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Filipinos
Filipinos
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Filipinos (Filipino: Mga Pilipino)[51] are citizens or people identified with the country of the Philippines. Filipinos come from various Austronesian peoples, all typically speaking Filipino, English, or other Philippine languages. Despite formerly being subject to Spanish administration, less than 1% of Filipinos are fluent in Spanish.[52] Currently, there are more than 185 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines each with its own language, identity, culture, tradition, and history.

Key Information

Names

[edit]

The name Filipino, as a demonym, was derived from the term las Islas Filipinas 'the Philippine Islands',[53] the name given to the archipelago in 1543 by the Spanish explorer and Dominican priest Ruy López de Villalobos, in honor of Philip II of Spain.[54] During the Spanish period, natives of the Philippine islands were usually known in the Philippines itself by the generic terms indio ("Indian (native of the East Indies)") or indigena 'indigenous',[55] while the generic term chino ("Chinese"),[56][57] short for "indio chino" was used in Spanish America to differentiate from the Native American indios of the Spanish territories in the Americas and the West Indies. The term Filipino was sometimes added by Spanish writers to distinguish the indio chino native of the Philippine archipelago from the indio of the Spanish territories in the Americas.[56] [58][54] The term Indio Filipino appears as a term of self-identification beginning in the 18th century.[54]

In 1955, Agnes Newton Keith wrote that a 19th century edict prohibited the use of the word "Filipino" to refer to indios. This reflected popular belief, although no such edict has been found.[54] The idea that the term Filipino was not used to refer to indios until the 19th century has also been mentioned by historians such as Salah Jubair[59] and Renato Constantino.[60] However, in a 1994 publication the historian William Henry Scott identified instances in Spanish writing where "Filipino" did refer to "indio" natives.[61] Instances of such usage include the Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1604) of Pedro Chirino, in which he wrote chapters entitled "Of the civilities, terms of courtesy, and good breeding among the Filipinos" (Chapter XVI), "Of the Letters of the Filipinos" (Chapter XVII), "Concerning the false heathen religion, idolatries, and superstitions of the Filipinos" (Chapter XXI), "Of marriages, dowries, and divorces among the Filipinos" (Chapter XXX),[62] while also using the term "Filipino" to refer unequivocally to the non-Spaniard natives of the archipelago like in the following sentence:

The first and last concern of the Filipinos in cases of sickness was, as we have stated, to offer some sacrifice to their anitos or diwatas, which were their gods.[63]

— Pedro Chirino, Relación de las Islas Filipinas

In the Crónicas (1738) of Juan Francisco de San Antonio, the author devoted a chapter to "The Letters, languages and politeness of the Philippinos", while Francisco Antolín argued in 1789 that "the ancient wealth of the Philippinos is much like that which the Igorots have at present".[54] These examples prompted the historian William Henry Scott to conclude that during the Spanish period:

[...]the people of the Philippines were called Filipinos when they were practicing their own culture—or, to put it another way, before they became indios.[54]

— William Henry Scott, Barangay- Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture and Society

While the Philippine-born Spaniards during the 19th century began to be called españoles filipinos, logically contracted to just Filipino, to distinguish them from the Spaniards born in Spain, they themselves resented the term, preferring to identify themselves as "hijo/s del país" ("sons of the country").[54]

In the latter half of the 19th century, ilustrados, an educated class of mestizos (both Spanish mestizos and Sangley Chinese mestizos, especially Chinese mestizos) and indios arose whose writings are credited with building Philippine nationalism. These writings are also credited with transforming the term Filipino to one which refers to everyone born in the Philippines,[64][65] especially during the Philippine Revolution and American Colonial Era and the term shifting from a geographic designation to a national one as a citizenship nationality by law.[64][60] Historian Ambeth Ocampo has suggested that the first documented use of the word Filipino to refer to Indios was the Spanish-language poem A la juventud filipina, published in 1879 by José Rizal.[66] Writer and publisher Nick Joaquin has asserted that Luis Rodríguez Varela was the first to describe himself as Filipino in print.[67] Apolinario Mabini (1896) used the term Filipino to refer to all inhabitants of the Philippines. Father Jose Burgos earlier called all natives of the archipelago as Filipinos.[68] In Wenceslao Retaña's Diccionario de filipinismos, he defined Filipinos as follows,[69]

todos los nacidos en Filipinas sin distincion de origen ni de raza.
All those born in the Philippines without distinction of origin or race.

— Wenceslao E. Retaña, Diccionario De Filipinismos: Con La Revisión De Lo Que Al Respecto Lleva Publicado La Real Academia Española

American authorities during the American colonial era also started to colloquially use the term Filipino to refer to the native inhabitants of the archipelago,[70] but despite this, it became the official term for all citizens of the sovereign independent Republic of the Philippines, including non-native inhabitants of the country as per the Philippine nationality law.[54] However, the term has been rejected as an identification in some instances by minorities who did not come under Spanish control, such as the Igorot and Muslim Moros.[54][60]

The lack of the letter "F" in the 1940–1987 standardized Tagalog alphabet (Abakada) caused the letter "P" to be substituted for "F", though the alphabets or writing scripts of some non-Tagalog ethnic groups included the letter "F". Upon official adoption of the modern, 28-letter Filipino alphabet in 1987, the term Filipino was preferred over Pilipino.[citation needed] Locally, some still use "Filipino" to refer to the people and "Pilipino" to refer to the language, but in international use "Filipino" is the usual form for both.

