Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon contains many prehistoric stone tools that reflect the presence of hominid hunting of big game such as Stegodon ( elephant prehistoric), the rhinoceros , the crocodile , the tortoise , the boar and deer. The caves Tabon , located on the island of Palawan , show traces of installation that date back over 30,500 years, these hunter-gatherers using shards of flint as a tool. In Mindanao , these prehistoric tools abound, that the national hero Jose Rizal himself remarks in the 1880s, thanks to its numerous scientific knowledge and its contacts with the community archaeological Spanish and German ^{The Sea Peoples}

The South China Sea has currents that rotate in the opposite direction clockwise. In fact, during the monsoon in south-west, between June and September, the navigation from the west coast of the Philippines to northern South China Sea is simplified. During the northeast monsoon is from December to February is the navigation between the South China Sea and Vietnam becomes easier. From Vietnam, browsers and can travel east along latitude 11 and 14 degrees, flights to Palawan and Mindoro in boats for shallow draft.

Residential areas are chosen for their fresh water resources, but as land is abundant, trade with other peoples of the Sea provides support to cultural and religious exchanges.

Jars buried

The fact of burying jars is a tradition that is practiced from Sri Lanka to the plain of Jars of Laos but also in Japan. There are also traces of these practices in the caves of Tabon to Palawan. An example of such a jar, used as a funeral urn at school, is kept at the National Museum of the Philippines. This national treasure is an earthenware jar with lid is surmounted by two figures, one representing the deceased with his arms crossed and hands touching the shoulders, the other representing a helmsman. Both are sitting in a proa with a pole is absent. At this time, the funeral rites are practiced side throughout the Philippines: the bones are buried a second time, and some in jars provided for that purpose. Sixty-eighteen pottery terracotta funerary vocation were also found in the cave Manunggul, Palawan.

Barter and Trade

A museum piece - a pickaxe (NdT adze English) ceremonial jade, nearly 7 inches long and remarkable quality for a primitive tool - is a clue to the sources of wealth of the Philippines. But it is unclear exactly what these people were exchanging browsers except perhaps jade and gold.

Initially, the most popular items are the jars, a symbol of wealth throughout Southeast Asia, and later, metal, tobacco and salt. This is traded against leather, rhino horn, hornbill beaks, beeswax, beeswax, birds nests, resin.

History

A document could overturn the accepted theories for the history of the Philippines. This is a copper plate discovered in 1989 in the Bay of Laguna near Manila, and we dubbed " Laguna copperplate. Written in an alphabet similar to the inscriptions Javanese from the same period, she bears the date 822 of the Saka era , ie 900 AD It has the following features compared to entries in Java

• You will not find mention of the king Balitung , who ruled over Central Java at the time (899-910).
• The language used is a mixture of Sanskrit , old- Javanese , old- Malay and Old Tagalog.
• The inscription appears to have been hammered in copper, whereas in Java, we wrote while on the heated copper.

The archipelago of Sulu in southern Philippines is on a shipping route that runs from China to the Moluccas. Trade with Chinese merchants made his prosperity. The Kingdom of Sulu is probably founded in the late fourteenth ^century.

The Asian maritime trade

Since the ^third century, the peoples of the Philippines are in contact with other peoples of Southeast Asia , particularly from Indochina , Borneo and Sumatra. With the advent of the Ming dynasty , they move into the sphere of influence China. This is the thalassocracy or coastal governance prevails.

History Hispanic

It was long thought that the Negritos , a population which still remains to the Philippines and Indonesia , were the first inhabitants of the Philippines. From south-eastern Asia , they would have reached the islands by crossing ice bridges during the last glacial period. However, archaeological discoveries of recent decades reveal the presence of a group prior to the Negritos, type Negroid Oceanic and Australoid.

Excavations in the Valley of Cagayan have unearthed the fossilized remains of animals along with tools. So there was a human species, perhaps as old as the Peking Man and Java Man , long before the arrival of the Negritos, but to date, no bones no human was exhumed. The oldest known human remains are those of the man Tabon (about 22,000 BC. BC , discovered in 1962 in the Tabon Cave, north of the island of Palawan. In this cave, located in a cliff face the South China Sea , they found a skull fossil, other human bones and animal (birds, bats) and stone tools that date back cut by shrapnel in the late Pleistocene. The Negritos have therefore succeeded in this group before they themselves are not pushed towards the mountains Indonesian Migration ^{(VIII-III millennium} BC.) and discomfort (II ^centuryBC. - XIII ^century AD.).

Until around 1000 AD, the Philippines had a population organized into tribes scattered, settled mostly in small isolated villages or living a semi- nomadic in the highlands of the interior. These tribes derived their livelihood from the cultivation of rice and fish , or the nomads of the hunt , the gathering and shifting cultivation. Malay immigrants imported it from iron and weaving.

The contacts of these tribes with the outside world, until very reduced, proliferated in part of the year 1000 , with the advent of increasingly frequent traders Chinese , Indian , Arab and Indonesian bartered ceramics , textiles , metals and certainly all kinds of beads cons of pearls , the coral , the gold of rice and fish dried. The Chinese, who had established trade from the ^ninth century , settled in permanent communities XII ^century. The Philippines then passed under the dominion of the kingdoms of marine Indo-Malay Sri Vijaya on the island of Sumatra and then Majapahit , on the island of Java. In the ^fourteenth century , a new wave of immigration began to spread unease of Islam, first in the islands of Sulu and Mindanao, and then further north to Luzon and the Visayas.

