On Mindanao, the largest island of the Philippines after Luzon, the Diuata Mountains border the Pacific coast, and west of them lies the valley of the Agusan River. In southwestern Mindanao is a large lowland area, the valley of Mindanao. One of the southern Mindanao ranges contains Mount Apo (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.

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 southwest; the dry season occurs during the winter monsoon, from December to April, when the wind blows from the northeast. From June to October the Philippine Islands are sometimes struck by typhoons, which occasionally cause great damage.

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

About 37 percent 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 southwest, and Sulu pearls are famous.

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

The population of the Philippines (1990) was 60,703,206, giving an overall population density of about 204 persons per sq km (about 524 per sq mi). The distribution, however, is uneven; large areas are virtually uninhabited, while others have a relatively high population density. The nation was about 41 percent urban in the late 1980s. The population growth rate was about 2.7 percent per year.

Of the Philippine population, about 84 percent are Roman Catholics, about 4 percent are Muslims, and about 10 percent are Protestants or of other denominations, including the Philippine Independent Church, or Aglipayans, a schismatic group of Roman Catholics founded about 1902 by Gregorio Aglipay, a Filipino priest.

The official language of the Philippines is Filipino, formerly spelled Pilipino, which is based on Tagalog. The country lacks a common language, however, and English is commonly used for educational, governmental, and commercial purposes. Spanish, formerly an official language, is spoken by a dwindling minority of the population. About 80 languages and dialects are spoken in the islands, of which about ten, belonging to the Austronesian language family, are of regional importance.

Education in the Philippines is free and compulsory for children of ages 7 through 12. Although Filipino is taught and, in the lower grades, local dialects are also used, English is the main language of instruction. Almost 90 percent of the adult population is literate.

In the late 1980s about 9.2 million pupils were enrolled annually in elementary schools, and some 3.4 million students attended secondary schools. Approximately 1.1 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), and the University of Santo Tomás (1611), all in Manila; Bicol University (1969), in Legaspi; the University of Mindanao (1946), in Davao; Saint Louis University (1911), in Baguio; and Southwestern University (1946), in Cebu.

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 retirement homes and orphanages. Since precolonial times Filipino women have held high positions in the society, and today many businesses are managed by women.

Until the 19th century painting and sculpture of the Philippines were strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic church. More recent painting generally has secular themes or is abstract. Noted painters include Juan Luna and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo, whose works are in romantic and impressionist styles; Fernando Amorsolo, known for his landscapes; Fabián de la Rosa, who specialized in portraiture; and Carlos Francisco and Vicente Manansala, both muralists.

The economy of the Philippines is predominantly agricultural, although manufacturing has grown considerably since 1945. According to the constitution, all land and water in the public domain and all natural resources are state-owned and can be exploited only by Philippine citizens or organizations controlled by Philippine citizens. A 1948 agreement extended such rights of exploitation, for a limited period, to citizens of the United States. The United States has contributed substantial economic assistance to the Philippines. The estimated annual budget in the late 1980s included revenue of $5.7 billion and expenditure of $7 billion.

About 43 percent 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 the principal commercial crops. Fruit crops include bananas, oranges, mangoes, pineapples, and papayas. Annual production in the late 1980s totaled about 15.7 million metric tons of sugarcane, 9 million tons of rice, 4.4 million tons of corn, 1.7 million tons of copra, 1.8 million tons of cassava, and 56,000 tons of tobacco. Livestock on farms numbered about 2.9 million water buffalo, 1.7 million cattle, 60 million chickens, 2.1 million goats, 300,000 horses, and 7.6 million hogs.

Forests cover about 37 percent of the total area of the Philippines. Annual production in the late 1980s included some 36.7 million cu m (some 1.3 billion cu ft) of timber. In addition, bamboo and rattan were cut for use in making furniture, baskets, and other products. Marine fishing is a major industry; the annual catch of some 2 million metric tons includes milkfish, scad, anchovy, tuna, squid, shrimp, and crab. Sponge fisheries operate off the southern islands.

The mining industry is an important aspect of the economy of the Philippines. Leading products include gold (1 million troy oz annually in the late 1980s), silver (1.6 million troy oz), copper (214,100 metric tons), nickel (8510 tons), salt (466,400 tons), and coal (1.2 million tons).

The manufacturing sector has expanded greatly since the 1950s. Processed food, textiles, tobacco products, and other nondurable goods continue to make up the largest percentage of 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 products include refined petroleum, chemicals, construction materials, and clothing. Output of leading products in 1990 included 1.7 million metric tons of raw sugar, 6.4 million metric tons of cement, and 71.5 billion cigarettes.

In the late 1980s the Philippines had an installed electricity-generating capacity of about 6.4 million kilowatts, and annual production was some 23.9 billion kilowatt-hours. About 22 percent of the electricity was generated in hydroelectric facilities; 19 percent came from geothermal resources, and almost all the rest was produced in thermal plants burning refined petroleum or coal. Several new hydroelectric projects were planned in the 1980s to reduce expenditure on petroleum imports.

