The Philippines

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The Philippines

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

The Philippines , officially Republic of the Philippines, republic (2005 est. pop. 87,857,000), 115,830 sq mi (300,000 sq km), SW Pacific, in the Malay Archipelago off the SE Asia mainland. It comprises over 7,000 islands and rocks, of which only c.400 are permanently inhabited. The 11 largest islands— Luzon , Mindanao , Samar , Negros , Palawan , Panay , Mindoro , Leyte , Cebu , Bohol , and Masbate —contain about 95% of the total land area. The northernmost point of land, the islet of Y'Ami in the Batan Islands, is separated from Taiwan by the Bashi Channel (c.50 mi/80 km wide). Manila , on Luzon, is the capital, the largest city, and the heart of the country.

Land

The Philippines extend 1,152 mi (1,855 km) from north to south, between Taiwan and Borneo, and 688 mi (1,108 km) from east to west, and are bounded by the Philippine Sea on the east, the Celebes Sea on the south, and the South China Sea on the west. They comprise three natural divisions—the northern, which includes Luzon and attendant islands; the central, occupied by the Visayan Islands and Palawan and Mindoro; and the southern, encompassing Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. In addition to Manila, other important centers are Quezon City , also on Luzon; Cebu, on Cebu Island; Iloilo , on Panay; Davao and Zamboanga , on Mindanao; and Jolo, on Jolo Island in the Sulu Archipelago.

The Philippines are chiefly of volcanic origin. Most of the larger islands are traversed by mountain ranges, with Mt. Apo (9,690 ft/2,954 m), on Mindanao, the highest peak. Narrow coastal plains, wide valleys, volcanoes, dense forests, and mineral and hot springs further characterize the larger islands. Earthquakes are common. Of the navigable rivers, Cagayan, on Luzon, is the largest; there are also large lakes on Luzon and Mindanao.

The Philippines are entirely within the tropical zone. Manila, with a mean daily temperature of 79.5°F (26. 4°C), is typical of the climate of the lowland areas—hot and humid. The highlands, however, have a bracing climate; e.g., Baguio , the summer capital, on Luzon, has a mean annual temperature of 64°F (17.8°C). The islands are subject to typhoons, whose torrential rains can cause devastating floods; 5,000 people died on Leyte in 1991 from such flooding, and several storms in 2004 and 2006 caused deadly flooding and great destruction.

People

The great majority of the people of the Philippines belong to the Malay group and are known as Filipinos. Other groups include the Negritos (negroid pygmies) and the Dumagats (similar to the Papuans of New Guinea), and there is a small Chinese minority. The Filipinos live mostly in the lowlands and constitute one of the largest Christian groups in Asia. Roman Catholicism is professed by over 80% of the population; 5% are Muslims (concentrated on Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago; see Moros ); about 2% are Aglipayans, members of the Philippine Independent Church, a nationalistic offshoot of Catholicism (see Aglipay, Gregorio ); and there are Protestant and Evangelical groups. The official languages are Pilipino, based on Tagalog, and English; however, some 70 native languages are also spoken.

Economy

With their tropical climate, heavy rainfall, and naturally fertile volcanic soil, the Philippines have a strong agricultural sector, which employs over a third of the population. Sugarcane, coconuts, rice, corn, bananas, cassava, pineapples, and mangoes are the most important crops, and tobacco and coffee are also grown. Carabao (water buffalo), pigs, chickens, goats, and ducks are widely raised, and there is dairy farming. Fishing is a common occupation; the Sulu Archipelago is noted for its pearls and mother-of-pearl.

The islands have one of the world's greatest stands of commercial timber. There are also mineral resources such as petroleum, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, copper, zinc, chromite, and iron ore. Nonmetallic minerals include rock asphalt, gypsum, asbestos, sulfur, and coal. Limestone, adobe, and marble are quarried.

Manufacturing is concentrated in metropolitan Manila, near the nation's prime port, but there has been considerable industrial growth on Cebu, Negros, and Mindanao. Garments, footwear, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and wood products are manufactured, and the assembly of electronics and automobiles is important. Other industries include food processing and petroleum refining. The former U.S. military base at Subic Bay was redeveloped in the 1990s as a free-trade zone.

The economy has nonetheless remained weak, and many Filipinos have sought employment overseas; remittances from an estimated 8 million Filipinos abroad are economically important. Chief exports are semiconductors, electronics, transportation equipment, clothing, copper, petroleum products, coconut oil, fruits, lumber and plywood, machinery, and sugar. The main imports are electronic products, mineral fuels, machinery, transportation equipment, iron and steel, textiles, grains, chemicals, and plastic. The chief trading partners are the United States, Japan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Government

The Philippines is governed under the constitution of 1987. The president, who is both head of state and head of the government, is elected by popular vote for a single six-year term. There is a bicameral legislature, the Congress. Members of the 24-seat Senate are popularly elected for six-year terms. The House of Representatives consists of not more than 250 members, who are popularly elected for three-year terms. There is an independent judiciary headed by a supreme court. Administratively, the republic is divided into 79 provinces and 117 chartered cities.

