insular republic of the W Pacific Ocean, coextensive with the Philippine Islands and forming in physical geography a part of the Malay Archipelago. Situated about 1210 km (about 750 mi) E of the coast of Vietnam, the Philippines is separated from Taiwan on the N by the Bashi Channel. The republic is bounded on the E by the Philippine Sea, on the S by the Celebes Sea, and on the W by the South China Sea. The country comprises about 7100 islands, of which only about 460 are more than 2.6 sq km (1 sq mi) in area. Eleven islands have an area of more than 2590 sq km (1000 sq mi) each and contain the bulk of the population. These islands are Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, Negros, Palawan, Panay, Mindoro, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, and Masbate. The total area of the Philippines is about 300,000 sq km (about 115,830 sq mi).

LAND AND RESOURCES

The Philippines are the northernmost island group of the Malay Archipelago, extending about 1850 km (about 1150 mi) almost due N and S between Borneo and Taiwan; the E and W extent is almost 1125 km (almost 700 mi). The islands, of volcanic origin, are the summits of a partly submerged mountain mass, and all are mountainous. In general the Philippine ranges extend N to S, paralleling the coasts and in many places bordering them. Earthquakes are fairly common in the islands, which include about 20 active volcanoes.

On the smaller islands the mountains form a backbone and are the principal topographical feature. The larger islands, particularly Luzon and Mindanao, have a more diversified topography, with broad plains and level, fertile valleys in the interior. In N Luzon the valley of the Cagayan R. is a plain about 80 km (about 50 mi) wide, surrounded by the mountains of the Sierra Madre on the E, the Cordillera Central on the W, and the Caraballo Mts. on the S. To the S of the Caraballo Mts. is the Central Plain, which extends from Lingayen Gulf to Manila Bay, and Laguna de Bay, the largest lake of Luzon. The plain is drained by the Agno R. in the N and by the Pampanga R. in the S. On the SW coast are the Zambales Mts. Luzon has a narrow, mountainous extension to the SE called the Caramoan Peninsula. Mayon Volcano (2421 m/7943 ft), an active volcano with an almost perfectly shaped cone, is on this peninsula just N of Legazpi. Dormant for about 600 years, Mount Pinatubo, a volcano located in central Luzon, erupted in late June 1991 and again in July 1992; its continued outpouring of lahar, a concrete-like sludge, turned farmland into desert, buried numerous villages and towns and, by 1997, displaced more than a million people.

On Mindanao, the largest island of the Philippines after Luzon, the Diuata Mts. border the Pacific coast, and W of them lies the valley of the Agusan R. In SW Mindanao is a large lowland area, the valley of Mindanao. One of the S Mindanao ranges contains Apo Volcano (2954 m/9692 ft), which is the highest point in the Philippines. The coastlines of all the islands are extremely irregular, measuring about 22,530 km (about 14,000 mi) in length.

Rivers.

The principal islands of the Philippines are traversed by large rivers, some of which are navigable. The main river of the country is the Cagayan, on Luzon; other important rivers on Luzon include the Chico, Abra, Pampanga, and Bicol. The Río Grande de Mindanao (known in its upper course as the Pulangi) and the Agusan are the principal rivers of Mindanao.

Climate.

The Philippine Islands are within the Tropics and have a mean annual temperature of about 27° C (about 80° F). In general, interior valleys and leeward sides of islands are warmer than the mean; mountain slopes and peaks and windward sides of islands are cooler than the mean. Rainfall averages about 2030 mm (about 80 in) a year in the lowlands. In most of the Philippine Islands the rainy season occurs during the summer monsoon, from May to November, when the wind blows from the SW; the dry season occurs during the winter monsoon, from December to April, when the wind blows from the NE. From June to October the Philippine Islands are sometimes struck by typhoons, which occasionally cause great damage.

Natural Resources.

The Philippines are richly endowed with mineral resources and with forest resources. The principal mineral resources are gold, copper, iron, chromite, manganese, salt, and coal. Other minerals found here include silver, lead, mercury, limestone, petroleum, nickel, and uranium.

Soils.

About 27% of the land of the Philippines is considered arable. In the N islands the soils are chiefly of volcanic origin; coral limestone is an important constituent of the soils in the S islands. In general the soils of the archipelago are of poor quality.

Plants and Animals.