A number of Filipinos refer to themselves colloquially as "Pinoy" (feminine: "Pinay"), which is a slang word formed by taking the last four letters of "Filipino" and adding the diminutive suffix "-y". Or the non-gender or gender fluid form Pinxy (seldom used in the country but used amongst Filipino-American communities).

In 2020, the neologism Filipinx appeared; a demonym applied only to those of Filipino heritage in the diaspora and specifically referring to and coined by Filipino Americans[citation needed] imitating Latinx, itself a recently coined gender-inclusive alternative to Latino or Latina. An online dictionary made an entry of the term, applying it to all Filipinos within the Philippines or in the diaspora.[71] In actual practice, however, the term is unknown among and not applied to Filipinos living in the Philippines, and Filipino itself is already treated as gender-neutral. The dictionary entry resulted in confusion, backlash and ridicule from Filipinos residing in the Philippines who never identified themselves with the foreign term.[72][73]

Native Filipinos were also called Manilamen (or Manila men) by English-speaking regions or Tagalas by Spanish-speakers during the colonial era. They were mostly sailors and pearl-divers and established communities in various ports around the world.[74][75] One of the notable settlements of Manilamen is the community of Saint Malo, Louisiana, founded at around 1763 to 1765 by escaped slaves and deserters from the Spanish Navy.[76][77][78][79] There were also significant numbers of Manilamen in Northern Australia and the Torres Strait Islands in the late 1800s who were employed in the pearl hunting industries.[80][81]

In Mexico (especially in the Mexican states of Guerrero and Colima), Filipino immigrants arriving to New Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries via the Manila galleons were called chino, which led to the confusion of early Filipino immigrants with that of the much later Chinese immigrants to Mexico from the 1880s to the 1940s. A genetic study in 2018 has also revealed that around one-third of the population of Guerrero have 10% Filipino ancestry.[82][83]

History

[edit]

Prehistory

[edit]
Left to right: [1] Five teeth attributed to Homo luzonensis. ; [2] CCH1, a third metatarsal bone (MT3) discovered on May 5, 2007, in Callao Cave, belonging to Homo luzonensis, a species of archaic human. ; [3] Callao Cave .

The oldest archaic human remains in the Philippines are the "Callao Man" specimens discovered in 2007 in the Callao Cave in Northern Luzon. They were dated in 2010 through uranium-series dating to the Late Pleistocene, c. 67,000 years old. The remains were initially identified as modern human, but after the discovery of more specimens in 2019, they have been reclassified as being members of a new species – Homo luzonensis.[84][85]

The oldest indisputable modern human (Homo sapiens) remains in the Philippines are the "Tabon Man" fossils discovered in the Tabon Caves in the 1960s by Robert B. Fox, an anthropologist from the National Museum. These were dated to the Paleolithic, at around 26,000 to 24,000 years ago. The Tabon Cave complex also indicates that the caves were inhabited by humans continuously from at least 47,000 ± 11,000 years ago to around 9,000 years ago.[86][87] The caves were also later used as a burial site by unrelated Neolithic and Metal Age cultures in the area.[88]

Migration of the sea-faring Austronesian peoples and their languages.
The Negritos are descendants of one of the earliest groups of modern humans to reach the Philippines

The Tabon Cave remains (along with the Niah Cave remains of Borneo and the Tam Pa Ling remains of Laos) are part of the "First Sundaland People", the earliest branch of anatomically modern humans to reach Island Southeast Asia at the time of lowered sea levels of Sundaland, with only one 3 km sea crossing.[89] They entered the Philippines from Borneo via Palawan at around 50,000 to 40,000 years ago. Their descendants are collectively known as the Negrito people, although they are highly genetically divergent from each other. Philippine Negritos show a high degree of Denisovan Admixture, similar to Papuans and Indigenous Australians, in contrast to Malaysian and Andamanese Negritos (the Orang Asli). This indicates that Philippine Negritos, Papuans, and Indigenous Australians share a common ancestor that admixed with Denisovans at around 44,000 years ago.[90] Negritos include ethnic groups like the Aeta (including the Agta, Arta, Dumagat, etc.) of Luzon, the Ati of Western Visayas, the Batak of Palawan, and the Mamanwa of Mindanao. Today they comprise just 0.03% of the total Philippine population.[91]

After the Negritos, were two early Paleolithic migrations from East Asian (basal Austric, an ethnic group which includes Austroasiatics) people, they entered the Philippines at around 15,000 and 12,000 years ago, respectively. Like the Negritos, they entered the Philippines during the lowered sea levels during the last ice age, when the only water crossings required were less than 3 km wide (such as the Sibutu strait).[89] They retain partial genetic signals among the Manobo people and the Sama-Bajau people of Mindanao.

