About the Philippines the country, islands, and the Philippine people
The Philippines
The Philippines is a country in the Pacific Ocean. The republic of the Philippines has one of the largest populations in the world. The country is an archipelago of a large group of islands surrounded by crystal clear water and beautiful and unique coral reefs. Of the 7,107 islands in the Philippines the largest is Luzon, at 105 square kilometres and just over fifty precent of the islands in the country have names, and only 350 islands are bigger than 2 and a half kilometres square. The tallest mountain range is located on the island of Luzon the Cordillera Central the top of the mountain reaches over 2743 square meters. The tallest mountain peak is located on the second largest island in the country Mindanao. Mount Apo rises 2956 meters tall. Like a lot of other mountains in the country Mount Apo is an active volcano. Luzon is also the site of the capital of Manila the largest and most important Philippine city. Manila has a port that stretches around Manila bay for hundreds of years Manila bay has been the country’s heart of shipping and trade. The Visayas make up the middle part of the Philippine islands. The largest islands in the Visayas include Leyte, Samar, Cebu, Negros, and Panay; Mindanao an island located in the south of the country and is the second largest island in the Philippines the island measures 94,700 square kilometres.
The islands
The Philippine islands were formed by volcanoes and are part of a mountain chain that is mostly under water. The interior of most of the islands have many rugged mountains with dense rain forest and because of the frequent rain fall there are many rivers streams and waterfalls that continually surge down the mountain sides. Because of the dense mountain rainforest and frequent rain fall the Philippines is endowed with spectacular sceneries within the islands tropical rainforest majestic waterfalls magnificent caves and rock formations. Unfortunately a lot of the rain forest is disappearing before the Spanish arrived in the 1500 over 90 precent of the Philippine islands were covered in rain forest. To date the country has lost close to one third of its tropical rainforest. The rain forest has been cut down for its timber and to clear land for farms and homes.
The coastline
With over 7000 islands the country has a coast line more than 36,300 kilometres in length. The beaches and coastline varies across the country are very sandy in places such as Boracay which is famous for its beautiful picturesque tropical white sand beaches. With tropical plants and palm trees growing alongside these magnificent beaches. On some island coast lines are very rocky in place and in some places you will find grey white sand beaches and large inland rivers that border with mangrove trees and swamps.
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The rivers and lakes
Filipinos rely on fresh water from rivers and lakes to irrigate their crops and personal day to day living requirements such as drinking and washing. Pasig River is one of the largest rivers in the country and flows through the capital of Manila. In the north also on the island of Luzon the longest Philippine river that flows through the Central Cordilleras, the Cagayan River.
Volcanoes
Because the country is sitting on the pacific ring of fire means the Philippines have a lot of active Volcanoes. One of the most famous volcanic eruptions happen in June 1991 in the north of Luzon for many hundreds of years Mount Pinatubo lay dormant. When Mount Pinatubo erupted more than 1000 people were killed all injured and thousands of people were made homeless. The explosion created a huge ash cloud that covered more than 125 thousand square kilometres blanketing the area in ash rock and darkness. One of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines is Mayo, also known as Mount Mayo this volcano has erupted 48 times in the past 400 years. Mount Mayo is located on the island of Luzon in the province of Albay. Mayon Volcano was proclaimed a national park in the year 2003. The Mayo volcano is a perfectly shaped cone that towers 2462 meters above the land. Mayon Last major eruption was in February 1814, when it destroyed 3 towns and covered another two with volcanic ash and hot larva about 1600 people died due to this eruption.
The Philippine People
For thousands of years many different people and nations have been part of the Philippines the end result is a country and people with a unique blend of many cultures. About 30,000 BC Stone Age people settled in the Tabon caves on the island of Palawan the country was later joined by the Negritos that came across land bridges from Borneo Indonesia, and Sumatra and centuries latter joined by visitors from Malaya India china and the middle east. Magellan was the first European to set foot on the Philippines in 1521 Ferdinand Magellan explored the archipelago Magellan and most of his men were killed during the battle of Mactan on the Island of Cebu. Spain established a permanent settlement on the island of Cebu in 1565
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| Calbayog Samar |
Family religion and education are very important in Filipino culture
Weather living in the city or the country or on an isolated island family, religion and education are very highly valued by almost every one Filipinos have many positive values such as respect for authority and a high regard for the dignity of all people.
Religion
Most Filipinos hold strong religious beliefs they regularly take part in religious ceremonies celebrate holy days with large festivals. The Spanish where very successful in converting the Filipino to Christianity making the Philippine the only Christian nation in Asia Roman Catholic make up 85% of the population, 5 % of the population are Sunni Muslim’s the largest no Christian group in the country. Most early Filipinos were animistic and worshiped ancestral sprits known as anitos they believed theses sprits lived in the mountains in the Trees Rivers and fields. Many Filipinos believe in ghost and witches (Multo) ghost and (mangkukulam) ghost. Roman Catholic belief plays an important part in the daily life of most Filipinos.The Philippine people worship Christ mother Mary and other holy people called saints many Filipinos decorate their homes trics jeepneys boats schools of images of Christ and mother Mary.
Nearby islands and china introduced Islam to the Philippines today there are several million Filipinos that follow the religion of Islam. Some Filipinos practice Taoism which is a religious belief that originated in china the biggest Taoist temple in the Philippines is in Cebu.