About one-third of the Philippines is covered by forest or woodland. Among the trees are the banyan, many varieties of palm, trees yielding rubber, and many indigenous trees with extremely hard wood such as apitong, yacal, lauan, camagón, ipil, white and red narra, and mayapis. Bamboo and cinnamon, clove, and pepper plants grow wild, as do numerous species of orchid. One of the most valuable indigenous plants is the abaca, or Manila hemp, a plantain, the fiber of which is used in making cordage, textiles, and hats. Mangrove trees and nipa palms grow in coastal swamps, and considerable areas of the uplands are covered by coarse grasses of little value for cattle. Except for rodents, comparatively few varieties of mammals are found in the islands. The most important are the domesticated water buffalo called the carabao, several species of deer, wild and domesticated pigs, the mongoose, and a variety of humped cattle. Reptiles are numerous, and the islands contain about 760 species of birds, including colorful parrots. Coastal waters teem with marine fauna, particularly mollusks, for which the Philippines are noted. Pearl oysters are abundant around the Sulu Archipelago, in the extreme SW, and Sulu pearls are famous.

POPULATION

The term Filipino, which originally denoted a person of Spanish descent born in the Philippines and was comparable to the term Creole in the Spanish-American colonies, has been applied since the 19th century to the Christianized Malays who constitute the bulk of the Philippine population.

The aboriginal inhabitants of the archipelago were pygmy Negritos. Malayan peoples invaded the islands in successive waves beginning about 200 bc. The present Filipinos, principally descendants of the Malay invaders, are divided mainly according to language and religion. The most important numerically are the Visayans living primarily in the central portion of the archipelago, and the Tagalogs, in central Luzon. The Ilokanos, the third most important group, live mainly in the Cagayan Valley on Luzon. Persons of Spanish and Chinese descent constitute the majority of non-Malay groups. In the S portion of the archipelago, particularly in W Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, and S Palawan Island, are two Muslim groups, the Moro and the Samal. Mestizos, who are persons of mixed Filipino and white or Chinese descent, form a small but economically and politically important minority.

In 1971, Manuel Elizalde (1937–97), an influential Filipino, announced his discovery of the Tasadays, a Stone Age tribe of some 25 cave dwellers, in the densely forested mountain ranges of S Mindanao. Questions raised 15 years later about their authenticity remain unresolved.

Population Characteristics.

The population of the Philippines (2000 census) was 76,498,735. The estimate for 2004 was 79,999,000, with an overall population density of about 267 persons per sq km (about 691 per sq mi). The distribution, however, was uneven; large areas were virtually uninhabited, while others had a density far greater than the average. The nation was about 58% urban in the late 1990s. The population growth rate in the early 2000s was approximately 2.3% per year.

Principal Cities.

Manila (pop., 2000 census, 1,673,000), the nation's capital and the heart of its largest metropolitan region (pop., 2001 est., 10,069,000), is also the country's chief port and main commercial center. Other important cities in the country include Quezon City (2000 census, 2,160,000), part of Metropolitan Manila and the country's capital from 1948 to 1976; Davao (1,147,000), a provincial capital and a seaport; Cebu (662,000), a seaport and the trade center for a farming and coal-mining region; and Zamboanga (600,000), also a seaport.

Language.

The official language of the Philippines is Pilipino, which is based on Tagalog. The country lacks a common language, however, and English is generally used for governmental and commercial purposes. Spanish, formerly an official language, is spoken by a dwindling minority of the population. The approximately 80 Malayo-Polynesian Languages and dialects spoken in the islands are subdivided into two main groups, the central and the northern. Tagalog and Cebuano are the most important in the central division; Ilocano is the most important in the northern division.

Religion.

Of the Philippine population, about 84% are Roman Catholics, about 5% are Muslims, and about 10% are Protestants or of other denominations, including the Philippine Independent Church, a schismatic group of Roman Catholics called Aglipayans, founded about 1902 by Gregorio Aglipay (1860–1940), a Filipino priest.

Education.

Education in the Philippines is free and compulsory for children of ages 7 through 12. Although Pilipino is taught and, in the lower grades, local dialects are also used, English is the main language of instruction. Some 95% of the adult population is literate.