The Spanish period

Ferdinand Magellan (Ferno Magalhaes), explorer Portuguese traveling on behalf of Spain , is the first European to arrive in the Philippines, 16 March 1521. The islands were named in honor of the Infant of Spain, later Philip II of Spain , by Ruy Lpez de Villalobos soon after their discovery. The archipelago has entered the Spanish colonial empire from 1565.

In 1578 , Spain launched an expedition against the Sultanate of Sulu. Sulu responds by raiding the coastal towns of Luzon and Visayas, controlled by the Spaniards. The colonial government sends at least five punitive expeditions against Sulu. In 1638 , he held the capital, Jolo, and leaves a garrison. In 1646 , the garrison was recalled to Manila and Sulu is abandoned.

In 1611 (less than a century after the landing of Magellan ), the first university in the country, but also from Asia, is established, namely Santo Tomas, which remains one of the major references manilnes current.

Failing to have gold and spices, the country was seen as a beachhead for evangelism in China and Japan. The first Filipino saint, Lorenzo Ruiz, is also an Indio brought with him from St. Francis Xavier. If the religious purpose has failed due to the reactions, negative to say the least, the empires of China and Japan to the Christian presence, the church was quickly invested in the Philippines by the Spanish monarchs, extended powers (justice, public order, tax collection). This is what historians refer to the Filipino word for friocracy - the reign of the brothers (in the sense of religious orders).

In fact, until the early ^nineteenth century, formal authority in the archipelago has been exercised since the distant Mexico , the hometown of the Viceroy in charge of the Philippines. Remoteness of Mexico , away from Madrid : the influence of the Church was not only stronger, with a number of consequences are still visible today: a string of religious buildings unique Asia (and the world If one thinks of the typical architecture of churches Philippines), an economy dominated by the importance of property (when orders were separated from their property after independence in 1898, they sold them to some large white or mestizo families still powerful), a culture that was relatively non-violent and conservative in terms of birth control, among others. Professor Teodoro A. Agoncillo, author of a History of the Filipino people ^(8th ed. 1990) talks about this a phenomenon of amalgamation of Church and State. The stranglehold of religious powers is finely described and analyzed in the novels of Jose Rizal (1861-1896).

In the 1840s, the interest of colonial powers to Sulu increases. The Spanish colonial government again holds Jolo in 1851. Extended over the Sultanate of Sulu archipelago and the northern coast of Borneo (or East of the current Sabah in Malaysia ). In 1877 , the sultan, who had fled to another island, gives his possessions in Borneo leased to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After a long resistance, Sulu agrees to become a vassal of Spain in 1878. Spain evacuates Sulu in 1899.

In the late nineteenth ^century developed a liberation movement, one of the key figures was the poet and writer Jose Rizal. Eye surgeon trained in Europe, he feeds his revolutionary project a design inspired by his reading of Don Quixote. Nicknamed the Don Quixote of the Philippines, he was executed by Spanish authorities in 1896. He immediately became a national martyr, which strengthens the resistance to colonial rule.

The American period

The United States encourages the independence movement and decide to intervene militarily in the Philippines at the invitation of Aguinaldo ( Spanish-American War ). On 10 December 1898 , the Treaty of Paris ends the conflict. Spain, however, does not grant independence to the Philippines but sells for U.S. 20 million. Colonization then continues under the yoke of a new master. Therefore, from the 4 February 1899 , a new war between the Filipino independence movement in the United States ( Philippine-American War ). Begins an intensive period of dshispanisation in favor of a anglicized culture. In 1935 , the U.S. granted the Philippines a semi-autonomous status to accompany the country to independence. From that date, a president is elected at the international level. Quezon is the first, which gave its name to one of the towns on the outskirts of Manila.

In 1937 , upon proposal of the National Language Institute, President Quezon is the Tagalog, the dialect spoken around the capital and the Pasig River, the national language. We note here that fifty years later, the 1987 Constitution (Article XIV, Section 6) provides that the national language is Filipino, broader than Tagalog. English has its place, however: "for purpose of communication and instruction, The Official Language Japanese occupation

In 1942 , during the Second World War , the country came under Japanese occupation , the resistance movements are very active and Punishment Japanese fierce. The occupation forces committed many atrocities including the death march of Bataan (about 20 000 deaths) and the massacre of Manila in February 1945 , where more than 100,000 civilians are killed. Gen. Douglas MacArthur , who was unable to repel the initial invasion and must flee to Australia , leaving their men, took his revenge in 1944-1945 and releases the archipelago. The country obtained its independence on July 4 1946.

The contemporary period

After the war, the Philippines is still one of the most developed countries of Asia / A>. Subsequently, development is delayed because of low economic growth, rapid population growth and a high rate of corruption. Currently, growth is moderate compared to neighboring countries of Southeast Asia, mainly driven by contributions from a large population of migrant workers, the OFWs - Overseas Filipino Workers (often installed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Persian Gulf countries, but also the United States and Europe, particularly Italy) - as well as foreign direct investment. These investments are held in the areas of information technology and communication ( ICT ) but also in sectors that require low labor cost.

