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The Philippines actually has a lot to make it an attractive tourist destination- it’s a beautiful country, with lovely seas and beaches, picturesque mountains, unusual (and fortunately still alive!) wildlife, and a wonderfully historic past, which has given it a great cultural tradition.

The Philippines is beautiful (and for the beach-crazy, it’s got excellent seaside resorts and wonderful beaches); the natives are friendly with a population of about 92 million people and visiting the country is fairly cheap. When you come to think of the Philippines, by and large, is as ideal a tourist destination as, say, Thailand or Indonesia.

For those interested in sports, there’s lots of opportunity for trekking through the country, and at the beaches, you’ll be able to indulge in swimming, snorkeling, sailing, surfing and other water sports. There are some excellent golf courses in the country (Iloilo is a well-known one), and you can also go horse riding, river rafting, surfing, diving etc as there are excellent sites throughout Philippines.

Historically Speaking

The history of the Philippines goes back to the 1200s, when a group of about a thousand people, natives of the island of Borneo, landed on Panay Island, now a part of the Philippines. This landing may have been a major landmark in the history of the Philippines itself, but in the rest of the world it went unnoticed. The new arrivals set about establishing themselves on the islands round about, and by the time the explorer Ferdinand Magellan- the first man to sail around the world- came here, 200 years later, there were a large number of people on the islands. Magellan landed in Homonhon Islet, near Samar, on March 17, 1521, and claimed to have `discovered’ the islands. Successive expeditions of Spanish explorers, traders and soldiers arrived, claimed the islands for their country, and quickly named them the `Filipinas’ after the Spanish monarch, Phillip II.

Although the Spanish ruled the Philippines from the 16th to the 19th centuries- their reign was marked by increasing dissatisfaction and revolt by the natives. The Philippine Revolution of the late nineteenth century resulted in the country’s freedom, in 1898, but this was mere eyewash- the Spanish handed over the territories to the USA, who moved in. The Americans remained in the Philippines for the next 48 years, but their rule wasn’t smooth, either- the Filipinos waged a war, which carried on till 1905. Eventually, with the end of the war, there was a period of progress and peace- till the Second World War, when Japanese troops moved in and occupied the Philippines. The Filipinos resorted to guerilla warfare, and finally, with the help of the American troops, managed to oust the Japanese. The Philippines’ independence from the USA was finally declared on July 4, 1946.

The official name of the Philippines had undergone many changes during the course of time. At the time of Philippines Revolution, the country was called by Republica Filipina or the Philippines Republic. Later the American colonizers changed its name to Philippine Islands and then finally the country was renamed as the Philippines.

Habitat

Situated in the South East Asia, an archipelago makes up the country of the Philippines consisting of 7107 islands, stretching all the way from close to Taiwan (in the north) to Borneo (in the south). Lying between the Pacific Ocean (to the east) and Indochina on the west, the Philippines are composed of three main groups of islands: Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. The largest of these, and the northernmost, is Luzon, while the second largest is Mindanao. The bulk of the islands- around 6000 tiny little bits of land scattered between Luzon and Mindanao- comprise the Visayan region.

Much of the Philippines lies within the Pacific `Ring of Fire’ and is highly seismic. There are 37 volcanoes on the islands, which have a number of non-volcanic mountains too; the highest is Mt Apo, 2954m, in Mindanao. The country has abundant greens in this part of the world and about a third of the land area is still forested. However, the Philippines have had their share of environmental problems- deforestation and shifting agriculture, along with air and water pollution - the latter especially along the mangrove swamps in coastal areas, are some of the main issues.