In the late 1990s about 12.5 million pupils were enrolled annually in elementary schools, and approximately 5.1 million students attended secondary schools. More than 1.6 million students attended universities and colleges, such as the University of the Philippines (1908), in Quezon City; Adamson University (1932), the University of the East (1946), Far Eastern University (1928), Feati University (1946), Philippine Women's University (1919), and the University of Santo Tomás (1611), all in Manila; Bicol University (1970), in Legazpi; the University of Mindanao (1946), in Davao; Saint Louis University (1911), in Baguio; and Southwestern University (1946), in Cebu.

Culture.

The existence of a number of different languages, dialects, and religious traditions has meant that the Filipinos developed no single national culture. Over many centuries of Philippine history cultural development has been local in nature, enriched by influences from China, Malaysia, Europe, and the U.S. Indigenous folk elements find expression in literature and music as well as other cultural forms. Traditional sports include arnis, a kind of fencing with wooden sticks, and sipa, a game much like volleyball. Such sports as cockfighting and boxing are very popular, and American influence is seen in the wide popularity of baseball and basketball. One of the most notable characteristics of the Filipino society is the tradition of strong family loyalty. This is reflected in the absence of such institutions as old people's homes and orphanages. Since precolonial times Filipino women have held high positions in the society, and today many businesses are managed by women.

Libraries and museums.

In addition to the university libraries, the major libraries of the country are the Manila City Library, the National Library (1901), and the library of the Science and Technology Information Institute (1974), all in Metropolitan Manila. The Lopez Memorial Museum and Library (1960), also in Metropolitan Manila, has collections of paintings by major Filipino artists, as well as the letters and manuscripts of the writer and patriot José Rizal. The University of Santo Tomás Museum (1682) has major archaeological and natural-history collections, illustrating the history of the islands. The National Museum (1901) has divisions of anthropology, archaeology, botany, geology, and zoology, along with art collections and a planetarium.

Literature.

Philippine literature before the arrival of the Spanish consisted of oral folk stories and proverbs passed down in the various dialects of the islands. Literature that flourished under Spanish influence was primarily religious, and it developed further under the American influence to include short stories and drama. José Rizal is among the influential writers of the Philippines. Others include Francisco Balagtas (1768–1862), a poet and philosopher; José Garcia Villa (1914–    ), a poet and one of the outstanding short-story writers; Carlos P. Romulo, a journalist and diplomat; the poet and playwright Claro Recto (1890–1960); poet, novelist, and playwright Nick Joaquín (1917–    ); and Pas Marques Benitz, a short-story writer.

Art.

Until the 19th century painting and sculpture of the Philippines were strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic church. More recent painting generally has reflected secular themes or is abstract. Noted Filipino painters include Juan Luna (1857–99) and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo (1855–1913), whose works are in romantic and impressionist styles; Fernando Amorsolo (1892–1972), known for his landscapes; Fabián de la Rosa (1869–1937), who specialized in portraiture; and Carlos Francisco (1912–69) and Vicente Manansala, (1910–81), both muralists.

Music.

The kundiman, a combination of words and music, is unique to the islands. Musicians of some fame in the Philippines include Rodolfo Cornejo (1909–    ), composer and conductor; Antonino Buenaventura (1904–    ), conductor; and Antonio J. Molina (1894–1980), conductor and composer. Folk dancing is also popular and includes many ceremonial and traditional dances for a variety of occasions.

ECONOMY

The economy of the Philippines is predominantly agricultural, although manufacturing has grown considerably since 1945. The annual gross national product in the early 1990s averaged $770 per capita; much of the nation's wealth is controlled by a small number of families. During the 1980s the economy suffered from chronic inflation, persistent budget deficits, and a ballooning foreign debt. In the early 1990s, however, an economic reform program cut import tariffs, privatized inefficient government enterprises, and encouraged foreign investment. The annual government budget in the mid-1990s called for $11.5 billion in revenue and $13 billion in expenditure.

Labor.

The work force of the Philippines numbered about 31 million persons in the early 2000s; more than 40% worked in agriculture. Of an estimated 4.9 million workers who were members of labor unions in the early 1990s, about 3.8 million belonged to organizations affiliated with the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines.

Agriculture.