Southern countries, particularly the island of Mindanao , is experiencing a political crisis due to separatist movements Muslims like Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front , the opposition since the 1970s to power Manila, very close to Catholic Church.

Politics

The Philippines are a virtual independence March 24, 1934 the Tydings-McDuffy Act. The first president was elected in 1935 , while the Philippines received full independence. The governmental system of the Philippines is based on the system American. The constitution of 1987 , adopted under Corazon Aquino , restores a presidential system with a bicameral legislature and an independent judiciary.

Executive branch

The president, elected by popular vote to serve six years, accumulated loads of head of state, prime minister and commander of the armed forces. He appoints and may dismiss ministers. He can not stand for another term, except in the context of a constitutional succession and is in position for less than four years. The Vice President is also elected by universal suffrage. Although this is not always the case, it is usually part of the Presidential Cabinet.

Legislative branch

The Philippine parliament is composed of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Members of both houses are elected by universal suffrage. The Senate has 24 members elected without electoral districts for a term of six years. It can be represented once. The House of Representatives has 250 members, of whom 206 are elected by the people in single-seat constituencies. The remaining 44 members are elected through a complicated system of lists submitted by parties. All are elected for a term of three years and may be represented twice consecutively. If one or more seats are vacant during a legislature, the Chamber may decide to hold a byelection. Elected candidates sit for the end of the legislature, which is counted as a full term.

Judiciary

The Supreme Court is the highest court of the Philippines. The president said Chief Justice and Associate Justices said 14 judges are appointed by the president on recommendation of Judicial Council. See also: Constitution of the United States which has greatly inspired the establishment of the Philippines

International Relations

The Philippines is a founding member of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). It is also an active participant in the APEC Economic Cooperation (for Asia-Pacific), a member of the G-24 and one of 51 founding states of the United Nations on 24 October 1945. The Philippines is currently in conflict with Taiwan , the People's Republic of China , and Malaysia regarding the Spratly Islands are rich in hydrocarbons, and with Malaysia about the state of Sabah. The fact that the Sultan of Sulu received this territory in 1703 the Sultan of Brunei is at the root of the current claim of the Philippines.

Subdivisions

The Philippines is divided into a hierarchy of local units of government (Local Government Units, LGUs), the province (lalawigan in Filipino ) is the subdivision basis. In 2002, there are 79 provinces in the country, grouped into 17 regions (rehiyon). The provinces are subdivided into cities and municipalities, which themselves are composed of barangays. The barangay is the smallest LGU.

Regions are generally organized to group provinces with similar cultural characteristics and ethnological.

The provinces are grouped into regions for administrative convenience. Most government offices have offices at the regional level, usually in the city with the status of regional capital.

The regions themselves do not have a separate governing body, except the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordillera Administrative Region , which are autonomous.

In 2002, the Philippines has 17 regions. The regions are geographically combined into three island groups: Luzon , the Visayas and Mindanao.

Cities

• Capital: Manila (with one-seventh of the Philippine population)
• Other main cities: Cebu , Davao , Quezon City , Zamboanga , Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod City, Iloilo , Angeles , General Santos City, Batangas ...

Geology

The Philippines would be developed as a result of violent movements of uplift and depression of the Asian continental plate, which they have once belonged to Borneo. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes would then fragmented this landmass. Folded in the late Tertiary , and then subjected to tectonic brittle very high amplitude, the terrain is characterized in part by mountain ranges to narrow plains and few and secondly, by the proximity of ocean trenches among deepest in the world (over 11,000 meters to the east of Mindanao ). Even today, the combined action of volcanoes, earthquakes , the monsoon and typhoon continues to shape the face of the archipelago.

The Mount Apo , the highest point of the Philippines stands at 2954 meters altitude on the island of Mindanao. The main peaks are volcanoes , including a dozen remain active, the most formidable being the Mount Mayon (2,451 m) and Taal , on the island of Luzon. The archipelago is indeed for the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Geography

The Philippines consist of an archipelago of 7,107 islands with a total area of approximately 300 439 km ^2. The islands extend from north to south for 1,800 km and from east to west over 1100 km. They are divided into three groups: Luzon (Regions I to V + NCR & CAR), where is the capital, Manila , the Visayas (VI to VIII) and Mindanao (IX to XIII + ARMM). Most of the mountainous islands are covered with tropical forests and volcanic origin as evidenced by frequent earthquakes and twenty active volcanoes such as Pinatubo. The archipelago is also subject to typhoons in the Pacific from the west at a rate of fifteen per year, especially between May and October. The port of Manila on the island of Luzon , is the capital and second largest city after Quezon City. The most highest peak is Mount Apo on Mindanao island which rises to 2,954 meters.

Relief

Of volcanic origin, the islands of the Philippines are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Several volcanoes are active, the latter being the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. Another active volcano, Mount Mayon , shows the silhouette closer to the perfect cone in the world. The relief is characterized in part by mountain ranges to the plains, narrow few and partly by the proximity of ocean trenches among the deepest in the world , with over 11 000 meters east of Mindanao. All the islands have beaches, but these are mostly narrow and the broad plains and navigable rivers are rare. Most islands were covered with tropical forest , but deforestation has reduced its surface to 10% of the country.

