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Merry Christmas to all of you.

December 24 2012

OOPS, THE PHILIPPINES HAS 7,107 ISLANDS

AND TWO DISPUTED TERRITORIES

In the haste to post an interesting interview by a Chinese TV Channel with Fil-Am philantrophist Loida Nicolas Lewis, I wrote in the opening paragraph of my post yesterday that the Philippines has 1,107 islands.

Liker Jiegs Salvador spotted the error and corrected me.

Yes, the Philippines has 7,107 islands and I could not think of any other country in the world which has so many islands as part of its territory.

There are stil two disputed territories: Sabah which is owned by the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu and leased to a British company and the islands west of the Philippines which are being claimed by China.

President Aquino and the Philippines now refer to the South China sea as the West Philippine sea.

How much do we really know about our country?

I decided to copy and paste some important data about our country the Philippines just to refresh our memories.

Republic of the Philippines

Republika ng Pilipinas

Motto: Maka-Diyos, Maka-Tao, Makakalikasan, at Makabansa[1]

(“For God, People, Nature, and Country”)

Anthem: Lupang Hinirang

Capital Manila[2]

14°35′N 121°0′E / 14.583°N 121°E / 14.583; 121

Largest city Quezon City

Official languages: Filipino, English

Recognised regional languages Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Pampango, Pangasinense, Tagalog, Waray[3]

Optional languagesa Spanish and Arabic[4]

National language Filipino

Demonym Filipino

Government: Unitary. presidential. constitutional. republic

– President Benigno Aquino III (LP)

– Vice President Jejomar Binay (PDP-Laban)

– Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (PMP)

– House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. (LP)

– Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno

Legislature Congress

– Upper house Senate

– Lower house House of Representatives

Independence from Spain

from United States

– Established April 27, 1565

– Declared June 12, 1898

– Recognized July 4, 1946

– Self-government March 24, 1934

– Current constitution February 2, 1987

Area

– Land 300,000 km2 [5](73rd)

186,420 sq mi

– Water (%) 0.61%[6](inland waters)

Population

– 2010 census 92,337,852[7]

– Density 308.0/km2 (43rd)

797.2/sq mi

GDP (PPP) 2012 estimate

– Total $411.903 billion[8]

– Per capita $4,214[8]

GDP (nominal) 2012 estimate

– Total $227.584 billion[8]

– Per capita $2,328[8]

Gini (2006) 45.8[6] (medium) (44th)

HDI (2011) 0.644[9] (medium) (112th)

Currency Peso (Filipino: piso)

₱ (PHP)

Time zone PST (UTC+8)

– Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+8)

Drives on the right[10]

Calling code +63

ISO 3166 code PH

Internet TLD .ph

^a The 1987 Philippine constitution specifies, “Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.”
^b Philippine revolutionaries declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, but the Spanish claim of sovereignty was passed from Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. This led to the Philippine–American War.

The Philippines i/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/ FI-lə-peenz (Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. Covering almost three hundred thousand square kilometres (over 186,000 sq mi) make it the 73rd largest independent nation[11] and an archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.

With a population of more than 92 million[7] people, the Philippines is the seventh most populated Asian country and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12 million Filipinos live overseas.[12] Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago’s earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade and subsequent Chinese settlement eventually introduced Chinese cultural influences which remain to this day.

The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 marked the beginning of an era of Spanish interest and eventual colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. The Spanish Empire began to settle with the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from New Spain (present day-Mexico) in 1565 who established the first Spanish settlement in the archipelago, which remained a Spanish colony for more than 300 years.

Manila became the Asian hub of the Manila–Acapulco galleon fleet. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, there followed in quick succession the Philippine Revolution, which spawned the short-lived First Philippine Republic; the Spanish-American War; and the Philippine–American War. In the aftermath, the United States emerged as the dominant power; aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands. After the World War II,[13] the Treaty of Manila established the Philippine Republic as an independent nation.[14] Since then, the Philippines has had an often tumultuous experience with democracy, with popular “people power” movements overthrowing a dictatorship in one instance but also underlining the institutional weaknesses of its constitutional republic in others.

Source: Manny Piñol