About 42% of the working population of the Philippines is engaged in agriculture. The most important subsistence crops are rice, corn, cassava, and sweet potatoes. Copra, sugarcane, and tobacco are among the principal commercial crops. Fruit crops include bananas, oranges, mangoes, pineapples, and papayas. Annual production in the early 1990s totaled about 27.3 million metric tons of sugarcane, 9.2 million tons of rice, 4.6 million tons of corn, 1.7 million tons of copra, 1.3 million tons of cassava, and 115,000 tons of tobacco. Livestock on farms numbered about 2.6 million water buffalo, 1.7 million cattle, 63 million chickens, 2.4 million goats, and 8 million hogs.

Forestry and Fishing.

Forests cover about one-third of the total area of the Philippines. Annual production in the early 1990s included some 38.7 million cu m (some 1.4 billion cu ft) of timber, of which more than 85% was used for fuel. In addition, bamboo and rattan were cut for use in making furniture, baskets, and other products. Marine fishing is a major industry in the Philippines; the annual catch of approximately 2.3 million metric tons includes milkfish, scad, anchovy, tuna, squid, shrimp, and crab. Sponge fisheries operate off the S islands.

Mining.

The mining industry is an important aspect of the economy of the Philippines. Leading products include gold (25 metric tons annually in the early 1990s), silver (47 tons), copper (180,000 tons), nickel (15,800 tons), salt (490,000 tons), and coal (1.7 million tons). In addition, modest amounts of crude petroleum (about 3 million barrels annually in the early 1990s) are produced on Palawan.

Manufacturing.

The manufacturing sector has expanded significantly since the 1950s. Processed food, textiles, tobacco products, and other nondurable goods continue to make up the largest percentage of the country's manufacturing output. The production of durable items, however, especially furniture, electrical and electronic items, nonelectrical machinery, and transport equipment, has shown substantial gains. Other major items produced in the Philippines include refined petroleum, chemicals, construction materials, and clothing. Leading products, with the annual output in the early 1990s, included 1.7 million metric tons of raw sugar, 6.4 million tons of cement, and 34,000 passenger cars.

Energy.

In the early 1990s the Philippines had an installed electricity-generating capacity of about 6.8 million kw, and annual production was some 22.5 billion kwh. About 23% of the electricity was generated in hydroelectric facilities; 26% came from geothermal resources, and almost all the rest was produced in thermal plants burning refined petroleum or coal. Energy supplies are insufficient to meet demand.

Currency and Banking.

The unit of currency is the Philippine peso, which is divided into 100 centavos (54.83 pesos equal U.S.$1; Sept. 2003). The Central Bank of the Philippines (1949; restructured in 1993) has sole control of the credit and monetary supply, independent of the treasury. In addition, the country is served by 32 commercial banks, 38 private development banks, and more than 800 other banking institutions.

Foreign Trade.

The country generally spends much more on imports than it earns from exports; in the early 1990s annual imports totaled about $14.5 billion and exports $9.8 billion. The leading imports are petroleum, machinery, transportation equipment, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs, and textiles. Exports include electrical and electronic components, coconut oil, metal ores, clothing, raw sugar, copra, bananas, seafood, canned pineapples, and logs and lumber. Principal trade partners are the U.S., Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia.

Transportation.

Despite the country's difficult terrain, the Philippines has a good road system of approximately 160,630 km (approximately 99,810 mi), about 14% of which is paved. The country has about 1060 km (about 660 mi) of operated railroad track. The national air carrier is Philippine Airlines (PAL), and the main international airport serves Manila; plagued by huge financial losses, PAL temporarily suspended operations in 1998. The country has many seaports, the busiest of which include Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, and Cagayan de Oro.

Communications.

The country's telecommunications network in the late 1990s included 2.7 million main telephone lines, 1.6 million cellular telephone subscribers, 1.1 million personal computers, 150,000 Internet users, and 7.8 million televisions. The Philippines has more than 40 daily newspapers, most published in Manila. Abante, the Manila Bulletin, the People's Bagong Taliba, and the People's Journal have large circulations.

GOVERNMENT

A new constitution was ratified by national referendum in February 1987.

Executive.

The head of state and chief executive of the Philippines is a president, elected by direct universal suffrage to a single 6-year term. The vice-president may serve no more than two successive 6-year terms.

Legislature.

Under the Philippine constitution, the bicameral legislature consists of a senate of 24 members, serving 6-year terms, and a house of representatives with a maximum of 250 members, serving 3-year terms. General elections for the new legislature were held in May 1987, with all members of this first Congress entitled to serve until 1992, when the regular election cycle began.

Judiciary.