History

Early History

The Negritos are believed to have migrated to the Philippines some 30,000 years ago from Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaya. The Malayans followed in successive waves. These people belonged to a primitive epoch of Malayan culture, which has apparently survived to this day among certain groups such as the Igorots. The Malayan tribes that came later had more highly developed material cultures.

In the 14th cent. Arab traders from Malay and Borneo introduced Islam into the southern islands and extended their influence as far north as Luzon. The first Europeans to visit (1521) the Philippines were those in the Spanish expedition around the world led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Other Spanish expeditions followed, including one from New Spain (Mexico) under López de Villalobos, who in 1542 named the islands for the infante Philip, later Philip II.

Spanish Control

The conquest of the Filipinos by Spain did not begin in earnest until 1564, when another expedition from New Spain, commanded by Miguel López de Legaspi , arrived. Spanish leadership was soon established over many small independent communities that previously had known no central rule. By 1571, when López de Legaspi established the Spanish city of Manila on the site of a Moro town he had conquered the year before, the Spanish foothold in the Philippines was secure, despite the opposition of the Portuguese, who were eager to maintain their monopoly on the trade of East Asia.

Manila repulsed the attack of the Chinese pirate Limahong in 1574. For centuries before the Spanish arrived the Chinese had traded with the Filipinos, but evidently none had settled permanently in the islands until after the conquest. Chinese trade and labor were of great importance in the early development of the Spanish colony, but the Chinese came to be feared and hated because of their increasing numbers, and in 1603 the Spanish murdered thousands of them (later, there were lesser massacres of the Chinese).

The Spanish governor, made a viceroy in 1589, ruled with the advice of the powerful royal audiencia. There were frequent uprisings by the Filipinos, who resented the encomienda system. By the end of the 16th cent. Manila had become a leading commercial center of East Asia, carrying on a flourishing trade with China, India, and the East Indies. The Philippines supplied some wealth (including gold) to Spain, and the richly laden galleons plying between the islands and New Spain were often attacked by English freebooters. There was also trouble from other quarters, and the period from 1600 to 1663 was marked by continual wars with the Dutch, who were laying the foundations of their rich empire in the East Indies, and with Moro pirates. One of the most difficult problems the Spanish faced was the subjugation of the Moros. Intermittent campaigns were conducted against them but without conclusive results until the middle of the 19th cent. As the power of the Spanish Empire waned, the Jesuit orders became more influential in the Philippines and acquired great amounts of property.

Revolution, War, and U.S. Control

It was the opposition to the power of the clergy that in large measure brought about the rising sentiment for independence. Spanish injustices, bigotry, and economic oppressions fed the movement, which was greatly inspired by the brilliant writings of José Rizal . In 1896 revolution began in the province of Cavite, and after the execution of Rizal that December, it spread throughout the major islands. The Filipino leader, Emilio Aguinaldo , achieved considerable success before a peace was patched up with Spain. The peace was short-lived, however, for neither side honored its agreements, and a new revolution was brewing when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898.

After the U.S. naval victory in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey supplied Aguinaldo with arms and urged him to rally the Filipinos against the Spanish. By the time U.S. land forces had arrived, the Filipinos had taken the entire island of Luzon, except for the old walled city of Manila, which they were besieging. The Filipinos had also declared their independence and established a republic under the first democratic constitution ever known in Asia. Their dreams of independence were crushed when the Philippines were transferred from Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris (1898), which closed the Spanish-American War.

In Feb., 1899, Aguinaldo led a new revolt, this time against U.S. rule. Defeated on the battlefield, the Filipinos turned to guerrilla warfare, and their subjugation became a mammoth project for the United States—one that cost far more money and took far more lives than the Spanish-American War. The insurrection was effectively ended with the capture (1901) of Aguinaldo by Gen. Frederick Funston, but the question of Philippine independence remained a burning issue in the politics of both the United States and the islands. The matter was complicated by the growing economic ties between the two countries. Although comparatively little American capital was invested in island industries, U.S. trade bulked larger and larger until the Philippines became almost entirely dependent upon the American market. Free trade, established by an act of 1909, was expanded in 1913.

When the Democrats came into power in 1913, measures were taken to effect a smooth transition to self-rule. The Philippine assembly already had a popularly elected lower house, and the Jones Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1916, provided for a popularly elected upper house as well, with power to approve all appointments made by the governor-general. It also gave the islands their first definite pledge of independence, although no specific date was set.

When the Republicans regained power in 1921, the trend toward bringing Filipinos into the government was reversed. Gen. Leonard Wood, who was appointed governor-general, largely supplanted Filipino activities with a semimilitary rule. However, the advent of the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s and the first aggressive moves by Japan in Asia (1931) shifted U.S. sentiment sharply toward the granting of immediate independence to the Philippines.

The Commonwealth

The Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act, passed by Congress in 1932, provided for complete independence of the islands in 1945 after 10 years of self-government under U.S. supervision. The bill had been drawn up with the aid of a commission from the Philippines, but Manuel L. Quezon , the leader of the dominant Nationalist party, opposed it, partially because of its threat of American tariffs against Philippine products but principally because of the provisions leaving naval bases in U.S. hands. Under his influence, the Philippine legislature rejected the bill. The Tydings-McDuffie Independence Act (1934) closely resembled the Hare-Howes-Cutting-Act, but struck the provisions for American bases and carried a promise of further study to correct "imperfections or inequalities."

