I.                  The Philippines and the People

The Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago with a tropical climate and a mountainous terrain. It is located a little above the equator and bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the China Sea and the Celebes Sea. All the islands are seasonally inundated by river systems flowing from mountains. The plains and valleys are well-populated. The mountains, many of which are volcanic in origin, the extensive river sytems and the tropical climate endow the Philippines wiht extremely fertile agricultural lands suitable for a wide variety of crops for food and industrial use. It has vast forest, mineral, marines and power resources. Its forests cover a little over one-third of the land. It has rich inland and sea fishing grounds. Numerous fine harbors and landlocked straits are available for building up the maritime industry.

The People

The Filipino people have been generated by several racial stocks. The main racial stock is Malay, which accounts for more than 85 per cent.Other significant factors in the racial composition of the people are Indonesian and Chinese. The Arab, Indian, Spanish, American and Negrito factors are present, but only to a marginal degree. The national minorities of today comprise at least 10 percent of the population. They inhabited the greater part of the archipelago until a few decades ago when landgrabbers started to dispossess and oppress them.They have been set apart from the rest of the people principally by Christian chauvinism employed by Spanish colonialism and U.S. imperialism, as in the case of the Muslims in Mindanao and the non-Christian mountain tribes all over the country. There is also Malay racism bred by foreign and feudal exploiters of the people. This is often directed against the Chinese and the Aetas. 
To this day, there are more than 100 languages and dialects. The nine most widely spoken are Tagalog, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Subuhanon, Bicol, Pampango, Pangasinan, Samarnon, and Maguindanao.Tagalog is the principal base of the national language which can now be spoken by the majority of the people in varying degrees of fluency.