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Background
The Philippines (Filipino: Pilipinas),
officially the Republic of the Philippines (Republika
ng Pilipinas), is an island nation located
in the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia, with Manila as
its capital. It comprises 7,107 islands called
the Philippine Archipelago, with a total land
area of approximately 300,000 square kilometers
or 116,000 square miles, making it the 72nd largest
country by area.
Modern day Filipinos are mostly
of Austronesian stock, although there are a number
of Filipinos with Spanish, Chinese, American,
and Arab ancestry.
The country was named "Las
Islas Filipinas" by Ruy López de
Villalobos after King Philip II of Spain. Spanish
colonial rule began in 1565 and lasted for about
three centuries until the Philippine Revolution
of 1896. The United States gained possession
of the Philippines after the Spanish-American
War in 1898 and ruled the country for about five
decades. Philippine culture has many affinities
with the West. Roman Catholicism is the predominant
religion, and Filipino is an official language,
along with English.
Politics
The government of the Philippines
is organized as a presidential-unitary republic,
where the President functions as head of state,
the head of government, and the commander-in-chief
of the armed forces. The president is elected
by popular vote to a 6-year term, during which
he or she appoints and presides over the cabinet
of secretaries.
The bicameral Congress comprises
the Senate and the House of Representatives;
members of the former are elected at large and
those of the latter by geographical district.
The 24 senators serve 6-year terms, with half
retiring every three years, while the House of
Representatives comprises 250 members serving
3-year terms.
The judicial branch of government
is headed by the Supreme Court, with a Chief
Justice as its head and 14 associate justices,
all appointed by the President from nominations
submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council. Other
courts include the Court of Appeals, the Regional
Trial Courts and the Metropolitan Trial Courts.
As of June 2006, President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is hoping to get agreement
to amend the constitution to a unicameral parliament
under a federal setting similar to the German
constitution. The country would be split into "states" with
each one having a local legislature responsible
for certain functions. Included in the amendments
are plans to remove/ease the current ban on foreign
ownership of property, land and commercial organizations
in the Philippines. Plans have been announced
to decentralize government by moving departments
from Manila to the provinces, such as the Department
of Tourism to Cebu City, the Department of Foreign
Affairs to Angeles City, and the Department of
Agrarian Reform to Iloilo City.
International relations
The Philippines is a founding and
active member of the United Nations since its inception
on October 24, 1945 and is a founding member of
the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Philippines is also a member
of the East
Asia Summit (EAS), an active player in the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Latin
Union and a member of the Group
of 24. The country is a major non-NATO ally
of the U.S., but also a member of the Non-Aligned
Movement.
The Philippines is currently
in a dispute with Taiwan, China, Vietnam and
Malaysia over the oil- and natural gas-rich Spratly
Islands and Scarborough Shoal, and with Malaysia
over Sabah. The Sultan of Sulu, who received
Sabah as a gift in 1703 having helped the Sultan
of Brunei defeat a rebellion, has given the Philippine
Government power to reclaim his lost territory.
To this day, the Sultan of Sulu's family receives "rental" payments
for Sabah from the Malaysian government.
See also: Foreign
relations of the Philippines,
Economic overview
The Philippines is a developing country
with an agricultural base, light industry, and
service-sector economy. The Philippines has one
of the most vibrant business process outsourcing
(BPO) industries in Asia. Numerous call centers
and BPO firms have infused momentum into the Philippine
market, generating thousands of jobs, including
Fortune 500 companies.
The resiliency of the Philippine
economy due to low foreign inflows and an agriculture-based
economy allowed it to snap back from international
crises as evidenced by 3% growth in 1999 and
accelerated to 4% in 2000. By 2004, the Philippine
economy catapulted to over 6% growth after the East
Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.
President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo pledged to turn the country
into a First World state by 2020.
Government initiatives are
designed to match the pace of development in
the newly industrialized countries (NICs) of
East Asia. Economic strategies are implemented
to manage a public debt comprising 93% of the
GDP. This priority manifests as a budget allocation
set higher than the budget for education and
defense combined. The Philippine middle class
is essential to economic prosperity. Although
proportionately smaller, the Philippine middle
class is scheduled to grow.
Strategies for streamlining
the economy include improvements of infrastructure,
more efficient tax systems to bolster government
revenues, furthering deregulation and privatization
of the economy, and increasing trade integration
within the region and across the world.
On November 1, 2005, a newly
expanded value added tax (E-VAT) law was instituted
as a measure to bridle the rising foreign debt
and to improve government services such as education,
healthcare, social security, and transportation.
As of 2006, The Philippines' economic prosperity
also depends in large part on how well its two
biggest trading partners' economies perform:
the U.S. and Japan.
The Philippines is a member
of the Asian
Development Bank, World
Bank, International
Monetary Fund, and other international economic
associations, such as the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the World
Trade Organization (WTO), the Colombo
Plan, and the G-77.
In 2005, the Philippine
peso was said to be Asia's best-performing
currency. The Philippines' 1st quarter GDP
growth was within the government's programmed
growth of 5.5% buoyed by the rebound of the
agriculture sector and a strong service sector
performance however, the economy is still vulnerable
to high world oil prices and political instability.
There are few promising developments though:
one is the strong fiscal performance that the
government has put in place; another is the
mining boom, which will help generate additional
revenues and additional jobs but may permanently
damage the environment. The country’s
export rose by more than 15% in January-April
this year, while investments increased by $2
billion over that of the same four-month period
last year.
Despite the growing economy, the
Philippines will have to address several chronic
problems in the future. Income inequality remains
persistent; about 30 million people lived on less
than $2 per day in 2005. China and India have emerged
as major economic competitors, siphoning away investors
who would otherwise have invested in the Philippines,
particularly telecom companies. Regional development
is also somewhat uneven, with the main island Luzon
and Metro Manila gaining most of the new economic
growth at the expense of the other regions.
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