The unit of currency is the Philippine peso, which is divided into 100 centavos (24.29 pesos equal U.S.$1; 1992). The Central Bank of the Philippines (1949) has sole control of the credit and monetary supply, independent of the treasury. In addition, the country is served by 33 commercial banks, 44 private development banks and more than 20 other banking institutions.

Despite the difficult terrain, the Philippines has a good road system of some 157,810 km (some 98,110 mi), about 14 percent 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. The country has many seaports, the busiest including Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, and Zamboanga.

The Philippines has more than 25 daily newspapers, most published in Manila. The People's Journal and People Tonight have large circulations. Many newspapers are written both in English and Filipino. The country has an extensive broadcasting system, and about 7.5 million radio and 6.7 million television receivers were in use in the late 1980s. More than 850,000 telephones were in service.

The work force of the Philippines numbered about 22.9 million people in the late 1980s; more than 40 percent worked in agriculture. Of an estimated 4.9 million workers who were members of labor unions, about 3.8 million belonged to organizations affiliated with the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines.

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

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

Under the Philippine constitution, the bicameral legislature consists of a senate of 24 members, serving six-year terms, and a house of representatives with a maximum of 250 members, serving three-year terms. The first general elections for the legislature under the new constitution were held in May 1987.

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.

The Philippines is divided into 73 provinces, each headed by a governor, plus the National Capital Region. The provinces are subdivided into a total of 60 chartered cities, more than 1500 municipalities, and thousands of other local units.

Most cities of the Philippines have modern health facilities, which are usually lacking in rural areas. The country had about 51,400 physicians in the mid-1980s. The government manages a retirement and life insurance program for employed people.

In the late 1980s the armed forces of the Philippines included an army of 68,000 members, a navy of 28,000, and an air force of 16,000.

The first humans in the Philippine Islands are thought to have come from China and the Malayan Archipelago some 250,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, but few remains from that time have been discovered. Afterward, 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 reached the islands across a land bridge that no longer exists. Larger groups of people from the regions of present-day China and Vietnam arrived from about 7000 BC to 2000 BC. The largest migrations to the islands, however, probably occurred after the 3rd 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.

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 considerable 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.

The first Spanish expedition to achieve lasting results was headed by Miguel López de Legazpi, 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.

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.

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.

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 (December 10, 1898), however, Spain ceded the entire archipelago to the United States in return for $20 million, and on December 21 the United States proclaimed the establishment of U.S. military rule. Aguinaldo and his associates refused to acknowledge U.S. domination. A provisional Philippine government was established at Malolos, in central Luzon, on January 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 United States in April, but sporadic warfare continued for still another year.

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 United States became the keynote of the postwar policy. In 1947 the United States 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 and 1950.

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.

Congress approved, on August 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 United States concluded a trade agreement on private U.S. investment in Philippine enterprises.

In the mid-1950s the United States 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.

A new constitution was promulgated in January 1973, but transitional provisions attached to it gave Marcos continued absolute powers, and elections were indefinitely postponed; instead, the president sought popular sanction of his acts by repeated referendums. Some relaxation was allowed in 1977 and 1978, but restiveness among the population, including the church hierarchy, grew. In 1980 several opposition groups united to demand an end to martial law, and urban guerrillas carried out a series of bombings in Manila.

President Marcos ended martial law in 1981. Presidential elections were held in June, and Marcos won a new six-year term. Opposition to his rule, however, continued to grow. In 1983 opposition leader Benigno Aquino was murdered. A military conspiracy was blamed for the murder, but the defendants were acquitted later. 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 opposition that he had to flee the country, settling temporarily in Hawaii, and taking with him, according to widespread accusations, 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. U.S. Air Force jets assisted Philippine government forces in suppressing a coup attempt in December 1989. In 1991 damage from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in central Luzon led the United States to evacuate nearby Clark Air Base. The Philippine government then rejected a treaty that would have allowed the United States military to remain in the Philippines. As a result, Clark Air Base did not reopen and nearby Subic Bay Naval Station closed in 1992. In the 1992 presidential election, Aquino, prohibited by law from seeking a second presidential term, endorsed Fidel Valdez Ramos, her former defense secretary. Ramos pursued an ambitious economic reform program. In the 1995 legislative elections, voters elected a majority of Ramos-backed candidates to the house and senate.

During the early and mid-1990s, the southern Philippines was the site of renewed guerrilla violence by Muslim separatist forces. In April 1995 more than 50 people were killed in an attack on Ipil, a small town on Mindanao Island. President Ramos declared a state of emergency in Ipil and military troops moved into the area. Another 20 people were killed in the fighting that ensued between the government troops and guerrillas.