The Philippine legislature ratified the bill; a constitution, approved by President Roosevelt (Mar., 1935) was accepted by the Philippine people in a plebiscite (May); and Quezon was elected the first president (Sept.). When Quezon was inaugurated on Nov. 15, 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was formally established. Quezon was reelected in Nov., 1941. To develop defensive forces against possible aggression, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was brought to the islands as military adviser in 1935, and the following year he became field marshal of the Commonwealth army.

World War II

War came suddenly to the Philippines on Dec. 8 (Dec. 7, U.S. time), 1941, when Japan attacked without warning. Japanese troops invaded the islands in many places and launched a pincer drive on Manila. MacArthur's scattered defending forces (about 80,000 troops, four fifths of them Filipinos) were forced to withdraw to Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island, where they entrenched and tried to hold until the arrival of reinforcements, meanwhile guarding the entrance to Manila Bay and denying that important harbor to the Japanese. But no reinforcements were forthcoming. The Japanese occupied Manila on Jan. 2, 1942. MacArthur was ordered out by President Roosevelt and left for Australia on Mar. 11; Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright assumed command.

The besieged U.S.-Filipino army on Bataan finally crumbled on Apr. 9, 1942. Wainwright fought on from Corregidor with a garrison of about 11,000 men; he was overwhelmed on May 6, 1942. After his capitulation, the Japanese forced the surrender of all remaining defending units in the islands by threatening to use the captured Bataan and Corregidor troops as hostages. Many individual soldiers refused to surrender, however, and guerrilla resistance, organized and coordinated by U.S. and Philippine army officers, continued throughout the Japanese occupation.

Japan's efforts to win Filipino loyalty found expression in the establishment (Oct. 14, 1943) of a "Philippine Republic," with José P. Laurel, former supreme court justice, as president. But the people suffered greatly from Japanese brutality, and the puppet government gained little support. Meanwhile, President Quezon, who had escaped with other high officials before the country fell, set up a government-in-exile in Washington. When he died (Aug., 1944), Vice President Sergio Osmeña became president. Osmeña returned to the Philippines with the first liberation forces, which surprised the Japanese by landing (Oct. 20, 1944) at Leyte, in the heart of the islands, after months of U.S. air strikes against Mindanao. The Philippine government was established at Tacloban, Leyte, on Oct. 23.

The landing was followed (Oct. 23-26) by the greatest naval engagement in history, called variously the battle of Leyte Gulf and the second battle of the Philippine Sea. A great U.S. victory, it effectively destroyed the Japanese fleet and opened the way for the recovery of all the islands. Luzon was invaded (Jan., 1945), and Manila was taken in February. On July 5, 1945, MacArthur announced "All the Philippines are now liberated." The Japanese had suffered over 425,000 dead in the Philippines.

The Philippine congress met on June 9, 1945, for the first time since its election in 1941. It faced enormous problems. The land was devastated by war, the economy destroyed, the country torn by political warfare and guerrilla violence. Osmeña's leadership was challenged (Jan., 1946) when one wing (now the Liberal party) of the Nationalist party nominated for president Manuel Roxas , who defeated Osmeña in April.

The Republic of the Philippines

Manuel Roxas became the first president of the Republic of the Philippines when independence was granted, as scheduled, on July 4, 1946. In Mar., 1947, the Philippines and the United States signed a military assistance pact (since renewed) and the Philippines gave the United States a 99-year lease on designated military, naval, and air bases (a later agreement reduced the period to 25 years beginning 1967). The sudden death of President Roxas in Apr., 1948, elevated the vice president, Elpidio Quirino , to the presidency, and in a bitterly contested election in Nov., 1949, Quirino defeated José Laurel to win a four-year term of his own.

The enormous task of reconstructing the war-torn country was complicated by the activities in central Luzon of the Communist-dominated Hukbalahap guerrillas (Huks), who resorted to terror and violence in their efforts to achieve land reform and gain political power. They were largely brought under control (1954) after a vigorous attack launched by the minister of national defense, Ramón Magsaysay . The Huks continued to function, however, until 1970, and other Communist guerrilla groups have persisted in their opposition to the Philippine government. Magsaysay defeated Quirino in Nov., 1953, to win the presidency. He had promised sweeping economic changes, and he did make progress in land reform, opening new settlements outside crowded Luzon island. His death in an airplane crash in Mar., 1957, was a serious blow to national morale. Vice President Carlos P. García succeeded him and won a full term as president in the elections of Nov., 1957.

In foreign affairs, the Philippines maintained a firm anti-Communist policy and joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in 1954. There were difficulties with the United States over American military installations in the islands, and, despite formal recognition (1956) of full Philippine sovereignty over these bases, tensions increased until some of the bases were dismantled (1959) and the 99-year lease period was reduced. The United States rejected Philippine financial claims and proposed trade revisions.