The last wave of prehistoric migrations to reach the Philippines was the Austronesian expansion which started in the Neolithic at around 4,500 to 3,500 years ago, when a branch of Austronesians from Taiwan (the ancestral Malayo-Polynesian-speakers) migrated to the Batanes Islands and Luzon. They spread quickly throughout the rest of the islands of the Philippines and became the dominant ethnolinguistic group. They admixed with the earlier settlers, resulting in the modern Filipinos – which though predominantly genetically Austronesian still show varying genetic admixture with Negritos (and vice versa for Negrito ethnic groups which show significant Austronesian admixture).[92][93] Austronesians possessed advanced sailing technologies and colonized the Philippines via sea-borne migration, in contrast to earlier groups.[94][95]

Austronesian trade networks

Austronesians from the Philippines also later settled Guam and the other islands of Maritime Southeast Asia, and parts of Mainland Southeast Asia. From there, they colonized the rest of Austronesia, which in modern times include Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar, in addition to Maritime Southeast Asia and Taiwan.[95][96]

The connections between the various Austronesian peoples have also been known since the colonial era due to shared material culture and linguistic similarities of various peoples of the islands of the Indo-Pacific, leading to the designation of Austronesians as the "Malay race" (or the "Brown race") during the age of scientific racism by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.[97][98][99] Due to the colonial American education system in the early 20th century, the term "Malay race" is still used incorrectly in the Philippines to refer to the Austronesian peoples, leading to confusion with the non-indigenous Melayu people.[100][101][102][103]

Archaic epoch (to 1565)

[edit]

Since at least the 3rd century, various ethnic groups established several communities. These were formed by the assimilation of various native Philippine kingdoms.[91] South Asian and East Asian people together with the people of the Indonesian archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, traded with Filipinos and introduced Hinduism and Buddhism to the native tribes of the Philippines. Most of these people stayed in the Philippines where they were slowly absorbed into local societies.

Many of the barangay (tribal municipalities) were, to a varying extent, under the de jure jurisprudence of one of several neighboring empires, among them the Malay Srivijaya, Javanese Majapahit, Brunei, Malacca, Tamil Chola, Champa and Khmer empires, although de facto had established their own independent system of rule. Trading links with Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Cambodia, Malay Peninsula, Indochina, China, Japan, India and Arabia. A thalassocracy had thus emerged based on international trade.

Even scattered barangays, through the development of inter-island and international trade, became more culturally homogeneous by the 4th century. Hindu-Buddhist culture and religion flourished among the noblemen in this era.

In the period between the 7th to the beginning of the 15th centuries, numerous prosperous centers of trade had emerged, including the Kingdom of Namayan which flourished alongside Manila Bay,[104][105] Cebu, Iloilo,[106] Butuan, the Kingdom of Sanfotsi situated in Pangasinan, the Kingdom of Luzon now known as Pampanga which specialized in trade with most of what is now known as Southeast Asia and with China, Japan and the Kingdom of Ryukyu in Okinawa.

From the 9th century onwards, a large number of Arab traders from the Middle East settled in the Malay Archipelago and intermarried with the local Malay, Bruneian, Malaysian, Indonesian and Luzon and Visayas indigenous populations.[107]

In the years leading up to 1000 AD, there were already several maritime societies existing in the islands but there was no unifying political state encompassing the entire Philippine archipelago. Instead, the region was dotted by numerous semi-autonomous barangays (settlements ranging in size from villages to city-states) under the sovereignty of competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, rajahs or sultans[108] or by upland agricultural societies ruled by "petty plutocrats". Nations such as the Wangdoms of Pangasinan and Ma-i as well as Ma-i's subordinates, the Barangay states of Pulilu and Sandao; the Kingdoms of Maynila, Namayan, and Tondo; the Kedatuans of Madja-as, Dapitan, and Cainta; the Rajahnates of Cebu, Butuan and Sanmalan; and the Sultanates of Buayan, Maguindanao, Lanao and Sulu; existed alongside the highland societies of the Ifugao and Mangyan.[109][110][111][112] Some of these regions were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit and Brunei.[113][114][115]

Historic caste systems

[edit]

Datu – The Tagalog maginoo, the Kapampangan ginu and the Visayan tumao were the nobility social class among various cultures of the pre-colonial Philippines. Among the Visayans, the tumao were further distinguished from the immediate royal families or a ruling class.

Timawa – The timawa class were free commoners of Luzon and the Visayas who could own their own land and who did not have to pay a regular tribute to a maginoo, though they would, from time to time, be obliged to work on a datu's land and help in community projects and events. They were free to change their allegiance to another datu if they married into another community or if they decided to move.

Maharlika – Members of the Tagalog warrior class known as maharlika had the same rights and responsibilities as the timawa, but in times of war they were bound to serve their datu in battle. They had to arm themselves at their own expense, but they did get to keep the loot they took. Although they were partly related to the nobility, the maharlikas were technically less free than the timawas because they could not leave a datu's service without first hosting a large public feast and paying the datu between 6 and 18 pesos in gold – a large sum in those days.