The highest tribunal in the Philippines is the supreme court, made up of a chief justice and 14 associate justices, all appointed by the country's president. Other judicial bodies include a court of appeals, courts of the first instance, and municipal courts.

Local Government.

The Philippines is divided for administrative purposes into 16 regions, including the National Capital Region and the special autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao. The regions are further subdivided into 76 provinces (each headed by a governor), 60 chartered cities, more than 1500 municipalities, and nearly 42,000 barangays (localities with elected councils).

Political Parties.

For the February 1986 presidential election, the parties that took part were a 12-party coalition, the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (Unido); the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), or the New Society Movement; and the Philippine Democratic Party (PDP-Laban). The Unido and PDP supported Corazon Aquino and Salvador Laurel (1928–2004), while the KBL supported Ferdinand Marcos, the incumbent president, and Arturo Tolentino (1911–    ). In the elections of May 1987, opponents of Aquino campaigned under the banner of the Grand Alliance for Democracy. The Democratic Filipino Struggle won the most seats in the general election of May 1992. The dominant parties in the May 1998 election were People Power-National Union of Christian Democrats (Lakas-NUCD) and a coalition known as Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino (LAMMP), or Fight of the Patriotic Filipino Masses.

Health and Welfare.

Most Philippine cities have modern health facilities, which are usually lacking in rural areas. Life expectancy at birth averaged 64 years in the early 1990s; the infant mortality rate was 40 per 1000 live births. The government manages a retirement and life insurance program for employed persons.

Defense.

In the early 1990s the armed forces of the Philippines included an army of 68,000 members, a navy of 23,000, and an air force of 15,500.

International Organizations.

The Philippines is a member of the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the World Trade Organization.

HISTORY

The first humans in the Philippine Islands are thought to have come from China and the Malayan Archipelago some 250,000 years ago, but few remains have been discovered. Later, other peoples migrated to the islands, among them Negritos, who probably arrived about 25,000 years ago. A Mongoloid people from Southeast Asia followed about 10,000 years later. All are thought to have crossed a land bridge that no longer exists. Larger groups of people from the regions of present-day China and Vietnam arrived about 7000 bc to 2000 bc. The largest migrations to the islands, however, probably occurred after the 3d century bc. The last arrivals were people from the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian archipelago. These migrants brought with them their iron tools and a technology that included glassmaking and tie-and-dye weaving.

Cultural Influences.

By the 5th century ad a new Filipino civilization had emerged from the mixture of cultures. Traders from as far away as India became frequent visitors to the islands. Competing influences from the Middle East, India, and China brought many changes in the economy and social life. Several primary industries—mining, metallurgy, lumbering—came into being, and gold and coins were introduced as media of exchange. By the 12th century, the powerful Sumatra-based kingdom of Sri Vijaya had also extended its influence to the Philippines. Starting in the 13th century, Islam spread through the southern parts of the archipelago and became firmly established there. The Chinese Ming dynasty maintained tributary commercial and diplomatic relations with the islands throughout the 15th century.

European Colonization.

The islands were first seen by a European in March 1521, when the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached them during his attempted circumnavigation of the earth in the service of Spain. The following month Magellan was killed on the island of Mactan, when he tried to impose Christianity and Spanish sovereignty on the local chief, Lapu-Lapu. The rout of the Spanish ended the shadowy authority Magellan had sought to establish. For his successful defiance of the Spanish, Lapu-Lapu is a national folk hero.

The Spanish claim to the islands was disputed by Portugal, which was already in possession of the nearby Moluccas and could invoke the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, whereby the eastern hemisphere was reserved to Portuguese colonization. In 1542, however, a Spanish expedition reasserted the claims of Spain and named the archipelago the Islas Filipinas, or Philippine Islands, in honor of the royal heir, later King Philip II.

The first Spanish expedition to achieve lasting results was headed by Miguel López de Legazpi (1510?–72), who landed in 1564. Legazpi gradually advanced Spanish power over the islands, and in 1572 established Manila as the administrative center. Portuguese threats were entirely eliminated after 1580, when King Philip also became king of Portugal.

Conversion to Christianity.