Philippine opposition to García on issues of government corruption and anti-Americanism led, in June, 1959, to the union of the Liberal and Progressive parties, led by Vice President Diosdad Macapagal , the Liberal party leader, who succeeded García as president in the 1961 elections. Macapagal's administration was marked by efforts to combat the mounting inflation that had plagued the republic since its birth; by attempted alliances with neighboring countries; and by a territorial dispute with Britain over North Borneo (later Sabah), which Macapagal claimed had been leased and not sold to the British North Borneo Company in 1878.

Marcos and After

Ferdinand E. Marcos , who succeeded to the presidency after defeating Macapagal in the 1965 elections, inherited the territorial dispute over Sabah; in 1968 he approved a congressional bill annexing Sabah to the Philippines. Malaysia suspended diplomatic relations (Sabah had joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963), and the matter was referred to the United Nations. (The Philippines dropped its claim to Sabah in 1978.) The Philippines became one of the founding countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967. The continuing need for land reform fostered a new Huk uprising in central Luzon, accompanied by mounting assassinations and acts of terror, and in 1969, Marcos began a major military campaign to subdue them. Civil war also threatened on Mindanao, where groups of Moros opposed Christian settlement. In Nov., 1969, Marcos won an unprecedented reelection, easily defeating Sergio Osmeña, Jr., but the election was accompanied by violence and charges of fraud, and Marcos's second term began with increasing civil disorder.

In Jan., 1970, some 2,000 demonstrators tried to storm Malcañang Palace, the presidential residence; riots erupted against the U.S. embassy. When Pope Paul VI visited Manila in Nov., 1970, an attempt was made on his life. In 1971, at a Liberal party rally, hand grenades were thrown at the speakers' platform, and several people were killed. President Marcos declared martial law in Sept., 1972, charging that a Communist rebellion threatened, and opposition to Marcos's government did swell the ranks of Communist guerrilla groups, which continued to grow into the mid-1980s and continued on a smaller scale into the 21st cent. The 1935 constitution was replaced (1973) by a new one that provided the president with direct powers. A plebiscite (July, 1973) gave Marcos the right to remain in office beyond the expiration (Dec., 1973) of his term. Meanwhile the fighting on Mindanao had spread to the Sulu Archipelago. By 1973 some 3,000 people had been killed and hundreds of villages burned. Throughout the 1970s poverty and governmental corruption increased, and Imelda Marcos, Ferdinand's wife, became more influential.

Martial law remained in force until 1981, when Marcos was reelected, amid accusations of electoral fraud. On Aug. 21, 1983, opposition leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated at Manila airport, which incited a new, more powerful wave of anti-Marcos dissent. After the Feb., 1986, presidential election, both Marcos and his opponent, Corazon Aquino (the widow of Benigno), declared themselves the winner, and charges of massive fraud and violence were leveled against the Marcos faction. Marcos's domestic and international support eroded, and he fled the country on Feb. 25, 1986, eventually obtaining asylum in the United States.

Aquino's government faced mounting problems, including coup attempts, significant economic difficulties, and pressure to rid the Philippines of the U.S. military presence (the last U.S. bases were evacuated in 1992). In 1990, in response to the demands of the Moros, a partially autonomous Muslim region was created in the far south. In 1992, Aquino declined to run for reelection and was succeeded by her former army chief of staff Fidel Ramos . He immediately launched an economic revitalization plan premised on three policies: government deregulation, increased private investment, and political solutions to the continuing insurgencies within the country. His political program was somethat successful, opening dialogues with the Communist and Muslim guerillas. Although Muslim unrest and violence continued into the 21st cent, the government signed a peace accord with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996, which led to an expansion of the autonomous region in 2001.

Several natural disasters, including the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on Luzon and a succession of severe typhoons, slowed the country's economic progress in the 1990s. The Philippines, however, escaped much of the economic turmoil seen in other East Asian nations in 1997 and 1998, in part by following a slower pace of development imposed by the International Monetary Fund. Joseph Marcelo Estrada, a former movie actor, was elected president in 1998, pledging to help the poor and develop the country's agricultural sector. In 1999 he announced plans to amend the constitution in order to remove protectionist provisions and attract more foreign investment.

Late in 2000, Estrada's presidency was buffetted by charges that he accepted millions of dollars in payoffs from illegal gambling operations. Although his support among the poor Filipino majority remained strong, many political, business, and church leaders called for him to resign. In Nov., 2000, Estrada was impeached by the house of representatives on charges of graft, but the senate, controlled by Estrada's allies, provoked a crisis (Jan., 2001) when it rejected examining the president's bank records. As demonstrations against Estrada mounted and members of his cabinet resigned, the supreme court stripped him of the presidency, and Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn in as Estrada's successor. Estrada was indicted on charges of corruption in April, and his supporters attempted to storm the presidential palace in May. In Sept., 2007, he was convicted of corruption and sentenced to life imprisonment, but Estrada, who had been under house arrest since 2001, was pardoned the following month by President Macapagal-Arroyo.

