OVERVIEW

Stretching 1,839 kilometers North to south of the southeast coast of Asia, the Republic of the Philippines has a total land area of 300,000 square kilometers It's 7,107 islands compromise one of the largest island groups in the world.

About 76 million Filipinos make up the population, 55% of whom occupy the largest island of Luzon. Filipinos compromise cultural and linguistic groups of Malayo- Polynesian origin, with varying degrees of Chinese, Spanish and American influences. Majority are Roman Catholics, though a significant number are Protestants and Moslems.

The Philippines is the world's third largest English- speaking country after the United States and the United Kingdom. Pilipino is the national language; English is used for commercial and legal transactions. Literacy rate is a high 94%.

CLIMATE:

The Philippines is a tropical country with an average temperature of 32 degrees March to June are hot and dry; rains and typhoons abound from July to October; November to February are pleasantly cool and dry. In Mountain regions, temperatures dip to about 15 degrees.

TODAY:

The country is divided into 14 regions (including National Capital Region or Metro Manila and the Cordillera Autonomous Region), 73 provinces and 60 cities. The Philippines is a democratic country. The economy is basically light industry and agriculture - the chief products being rice, corn, coconut, pineapple and sugar. The land is rich in copper, cobalt, nickel, silver, iron and gold deposits. It has well-developed industries in food processing, textiles, clothing and home appliances, with fast growing aqua culture, microcircuits and furniture sectors.

The Philippines has an extensive coastline stretching 34,600 kilometers It's chief ports are in Manila, Batangas, Bataan, Cebu, Iloilo, Iligan and Davao. Manila Bay with an area of 1,239 square kilometers And a circumference of 193 kilometers, is the finest natural harbor in the far east.

CURRENCY: The monetary unit is the peso, divided into 100 centavos.

COMMUNICATIONS:

Over one million television sets as well as an estimated 2.3 million radios and more than a million telephones are in use nationwide. Telephone services are provided by PLDT but more telephone services are coming in. There are 32 daily newspapers, over half of which are English and the rest in various dialects. Domestic and international telegram, telex , Internet facsimile services are also available.

TRANSPORTATION:

In Metro Manila, taxis buses, jeepneys and a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system provide public transport. In certain areas like Binondo (Manila's China town) and the old walled city of Intramuros, horse drawn carriages or calesas ply short routes. International and local car rental companies provide chauffeured or self driven limousine service.

The Railways comes up to a total of 499 km, The highways have a total of 182,000 probably less than 30,000 km are designated arterial roads and not all of these are all-weather roads. Waterways extends up to 3,219 km and is limited to shallow-draft (less than 1.5 m) vessels.

Ports and harbors are at Batangas, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Guimaras Island, Iligan, Iloilo, Jolo, Legaspi, Manila, Masao, Puerto Princesa, San Fernando,Subic Bay, Zamboanga. There are a total of 523 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 7,614,831 GRT/12,246,321 DWT ships by type : bulk 223, cargo 124, chemical tanker 3, combination bulk 9, container 8, liquefied gas tanker 9, livestock carrier 11, oil tanker 45, passenger 3,passenger-cargo 13, refrigerated cargo 18, roll-on/roll-off 14, short-sea passenger 23, vehicle carrier 20

There are at least 234 airports. 168 of which has paved runways and 66 of which are unpaved.

POLITICAL STRUCTURE:

The Philippine's Independence Day is on the 12th of June (the date it was free from Spain's rule) . It's constitution was revised on the 2nd February 1987, and took effect on the 11th of February 1987. It's legal system is based on Spanish and Anglo-American law. It accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations

The Federal or National Government is, like the U.S. divided into 3 branches. The Executive, Legislative and Judicial Braches.

The Executive branch is composed of the chief of state which is the country's President and Vice President. The president is both the chief of state and head of government. The Cabinet appointed by the president with the consent of the Commission of Appointments elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by popular vote for six-year terms.

The Legislative branch is a bicameral Congress or Kongreso consists of the Senate or Senado (24 seats - one-half elected every three years; members elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and the House of Representatives or Kapulungan Ng Mga Kinatawan (204 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve three-year terms; an additional 50 members may be appointed by the president) Senate elections are held on the 8th of May every 3 years; House of Representatives elections are also held on May 8th.

