The Philippines By Matt Radford and Valerie Turner

Basic Facts: Current Population: 100,998,376 (as of July 2015) Capital: Manila Official languages: Filipino and English Currency: Philippine peso GDP: $456.4 billion ($4,682 per capita) Geography: The Philippine archipelago is composed of 7,107 islands

Pre-Spanish Era ●The Philippines were settled at least 30,000 years ago ●Not unlike the Greek city-states, the country was split into numerous barangays ○Within the barangay existed a variety of social divisions consisting of nobles, freemen, and dependent and landless agricultural workers and slaves. ●Islam was introduced by traders and proselytizers from the Indonesian islands ○The religion reached Manila in 1565 ●This same year Miguel López de Legazpi conquered the kingdom.

Spanish Era Ferdinand Magellan arrives in the Philippines in 1521 Claimed the land for the King of Spain (King Charles I), but Magellan was killed by a local chief shortly afterwards Cebu: the first Spanish settlement (est. 1565) Manila established in 1571 The colony renamed after King Philip II The Roman Catholic Church (official religious institution of Spain) was responsible for Christianizing the colony Today, over 86% of the Philippines is still Roman Catholic The Treaty of Paris gave the Philippines to the United States (Dec. 10th, 1898) after the Spanish-American War.

American Era The Philippines were granted limited self government at the local level in In 1902 Philippine Organic Act was passed, coinciding with the official end of the Philippine-American War. This introduced a national government to the Philippines The Japanese invasion in 1941 and the start of WWII delayed the granting of independence. The US agreed to grant independence on July 4, 1946.

Independent Era (part 1) Independence granted on July 4th Manuel Roxas was the 1st president Manuel Roxas: member of the Liberal party; one of the politicians who collaborated with the Japanese during WWII March 1947: Treaty signed with the US granting the Philippines military aid, training, etc. Ramon Magsaysay: elected president in exacerbated tensions between Christians in the north and Muslims in the south Ferdinand Marcos: elected president in 1965 first term: focused in public works 1967: Philippines helped founded ASEAN second term: economic growth in the Philippines slowed : communist insurgencies and muslim insurgencies : Marcos implemented martial law

Independent Era (part 2) Benigno Aquino Jr.: Marcos’ political rival and Liberal Party Leader assassinated (allegedly) by men working for Marcos in 1983 Marcos’ support dropped - attempted to regain favor in 1986 election Marcos proclaimed the winner, but key military leaders supported Aquino’s widow, Corazon Aquino, instead Ramos: elected 1992 Estrada (Ramos’ VP): elected 1998 forced out of office in 2001 after gambling accusations Current President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III - son of Benigno Aquino Jr. and Corazon Aquino (elected 2010)

Ambassadors: United States Ambassador to the Philippines: Philip Goldberg Filipino Ambassador to the United States: Jose L. Cuisia (left to right: Philip Goldberg, John Kerry, Jose L. Cuisia)

Structure of Government ●The Philippines is a democratic republic with a presidential acting as both the head of the state and head of the national government. ●Similar to the US, there are three separate branches of government. ○Legislative ○Judicial ○Executive ●Elections are held every three years as of 1992.

Structure of Government The constitution requires local autonomy to local governments Local governments are produced by and for the provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays. Not all have political power and exist only for administrative roles. Although local governments have a lot of autonomy, however much of their funding comes from the national government This makes the true level of their autonomy questionable. Local governments are dependent on the national government unless they have an alternate source of income such as property taxes.

Works Cited