Philippines - Facts and other Trivia

     How much do we know about our country? Sometimes we claim our nationality but has very little knowledge about its facts. There are moments that foreign people would ask us something very simple question about our country but takes us forever to answer them. Even I admit to this.

     Here are some few interesting facts that our teacher's thought us during school days but we might already forgot.

* Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands. There three (3) major division - Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

* It's citizens are mixture of foreign influences that shaped them to be fascinatingly unique culture.

* Philippines' official national language is Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English is the second language. But there are more than 180 different languages or dialects spoken in the country.

* The citizens are called "Pilipino" not Philippine.

pedicab (a bicycle with  a side car)

* We are known for different public transport: the MRT(Metrorail Transit), LRT(Light Rail Transit), Buses, Jeepney, Tricycle (a motorcycle with a side car) and Pedicab (bicycle with a side car).

* Manila is the capital city of the country.

* EDSA - the longest and most important avenue in Metropolis that start from Monumento (Caloocan City) up until Baclaran (Parañaque City) was named after a famous historian Epifanio delos Santos. The highway was formerly known as Highway 54.

* At present, it has 80 provinces distributed in 17 Regions.

* The total population of the country based on the 2010 census is 92,337,852. By 2011 the estimated population is 101,833,938.

tricycle (motorcycle w/a sidecar)

* The currency used in the Philippines is Peso with denominations of one (1) peso, five (5) pesos, 10 peso coins and 20, 50, 100, 500 and  1,000 bills.

* The President of the Philippines resides at Malacañang Palace.

* The flag of the Philippines has three (3) main colors: yellow, blue and red. Yellow are the colors of the 3 stars (representing the 3 major island group of the country) and the sun with 8 rays (represents the first 8 provinces that revolted against the Spanish).

* The original inhabitants of the archipelago are the Negritos.

beautiful jeepney

* Due to more than 300 years of Spanish Colonization, majority of Filipinos are Roman Catholic. Other religions are Islam (mostly came from Mindanao) and Iglesia ni Cristo. There are other Christian dominations too.

* The climate is tropical and monsoonal. May is the warmest month and January is the coolest.

* The Philippines celebrates Independence Day annually during June 12. It is the countries independence from the colonization of Spain.

* The country has a total number of 37 volcanoes, 18 of which are active. Mayon Volcano is the most active.

* Philippines is the Beach Capital in Asia. Images of long, white sand beaches and bodies of water blessed with a deep blue ocean, you would wish never to close your eyes. And a blink would be a sin.

(^-^)