Visayans or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic family group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. They are composed of numerous distinct ethnic groups, many unrelated to each other. When taken as a single group, they number around 33.5 million. The Visayans, like the Luzon Lowlanders were originally predominantly animist-polytheists and broadly share a maritime culture until the 16th century when the Spanish empire enforced Catholicism as the state religion. In more inland or otherwise secluded areas, ancient animistic-polytheistic beliefs and traditions either were reinterpreted within a Roman Catholic framework or syncretized with the new religion. Visayans are generally speakers of one or more of the distinct Bisayan languages, the most widely spoken being Cebuano, followed by Hiligaynon (Ilonggo) and Waray-Waray.
In the indigenous religion of the ancient Tagalogs, Bathalà/Maykapál was the transcendent Supreme God, the originator and ruler of the universe. He is commonly known and referred to in the modern era as Bathalà, a term or title which, in earlier times, also applied to lesser beings such as personal tutelary spirits, omen birds, comets, and other heavenly bodies which the early Tagalog people believed predicted events. It was after the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the Philippines in the 16th century that Bathalà /Maykapál came to be identified with the Christian God, hence its synonymy with Diyós. Over the course of the 19th century, the term Bathala was totally replaced by Panginoón (Lord) and Diyós (God). It was no longer used until it was popularized again by Filipinos who learned from chronicles that the Tagalogs' indigenous God was called Bathalà.
Witchcraft has been present throughout the Philippines even before Spanish colonization, and is associated with indigenous Philippine folk religions. Its practice involves black magic, specifically a malevolent use of sympathetic magic. Today, practices are said to be centered in Siquijor, Cebu, Davao, Talalora, Western Samar, and Sorsogon, where many of the country's faith healers reside. Witchcraft also exists in many of the hinterlands, especially in Samar and Leyte; however, witchcraft is known and occurs anywhere in the country.
Filipino shamans, commonly known as babaylan, were shamans of the various ethnic groups of the pre-colonial Philippine islands. These shamans specialized in communicating, appeasing, or harnessing the spirits of the dead and the spirits of nature. They were almost always women or feminized men. They were believed to have spirit guides, by which they could contact and interact with the spirits and deities and the spirit world. Their primary role were as mediums during pag-anito séance rituals. There were also various subtypes of babaylan specializing in the arts of healing and herbalism, divination, and sorcery.
Maria Makiling, more properly Mariang Makiling, is a diwatà (anito) in Philippine mythology, associated with Mount Makiling in Laguna, Philippines. She is the most widely known diwatà in Philippine mythology and was venerated in pre-colonial Philippines as a goddess known as Dayang Masalanta or Dian Masalanta who was invoked to stop deluges, storms, and earthquakes.
Indigenous Philippine folk religions are the distinct native religions of various ethnic groups in the Philippines, where most follow belief systems in line with animism. Generally, these Indigenous folk religions are referred to as Anito or Anitism or the more modern and less ethnocentric Dayawism, where a set of local worship traditions are devoted to the anito or diwata, terms which translate to Gods, spirits, and ancestors. Many of the narratives within the indigenous folk religions are orally transmitted to the next generation, but many have traditionally been written down as well. The Spanish have claimed that the natives did not have religious writings.
The Tagbanwa people are an indigenous peoples and one of the oldest ethnic groups in the Philippines, mainly found in central and northern Palawan. Research has shown that the Tagbanwa are possible descendants of the Tabon Man, thus making them one of the original inhabitants of the Philippines. They are a brown-skinned, slim, and straight-haired ethnic group.
Maria Cacao is the diwata or mountain goddess associated with Mount Lantoy in Argao, Cebu, Philippines. The Maria Cacao legend is a prominent example of the mountain goddess motif in Philippine mythology; other prominent examples being Maria Makiling of Los Baños and Maria Sinukuan of Mount Arayat.
Indigenous Philippine shrines and sacred grounds are places regarded as holy within the indigenous Philippine folk religions. These places usually serve as grounds for communication with the spirit world, especially to the deities and ancestral spirits. In some cases, they also function as safeguards for the caskets of ancestors, as well as statues or other objects depicting divine entities.
Religions in pre-colonial Philippines included a variety of faiths, of which the dominant faiths were polytheist indigenous religions practiced by the more than one hundred distinct ethnic groups in the archipelago. Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam were also present in some parts of the islands. Many of the traditions and belief systems from pre-colonial Filipino religions continue to be practiced today through the Indigenous Philippine folk religions, Folk Catholicism, Folk Hinduism, among others.
The space program of the Philippines is currently maintained by the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) together with various agencies under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The space program includes space research and development, and is funded through the National SPACE Development Program (NSDP) by the DOST and received an initial budget of ₱1 billion in 2020.
Diwata-1 also known as PHL-Microsat-1 was a Philippine microsatellite launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 23, 2016, and was deployed into orbit from the ISS on April 27, 2016. It was the first Philippine microsatellite and the first satellite built and designed by Filipinos. It was followed by Diwata-2, launched in 2018.
The Philippine Earth Data Resource and Observation Center, also known as the PEDRO Center is an organization tasked in operating satellite ground stations.
Diwata-2 or Diwata-2B is a Philippine microsatellite launched on October 29, 2018. It is the first satellite launched under the STAMINA4Space program.
Pusô or tamu, sometimes known in Philippine English as "hanging rice", is a Filipino rice cake made by boiling rice in a woven pouch of palm leaves. It is most commonly found in octahedral, diamond, or rectangular shapes, but it can also come in various other intricately woven complex forms. It is known under many different names throughout the Philippines with numerous variations, but it is usually associated with the street food cultures of the Visayan and Moro peoples.
Anito, also spelled anitu, refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the Indigenous Philippine folk religions from the precolonial age to the present, although the term itself may have other meanings and associations depending on the Filipino ethnic group. It can also refer to carved humanoid figures, the taotao, made of wood, stone, or ivory, that represent these spirits. Anito is also sometimes known as diwata in certain ethnic groups.
The Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite (PHL-Microsat) was a satellite program carried by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the Philippines in cooperation with the Tohoku and Hokkaido University of Japan.
Maya-1 was a Filipino nanosatellite. It was developed under the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite program (PHL-Microsat) and was jointly implemented by the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology as part of the Kyushu Institute of Technology-led multinational second Joint Global Multi-nations Birds Satellite (Birds-2). Maya-1 was the first nanosatellite of the Philippines.
The Space Technology and Applications Mastery, Innovation and Advancement is a space technology program by the Philippine government. It is considered as the successor program to the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite (PHL-Microsat) program, a cooperation between the Philippine government and Japanese universities to develop microsatellites. The program is funded under the Department of Science and Technology.
Joel Joseph Sacro Marciano Jr. is a Filipino engineer, academic and the first and current Director General of the Philippine Space Agency, a government agency under the Office of the President in charge of the Philippines' national space program.
