The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean, and consists of about 7,640 islands, that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest, and shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia and Brunei to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. The Philippines covers an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) and, as of 2020, had a population of around 109 million people, making it the world's twelfth-most populous country. The Philippines is a multinational state, with diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the nation's capital, while the largest city is Quezon City, both lying within the urban area of Metro Manila.
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority. Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of two official languages alongside English.
A barangay, sometimes referred to by its archaic name barrio, is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolitan areas, the term often refers to an inner city neighbourhood, a suburb, or a suburban neighborhood. The word barangay originated from balangay, a kind of boat used by a group of Austronesian peoples when they migrated to the Philippines.
Filipino, also known as Pilipino, is the national language of the Philippines. Filipino is also designated, along with English, as an official language of the country. It is a standardized variety of the Tagalog language, an Austronesian regional language that is widely spoken in the Philippines. Tagalog is the first language of 24 million people, or about one-fourth of the Philippine population as of 2019, while 45 million speak Tagalog as their second language as of 2013. Tagalog is among the 185 languages of the Philippines identified in the Ethnologue. Officially, Filipino is defined by the Commission on the Filipino Language as "the native dialect, spoken and written, in Metro Manila, the National Capital Region, and in other urban centers of the archipelago." As of 2000, over 90% of the population could speak Tagalog, and approximately 80% could speak Filipino and 60% could speak English.
The national flag of the Philippines is a horizontal bicolor flag with equal bands of royal blue and crimson red, with a white, equilateral triangle at the hoist. In the center of the triangle is a golden-yellow sun with eight primary rays, each representing a province. At each vertex of the triangle is a five-pointed, golden-yellow star, each of which representing one of the country's three main island groups—Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. The white triangle at the flag represents liberty, equality, and fraternity. A unique feature of this flag is its usage to indicate a state of war if it is displayed with the red side on top, which is effectively achieved by flipping the flag upside-down.
The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), established in 1938, is an athletic association of eight Metro Manila universities in the Philippines. The eight member schools are Adamson University (AdU), Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), De La Salle University (DLSU), Far Eastern University (FEU), National University (NU), University of the East (UE), University of the Philippines Diliman (UP), and University of Santo Tomas (UST). Varsity teams from these universities compete annually in the league's 28 events from 15 sports to vie for the overall championship title, namely, badminton, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, chess, fencing, football, judo, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, track and field, and volleyball.
La Union, officially the Province of La Union, is a province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in the island of Luzon. Its capital is the city of San Fernando, which also serves as the regional center of the whole Ilocos Region.
Benguet, officially the Province of Benguet, is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. Its capital is La Trinidad.
Quezon City, also called as the City of Quezon and abbreviated as Q.C. (Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. With over 3 million people, the city is known for its ethnic and cultural diversity, entertainment industry, government edifices and its sprawling metropolitan area.
De La Salle University, also referred to by its acronym DLSU or simply as De La Salle or La Salle is a private, Catholic coeducational research university run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Taft Avenue, Malate, Manila, Philippines. It was established by the Christian Brothers in 1911 as the De La Salle College (DLSC) in Nozaleda Street, Paco, Manila with Br. Blimond Pierre Eilenbecker, FSC serving as the first director, and is the first La Salle school in the Philippines. The educational institution moved to its present location in 1921 to accommodate the increase in enrollment. The college was granted university status on February 19, 1975 and is the oldest constituent of De La Salle Philippines (DLSP), a network of 16 Lasallian educational institutions established in 2006 replacing the De La Salle University System.
The Manila Galleons were Spanish trading ships which for two-and-a-half centuries linked the Spanish Captaincy General of the Philippines with Mexico across the Pacific Ocean, making one or two round-trip voyages per year between the ports of Acapulco and Manila, which were both part of New Spain. The name of the galleon changed to reflect the city that the ship sailed from. The term Manila galleon can also refer to the trade route itself between Acapulco and Manila, which lasted from 1565 to 1815.
Spanish was the official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish rule in the late 16th century, through the conclusion of the Spanish–American War in 1898 and remained co-official, along with English, until 1987. It was at first removed in 1973 by a constitutional change, but after a few months it was re-designated an official language by presidential decree and remained official until 1987, with the present Constitution re-designating it instead as an "optional and voluntary language".
Maguindanao or Maguindanaon is an Austronesian language spoken by a majority of the population of Maguindanao province in the Philippines. It is also spoken by sizable minorities in different parts of Mindanao such as the cities of Zamboanga, Davao, and General Santos, and the provinces of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, as well as Metro Manila. This was the language of the historic Sultanate of Maguindanao, which existed before and during the Spanish colonial period from 1500 to 1888.
The Philippine Declaration of Independence was proclaimed by Filipino revolutionary forces general Emilio Aguinaldo on 12 June 1898 in Cavite el Viejo, Philippines. It asserted the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain.
The Asian conical hat, commonly known as an Asian rice hat, coolie hat, oriental hat or farmer's hat, is a simple style of conical hat originating in East, South and Southeast Asia specifically from Hue, Vietnam given they are depicted on terracotta pots dating back over 2,000 years, they have likely been worn in some form for several millennia; and notable in modern-day nations and regions of Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, parts of Outer Manchuria, Taiwan, Nepal, Tibet, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Filipinos ; are the people who are native to or citizens of the country of the Philippines. Filipinos come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups. Currently, there are more than 185 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines; each with its own language, identity, culture and history.
The Philippine Catholic Church, or Catholic Church in the Philippines, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual direction of the Pope and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. The Philippines is one of the two nations in Asia having a substantial portion of the population professing the Catholic faith, along with East Timor, and has the third largest Catholic population in the world after Brazil and Mexico. The episcopal conference responsible in governing the faith is the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.
Philippine adobo is a popular Filipino dish and cooking process in Philippine cuisine that involves meat, seafood, or vegetables marinated in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and black peppercorns, which is browned in oil, and simmered in the marinade. It has occasionally been considered the unofficial national dish in the Philippines.
Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaitán, commonly known as Marcelo H. del Pilar and also known by his pen name Plaridel, was a Filipino writer, lawyer, journalist, and freemason. Del Pilar, along with José Rizal and Graciano López Jaena, became known as the leaders of the Reform Movement in Spain.
La Solidaridad was an organization created in Spain on December 13, 1888. Composed of Filipino liberals exiled in 1872 and students attending Europe's universities, the organization aimed to increase Spanish awareness of the needs of its colony, the Philippines, and to propagate a closer relationship between the Philippines and Spain.
