About the Country - Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands and extends from the south of China to the northern tip of Borneo. Before the Spanish explorers came, Indo-Malays and Chinese merchants had settled here. After ruling for 333 years, the Spaniards finally left in 1898 and were replaced by the Americans. The Americans, who continued to colonize the country for another 48 years, brought over their educational system, their legal system, and their democratic form of government. On July 4, 1946, the Americans finally recognized Philippine independence. Regarded as the third largest-English speaking country in the world, the Philippines is noted for its world-class facilities and services such as excellent accommodations, fine restaurants, modern shopping centers and communications services, efficient congress and exhibition organizers, and reliable tour operators. The country is divided into three geographical areas; Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital is Manila and it is also the seat of political power in the country.

Historically, the Philippine economy has largely been anchored on the Manila galleon during the Spanish era and bilateral trade with the United States during the American era. By the 1960s, the Philippine economy was regarded as the second-largest in Asia, next only to Japan. However, the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos proved disastrous and the economy which sank into a recession, recovered in the early 1990s with the introduction of economic liberalization and demolition of Marcos-era monopolies. The Philippines, now, is a newly industrialized country with an economy anchored on largely on agriculture with significant contributions from manufacturing, remittances and mining. Tourism is also a fast growing industry as people are becoming more aware of the getaways available in Philippines.

There are different climate zones in the coastal and lowland areas and at higher elevations. In the coastal and lowland areas, the climate is largely tropical where weather is hot and humid throughout most of the year. Sea breezes are common even during the dry month from March to the end of May. The wet season begins from June to October, where the weather remains hot and humid. In the highest elevations of 1200 meters and above in the Mountain and Ifugao provinces of Luzon and in several areas of Mindanao the climate can be very cold. Temperatures often drop to below 10ºC especially in the nights. There is however a dry spell in the higher elevations of Luzon although it is short and not as hot as in the lowlands or coastal regions.