Alipin – Commonly described as "servant" or "slave". However, this is inaccurate. The concept of the alipin relied on a complex system of obligation and repayment through labor in ancient Philippine society, rather than on the actual purchase of a person as in Western and Islamic slavery. Members of the alipin class who owned their own houses were more accurately equivalent to medieval European serfs and commoners.

By the 15th century, Arab and Indian missionaries and traders from Malaysia and Indonesia brought Islam to the Philippines, where it both replaced and was practiced together with indigenous religions. Before that, indigenous tribes of the Philippines practiced a mixture of Animism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Native villages, called barangays were populated by locals called Timawa (Middle Class/freemen) and Alipin (servants and slaves). They were ruled by Rajahs, Datus and Sultans, a class called Maginoo (royals) and defended by the Maharlika (Lesser nobles, royal warriors and aristocrats).[91] These Royals and Nobles are descended from native Filipinos with varying degrees of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian, which is evident in today's DNA analysis among South East Asian Royals. This tradition continued among the Spanish and Portuguese traders who also intermarried with the local populations.[116]

Spanish period (1521–1898)

[edit]
Tipos del País works by Justiniano Asuncion
Economic life in the Spanish Philippines, with Native and Sangley Chinese traders
Depiction of Filipino celebration

The first census in the Philippines was in 1591, based on tributes collected. The tributes counted the total founding population of the Spanish Philippines as 667,612 people.[117]: 177 [118][119] 20,000 were Chinese migrant traders,[120] at different times: around 15,600 individuals were Latino soldier-colonists who were cumulatively sent from Peru and Mexico and they were shipped to the Philippines annually,[121][122] 3,000 were Japanese residents,[123] and 600 were pure Spaniards from Europe.[124] There was a large but unknown number of South Asian Filipinos, as the majority of the slaves imported into the archipelago were from Bengal and Southern India,[125] adding Dravidian speaking South Indians and Indo-European speaking Bengalis into the ethnic mix.

The Philippines was governed by the Spaniards. The arrival of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães) in 1521 began a period of European immigration. During the Spanish period, the Philippines was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which was governed and administered from Mexico City. Early Spanish settlers were mostly explorers, soldiers, government officials and religious missionaries born in Spain and Mexico. Most Spaniards who settled were of Basque ancestry,[126] but there were also settlers of Andalusian, Catalan, and Moorish descent.[127] The Peninsulares (governors born in Spain), mostly of Castilian ancestry, settled in the islands to govern their territory. Most settlers married the daughters of rajahs, datus, and sultans to reinforce the alliances of the islands. The Ginoo and Maharlika castes (royals and nobles) in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spaniards formed the privileged Principalía (nobility) during the early Spanish period.

Sangley Chinese merchant and Native Filipina of Manila by José Honorato Lozano
The Selden Map, connecting Quanzhou to Manila
The Urdaneta return route of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, connecting the Philippines to the Americas
Global trade routes of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires

The arrival of the Spaniards to the Philippines, especially through the commencement of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade that connected the Philippines through Manila to Acapulco in Mexico, attracted new waves of immigrants from China, as Manila was already previously connected to the Maritime Silk Road, as shown in the Selden Map, from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in Southern Fujian to Manila, maritime trade flourished during the Spanish period, especially as Manila was connected to the ports of Southern Fujian, such as Yuegang (the old port of Haicheng in Zhangzhou, Fujian).[128][129] The Spaniards recruited thousands of Chinese migrant workers from "Chinchew" (Quanzhou), "Chiõ Chiu" (Zhangzhou), "Canton" (Guangzhou), and Macau called sangleys (from Hokkien Chinese: 生理; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sng-lí; lit. 'business') to build the colonial infrastructure in the islands. Many Chinese immigrants converted to Christianity, intermarried with the locals, and adopted Hispanized names and customs and became assimilated, although the children of unions between Filipinos and Chinese that became assimilated continued to be designated in official records as mestizos de sangley. The Chinese mestizos were largely confined to the Binondo area until the 19th century. However, they eventually spread all over the islands and became traders, landowners and moneylenders. Today, their descendants still comprise a significant part of the Philippine population especially its bourgeois,[130] who during the late Spanish Era in the late 19th century, produced a major part of the ilustrado intelligentsia of the late Spanish Philippines, that were very influential with the creation of Filipino nationalism and the sparking of the Philippine Revolution as part of the foundation of the First Philippine Republic and subsequent sovereign independent Philippines.[131][132] Today, the bulk of the families in the list of the political families in the Philippines have such family background. Meanwhile, the Spanish-era Sangley's pure ethnic Chinese descendants of which, replenished by later migrants in the 20th century, that preserved at least some of their Chinese culture, integrated together with mainstream Filipino culture, are now in the form of the modern Chinese Filipino community, who currently play a leading role in the Philippine business sector and contribute a significant share of the Philippine economy today,[133][134][135][136][137] where most in the current list of the Philippines' richest each year comprise Taipan billionaires of Chinese Filipino background, mostly of Hokkien descent, where most still trace their roots back to mostly Jinjiang or Nan'an within Quanzhou or sometimes Xiamen (Amoy) or Zhangzhou, all within Southern Fujian, the Philippines' historical trade partner with Mainland China.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of Japanese traders also migrated to the Philippines and assimilated into the local population.[138][failed verification] Many were assimilated throughout the centuries, especially through the tumultuous period of World War II. Today, there is a small growing Nikkei community of Japanese Filipinos in Davao with roots to the old Little Japan in Mintal or Calinan in Davao City during the American colonial period, where many had roots starting out in Abaca plantations or from workers of the Benguet Road (Kennon Road) to Baguio.