Climate

The country is located in the tropics, but more particularly to a tropical humid eastern country is almost constantly watered, while the west is experiencing a dry season and rainy monsoon in summer. Its climate is hot and humid room. In the dry season, temperatures range between 28 and 37 but in the rainy season, temperatures regress between 25 and 31. The average annual temperature is about 29 C. The Philippines generally experience three seasons: Tag-init or Tag-araw (the hot season or summer from March to May ), Tag-ulan (the rainy season from June to November ) and TAG-lamg (the cold season from December to February ). The climate virtually no thermal amplitude to define the seasons. Average annual rainfall is approximately 1900 mm in the plains, and on most islands, the rainy season coincides with the summer monsoon, which lasts from May to October, when the wind blows from the southwest. The archipelago is not spared from typhoons and tropical storms come their way into June and October: Late November 2004 , one of these rainfall events hit the north and is about 500 dead or missing, the ¹ December 2006 , mudslides consecutive rains of Typhoon Durian have buried a thousand people at the foot of Mount Mayon.

Economy

The Philippine economy, whose GDP is approximately 98 billion, relies mainly on agriculture , a sector which remains uncompetitive due to lack of infrastructure, although the industry has grown significantly since 1945. The services sector represents more than half of GDP and has the movement of Western companies outsourcing such as call centers. The Filipino people working abroad are widely involved in the national economy, since it contributes about 10% of the GDP.

Agricultural: 40% of the population depends on it. Main crops: tobacco , products of coconut ⁽¹ exporter in the world), pineapple , banana ⁽² nd largest exporter), rice (16 ^th largest producer), maize (13 ^th largest producer), Manila hemp , sugarcane (11 ^e world producer), coffee (14 ^th largest producer), timber (in Mindanao) for the Japan and the coconut. Since the 2000s, and because of strong demographics, the Philippines are no longer self-sufficient in rice production, so they should now importing Asian neighbors like Vietnam for example.

GDP per capita Source: IMF, World Economic Outlook Database ( 2006 ): U.S. 5 314

Minerals: The chrome , the gold , the copper ore and iron are the main natural resources of the Philippines.

The Philippines are part of the Economic Cooperation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

The unemployment rate in the Philippines is 7.3%.

Demographics

In 1960 the Philippines had 27 million inhabitants. In 2010, they are more than 92 million.

The total life expectancy of the Philippines is 70.8 years. For men it is 67.89 years and for women 73.85 years. Regarding the birth rate, we found no 24.7 births per 1000 inhabitants and the mortality rate, 5.32 deaths per 1000 inhabitants. The fertility rate is 3 children per woman.

The country is overwhelmingly Catholic. Filipinos are very religious and Sunday services and Friday were well attended. Holy Week gives rise to large parades and real crucifixions , though condemned by the Church. Some people are indeed attached to the cross during Good Friday to commemorate the crucifixion of Christ, and remain so throughout the day. It is a voluntary gesture, often performed by the same people who see it as a way of penance.

The distribution of religions is as follows:

• Catholics , Christians 80.1%
• Muslim 14.4%
• Protestants 3.6%
• Buddhists and / or other 1.9%

Health

Expenditures for health were 3.2% of GDP in 2003. The AIDS is not common in the Philippines.

Languages

The Philippines has two official languages: the English and Tagalog. Approximately 180 languages and dialects are customary in the whole country, all of which are Austronesian languages. 12 have more than one million speakers , comprising 94% of the population. Each language has its own geographical area, but during the nineteenth ^century, the promotion of Tagalog and massive emigration to the main island of Mindanao in populations of other islands in the archipelago has somewhat altered the traditional division.

Among these languages include:

• The Cebuano , the language of the island of Cebu is spoken as mother tongue by 29% of the population . He also spoke on some nearby islands like Bohol , Negros Oriental , partly in the islands of Leyte and Samar and more recently on Mindanao.
• The Tagalog , the language of Southern Luzon including Manila, is spoken by 26% of the population .
• The Ilocano , a language of northern Luzon is spoken by 10% of the population .
• The hiliganon or illongo, language of the islands of Panay and Negros is spoken by 9% of the population .
• The bicolano, language of the Bicol peninsula, south-east of Luzon is spoken by 5% of the population.
• Waray-Waray the, language of Samar and eastern Leyte , is spoken by only 4% of the population
• The pampagan and Pangasinan, languages northwest of Manila, are spoken, respectively, by 3% and 2% of the population
• The Maranao, the Maguindanao, Mindanao languages and Tausug language of the island of Jolo , are each spoken by about 1.5% of the population, exclusively Muslim populations .

The Spanish , despite the long colonization, is spoken by only about 3 million people. Before colonization, there was no common language in the Philippine archipelago. But the Spanish will not only spoken by the colonizers and the elite Philippine restricted (which will nevertheless be the emergence of Filipino literature in Spanish in the late ^nineteenth century). Although an official language of the constitution of 1935, it will be supplanted by English. It is only spoken by 3 million people (half at the end of the Second World War) but is an auxiliary language, like Arabic in the south.

The English , the Filipino is used in teaching, in the central administration, in business and in many media .

As for Filipino , it is growing but it is estimated that at least 20% of the population do not properly control , forcing the country, according to region, practicing bi or trilingual.