The Judicial branch is composed of the Supreme Court, justices are appointed for four-year terms by the president on the recommendation of the Judicial and Bar Council .

The Philippines is involved in International organization such as: APEC, AsDB, ASEAN, CCC, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD,IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, Mekong Group, NAM, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNU, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW:

The Philippine economy, primarily a mixture of agriculture and light industry, continued its fourth year of recovery in 1996, led by growth in exports and investments. Officials have targeted 7.1%-7.8% growth for 1997 after achieving an estimated 5.5% growth in 1996. The government is continuing its economic reforms to enable the Philippines to move closer to the development of the newly industrialized countries of East Asia. The strategy includes improving infrastructure, overhauling the tax system to bolster government revenues, and moving toward further deregulation and privatization of the economy.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $194.2 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 5.5% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $2,600 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 22%

industry: 32%

services: 46% (1996 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 8.4% (1996)

There is a total of 29.13 million Labor Forces in the country:43.4% in agriculture, services 22.6%, government services 17.9%, industry and commerce 16.1%. The Unemployment rate is 8.6% of the country's population. The country's Budget is $18.4 billion on revenues, $16.5 billion on expenditures, including capital expenditures of $NA The Philippines is involved in industries on textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, wood products, food processing, electronics assembly, petroleum refining, fishing. It's industrial production growth rate is 6.3%. Agriculture products such as rice, coconuts, corn, sugarcane, bananas, pineapples, mangoes; pork, eggs, beef; fish catch of 2 million metric tons annually

Debt - external: $42.7 billion (June 1996)

Economic aid:

recipient: ODA, $934 million (1993)

Exchange rates: Philippine pesos (P) per US$1 - 39.01 (May 1998) 26.36 (May 1997), 26.216 (1996), 25.714 (1995), 26.417 (1994), 27.120 (1993), 25.512 (1992)

Fiscal year: calendar year

TRANSNATIONAL ISSUES:

The Philippines was involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly Brunei. It is also claiming Malaysian state of Sabah

It was said to export locally-produced marijuana and hashish to East Asia, the US, and other Western markets; serves as a transit point for heroin and crystal methamphetamines

CONCLUSION:

The Philippines is really developing in comparison to the previous years. This is evidently shown in the current GNP and GDP growth rate. The GDP growth rate of the Philippines in the recently released report shows that the Philippines is on the 20th rank which is 4.7% GDP . Which shows that the country is on it's stability inspite of the Asian Currency turmoil. Life Expectancy is at 67 and literacy rate is at 94% still and urban population is at 46%. In the previous weeks the Peso and Thai Baht is compared; which in conclusion shows that the peso is much stable than the Thai Baht. This year the Philippines will turnover a new leadership to a new president. The president elect is Joseph Estrada who is being criticized about his economic agenda and leadership. Joseph Estrada will still pursue the economic project of President Fidel Ramos which is "PHILIPPINES 2000" . Joseph Estrada has a set of 30 economic advisers that will help him run the economy, among the 30 are from the University of the Philippines economics department which are the best of the country.. I am very positive about the Philippines economic stability in the succeeding years with the help of Estrada's economic team I am positive that they could run the economy very well. I predict that the GNP and GDP growth rate will still go up to progress because new investors are investing up in the country and agriculture projects are in attention. I recommend that organization in the new leadership ,because 30 advisers is so much for an advisory team. Among the advisor is Fidel Ramos who is a great economic leader who turned Philippines in the competitive race. I guess with his knowledge and experience that would be enough for a few advisers. I conclude that Philippines is a country to watch for.

RECOMMENDATION FOR ECONOMIC IMPROVEMENT:

I think the filipino people should invest more on the philippine made products and preserve their natural resources. The beaches in a lot of areas are good tourist attractions and should be more advertised for tourism. Tourism will help the economic growth. They should also try to lessen the graft and corruption. Taxes should be paid by citizens without delays or using briberies to get off of it.