Representatives of various Roman Catholic religious orders, such as the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits, came to the islands immediately after the successful Legazpi expedition. Conversions were rapid, as coercion mixed with the ceremonial splendor of the Roman Catholic rites aroused fear and admiration in the local peoples. The work of the missionaries was of utmost importance in establishing Spanish rule and was comparably important to the Filipinos, united at last into a fairly homogeneous people by a common religion. The monastic orders eventually secured the possession of large tracts of land, and they became wealthy and politically powerful.

The Spanish challenged.

Other European nations, by the end of the 16th century, began attempts to acquire a foothold in the Philippines. English mariners, including Sir Francis Drake in 1579, harassed Spanish shipping. Later the Dutch, beginning to take an active imperialistic role in the Orient, raided the islands and took prizes not only of Spanish but also of Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese trading vessels. Dutch attacks gradually ceased after 1662, when the Netherlands occupied the rich Moluccas.

Upon the overthrow of Spanish rule in Mexico by the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the Philippines were put directly under the administrative control of Madrid. Filipino nationalism, however, was little in evidence at that time, and the islands remained relatively quiet until the late 19th century.

Indigenous Resistance.

In 1892 several secret societies were organized to act against the Spanish authorities. The foremost of these was the Philippine League founded by José Rizal in 1891. Rizal, a political moderate who, nevertheless, was executed in 1896, became the martyred symbol of his nation. Truly radical was the Katipunan (Tagalog, “association”), established to secure complete independence by open revolt. The existence of the Katipunan was disclosed to Spanish officials on Aug. 19, 1896, and on August 26, the insurrectionists, no longer able to hide their activity, began armed hostilities.

Under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, chief of the rebel forces, the insurgents were initially successful. Reinforcements from Spain, however, substantially weakened the rebellion in early 1897, and in August of that year Aguinaldo and the Spanish governor-general signed the Pact of Biac-na-bató, guaranteeing Spanish reforms within three years. The pact was conditional upon the withdrawal of the Filipino leaders from the islands, and Aguinaldo went to Hong Kong with his associates. Domestic events, however, were soon overshadowed by the beginning of the Spanish-American War on April 21, 1898. On May 1 the Asian squadron of the U.S. Navy destroyed the Spanish fleet situated in Manila Bay.

U.S. Rule.

With U.S. help, Aguinaldo returned to the islands on May 19 and proclaimed an independent Philippine republic. By the terms of the Treaty of Paris (Dec. 10, 1898), however, Spain ceded the entire archipelago to the U.S. in return for $20 million, and on December 21 the U.S. proclaimed the establishment of U.S. military rule. Aguinaldo and his associates refused to acknowledge U.S. domination. A provisional Filipino government was established at Malolos, in central Luzon, on Jan. 23, 1899. Tension increased, and on February 4 hostilities began at Manila, when a Filipino patrol provoked the fire of a U.S. sentry. The insurgents were driven back almost at once by U.S. troops, and in November 1899, the Filipinos resorted to guerrilla warfare. Aguinaldo was captured on March 23, 1901, and he swore an oath of allegiance to the U.S. in April, but sporadic warfare continued for still another year.

At the end of the insurrection in 1902 U.S. civil government replaced the military authority, and on July 4, 1902, William Howard Taft, later president of the U.S., became the first civil governor. The Philippine Bill of 1902 provided for the establishment of a bicameral legislature, and five years later, on Oct. 16, 1907, the first session of the Philippine assembly opened, with an elected lower house and the Philippine Commission, previously established, as the upper house.

Shifting American policies.

U.S. politics soon began to influence the course of events in the islands. Taft and his immediate successors were unwilling to delegate much authority to the Filipinos. With the election of Woodrow Wilson to the U.S. presidency in 1912, a new policy was adopted. In 1916 the Jones Act instituted an elected senate, and promised eventual independence. These moves, however, were retarded with the election of Warren G. Harding as president of the U.S. in 1920. Harding, in 1921, appointed a commission to investigate the political and economic situation in the islands. Shortly thereafter, Gen. Leonard Wood, head of the commission, was appointed governor-general. In its report the commission declared that immediate independence would be “a betrayal of the Philippine people.” Wood, basing his policies on those delineated by the commission, found himself bitterly opposed by the Filipino advocates of independence, among whom were Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, president of the Philippine Senate; Sergio Osmeña, speaker of the House of Representatives before 1922; and Manuel Roxas y Acuña, the speaker after 1922.

The commonwealth.