Cooking

Filipino cuisine consists of food, preparation methods and eating habits found in the archipelago. The style of cooking and food associated with it have evolved over several centuries from its original Malayo-Polynesian and mixed with various backgrounds such qu'hispaniques, Chinese, American, Asian and other influences appropriate to indigenous ingredients and local tastes.

Filipinos traditionally eat three main meals a day - or agahan almusal (breakfast), tanghalan (lunch) and hapunan (dinner), plus an afternoon snack called merienda (another variant is minandl or minindl). The dishes range from very simple, like a meal of fish and salty fried rice , the paella to develop and cocidos created for the holidays.

Popular dishes include lechon ( pig roast whole), longganisa ( sausage Filipino), tapa ( beef dried), torta ( omelette ), adobo ( chicken and / or pork braised with garlic sauce, soy and vinegar ) , kaldereta (stewed goat in tomato ), mechado (beef or pork cooked in a tomato sauce), pochero (beef banana and tomato sauce), afritada (pork or beef simmered in a tomato sauce with vegetables ) Kare-Kare (oxtail and vegetables cooked in sauce of peanuts ), leg crispy PATA (pork), hamonado (pork in a sweet sauce of pineapple ), sinigang (pork, fish or shrimp in tamarind stew), pancit ( noodles fried) and lumpia ( spring rolls , fresh or fried).

Flora and Fauna

According to a legend of Java , the Asia once formed a single continent that was fragmented into nine land. The many common elements of the fauna and flora that give their secret unit in the islands now scattered (and excite the curiosity of scientists), provide some credence to the legend. As a result of lower sea levels 5000 years ago, a series of necks have emerged in the shallow waters between the island of Palawan and Borneo , and between the island of Mindanao and Sulawesi. These land bridges allowed migration of fauna and flora including the adjustments and changes are a delight for naturalists. It is thus more than sixty plant species endemic to Borneo in the southern islands of Mindoro , Palawan and Mindanao. Some plants identified as originating from Sulawesi and Maluku are very widespread in the Philippines: it is mainly ferns , with orchids and dipterocarp, the tree National, also known as narra, up to 35 meters high, abundant in the forests of the primary islands.

Wilderness areas of Palawan and Calamian islands nearby are home to some animal species such as musk , the weasel , the mongoose , the porcupine , the skunk , the anteater and otter , which is found within land of Borneo. Some species of shrews of Palawan, and a rare species of bat in Mindanao are also Sulawesi. Beneath the water, there are a multitude of fish common to the east of Sumatra , west of Borneo and south-western Philippines. Finally, many birds from Malaysia and Borneo come to nest in Palawan.

It also seems that a land bridge, older than the southern passages, once linked the Philippines to the island of Taiwan , when it was still joined to mainland Asia. The remains of a prehistoric species of elephant dwarf, the Stegodon , have indeed been found both in Taiwan and in several regions of the Philippines.

Education

In the Philippines, the school is free and compulsory for all children aged seven to twelve years. While Tagalog is taught and, in smaller classes, local dialects are used, the English nevertheless remains the first language taught. The influence of Spain and the Catholic Church was dominant. The Church has more than 400 schools, more than a hundred universities including the University of San Tomas, founded in 1619. This imprint Hispanic and religious explains the high literacy rate is 97% while it is still less than 90% in Asia , South East.

Sports

In the Philippines, as in many countries of Asia , the passion of sport merges to play and Paris, as evidenced by three major international sporting events that inflamed their considerable occasioned of paris: the historic boxing match between Muhammad Ali to Joe Frazier 1 octrobre 1975 in Manila or the World Championship of basketball as well in Manila in 1978 and that same year, the final of the World Chess Championship in which Viktor Korchnoi faced Anatoli Karpov in Baguio.

As well as the arts and gastronomy , sports practiced in the Philippines are the hallmark of successive colonizers. The golf course , golf shirt , a passion for basketball , are all signs of the American presence. Only those called to remove the bamboo bowl of football. Besides the sports of Western origin are still a few "games" that are more traditional performed only marginally over the past fifteen years: the sipa , yet still very popular in Thailand and Malaysia , where this form of struggle that Ifuagos practice on the occasion of traditional festivals.

Basketball

Basketball is the most popular sport in the country and practiced by most people, the only Asian country where he has really taken a major boom since the creation in 1975 of a national championship career to appear before another twenty-three years later, but financially was arrested in 2002. Although the Filipino players generally do not benefit from the stature of their western adversaries, they are among the best in the world. All year is punctuated by amateur competitions, tournaments, school, regional meetings, international and professional leagues. Filipinos ranked fifth at the Olympic Games Basketball in 1932, and for over sixty years, are the undisputed champions of Asia. The passion for basketball is partly because the equipment is simple and the smaller field. Each city has its own basketball court, neighbors often the place of the church and town hall. From a young age, children learn to play, improvising with baskets of poor but efficient means of construction as basket ball.

Golf

Few countries in Asia can match the quantity and quality of golf courses Filipino. There are over fifteen sites across the archipelago, including the oldest of all the south-east Asia by side with the latest creations of the most prestigious leading designer of golf courses in the world. The Metro Manila , with its scores of course, can boast of being the first capital of Asian golf. It is not uncommon for Japanese to learn the basics of the sport on the training grounds of Tokyo and then go to his first trip to Manila.

