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A stroll on a Palawan beach.
EXCITING
philippines
a visual journey
tHE PHILIPPINES is a Southeast Asian archipelago of over 7,000 islands strewn between the Pacific Ocean and the China Sea. Here Orient meets Occident with a distinctive flair. Three centuries of Spanish Christianization and 40 years of American colonization have left their mark, contributing to the East-West character of a volatile, Latinized people of Asian bloodlines. Catholicism is the major religion, English is the tongue of the educated, and the soulful creativity of the Filipinos prevails in visual arts and handicraft. Music, basketball, boxing and politics are the national pasttimes, from bustling Metro Manila to historical Cebu to booming Davao in Mindanao. Ecotourism adventures await in the 81 provinces— from Boracay to Bohol, Panay to Palawan, to the Banaue Rice Terraces of Northern Luzon. All in this high-spirited place, the Philippines.
Contents
Watersports from Batangas to Bohol
mabuhay!
wELCOME to one unique Filipino national sensibility—hospitality. Unlike any other Asian nation, the Philippines is a destination readily accessible to visitors from both East and West. Warmth and accommodation come naturally to the islander Filipinos. Guests are feted, honored and shown the best of the country’s offerings.
The Philippines can be an exciting, even flamboyant place, driven by the exuberant spirit of the Filipino people. Their hybrid culture derives from a unique mingling of Eastern and Western influences, from diverse Malay, Chinese, Spanish and American strains and bloodlines. Their special character was formed by “four centuries in the convent and four decades in Hollywood,” wrote historian Carmen Guerrero Nakpil. However one sees it, Filipinos have evolved a real cosmopolitan flair, topped by their national knack for song, dance and theater throughout seven regions. Welcome to the Philippine Islands’ abundance of natural attractions and rich archipelagic experiences beyond the urban centers.
Yellow daisy flower teenagers, about to join the street parade at the Panagbenga Flower Festival in Baguio.
Life is a beach on Boracay, one of the top destinations in the Philippines.
Mabuhay is the aloha greeting of the Philippines. In one word, Mabuhay hails: welcome, farewell and long-live. Spirited Filipinos are the most hospitable people in the world.
A Nayong Pilipino smile and a red terno, the Filipina’s national costume.
Cone-shaped Mt Mayon, the main attraction and active volcano of Bicol.
Fresh catch of the day, served on Isla Naburot, Iloilo.
Civic parade passing the heavyset Basilica of Taal, Batangas.
Surfboards at sunset on the northern Ilocos coast of the big island, Luzon.
oVER THE CENTURIES, both Spain and America have colonized this fragmented archipelago and left behind their traces—in staunch Roman Catholicism, the Spanish attitude of mañana and the American-accented tongue and legislative system. Early Malay-Filipinos intermarried with Chinese and Arabs from the 10th century onwards and were colonized by the Spanish from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The Americans arrived in 1898 and occupied the islands for four decades. In 1946, after the devastation of World War II, the Philippines took its place as Asia’s first constitutional democracy. In 1986 and 2001, two popular uprisings called People Power ousted bad leaders, renewed the sense of national self and installed the best Filipinos—women—as Presidents!
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