Philippines

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Philippines in a nutshell

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines)

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises over 7,000 islands[ in the western Pacific Ocean.

The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country, with an estimated population of about 92 million people.

Its capital is Manila but the largest city is Quezon City.

Its national economy is the 47th largest in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP nominal) of over US$ 168.6 billion (nominal). It is estimated that there are about 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, equivalent to about 11% of the total population of the Philippines. The Philippines is a newly industrialized country, with an economy anchored on agriculture but with substantial contributions from manufacturing, mining, remittances from overseas Filipinos, and service industries such as tourism, and business process outsourcing. It is also listed in the roster of the "Next Eleven" economies.

As a former colony of Spain, the Philippines is one of two predominantly Roman Catholic countries in Asia, the other being East Timor. There are also a number of minority religious groups, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other beliefs. Multiple ethnicities, and cultures are found throughout the islands. Ecologically, the Philippines is one of the most diverse countries in the world.

The official name of the Philippines changed throughout the course of its history. During the Philippine Revolution, it was officially called República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the period of the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine-American War, until the Commonwealth period, American colonial authorities referred to the country as the Philippine Islands, a translation of the original Spanish name. It was during the American period that the name Philippines began to appear, a name that has become its common name. The official name of the country now is Republic of the Philippines.

The Philippines has a presidential, unitary form of government (with some modification; there is one autonomous region largely free from the national government), where the President functions as both head of state and head of government and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president is elected by popular vote to a single six-year term, during which time she or he appoints and presides over the cabinet.

The bicameral Congress is composed of a Senate, serving as the upper house whose members are elected to a six-year term, and a House of Representatives serving as the lower house, whose members are elected to a three-year term, and are elected from both legislative districts, and through sectoral representation.

The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court, composed of a Chief Justice as its presiding officer, and fourteen associate justices, all appointed by the Philippine President from nominations submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.

The Philippines is divided into three island groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. These are divided into 17 regions, 80 provinces, 120 cities, 1511 municipalities, and 42,008 barangays.

Over 180 native languages, and dialects are spoken in the Philippines. They are part of the Borneo-Philippines group of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is itself a branch of the Austronesian language family.[89]

According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Filipino and English are the official languages. Filipino is the de facto version of Tagalog, spoken mainly in Metro Manila, and other urban regions. Both Tagalog, and English are used in government, education, print, broadcast media, and business. Major languages recognized in the constitution include Bicolano, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tagalog, and Waray-Waray. Spanish, and Arabic are both recognized as auxiliary languages. Other languages such as Aklanon, Boholano, Chavacano, Zamboangueño, Cuyonon, Ifugao, Itbayat, Ivatan, Kalinga, Kamayo, Kankana-ey, Kinaray-a, Maguindanao, Maranao, Masbatenyo, Romblomanon, Surigaonon, Tausug, Yakan, and several Visayan languages are dominant in their respective provinces.

Virtual Campuses in HE

Interesting Programmes

See:

• Polytechnic University of the Philippines
• University of the Philippines Open University

Re.ViCa Case-study

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References

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