With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 as president of the U.S., the official policy changed once again. On Jan. 13, 1933, the U.S. Congress passed the Howes-Cutting Bill granting Philippine independence after 12 years, but reserving military and naval bases for the U.S. and imposing tariffs and quotas on Philippine exports. The bill was rejected by the Filipinos. Led by Quezon, the Philippine Senate advocated a new bill and won the support of President Roosevelt. The Tydings-McDuffie Bill, passed in 1934, granted absolute and complete independence by 1946, and provided for an interim commonwealth supervised by the U.S., but with a Philippine president elected by national vote and with a constitution. Adopted in February 1935, the constitution was approved by President Roosevelt and ratified by a plebiscite of the Philippine people on May 14. The commonwealth was formally established on November 15, with Quezon as the first president. He was reelected in 1941.

World War II.

Japanese planes attacked the Philippines on Dec. 8, 1941 (December 7, U.S. time), and a large-scale invasion began two weeks later. The subsequent Japanese occupation and warfare caused widespread destruction in the islands. On Oct. 20, 1944, U.S. forces returned to the Philippines under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who had been military commander in the islands before the Japanese attack. The Japanese officially surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945.

Quezon had died in 1944, and he was succeeded by Sergio Osmeña, his vice-president. The government returned to Manila in 1945, and on April 23, 1946, Roxas was elected president, with Elpidio Quirino as vice-president. To help in the rehabilitation of the islands the U.S. established preferential trade relations and awarded the islands several hundred million dollars in war damage and rehabilitation aid. See also World War II.

Republic Established.

The Republic of the Philippines was formally proclaimed on July 4, 1946. In addition to the problem of economic rehabilitation, the new state was faced with internal strife. In central Luzon the Hukbalahaps, or Huks, a Communist-led group of former guerrillas against the Japanese, organized a rebel government, with its own military, civil, and administrative procedures. Demanding collectivization of farmlands and the abolition of tenant farming, the Huks became a powerful force in Luzon.

Philippine cooperation with the U.S. became the keynote of the postwar policy. In 1947 the U.S. was awarded military bases on a 99-year lease, shortened in 1959 to 25 years. A plebiscite in March 1948 ratified an amendment to the Philippine constitution giving U.S. citizens economic rights equal to those of Filipinos. Vice-President Quirino, who became acting president on the death, in April 1948, of President Roxas, won a term on his own in 1949. The Huk rebellion continued to gather momentum in 1949–50.

The government signed a peace treaty with Japan in September 1951, but talks in early 1952 were soon suspended because of Philippine demands for $8 billion in war damages. Pending settlement of the issue, the Philippine legislature refused to ratify the peace treaty.

Magsaysay's Term.

In 1953 the government attempted unsuccessfully to end the Huk rebellion by a peace parley with the rebel leaders. In the presidential elections, held on November 10, former Defense Minister Ramón Magsaysay won a decisive victory over the incumbent Quirino, and because of his vigorous conduct of the campaign against the Huks, the back of the rebellion was broken, although it was not entirely suppressed.

Congress approved on Aug. 11, 1955, legislation empowering President Magsaysay to break up large landed estates and distribute the land to tenant farmers. On September 6 the Philippines and the U.S. concluded a trade agreement on private U.S. investment in Filipino enterprises.

In the mid-1950s the U.S. and the Philippines jointly acknowledged Philippine ownership of U.S. military bases in the islands. The Philippine Senate also ratified the peace treaty with Japan and a Philippine-Japanese agreement providing for $800 million in Japanese reparations.

Magsaysay died on March 17, 1957, in an airplane crash, and on the next day Vice-President Carlos P. Garcia (1896–1971) was sworn in as president. In June a statute outlawing the Communist party was promulgated. The statute provided a maximum sentence of death for active party membership but allowed surrender without penalty within 30 days after promulgation. Some 1400 holdouts of the Huk movement surrendered. Garcia was subsequently elected president, and Diosdado Macapagal (1910–97), an opposition Liberal party candidate, was elected vice-president. Macapagal was elected president in 1961, but in the elections of 1965 he lost to the Nationalist candidate, Ferdinand Marcos.

The Marcos Regime.

Rapid economic development brought prosperity during Marcos's first term, and he was reelected in 1969. His second term, however, was troubled by civil unrest, due partly to his support of U.S. policy in Vietnam. The unrest and increasingly violent student demonstrations were cited as an excuse for the declaration of martial law in 1972. Congress was dissolved, opposition leaders arrested, and strict censorship imposed. Marcos thereafter ruled by decree.

