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» Introduction of Philippines :

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam.

The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea.

Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world.

The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th century; they were ceded to the US in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth. Manuel QUEZON was elected president and was tasked with preparing the country for independence after a 10-year transition.

With an estimated population of about 92 million people, the Philippines is the world’s 12th most populous country. An additional 11 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands.

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General Information:

Capital: Manila

Coordinates: 14°35′N 121°0′E
Largest city: Quezon City
National language: Filipino
Official language: Filipino (based on Tagalog), English
Area: 299,764 km2

Population: 91,983,000(2009 est.)

Currency: Peso (Filipino: piso)

Time zone: PST (UTC+8)
Drives on the right

Calling code: +63

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History:

It is thought that the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines lived some 40000 years ago. Negritos were another group of early inhabitants but their appearance in the Philippines has not been reliably dated.

They were followed by speakers of Malayo-Polynesian languages who began to arrive beginning around 4000 BCE, displacing the earlier arrivals. By 1000 BCE, the inhabitants of the archipelago had developed into four kinds of social groups: hunter-gathering tribes, warrior societies, petty plutocracies, and maritime-centered harbor principalities.

Stone tools from ancient times were found too on Palawan. The age of the tools is estimated to be about 30.000 years old. An analysis showed that the tools have similar features as tools which were found on Kalimantan (Indonesia). The original people of the Philippines were ancestors of the people known today as Negritos or Aeta. They are very small people with a dark skin and curly brown hair.

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Geography

Geographically, the Philippines are considered a part of Southeast Asia. The country is located between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer, between latitudes 04°23′ and 21°25′N, and between longitudes 1 16°OO’ and 127°OO’E. ). Its 36,289 kilometers (22,549 miles) of coastline makes it the country with the 5th longest coastline in the world. It is bounded in the north by the Bashi Channel, in the east by the Pacific Ocean, in the south by the Celebes Sea, and in the west by the South China Sea.

The Philippines are situated some 965 km from the southeast coast of the mainland of Asia. To the north, Taiwan is the nearest neighbor, being only 97 km from Y’ami in Batanes Province, the northernmost island in the Philippine Archipelago. In the south, the archipelago extends to within a few kilometers of Sabah (North Borneo) and the northern Indonesian islands.

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Culture

The Philippines has a tropical maritime climate and is usually hot and humid. There are three seasons: tag-init or tag-araw, the hot dry season or summer from March to May; tag-ulan, the rainy season from June to November; and tag-lamig, the cool dry season from December to February.
The southwest monsoon (from May to October) is known as the Habagat, and the dry winds of the northeast monsoon (from November to April), the Amihan. Temperatures usually range from 21°C (70°F) to 32°C (90°F) although it can get cooler or hotter depending on the season. The coolest month is January; the warmest is May.

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