A second Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), agreed to a cease-fire in June, 2001, but fighting with fundamentalist Islamic guerrillas continued, and there was a MNLF uprising on Jolo in November. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the U.S. government provided (2002) training and assistance to Philippine troops fighting the guerrillas. In 2003 fighting with the MILF again escalated, despite pledges by both sides that they would negotiate and exercise restraint; however, a truce was declared in July. In the same month several hundred soldiers were involved in a mutiny in Manila that the government claimed was part of a coup attempt.

Macapagal-Arroyo was elected president in her own right in May, 2004, but the balloting was marred by violence and irregularities as well as a tedious vote-counting process that was completed six weeks after the election. A series of four devastating storms during November and December killed as many as 1,000 in the country's north and east, particularly on Luzon. In early 2005 heavy fighting broke out on Mindanao between government forces and a splinter group of MILF rebels, and there was also fighting with a MNLF splinter group in Jolo.

In June, 2005, the president was beset by a vote-rigging charge based on a tape of a conversation she had with an election official. She denied the allegation while acknowledging that she had been recorded and apologizing for what she called a lapse in judgment, but the controversy combined with other scandals (including allegations that her husband and other family members had engaged in influence peddling and received bribes) to create a national crisis. Promising government reform, she asked (July) her cabinet to resign, and several cabinet members subsequently called on Macapagal-Arroyo to resign (as did Corazon Aquino). At the same time the supreme court suspended sales tax increases that had been enacted in May as part of a tax reform package designed to reduce the government's debt. In August and September the president survived an opposition move to impeach her when her opponents failed to muster the votes needed to force a trial in the senate.

In Feb., 2006, the government engaged in talks, regarded as a prelude to formal peace negotiations, with the MILF, and dicussions between the two sides continued in subsequent months. Late in the month, President Macapagal-Arroyo declared a weeklong state of emergency when a coup plot against her was discovered. Intended to coincide with the 20th anniversary celebrations of the 1986 demonstrations that brought down Ferdinand Marcos, the coup was said to have involved several army generals and left-wing legislators. The state of emergency was challenged in court and upheld after the fact, but the supreme court declared aspects of the emergency's enforcement unconstitutional.

In October the supreme court declared a move to revise the constitution through a "people's initiative," replacing the presidential system of government with a parliamentary one, unconstitutional, but the government only abandoned its attempt to revise the constitution in December after the Roman Catholic church attacked an attempt by the house of representatives to call a constituent assembly and by the opposition-dominated senate. In 2006 there was fierce fighting on Jolo between government forces and Islamic militants; it continued into 2007, and there were also clashes in Basilan and Mindanao.

In Jan., 2007, a government commission blamed many of the more than 800 deaths of activists during Macapagal-Arroyo's presidency on the military. The president promised action in response to the report, but the chief of the armed forces denounced the report as unfair and strained. Congressional elections in May, 2007, were marred by fraud allegations and by violence during the campaign; the voting left the opposition in control of the senate and Macapagal-Arroyo's allies in control of the house. In November there was a brief occupation of a Manila hotel by soldiers, many of whom had been involved in the 2003 mutiny. In Oct., 2007, the president's husband was implicated in a kickback scandal involving a Chinese company; the investigation continued into 2008, and prompted demonstrations by her opponents and calls for her to resign.

A peace agreement that would have expanded the area of Mindanao that was part of the Muslim autonomous region was reached in principle with the MILF in Nov., 2007. Attempts to finalize the agreement, however, collapsed in July, 2008, when Muslims accused the government of reopening settled issues; the agreement was also challenged in court by Filipinos opposed to it. In August significant fighting broke out between government forces and rebels that the MILF said were renegades, and it continued into subsequent months. Two months later the supreme court declared the agreement unconstitutional.

Bibliography

See E. H. Blair and J. A. Robertson, ed., The Philippine Islands, 1493-1888 (55 vol., 1903-9; Vol. LIII, Bibliography); L. Morton, The Fall of the Philippines (1953); T. Friend, Between Two Empires: The Ordeal of the Philippines, 1929-1946 (1965); E. G. Maring and J. M. Maring, Historical and Cultural Dictionary of the Philippines (1973); B. D. Romulo, Inside the Palace: The Rise and Fall of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos (1987); S. Burton, Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, the Aquinos, and the Unfinished Revolution (1988); D. J. Steinberg, The Philippines (1988); D. Wurfel, Filipino Politics (1988); S. Karnow, In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines (1989); B. M. Linn, The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902 (1989).

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Philippines

The Oxford Companion to World War II | 2001 | | © The Oxford Companion to World War II 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Philippines (for the fighting in the Philippines, see Philippines campaigns). The Philippines comprise nearly 7,100 islands and islets scattered between Formosa and Borneo with a population in 1941 of some 17 million. In 1937 Tagalog had been selected as the basis for a national language, but the huge number of dialects made communication between the inhabitants difficult and rendered recruitment for the armed forces on a national scale a problem.

The Philippine Army totalled only ten reserve divisions, with a small nucleus of trained personnel, and the navy and air force had only two torpedo boats and 40 aircraft respectively. In July 1941 these forces became part of the newly formed US Army Forces in the Far East commanded by General MacArthur whose principal fighting force was a US Army formation, the Philippine Division, commanded by Maj-General Wainwright. The division's fighting elements were 8,000 Philippine Scouts, officered by Americans, a US infantry regiment some 2,000 strong, and a regiment of artillery.