British forces occupied Manila between 1762 and 1764 as a part of the Seven Years' War. However, the only part of the Philippines which the British held was the Spanish capital of Manila and the principal naval port of Cavite, both of which are located by the Manila Bay. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763). At the end of the war the treaty signatories were not aware that Manila had been taken by the British and was being administered as a British colony. Consequently, no specific provision was made for the Philippines. Instead they fell under the general provision that all other lands not otherwise provided for be returned to the Spanish Empire.[139] Many Indian Sepoy troops and their British captains mutinied and were left in Manila and some parts of the Ilocos and Cagayan. The Indian Filipinos in Manila settled at Cainta, Rizal and the ones in the north settled in Isabela. Most were assimilated into the local population. Even before the British invasion, there were already also a large but unknown number of Indian Filipinos as majority of the slaves imported into the archipelago were from Bengal or Southern India,[140] adding Dravidian speaking South Indians and Indo-European speaking Bangladeshis into the ethnic mix.

Leaders of the reform movement in Spain: left to right: José Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and Mariano Ponce (c. 1890)
Mestizos Sangley y Chino (Sangley Chinese or Chinese Mestizos), c. 1841 Tipos del País, watercolor by Justiniano Asuncion

A total of 110 Manila-Acapulco galleons set sail between 1565 and 1815, during the Philippines trade with Mexico. Until 1593, three or more ships would set sail annually from each port bringing with them the riches of the archipelago to Spain. European criollos, mestizos and Portuguese, French and Mexican descent from the Americas, mostly from Latin America came in contact with the Filipinos. Japanese, Indian and Cambodian Christians who fled from religious persecutions and killing fields also settled in the Philippines during the 17th until the 19th centuries. The Mexicans especially were a major source of military migration to the Philippines and during the Spanish period they were referred to as guachinangos[141][142] and they readily intermarried and mixed with native Filipinos. Bernal, the author of the book "Mexico en Filipinas" contends, that they were middlemen, the guachinangos in contrast to the Spanish and criollos, known as Castila, that had positions in power and were isolated, the guachinangos in the meantime, had interacted with the natives of the Philippines, while in contrast, the exchanges between Castila and native were negligent. Following Bernal, these two groups—native Filipinos and the Castila—had been two "mutually unfamiliar castes" that had "no real contact." Between them, he clarifies however, were the Chinese traders and the guachinangos (Mexicans).[141] In the 1600s, Spain deployed thousands of Mexican and Peruvian soldiers across the many cities and presidios of the Philippines.[143]

Geographic distribution and year of settlement of the Latin-American immigrant soldiers assigned to the Philippines in the 1600s.[143]
Location 1603 1636 1642 1644 1654 1655 1670 1672
Manila[143] 900 446 407 821 799 708 667
Fort Santiago[143] 22 50 86 81
Cavite[143] 70 89 225 211
Cagayan[143] 46 80 155 155
Calamianes[143] 73 73
Caraga[143] 45 81 81
Cebu[143] 86 50 135 135
Formosa[143] 180
Moluccas[143] 80 480 507 389
Otón[143] 66 50 169 169
Zamboanga[143] 210 184
Other[143] 255
[143]
Total Reinforcements[143] 1,533 1,633 2,067 2,085 n/a n/a 1,632 1,572

With the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1867, Spain opened the Philippines for international trade. European investors of British, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, and French nationality were among those who settled in the islands as business increased. More Spaniards and Chinese arrived during the next century. Many of these migrants intermarried with local mestizos and assimilated with the indigenous population.

In the late 1700s to early 1800s, Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga, an Augustinian Friar, in his Two Volume Book: "Estadismo de las islas Filipinas"[144][145] compiled a census of the Spanish-Philippines based on the tribute counts (Which represented an average family of seven to ten children[146] and two parents, per tribute)[147] and came upon the following statistics:[144]: 539 [145]: 31, 54, 113 

