Kalayaan Mountaineering Group

Pilipinas republic in the western Pacific Ocean, comprising the Philippine Islands and forming part of the Malay Archipelago, an island grouping that extends southward to include Indonesia and Malaysia. The Philippines includes more than 7,100 islands, but most of the land area is shared among the 11 largest islands. The terrain is mountainous and includes many active volcanoes. The location of the Philippines just north of the equator gives the republic a moderate tropical climate suited for the cultivation of export crops such as coconuts and pineapples. Agriculture has long formed the backbone of the economy. After World War II (1939-1945) the Philippines was one of the first nations of Southeast Asia to try to industrialize its economy. It subsequently lagged behind most of its Asian neighbors in economic development. Manila, located on east central Luzon Island, is the national capital and largest city. The republic’s cultural institutions, industries, and federal government are concentrated in this rapidly growing metropolitan area.

Natural Resources

The Philippines has extensive mineral deposits of copper, gold, silver, nickel, lead, and chromium. Other important, but less plentiful, deposits of zinc, cobalt, and manganese also exist. Copper has been mined extensively and is the leading mineral product, but many of the country’s mineral resources remain unexploited. The Philippines has limited offshore petroleum and natural gas reserves. About 19 percent of the Philippines is forested. Logging has seriously depleted forest cover since the early 20th century. The Philippine waters are abundant with many varieties of fish, which are an important natural resource as a staple of the Philippine diet and an export commodity.

Plant and Animal Life

Forests in the Philippines include the banyan, many varieties of palm, trees yielding rubber, and many indigenous trees with extremely hard wood such as apitong, yacal, lauan, camagón, ipil, white and red narra, and mayapis. Bamboo and cinnamon, clove, and pepper plants grow wild, as do hundreds of species of orchid. Abaca, or Manila hemp, is a commercially valuable indigenous plant; its fiber is used in making cordage, textiles, and hats. Mangrove trees and nipa palms grow in coastal swamps. Coarse, hardy tropical grasses have taken over many upland areas that were cleared of their original tropical rain forest.

The Philippines has few species of large mammals. The domesticated water buffalo, or carabao, is common throughout the islands, while a small species of carabao, the tamarau, is found only in interior Mindoro. Small mammals are more numerous, including monkeys, rodents, bats, and shrews; several species of deer, including a dwarf deer; mongooses; and porcupines, found only on Palawan. Reptiles and birds abound in greater variety and number than mammals. The islands have 556 species of birds, including colorful parrots and the endangered monkey-eating eagle. Palawan has many species of birds found nowhere else in the world. Leeches and insects such as mosquitoes and grasshoppers are serious pests in some areas.

Coastal and inland waters teem with marine life, including thousands of species of fish as well as mollusks such as clams. Pearl oysters are abundant around the Sulu Archipelago, and Sulu pearls are renowned for their quality. Coral reefs and sponges are also found in many offshore areas.

Environmental Issues

Deforestation poses the most direct threat to the remarkable biodiversity of the Philippines. Largely due to loss of habitat, more than 380 animal species are threatened or endangered. Water pollution has damaged the fragile marine ecosystems of the country’s coastal wetlands, mangrove swamps, and coral reefs. Serious air pollution is another environmental concern, primarily in Manila.

The Philippines has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. At the current rate of deforestation, about 1.4 percent annually, the country’s virgin forests are in danger of disappearing by 2010. The clearing of forests has contributed to soil erosion, a serious problem in the Philippines due to heavy monsoon rains. The Philippine government imposed restrictions on logging in the late 1970s and banned logging in virgin forests in 1991, but illegal and often corrupt activities undermine these efforts. Reforestation programs have met with limited success. About 5 percent of the land in the Philippines is designated for preservation in parks and other reserves.

Cultural Groups

Filipinos are generally divided along linguistic, geographic, and religious lines. Different linguistic groups developed as a result of the original settlement patterns. As the Malayan peoples spread throughout the archipelago, they dispersed into separate groups that each developed a distinct vernacular, or regional language. The primary religious groups are Christians and Muslims.

Christian Filipinos are the largest and most politically powerful group in the Philippines. They live primarily in lowland areas, specifically coastal areas and inland plains. They speak many different regional languages and dialects and are categorized into ethnolinguistic groups. Intermarriage and internal migration have helped to reduce language barriers over the years. The largest groups are the Tagalogs, who predominate in central and southern Luzon, including Manila; the Cebuanos, who live in Cebu, Bohol, eastern Negros, western Leyte, and in some coastal areas of Mindanao; and the Ilocanos, who predominate in the coastal areas of northern Luzon. Other major groups are the Ilongos, who speak Hiligaynon; the Bicolanos, who speak Bicol; the Waray-Waray; the Pampangans; and the Pangasinans.

Muslim Filipinos, also known as Moros or Moro Muslims, constitute the second largest group with a common cultural identity, although there are many linguistic and cultural differences among them. The Moros are of Malayan or Indonesian descent and comprise ten major ethnolinguistic groups, the largest of which are the Maguindanao, Maranao, Tau Sug, and Samal. The Maguindanao, who live mainly on Mindanao, are the largest Muslim group in the country. The Maranao, meaning “people of the lake,” live principally around Lake Lanao on Mindanao. The Tau Sug and Samal live in the Sulu Archipelago. Although the majority of Muslim Filipinos live in the southern islands, communities of Muslims live in other areas of the country as well.

The upland tribal groups are the third largest cultural group in the Philippines. The islands include more than 100 upland tribes, ranging in size from 100,000 to fewer than several hundred members. The members of the Aeta and Agta tribes are considered to be the indigenous people of the Philippines. They are descendents of perhaps the first humans who settled the islands during prehistoric times, before the Malayan migrations. They are commonly known as Negritos (a term assigned to them during the Spanish colonial period) and are one of the world’s few remaining Pygmy people, who are characterized by shorter-than-average height. Their communities are located mainly on northeastern Luzon. Although most of them were absorbed into the Malay population through intermarriage, some retreated to the mountains as the Malayan settlers increased in number. Those who retreated retained a hunting-and-gathering way of life augmented by a type of nomadic farming known as slash-and-burn agriculture, whereby they created temporary crop fields by clearing and burning small areas of forest. Other upland peoples of Malayan descent followed a similar settlement pattern. Through centuries of relative isolation, these groups have preserved their traditional ways of life and distinct cultures. They are engaged in subsistence hunting, fishing, and farming. Most maintain indigenous belief systems based on animism (the worship of nature deities and other spirits).

People of Chinese descent comprise the largest non-Malay group, making up about 1 percent of the population. Chinese people have settled in the Philippines for centuries. They originally came as traders, and during the colonial period they began to form an important merchant class. Many recent arrivals from China live in the Philippines as semi permanent residents, while others become Philippine citizens. Intermarriage between Chinese and lowland Filipinos is common. People of mixed Malay and Chinese descent are known as mestizos. Unlike Chinese who do not intermarry or become citizens, mestizos have always been readily accepted in Philippine society. They formed the first Filipino elite during the colonial period, and today they continue to form an economically and politically important minority.

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