A new constitution was promulgated in January 1973, but transitional provisions attached to it continued Marcos's absolute power, and elections were indefinitely postponed; Marcos instead sought popular sanction of his acts by repeated referendums. By the early 1970s two forces, the Communist New People's Army and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim separatist movement in Mindanao, were waging guerrilla war against the government. Offers for regional autonomy for the Islamic communities in Mindanao were made by the Marcos administration in 1976; the MNLF, however, with support from Libya and Iran, maintained its demand for total secession. In 1980 several opposition groups united to demand an end to martial law, and urban guerrillas carried out a series of bombings in Manila.

Aquino Comes to Power.

Marcos ended martial law in 1981. Presidential elections were held in June, and Marcos won a new 6-year term. Opposition, however, continued to grow. In 1983 opposition leader Benigno Aquino was murdered. A military conspiracy was blamed, but the defendants were later acquitted. Marcos called for presidential elections in February 1986; his chief opponent was Aquino's widow, Corazon. Reports that Marcos had won through fraud stirred such unrest that he had to flee the country, settling temporarily in Hawaii, allegedly taking with him undetermined amounts of illegally gained wealth.

Aquino became president and won the enactment of a new constitution in February 1987. Although she won a vote of confidence in legislative elections that May, military unrest, coupled with popular discontent at the slow pace of economic reform, continued to threaten her government. That same year, based on the results of a referendum, 4 out of the 25 provinces of Mindanao were granted autonomy as the special autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao; despite this progress, the MNLF continued its fight for independence. U.S. Air Force jets assisted Philippine government forces in suppressing a coup attempt in December 1989.

In 1991 the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in central Luzon led the U.S. to abandon nearby Clark Air Base; the Philippine senate then refused to renew the lease on the lone remaining U.S. base, Subic Bay Naval Station, which the U.S. closed in November 1992. Both military facilities were subsequently developed as special economic zones, Subic Bay more successfully than Clark.

From Ramos to Arroyo.

Aquino declined to run in the May 1992 presidential election; instead, she endorsed the eventual winner, her former defense secretary, Fidel Valdez Ramos (1928–    ).

In September 1996 the MNLF and the Philippine government reached agreement on a plan to bring peace to Mindanao and an end to the 24-year-long Muslim insurgency that had cost the lives of at least 120,000 people and an estimated $3 billion in property damage. Pursuant to the accord, MNLF jurisdiction was extended over 9 more provinces, and a government was established under MNLF leadership. Agitation in the remaining 12 provinces and on other islands in the southern Philippines continued, led by the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a faction of the MNLF.

The Philippines experienced a period of rapid economic growth and reform in the mid-1990s. The Asian financial crisis reached the Philippines in mid-1997, but after a run on the peso was halted, the nation experienced an economic downturn that was milder than those in many other Asian countries. In May 1998, Philippine voters chose as their new president Joseph Ejercito Estrada (1937–    ), popularly known as Erap, a former movie star who had served as Ramos's vice-president and had campaigned as a champion of the poor. In 1999 Estrada pushed for changes through a new constitution, including permission for a president to serve more than one 6-year term. Demonstrations opposing it and renewed attacks by MILF seeking more independence for Muslim-inhabited areas occupied much of 1999. A dispute with Malaysia and China over rights to some of the Spratley Islands in the South China Sea led the senate to ratify the Visiting Forces Agreement, allowing U.S. military visits and joint exercises, in May 1999.

In mid-October 2000, Estrada was accused of pocketing at least $10 million in tobacco taxes and kickbacks from illegal gambling. Within a month, the Philippine House of Representatives had impeached him and sent the case to the Senate for trial. The proceedings reached an impasse when, by an 11-10 vote, pro-Estrada senators succeeded in barring the admission of bank records that House prosecutors claimed would document more than $60 million in illicit income amassed by the president. As public protests mounted, the military withdrew its support from Estrada, and on Jan. 20, 2001, the Supreme Court declared the presidency vacant. Vice-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (1947–    ), daughter of former President Macapagal, was sworn in as head of state later that same day. A plebiscite on the MILF's claim to self-determination was held on August 2001.

For further information on this topic, see the Bibliography, section 1102. The Philippines.