Data reported for the 1800 as divided by ethnicity and province[144][145]
Province Native Tributes Spanish Mestizo Tributes All Tributes[a]
Tondo[144]: 539  14,437-1/2 3,528 27,897-7
Cavite[144]: 539  5,724-1/2 859 9,132-4
Laguna[144]: 539  14,392-1/2 336 19,448-6
Batangas[144]: 539  15,014 451 21,579-7
Mindoro[144]: 539  3,165 3-1/2 4,000-8
Bulacan[144]: 539  16,586-1/2 2,007 25,760-5
Pampanga[144]: 539  16,604-1/2 2,641 27,358-1
Bataan[144]: 539  3,082 619 5,433
Zambales[144]: 539  1,136 73 4,389
Ilocos[145]: 31  44,852-1/2 631 68,856
Pangasinan[145]: 31  19,836 719-1/2 25,366
Cagayan[145]: 31  9,888 0 11,244-6
Camarines[145]: 54  19,686-1/2 154-1/2 24,994
Albay[145]: 54  12,339 146 16,093
Tayabas[145]: 54  7,396 12 9,228
Cebu[145]: 113  28,112-1/2 625 28,863
Samar[145]: 113  3,042 103 4,060
Leyte[145]: 113  7,678 37-1/2 10,011
Caraga[145]: 113  3,497 0 4,977
Misamis[145]: 113  1,278 0 1,674
Negros Island[145]: 113  5,741 0 7,176
Iloilo[145]: 113  29,723 166 37,760
Capiz[145]: 113  11,459 89 14,867
Antique[145]: 113  9,228 0 11,620
Calamianes[145]: 113  2,289 0 3,161
TOTAL 299,049 13,201 424,992-16

The Spanish-Filipino population as a proportion of the provinces widely varied; with as high as 19% of the population of Tondo province [144]: 539  (The most populous province and former name of Manila), to Pampanga 13.7%,[144]: 539  Cavite at 13%,[144]: 539  Laguna 2.28%,[144]: 539  Batangas 3%,[144]: 539  Bulacan 10.79%,[144]: 539  Bataan 16.72%,[144]: 539  Ilocos 1.38%,[145]: 31  Pangasinan 3.49%,[145]: 31  Albay 1.16%,[145]: 54  Cebu 2.17%,[145]: 113  Samar 3.27%,[145]: 113  Iloilo 1%,[145]: 113  Capiz 1%,[145]: 113  Bicol 20%,[148] and Zamboanga 40%.[148] According to the data, in the Archdiocese of Manila which administers much of Luzon under it, about 10% of the population was Spanish-Filipino.[144]: 539  Across the whole Philippines, as estimated, the total ratio of Spanish Filipino tributes amount to 5% of the totality.[144][145]

El Mestiso by Justiniano Asuncion

In the 1860s to 1890s, in the urban areas of the Philippines, especially at Manila, according to burial statistics, as much as 3.3% of the population were pure European Spaniards and the pure Chinese were as high as 9.9%. The Spanish Filipino and Chinese Filipino Mestizo populations also fluctuated. Eventually, many families belonging to the non-native categories from centuries ago beyond the late 19th century diminished because their descendants intermarried enough and were assimilated into and chose to self-identify as Filipinos while forgetting their ancestor's roots[149] since during the Philippine Revolution to modern times, the term "Filipino" was expanded to include everyone born in the Philippines coming from any race, as per the Philippine nationality law.[150][151] That would explain the abrupt drop of otherwise high Chinese, Spanish and mestizo, percentages across the country by the time of the first American census in 1903.[152] By the 20th century, the remaining ethnic Spaniards and ethnic Chinese, replenished by further Chinese migrants in the 20th century, now later came to compose the modern Spanish Filipino community and Chinese Filipino community respectively, where families of such background contribute a significant share of the Philippine economy today,[133][134][2][136][137] where most in the current list of the Philippines' richest each year comprise billionaires of either Chinese Filipino background or the old elite families of Spanish Filipino background.

Late modern

[edit]
Filipina women in Filipiniana dress, (Manila, 1899).

After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish–American War in 1898, Filipino general, Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence on June 12 while General Wesley Merritt became the first American governor of the Philippines. On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war, with Spain ceding the Philippines and other territories to the United States in exchange for $20 million.[153][154]

A native Filipina with Chinese, American / European and Japanese settlers in the Philippines, 1900

The Philippine–American War resulted in the deaths of at least 200,000 Filipino civilians.[155] Some estimates for total civilian dead reach up to 1,000,000.[156][157] After the Philippine–American War, the United States civil governance was established in 1901, with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor-General.[158] A number of Americans settled in the islands and thousands of interracial marriages between Americans and Filipinos have taken place since then. Owing to the strategic location of the Philippines, as many as 21 bases and 100,000 military personnel were stationed there since the United States first colonized the islands in 1898. These bases were decommissioned in 1992 after the end of the Cold War, but left behind thousands of Amerasian children.[159] The country gained independence from the United States in 1946. The Pearl S. Buck International Foundation estimates there are 52,000 Amerasians scattered throughout the Philippines. However, according to the center of Amerasian Research, there might be as many as 250,000 Amerasians scattered across the cities of Clark, Angeles City, Manila, and Olongapo.[160] In addition, numerous Filipino men enlisted in the US Navy and made careers in it, often settling with their families in the United States. Some of their second- or third-generation families returned to the country.