The Filipino family
The Filipino family the basic units of the Philippine social organization which includes the father the mother and children the bilateral extended family which incorporates all relatives of the Father and Mother. Of special importance the bond and unity formed by the brothers and sisters. Filipino thinks of their family as a source of strength and protection. It is not unusual for unmarried daughters and sons to live at home with their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The family are very close and if someone needs help others chip in and do what they can to help the family member in need. The father-husband is the head of the family and is usually unconditionally obeyed by his wife and children. The father role and duty is to meet the financial needs of the family. The Filipino father is the main source of discipline in the family and sometimes uses corporal punishment on both sons and daughters although corporal punishment used on children in the Philippines is now slowly getting used less and less due to the Philippine society teaching and enforcing new values on raising children. The children a lot of Filipino mothers pamper their children these has the effect of prolonging the childhood of the children they are not pushed or rushed into adulthood responsibilities and expectations are kept below the child’s potential this care and affection that is lavished upon the children creates a feeling of belonging and protection. As a result the children will always contribute to parent’s financial support and emotional support and protection. The traditional Filipino wife and mother take care of all the details to ensure the family functions as a living and loving organised family unit. The mother is in charge of the home and all the details pertaining to the children such as cooking the family meal seeing the children are clothed and ready for school the paying of salary to the maids (ya –ya) and all other household expenses. Strange as it may seem women share equal place with man in Philippine society woman participation in professional work and politics is fully accepted this equality can be traced back to ancient Malayan tradition.
Education
Education Filipino children attend six years of elementary school and four years of high school classes are taught in Pilipino and English the country official languages. More than 90% of all elementary attend government schools. From June until March Filipino children spend their days at school classes begin around eight in the morning in the cities like Manila and sometimes around 7 am in the rural areas before classes begin the children salute the flag and recite the pledge of allegiance. The Philippines has a very high literacy rate which most people in the country can read and write unfortunately due to the high unemployment rate and the minimal salary paid to lower class workers such as farmers and labours some children have to drop out of school to work and help to support their families and some children attend schools that do not have enough school supplies and equipment such as textbooks desks and chairs and computers.
Languages
The Philippine for its languages Filipino English and Spanish there are 87 different major dialects ranging from Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Waray-waray, Kapampagan, and Panasinah. The English languages and the mass education of the English language has been an American contribution to the Filipino life. English was introduced so different people living in different parts of the Philippines could understand one another. The American declared English the country official language during the time they ruled the Philippines. In 1937 the Philippine government decided to replace English with a language called Filipino. Filipino is based on Tagalog the most widely spoken Philippine language especially throughout some of the major cities. Today Filipino and English are the country official languages. In different parts of the Philippines some time s you will Filipinos that can speak anywhere up to four languages and some times more especially the people that have traveled and lived in different parts of the country. For example theses Filipinos can speak the language from the area they grew up in and lived in as a child they also can speak English and Tagalog and sometimes another language that is native to where they live as an adult or learnt as a child. For example English, Tagalog, Cebuano, Waray-Waray could be four languages a single Filipino can speak.
Half of the Philippine population live in the country near mountains forest on small islands or on the plains there are many types of traditional homes Bahay kubo is a traditional rural home some time referred to as a nipa hut.The walls and floors are made from bamboo and palms leaves the woven palm leaves are overlapped and tired down to timber or bamboo to form the roof. Other people in the country side live in wooden home and other cheap timber with iron and galvanised roofs.The more wealthy country Filipino live in a larger fancy modern home made from cement bricks and cement.On a lot of Small Island and country areas the home has one main room with a few pieces of furniture and mats on the floor where the family sleeps.The kitchen is usually in another room with a wood burning stove and sometimes a small gas stove depending on how isolated the family is from the closest town. In the larger country towns many of the native houses have electricity and some of them even have indoor plumbing but theses conveniences are rare in small villages although now more and more Small Islands and villages are receiving electricity but there is still a lot of villages that do not. The Philippine people that live in an area that does not have electricity or indoor plumbing they gather water from a community well and burn kerosene lamps for lights in the evening
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| The Jeepney |
The people’s transportation
The first people who migrated to the Philippine islands used barangays (boats). Now day’s inter island ships and ferries have been the best means of transportation of good and merchandise from island to another people also rely on these ships as ferries because the cost of a plane ticket can be very expensive. Banca a narrow wooden boat with an out boat motor attached to the back. The boat has wooden and bamboo frames extending from both sides of the boats that function like platoons preventing the boat from tipping over or capsizing. Early Filipinos used these small boats to trade and get supplies from neighboring islands.The larger banca boats are use as people ferries and large commercial fishing boats.The smaller banca boats are used for smaller journeys in calmer water. A traditional form of transport is the pedicabs a tricycle with a side cart this form of transportation are still popular in some country towns and provinces especially on the island of Leyte and Samar.
The Philippine jeepney
A Philippine icon king of the road evidence of Philippine innovation the jeepney is a small bus made from jeeps left behind by the US army. The jeeps where transformed in to busses painted in vibrant glowing flamboyant colours and patterns and decorated with mirrors multi-coloured lights and religious icons. The jeepney smaller brother the stainless steel jeep was made and produced for practical reasons fisherman complained that seawater and the environment was corroding their jeepneys. So in 1971 Tomas Araga invented and produced the first jeep the jeep requires less maintenance because it is difficult and does not rust. The jeep is an ideal Philippine vehicle because they are adapted to the unique Philippine climate especially from the harsh salt air and the unpredictable weather.
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