Like several other lesser powers caught in the crush of the war, the Philippines became a battlefield between Axis and Allied forces. Besides being small and inconveniently located (for the peace of mind and body of their inhabitants), the Philippines laboured under the additional disadvantage of being neither entirely independent nor wholly under the control and protection of a great power. When the Pacific war began in December 1941, the islands were slightly more than halfway into a projected decade of commonwealth status, during which the government of the American possession was preparing to assume full sovereignty. Since 1935 the administration of President Manuel Quezon had been working to create a Philippine military establishment that could defend the country against aggression, but the effort was complicated by lack of resources and uncertainty as to whether, if war did occur, the USA would feel obliged to rescue the Filipinos. Although US war plans (the Orange and Rainbow series) called for a defence of the Philippines, Congressional niggardliness and a widespread American desire to have done with empire and imperial responsibilities precluded successful implementation of the plans.

Consequently, despite last-moment American efforts to strengthen local security, the Japanese air raids of 8 December 1941 against Clark Field and other installations caught the Philippines unprepared. Within hours the Japanese crippled the islands' air defences; within days they had landed troops and were marching on Manila. Even had Washington at this point wished to make a stand in the Philippines—which it did not, in keeping with its Germany first strategy—the blow the US Pacific Fleet suffered at Pearl Harbor rendered such an effort out of the question. MacArthur urgently requested reinforcements, but to no substantial avail. At the end of December, he declared Manila an open city and evacuated his headquarters to the rock-fortress of Corregidor. American and Filipino troops retreated to the Bataan peninsula, where Japanese forces cut them off, forcing their surrender on 8 April 1942. The Corregidor garrison capitulated on 6 May, following the departure of MacArthur and top officials of the Philippine government, including Quezon.

Filipino responses to the Japanese occupation principally involved variations on the two themes of resistance and collaboration. The organized resistance in central Luzon was led by the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (People's Anti-Japanese Army), or Hukbalahap. The Huk resistance drew both on a long-standing nationalist sentiment, with members trying to oust the Japanese and reclaim control of their homeland just as many Filipinos two generations earlier militantly resisted first the Spanish and then the Americans; and on specific grievances against the Japanese, who treated Filipinos usually with contempt and often with brutality. Organized resistance also sprang up in northern Luzon, where stranded American and Philippine regular troops formed the nucleus of a guerrilla army; in southern Luzon, where government loyalists established an outfit calling itself President Quezon's Own Guerrillas; and in the Visayas and Mindanao. Although the resistance forces, taken together, did not seriously upset Japanese operations through most of the occupation period, they allowed the Philippine government-in-exile (in Washington) to maintain contact with Filipinos in the islands, and they gathered intelligence that proved very useful in the American reconquest of the country in 1944–5. At the same time, to those for whom such issues mattered, they served as a symbol of national self-respect in the face of intractably unpleasant and doubt-inducing reality.

For most of the Filipino population, however, as for most populations in occupied countries, survival required accommodating the country's new rulers. Before the war some Filipinos had argued that, if it came to such a pass, Japanese rule would be preferable to American, in that the Japanese were fellow Asians, uncorrupted by the racism that commonly tainted American dealings with the Philippines. Japanese military officials made the same argument in January 1942 when they declared American sovereignty in the islands ended and demanded the co-operation of the Filipino populace. One Japanese officer reminded the Filipinos: ‘Like it or not, you are Filipinos and belong to the Oriental race. No matter how hard you try, you cannot become white people.’ Another added, ‘The time has come to assert yourselves as an Oriental people’ (see Steinberg [below], p. 49).

The argument from Asian solidarity worked better in theory than in practice: once the oppressive nature of Japanese rule became evident, most Filipinos wished for the good old days of American paternalism. Such collaboration as occurred resulted less from affinity with the Japanese than from fear of the consequences of non-collaboration. As soon as Japanese forces took control of Manila, the Japanese C-in-C in the Philippines, Lt-General Homma, ordered Filipino civilian officials to remain at their posts and to carry on their duties as before. Failure to do so would be punishable by death.

An inclination to avoid such a fate, as well as a desire to mitigate the harshness of the occupation, prompted a number of prominent Filipinos to meet Japanese officers for the purpose of establishing a new government for the Philippines. Among the group were Jorge Vargas, the mayor of Manila; Jose Laurel, formerly secretary of the interior and currently acting chief justice of the supreme court; and Claro Recto and Benigno Aquino, leading figures in the ruling (until the Japanese arrived, anyway) Nacionalista party. Some members of the group initially hoped to trade co-operation with the Japanese for Tokyo's recognition of Philippine independence. Others, worried that such a course would open them to charges of sedition against the USA, should the Americans ultimately recapture the islands, recommended the formation of a provisional executive, chosen under the authority of the existing commonwealth government. When the Japanese rejected the latter plan, making clear they would have nothing to do with the American-sponsored commonwealth, Vargas and the rest announced the creation of a provisional council of state, headed by an executive commission, unaffiliated with the pre-existing government.