Following its independence, the Philippines has seen both small and large-scale immigration into the country, mostly involving American, European, Chinese and Japanese peoples. After World War II, South Asians continued to migrate into the islands, most of which assimilated and avoided the local social stigma instilled by the early Spaniards against them by keeping a low profile or by trying to pass as Spanish mestizos. This was also true for the Arab and Chinese immigrants, many of whom are also post WWII arrivals. More recent migrations into the country by Koreans, Persians, Brazilians, and other Southeast Asians have contributed to the enrichment of the country's ethnic landscape, language and culture. Centuries of migration, diaspora, assimilation, and cultural diversity made most Filipinos accepting of interracial marriage and multiculturalism.

Philippine nationality law is currently based upon the principle of jus sanguinis and, therefore, descent from a parent who is a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines is the primary method of acquiring national citizenship. Birth in the Philippines to foreign parents does not in itself confer Philippine citizenship, although RA9139, the Administrative Naturalization Law of 2000, does provide a path for administrative naturalization of certain aliens born in the Philippines. Since many of the above historical groups came to the Philippines before its establishment as an independent state, many have also gained citizenship before the founding of either the First Philippines Republic or Third Republic of the Philippines. For example, many Cold-War-era Chinese migrants who had relatives in the Philippines attain Filipino citizenship for their children through marriage with Chinese Filipino families that trace back to either the late Spanish Era or American Colonial Era. Likewise, many other modern expatriates from various countries, such as the US, often come to the Philippines to marry with a Filipino citizen, ensuring their future children attain Filipino citizenship and their Filipino spouses ensure property ownership.

Social classifications

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During the Spanish period, Spaniards from Spain and Hispanic America mainly referred to Spaniards born in the Philippines (Spanish Filipinos) in Spanish: "Filipino/s" (m) or "Filipina/s" (f)[161][162][163][164][165][excessive citations] in relation to those born in Hispanic America called in Spanish: "Americano/s" (m) / "Americana/s" (f) or "Criollo/s", whereas the Spaniards born in the Philippines themselves called the Spaniards from Spain as "Peninsular/es" with themselves also referred to as "Insular/es".[165] Meanwhile, the caste system hierarchy and taxation system during the Spanish Times dictated that those of mixed descent were known as "Mestizo/s" (m) / "Mestiza/s" (f), specifically those of mixed Spanish and native Filipino descent were known as "Mestizo/s de Español" (Spanish Mestizos), whereas those of mixed Chinese and native Filipino descent were known as "Mestizo/s de Sangley" (Chinese Mestizos) and the mix of all of the above or a mix of Spanish and Chinese were known as "Tornatrás". Meanwhile, the ethnic Chinese migrants (Chinese Filipinos) were historically referred to as "Sangley/es" (from Hokkien Chinese: 生理; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sng-lí; lit. 'business'), while the natives of the Philippine islands were usually known by the generic term "Indio/s"[165] (lit. "Indian, native of the East Indies").

Filipinos of mixed ethnic origins are still referred today as mestizos. However, in common popular parlance, mestizos usually refer to Filipinos mixed with Spanish or any other European ancestry. Filipinos mixed with any other foreign ethnicities are named depending on the non-Filipino part. Historically though, it was the Mestizo de Sangley (Chinese Mestizo) that numbered the most among mestizos,[166] though the Mestizos de Español (Spanish Mestizos) carried more social prestige due to the caste system hierarchy that usually elevated Spanish blood and Christianized natives to the peak, while most descendants of the Mestizo de Sangley (Chinese Mestizo), despite assuming many of the important roles in the economic, social and political life of the nation, would readily assimilate into the fabric of Philippine society.

Term Definition
Peninsulares Person of pure Spanish descent born in Spain ("from the Iberian Peninsula").
Americano Person of Criollo (pure or almost pure Spanish), Castizo (3/4 Spanish, 1/4 Native American) or Mestizo (1/2 Spanish, 1/2 Native American) descent born in Spanish America ("from the Americas").
Insulares / Criollos / Filipinos Person of pure Spanish descent born in the Philippines ("from the Philippine Islands").
Mestizo de Español Person of mixed Spanish and native Austronesian descent.
Tornatrás Person of mixed Spanish and Chinese descent or mixed Spanish, Chinese and native Austronesian descent.
Mestizo de Sangley Person of mixed Chinese or Japanese descent with native Austronesian descent.
Mestizo de Bombay Person of mixed Indian and native Austronesian descent.
Indio (Christianized) Person of pure native Austronesian descent who was Christianized, usually under the Spanish missionaries of the Catholic Church.
Sangley / Chino (Christianized) Person of pure Chinese descent who was Christianized, usually by the Spanish missionaries of the Catholic Church.
Sangley / Chino (Unchristianized) Person of pure Chinese descent who was not Christianized.
Moro Person of Arab and native Austronesian descent who was Islamized.
Negrito Person of pure indigenous pre-Austronesian descent, such as a member of the Aeta, Ati, Batak, Mamanwa, etc.
Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero, the only Spanish prime minister of mestizo (Filipino) descent