The golf courses of the Philippines are based in an environment that offers golfers all the assets that complement the sporting pleasure: the eternal sunshine, clean air of the sea and mountains, hills of coconut and pine. On the island of Panay in the Western Visayas in the city of Iloilo City , is the Golf Course Santa Barbara , which was built by American soldiers in the early twentieth ^century, which, despite its modest pace, is probably the oldest of the archipelago and even from across Asia. Further east, in Central Visayas , one of the city of Cebu City ( Negros Oriental ), offers interesting and challenging course, the best known is the Cebu Country Club, the latter telling eighteen holes , long of 5.72 km. In Mindanao , the golf of Apo Golf and Country Club, the main route of the island, is located near downtown Davao. Dominated by the Mount Apo , the route follows the gentle curves and a rolling landscape dotted with tropical flowers, of agoho and coconuts. North of the island of Luzon , Baguio , the summer home of wealthy Filipinos, to 1,520 m above sea level, offers golfers the fresh air of the mountains. The Baguio Country Club and Camp John Hay is situated in one of the prettiest parts of the country and surrounded by towering pines, rolling green hills and lush. But first, damaged during the earthquake of 1990 which will be 1500 deaths, was impracticable the next few years.

As for the championships, they occur mostly in Manila. The course is Wack Wack Golf and the Country Club, which traditionally hosts the Open in the Philippines, is a benchmark for all other land in the archipelago. The Valey Golf Club, hilly course located in the foothills of Antipolo, 40 minutes from Manila, Wack Wack with rivals. A long flat course is located nearby: the Villamor Air Base Club. The natural assets of the country have not escaped the attention of the architects of the most renowned golf courses: Robert Trent Jones and his son are the authors of the course Luisita Golf and Country Club in Tarlac , the Canlubang Golf and Country Club in Laguna , to Manila and Alabang Calatagan in Batangas. The centerpiece remains the Puerto Azul Beach and Country Club. In the Philippines, golf can be played all year, but the best season runs from September to March because of the warm season of the country that made its appearance.

Polo

The polo / A> remain in Manila as much or more than elsewhere, a sport for the elite. Golf and other sports once considered as such became popular, but polo is a sport expensive. Good horses cost between 400 000 to 730 000 pesos or between 6,900 and 11,800 euros , to which are added the cost of maintenance, training, veterinary care, transportation and course materials ( feces , mallets , balls , costume) and other expenses. Polo between two teams of four riders. Each match is divided into six periods called chukkers, each lasting seven minutes. The game takes place without interruption, except for short intervals after each chukka when riders change horses. In Manila, only a dozen riders have a complete crew, which means they each have six horses, one for each chukka.

The season of polo, the Philippines, begins at the end of the rainy season and lasts until the rains return, such as golf. The major tournaments are scheduled on dates determined by tradition: the open tournaments are funded by private companies. The ancient and renowned tournaments such as Cameron Forbes Cup and the Past President's Cup, held respectively between January and February. The Manila Polo Club, founded in 1909 by Governor William Cameron Forbes , brought together the elite of the capital. Until Pearl Harbor , the club's history reflects the American colonialism in the islands. The club, which consisted mainly of senior officials and American officers and businessmen, has become more cosmopolitan, and Filipinos are now the majority. Before the Second World War , the polo club, chaired by the Governor, the High Commissioner and thereafter, the ambassador the United States , was the bastion of chic American community. After his disappearance during the war, a provisional club, where the Filipinos were now admitted, was reopened in Paraaque City in 1946. Nationalist sentiments in the post-war had made their way. In 1950 , the club was relocated in Forbes Park, Makati , now the business center of Manila. Situated on a vast and slightly undulating, it is difficult to imagine that the city is all around. It speaks for twenty years to popularize the sport, or at least to popularize the show by retransmitting the major meetings on television.

Horse racing

The Racecourse Manila, familiarly known as San Lazaro, Felix Huertas is on Street in the district of Santa Cruz. Horse races have been introduced in the Philippines circa 1860. At that time, the Manila Jockey Club held twice a year rather upscale shopping. The spectators went there in carriages flamboyant women dress and long umbrella, men in frock coats with buttons and tie to "fashion Ascot. After the races, spectators went to the ball, gave the same place. Today, jockeys , gowns in colors, ride thoroughbreds imported. The most modern means are implemented as a totalizer, on computers , cameras and photo finish, air-conditioned cabins with automatic recording of Paris and many others. In Manila, horse racing became a fully fledged commercial enterprise.

In the early races, spectators gather in the chamber facing the podium , next to the paddock where horses are kept, a breed of small but bold. What makes the originality of a Philippine horse racing is its simplicity: no snobbery , no turf carefully maintained (the racetrack is sand), no stylish outfits. The races are a sport in its purest form, a performance and party celebrating the beauty of horses, not one of those pretentious social events as we can meet in Europe. The Racecourse Felix Huertas Street is a perfect oval with a circumference of 1,200 meters, which seems formidable size increased again in the play of morning light. The soil is composed of a layer of sand covering a base of soft stone and coal. The field is surrounded by dozens of teams at the top where the lads perch to track their favorite. The show horses, whose hooves raised a fine sand like dust, creating around them a sort of silvery halo, the thud of their race flexible movement of the muscles under the skin shiny worth their weight in gold in the same way as Paris, lucrative reaching about five million pesos or 230,000 euros each weekend. The main event is the Gran Copa Cup. Other important races are the Founders Cup, the Presidential Cup and especially the Grand National Derby.