Until the beginning of 1943 this arrangement satisfied the Japanese, who were more interested in converting the production of the islands to military use than in the niceties of constitutionalism. Tokyo demanded first call on the Philippine rice harvest, which went to feed Japanese soldiers. Cotton plants replaced sugar cane in some areas; where the cane fields survived, the sugar they produced was channelled to the manufacture of fuel alcohol. The Japanese defence ministry commandeered the country's supply of abaca (hemp).

Under the pressure of war and occupation, and torn by the dilemmas of collaboration and resistance, the Filipino people ‘lost their social and moral balance,’ in the words of two Filipino historians of the period (see T. A. Agoncillo and O. M. Alfonso [below], pp. 466–7). After MacArthur's designation of Manila as an open city, and before the arrival of the Japanese Army, looters sacked stores for goods that were becoming and would remain scarce. Police, disarmed to remove the temptation to shoot at the Japanese, joined in the looting. Throughout the war, profiteering enriched a few at the expense of the many. Corruption in government flourished. Economic dislocation, partly the result of war-closed markets, partly the consequence of Japan's forced changes to the country's production, resulted in widespread malnourishment and disease. In the regions where resistance units operated, guerrilla fighting yielded its usual crop of coercion and reprisal, of opportunism and score-settling.

Early in 1943 Japan indicated an intention to grant independence to the Philippines. The tide of the war in the Pacific was turning in favour of the Allies, and Tokyo hoped a promise of self-government would diminish resistance and free Japanese troops for battle elsewhere. In July 1943 Japanese authorities in Manila called on the leading citizens of the country to draft a constitution for a Philippine republic. The document in question, the Japanese explained, must contribute to the security of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere; in addition, as Prime Minister Tōjō personally told Vargas, Laurel, and Aquino after summoning the three to Tokyo, the ratification of the constitution must be followed shortly by a declaration of war against the USA. ‘It was a shock to all three of us,’ Laurel recalled afterwards, ‘I silently prayed and said the Pater Noster.’ He and the others asked for time to raise the issue with their colleagues in Manila and Tōjō granted the request. For several weeks the Filipino leaders sought to devise a formula that would allow them to steer between the Scylla of present Japanese control, with Tokyo's insistence on a war declaration, and the Charybdis of America's likely return, with Washington's certain displeasure at such a flagrant form of collaboration. In light of the mistreatment of American and Filipino prisoners after the surrender at Bataan, trials of collaborators for war crimes could not be ruled out.

To this personal consideration was added the fact that the USA would surely not recognize the independence of a Philippine republic founded under Japanese aegis, and might in response delay America's own conferral of Philippine independence, planned for 1946. In the end, the collaborators' decision turned on a belief that the Americans would show greater forgiveness than the Japanese. Asked whether Japan or the USA would make the more vindictive enemy, Laurel, the first and only president of the wartime Philippine republic, answered that Japan would. Accordingly, in September 1944 the Philippine government declared war on the USA.

The declaration made little difference to the course of the fighting. In October 1944, MacArthur, as promised on his departure from Corregidor in 1942, returned to the Philippines. American forces, after landing at Leyte on the eastern side of the Visayas, fought their way to the outskirts of Manila by February 1945. The battle for Manila lasted two weeks and devastated the city and its population. While approximately 1,000 Americans and 16,000 Japanese died, the Filipino dead—by far the greatest portion civilians—numbered more than 100,000. The destruction of buildings, bridges, utilities, and the like in large parts of the city was almost complete.

Meanwhile the pacification of the rest of the Philippines proceeded. The Leyte landing gave encouragement to the various resistance groups, whose activities in turn facilitated the success of the regular American forces. By April 1945 the latter had secured the central Luzon plain, the geographical and political heart of the country. In more remote parts of the archipelago, fighting continued, with diminishing ferocity, until Emperor Hirohito's August announcement of capitulation to the Allies.

As the war wound to its conclusion, the US government evolved a policy toward the collaborators. Laurel and some high-ranking associates fled the country for Japan (where they eventually surrendered themselves to the American occupation forces there). Most of the rest of those who held positions in the wartime republic, lacking the opportunity if not the desire to flee, stayed behind. MacArthur immediately stamped his influence on policy toward the collaborators, as he would stamp his influence on policy towards defeated Japan. He personally embraced and pardoned Manuel Roxas, a highly visible collaborator but one who throughout the war had maintained touch with the resistance and with the Americans. By treating Roxas as a rescued prisoner rather than as a captured Quisling—a move that provoked considerable controversy in both the Philippines and the USA—MacArthur set a precedent that led to lenient treatment and swift rehabilitation of the large majority of the collaborators. When Roxas won election to the presidency of the Philippines in 1946, just in time for America's granting of independence, the case against the collaborators collapsed entirely.

H. W. Brands

Bibliography

Agoncillo, T. A., and and Alfonso, O. M. , History of the Filipino People (Quezon City, 1967 edn.).
Friend, T. , Between Two Empires (New Haven, 1965)
Laurel, J. P. , War Memoirs (Manila, 1962).
Steinberg, D. J. , Philippine Collaboration in World War II (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1967).

