More on the Philippines - History and Geography

I’ll confess – I didn’t and still don’t know much about the Philippines. It wasn’t until I looked at my Rough Guide Southeast Asia book that I realized the Philippines were in Southeast Asia – I thought they were off somewhere on their own in the Pacific. I was very close when I was in Indonesia. I’ll also confess – the Philippines hasn’t been on my list of places to go. I knew it has stunning, under-visited beaches and I knew it had the Bataan Death March and other WWII history and I know about Marcos and People Power and Corazon Aquino, and I feel I’ve always known or worked with someone who was Filipino – but that’s about it. Now that I’m going I am excited about it, and of course I am starting to learn more.

Lonely Planet Philippines and Culture Shock Philippines are on the way, along with a Tagalog phrase book (there are about 85 languages spoken there, but Tagalog is one of the official ones - my high school Spanish may come in handy as well) and a travel map, but in the meantime, some information from the Peace Corps Welcome Book and from the Rough Guide is in order.

The first people, the Negritos, are believed to have come from Borneo and Sumatra, and their descendants, the Malays, were the dominant group until the Spanish arrived in the 16th Century. Chinese merchants and traders came in the 9th Century and Arabs in the 14th; these are also important influences. Magellan claimed the islands for Spain, naming them after King Philip (he – Magellan, that is – was killed in a skirmish days later). The islands remained under Spanish rule for 377 years; in 1898, the islands were ceded to the U.S. after the Spanish-American War. Japan occupied the islands during WWII; they became independent from the United States on July 4, 1946 (so maybe they celebrate July 4 as Independence Day? I guess I will be there to find out!). There’s currently a constitutional government, with a president who serves a six-year term and a bicameral Congress composed of 24 senators and 250 representatives, 16 administrative regions divided into 81 provinces, provinces administered by governors, municipalities administered by mayors, and village communities called barangays, after the Malay term for the boats that carried settlers to the islands.

There are 7100 islands, around 2000 of which are inhabited. Only about 500 are larger than half a square mile, and 2500 do not even have names. The archipelago stretches 1100 miles north to south and includes mountain ranges and inland and coastal plains. The country has a tropical marine climate. Lowland areas (where I think I will be) are warm and humid throughout the year, with average mean temperature 80 degrees (27, that is – I should get re-used to Celsius). The Philippines lies within the typhoon belt and has an average of 15 typhoons (known as hurricanes in the U.S.) every year between July and October. The wet season is May through October; August is the wettest month. December or January is usually the coolest month and May the hottest. There are 37 volcanoes, of which 18 are active, and there are also destructive earthquakes.