The Basque pelota

The Basque pelota , jai-alai called the Philippines (pronounced rai-alai) is one of the favorite sports of Filipinos. Imported from Basque country a century ago, the sport is often practiced in the Philippines by descendants of Basque settlers. The pelota players are generally young, between twenty and thirty years, and extraordinarily powerful, the result of intensive training. The excitement of the game is amazing the speed of trade, the ball being propelled at speeds up to 240 km / h. The players also wear protective helmets. A game of jai-alai is a show as amazing and exciting. Players wear traditional striped shirts and move with agility, sometimes climbing trellis wire that separates the playground of the spectators to be able, if necessary, return a ball hard.

The blocks of granite from the pediment of Manila in Taft Avenue, were imported from Shanghai , in China , during the demolition stage regarded as belonging to a decadent past. The inauguration of that land in 1940 by President Manuel Quezon was announced at the time as social and sporting event the largest in the history of Manila. The jai-alai games start every afternoon except Sundays and holidays, 17 am Each session includes 14 games, with a break of 15 minutes between each game. Basque pelota games are free and the stands are full every night to the brim with noisy fans so they are passionate. The paris, legal, take place in an atmosphere of frank excitement. The jai-alai unleashes strong emotions Filipinos, and kill it, shouting! Kill! or mata! mata! which means killing! kill! that players in a race incessant attempt to deceive the opponent by violent blows and the ability to travel. On the wall of the land is within the sentence: "El fallo del juez es inapelado" ("The arbitrator's decision is final"), but this does not prevent the crowd whistling, booing, censure, stomping and swear if it disagrees with an important decision. The paris on jai-alai games in Manila represent significant challenges: nearly 20% of the population is doing it, about more than half a million daily paris.

Martial arts

Most martial arts are known to all visitors who know that the karate , the kung-fu and tae-kwon-do is practiced in the Philippines, but few know the arnis de mano, the Filipino stick fighting. The arnis was invented by travelers forced to defend themselves against bandits armed with machetes. It is played with a stick of hard wood of a meter long, called tungkod. The two opponents are beaten and parent. The eskrina, practiced with swords instead of sticks, is a variant. Their ineffectiveness face firearms of the Spaniards led to the decline of these fighting techniques, later became just martial arts. However, this development did not prevent the Spaniards to prohibit the practice, perhaps they saw a display of aggression towards them. Some characteristics of complex movements of arnis are probably later additions, this type of combat evolving into a kind of dance show. Demonstrations of the sport are regularly held in Manila, including the museum 's outdoor Nayong Filipino, as well as throughout the archipelago.

Arts and literature

The young woman, head held high, moves at a slow and a security full of nobility. It lies in the hand two large gold fans. The richness and beauty of her dress indicates a high rank: it is a princess. She approaches two figures, holding poles of bamboo , the cross and begin to furiously hit the ground between the feet of the young woman, whose face betrayed not the slightest expression, and, without departing His grace and serenity, liveliness and agility dance between the bamboo slamming.

Dance

This dance, Singkil, of Muslim origin, is a classic often performed by professional folk dance groups. One of these troops, the Bayanihan (literally "working together") of international fame, attempts to preserve and popularize traditional Filipino dances whose refinement and theatricality led to publicize the Philippines in the world around. The performances of ballet and modern classics created and choreographed not Filipinos are regularly held in Manila. The companies most famous are the Ballet Philippines, Ramon Obusan Dance Company and Seasonal Ballet Company, whose most famous star, Lisa Marcuja, was revealed by the ballet Russia 's Kirov.

A nation of musicians

Filipinos, kings of rhythm, actor-born, have a reputation for being a bit troubadours of Asia ^Cinema

The first films were silent projected to Manila from 1904. It was, mostly, film European subtitled in Spanish. The theme of the first Filipino film of 1919 , was the story of a virtuous peasant girl, was the tone of the local production of the next thirty years. The Philippine cinema was characterized by his taste for extravagant sentimentalism and a game: there are strong similarities with the cinema of India. Forty years have seen two trends emerge: the growing number of action films, often quite violent, and the emergence of a true Filipino cinema, dealing with its own themes. As such, the director Lino Brocka is probably the most outstanding figure of this renovation. His first film noncommercial Tinimbang Ka Nguni Kulaga which means "You have been assessed and found inadequate," which tells the story of those excluded from a small town as seen by a young man, was acclaimed by critics and shook the industry local film. Since then, Brock has produced several films on political themes, a few years ago, including Bayan Ko (My Country), a film against Ferdinand Marcos , and more recently U.S. Fight for the story of a former priest , political prisoner, and his disillusionment after the revolution of 1986.

