Images in France in November 2000.

Hiphop
A Filipino dance group won the 2006 World Hip Hop dance competition in Southern California.

Bloggers
Myla Villanueva, head of Philippine-based MDI Group, has developed BlogStar, a blogging tool used by Hollywood celebrities like Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, Wesley Snipes, Caprice, Juliette Lewis, Bam Margera, Kelly Slater, David Arquette, Nick Lachey, The Game, Alicia Silverstone, Nicky Hilton, Jack Osbourne, Tom Green, West Coast Customs, and Ryan Cabrera.

Montreal Film Fest
The Philippines-made film "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros" won the first place in the First Films World Competition at the 29th Montreal World Film Festival in Canada.