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Philippines

A Dictionary of World History | 2000 | © A Dictionary of World History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Philippines A country in south-eastern Asia comprising over 7000 islands between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.



Physical

Luzon and Mindanao are the largest islands; in the central Philippines, the islands of Leyte and Samar are linked by a 2162 m (7095 feet) long bridge. Being at a junction of crustal plates they contain volcanoes and are subject to earthquakes; and as they are in the path of two monsoons there is rain for most of the year. The climate is tropical throughout the year. Many of the islands are mountainous and heavily forested with teak, ebony, and sandalwood. Bamboo and coconut palms grow in profusion.

Economy

The economy of the Philippines is predominantly agricultural, but manufacturing industry such as textiles, chemicals, electric machinery, and food-processing is expanding. Mineral resources include coal, nickel ore, copper, chromite, iron, silver, and gold. The principal exports are electronics and clothing; sugar cane, bananas, timber, and coconuts are the major cash crops, while rice, maize, and tobacco are also grown. There is widespread poverty, and land reform is an important issue.

History

The original Negrito inhabitants of the Philippines were largely displaced by waves of Malay peoples migrating from Yunnan province in south-west China after c.2000 BC. By 1000 AD the islands were within the south-east Asian trade network. By the 16th century Islam was advancing from Mindanao and Sulu into the central islands and Luzon. After Spaniards under MAGELLAN visited the islands (1521), Spanish seamen discovered how to return eastbound across the Pacific to Mexico. In 1543 they named the islands after Prince Philip (later PHILIP II of Spain). In 1564 Miguel de Legazpi, with 380 men, set out from Mexico to establish a settlement, Christianize the Filipinos, open up commerce with East Asia, and secure a share of trade in the Moluccas. A settlement was made in 1565 at Cebu in the western Visayas, but the Spaniards moved their headquarters to Manila in 1571. Manila became the centre for a trade in Chinese silks with Mexico, in return for Mexican silver dollars. From there Spanish influence and control spread out through the Philippine island chain, particularly assisted by missionary activity. Christian outposts founded by Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians grew into towns. Revolts against the harsh treatment of Filipinos by the Spanish were frequent, particularly in the 17th century. During the SEVEN YEARS WAR the British occupied Manila for two years.

In 1896, a nationalist uprising against the Spanish colonial authorities broke out in Manila, led by José Rizal. After the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, General Emilio AGUINALDO, acting with the support of the USA, declared the country's independence. After Spain's defeat, however, the nationalists found themselves opposed by the Americans, and after a brief war (1899–1901), the islands passed under US control. Internal self-government was granted in 1935, and, after the Japanese occupation during World War II, the Philippines became an independent republic in 1946 under the Presidency of Manuel Roxas, with the USA continuing to maintain military bases. Successive administrations proved incapable of dealing with severe economic problems and regional unrest. In 1972, using the pretext of civil unrest, in particular the communist guerrilla insurgency conducted by the New People's Army in Luzon, and violent campaigns of Muslim separatists, the Moro National Liberation Front, in the southern Philippines, President MARCOS declared martial law, assuming dictatorial powers. While the Marcos regime achieved some success in dealing with both economic problems and guerrilla activities, the return to democratic government was never satisfactorily achieved and corruption was widespread, epitomized in the amassing of huge personal fortunes by the Marcos family. After the murder of the opposition leader, Benigno Aquino Jr, in 1983, resistance to the Marcos regime coalesced behind his widow Corazon Aquino and the United Nationalist Democratic Organization. US support for the Marcos government waned and in 1986, after a disputed election and a popularly backed military revolt, Marcos fled, and Corazon Aquino became President in his place, restoring the country to a fragile democracy. When she came into office it is estimated that 70% of the population of the Phillippines remained below the poverty line, while the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 caused immense damage. There were no fewer than six attempted military coups against President Aquino, who refused to stand for re-election. She was succeeded in 1992 by her ex-Defence Secretary Fidel Ramos, who completed arrangements for the withdrawal of US forces from Subic Bay and other military and naval installations. In 1994, Ramos announced a coalition with the main opposition party, in order to facilitate passage of a common legislative programme and in 1996 a peace agreement with Muslim rebels was made. Prsidential elections in 1998 were won by the left-wing Josph Estrada.

Capital:

Manila

Area:

300,000 sq km (115,800 sq miles)

Population:

73,131,000 (1998 est)

Currency:

1 Philippine peso = 100 centavos

Religions:

Roman Catholic 84.1%; Aglipayan Philippine Independent Church 6.2%; Muslim 4.3%; Protestant 3.9%

Ethnic Groups:

Tagalog 29.7%; Cebuano 24.2%; Ilocano 10.3%; Hiligaynon Ilongo 9.2%; Bicol 5.6%; Samar-Leyte 4.0%; Pampango 2.8%; Pangasinan 1.8%

Languages:

English, Pilipino (based on Tagalog) (both official); Cebuano; Ilocano; local languages

International Organizations:

UN; Colombo Plan


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