Literature

Jose Rizal was undoubtedly the key figure of literature Philippine revolutionary years of the late nineteenth ^century. His two great novels written in Spanish, Noli Me Tangere publishing Ghent , which appeared in 1887 and El Filibusterismo the same edition, published in 1891 laid the foundation for a literature in prose combining artistic concerns and commitment policy. After 1930 , few Filipinos continued to write in Spanish due to the expansion of the English and the use of Tagalog as a literary language. In the early twentieth ^century, the news, Dagli, influenced by current literary English and French , became a literary form popular. The post-war literature has been dominated by two authors: Nstor Vicente Gonzalez and Nick Joaquin Madala. Born in 1917 , Nick Joaquin was the great man of literary circles in Manila. essayist , poet , playwright , novelist , and even a novelist , he has traveled all the paths of literature and journalism in the country for nearly half a century. Jose Garcia Villa, meanwhile, proclaimed National Artist in 1973 , often cited as the greatest poet of the country, nicknamed himself the "Doveglion," a contraction of words meaning a dove , the eagle and the lion (dove , eagle, lion)

From the Streets to the Stage

The oral melodramatic themes were secular or sacred in traditional Filipino people. In this area, the arrival of the Spaniards led to the emergence of hybrid forms. In the first poem in the native language (Tagalog), religious subjects like the lives of saints or fictional and metrics were Spanish. In theater , the moromoro, comedy with music and dances with the recurring theme of struggle between Christians and Muslims , served as a forum for entertainment as vivid and colorful. In the early eighteenth ^century, the zarzuela , melodramatic comedy musical adapted from the Commedia dell'arte, quickly conquered a wide audience Philippines, perhaps because this form of entertainment was suitable for the treatment of topics. To date, Severino Reyes is considered one of the greatest writer of zarzuela. It is not uncommon in these parts then go down the street as part of the fiestas that combine, in the Philippine fashion, theater, religious passion and active audience participation.

Culture

Throughout the history of the Filipino people, no national cultural identity has yet appeared. This is partly due to the large number of languages spoken in the country, which is now estimated at 80, as well as many dialects that result. The relative isolation from neighboring populations, whether from village to village or from island to island, has also contributed to the lack of unified identity.

After the arrival of the Spaniards, Catholic missionaries hire natives as translators, creating a class of bilingual population, known as the Ladino. These people, including the poet and translator Gaspar Aquino de Belen , began to write poems in the Latin alphabet but mainly language Tagalog. Pasyon is also a famous poetic narration of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ begun by Gaspar Aquino Belen. Subsequently, the Spanish ballads of chivalry, provide a model for secular literature Filipino. Plays written in verse, or Komedya, are the subject of representations in the regional language, allowing access to literature for a majority of the people, then illiterate. Komedya These are also published as written in regional languages, always using the Latin alphabet.

In addition, classic literature ( Jos Rizal , Pedro Paterno) and historical documents (National anthem, Constitucin Poltica de Malolos) are written in Spanish, which ceases to be an official language in 1973. The Claro M. Recto Filipino writer continued writing in Spanish until 1946.

The Philippines is also home to many heroes. It is considered that Lapu-Lapu of Mactan , was the first who began to push European aggression and is responsible for the death of Ferdinand Magellan. Jose Rizal (born June 19 1861 in the town of Calamba, Laguna), makes a national hero. It was a highly cultured man speaking some 22 different languages. Poet, writer, ophthalmologist (he was part of his studies in Barcelona before moving to Paris, Heidelberg and Berlin), he played a key role in the process of independence, inspired by Don Quixote which he was a faithful reader to build his political project and lead its fight against the colonizers. Tried for rebellion, he was executed on 30 December 1896. In tribute, December 30 is now a holiday in the Philippines. More recently, the first president of the General Assembly of the UN , Carlos Pea Rmulo is another important figure in Philippine history.

The baroque churches of the Philippines and the historic town of Vigan are historical sites to World Heritage of Humanity, like rice fields of Banaue in the Cordilleras, which some regard as the eighth wonder of the world. Unfortunately, during the Second World War , much of the historical center of the city of Manila (Intramuros) was destroyed before being rebuilt after the war.

Holidays and Celebrations

Date	French name	Local Name	Notes
January 1	New Year's Day	Bagong Taon
	Maundy Thursday	Huwebes Santo	Thursday before Easter
	Friday	Biyernes Santo	Friday before Easter
	Easter	Lingg ng Pagkabuhay	Sunday, movable feast
April 9	Celebration of Courage	Araw ng Kagitingan
May 1	Labor Day	Araw ng Manggagawa	Labour Day
June 12	Independence Day	Araw ng Kalayaan
August 31	National Heroes Day	Araw ng mga Bayani
November 1	Toussaint	Todos los Santos
November 30	Celebration of Bonifacio	Araw or Bonfacio	Andres Bonifacio
December 25	Christmas	Araw ng Pasko
December 30	Celebration of Rizal	Araw or Rizal	Jose Rizal
December 31	Eve of New Year	Bagong Taon

Codes

codes for the Philippines:

• . Ph , according to the list of Internet TLDs (Top Level Domain)
• PH , according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (list of country codes), code alpha-2
• IHP , as the list of country codes IOC ,
• PHL , according to the standard ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 (list of country codes)
• PHL , according to the list of country codes used by NATO , code alpha-3,
• RP , according to the list of country codes used by NATO , alpha-2 code,
• RP , according to the list of international codes of plates ,

References

See also

Related articles

• List of cities in the Philippines by province
• Philippine Airlines , the oldest airline in Asia
• Philippine languages

External Links

• (In) Official website of Government of the Philippines
• Philippines Category Directory dmoz