People classified as 'blancos' (whites) were the insulares or "Filipinos" (a person born in the Philippines of pure Spanish descent), peninsulares (a person born in Spain of pure Spanish descent), Español mestizos (a person born in the Philippines of mixed Austronesian and Spanish ancestry) and tornatrás (a person born in the Philippines of mixed Austronesian, Chinese and Spanish ancestry). Manila was racially segregated, with blancos living in the walled city of Intramuros, un-Christianized sangleys in Parían, Christianized sangleys and mestizos de sangley in Binondo and the rest of the 7,000 islands for the indios, with the exception of Cebu and several other Spanish posts. Only mestizos de sangley were allowed to enter Intramuros to work for whites (including mestizos de español) as servants and various occupations needed for the colony. Indio were native Austronesians, but as a legal classification, Indio were those who embraced Roman Catholicism and Austronesians who lived in proximity to the Spanish colonies.[citation needed]

People who lived outside Manila, Cebu and the major Spanish posts were classified as such: 'Naturales' were Catholic Austronesians of the lowland and coastal towns. The un-Catholic Negritos and Austronesians who lived in the towns were classified as 'salvajes' (savages) or 'infieles' (the unfaithful). 'Remontados' (Spanish for 'situated in the mountains') and 'tulisanes' (bandits) were indigenous Austronesians and Negritos who refused to live in towns and took to the hills, all of whom were considered to live outside the social order as Catholicism was a driving force in Spanish everyday life, as well as determining social class in the territory. People of pure Spanish descent living in the Philippines who were born in Spanish America were classified as 'americanos'. Mestizos and africanos born in Spanish America living in the Philippines kept their legal classification as such and usually came as indentured servants to the 'americanos'. The Philippine-born children of 'americanos' were classified as 'Ins'. The Philippine-born children of mestizos and Africanos from Spanish America were classified based on patrilineal descent.

A mestiza de sangley woman in a photograph by Francisco Van Camp, c. 1875

The term negrito was coined by the Spaniards based on their appearance. The word 'negrito' would be misinterpreted and used by future European scholars as an ethnoracial term in and of itself. Both Christianized negritos who lived in the archipelago and un-Christianized negritos who lived in tribes outside were classified as 'negritos'. Christianized negritos who lived in Manila were not allowed to enter Intramuros and lived in areas designated for indios.

A person of mixed Negrito and Austronesian ancestry were classified based on patrilineal descent; the father's ancestry determined a child's legal classification. If the father was 'negrito' and the mother was 'India' (Austronesian), the child was classified as 'negrito'. If the father was 'indio' and the mother was 'negrita', the child was classified as 'indio'. Persons of Negrito descent were viewed as being outside the social order as they usually lived in tribes outside and resisted conversion to Christianity.

This legal system of racial classification based on patrilineal descent had no parallel anywhere in the Spanish-ruled territories in the Americas. In general, a son born of a sangley male and an indio or mestizo de sangley female was classified as mestizo de sangley; all subsequent male descendants were mestizos de sangley regardless of whether they married an India or a mestiza de sangley. A daughter born in such a manner, however, acquired the legal classification of her husband, i.e., she became an India if she married an indio but remained a mestiza de sangley if she married a mestizo de sangley or a sangley. In this way, a chino mestizo male descendant of a paternal sangley ancestor never lost his legal status as a mestizo de sangley no matter how little percentage of Chinese blood he had in his veins or how many generations had passed since his first Chinese ancestor; he was thus a mestizo de sangley in perpetuity.

However, a 'mestiza de sangley' who married a blanco ('Filipino', 'mestizo de español', 'peninsular' or 'americano') kept her status as 'mestiza de sangley'. But her children were classified as tornatrás. An 'India' who married a blanco also kept her status as India, but her children were classified as mestizo de español. A mestiza de español who married another blanco would keep her status as mestiza, but her status will never change from mestiza de español if she married a mestizo de español, Filipino or peninsular. In contrast, a mestizo (de sangley or español) man's status stayed the same regardless of whom he married. If a mestizo (de sangley or español) married a filipina (woman of pure Spanish descent), she would lose her status as a 'filipina' and would acquire the legal status of her husband and become a mestiza de español or sangley. If a 'filipina' married an 'indio', her legal status would change to 'India', despite being of pure Spanish descent.

The de facto social stratification system based on class that continues to this day in the country had its beginnings in the Spanish area with a discriminating caste system.[167]

The Insulares, who already saw their distinct identity from the peninsulares adopted the term Filipino to refer to themselves. And among these Insulares Luis Rodriguez y Varela was the first to use it.[168] The use of the term was later adopted by the Spanish and Chinese mestizos or those born of mixed Chinese-indio or Spanish-indio descent. Late in the 19th century, José Rizal popularized the use of the term Filipino to refer to all those born in the Philippines, including the Indios.[169] When ordered to sign the notification of his death sentence, which described him as a Chinese mestizo, Rizal refused. He went to his death saying that he was indio puro.[170][169]

After the Philippines' independence from Spain in 1898 and the word Filipino "officially" became a nationality that includes the entire population of the Philippines regardless of racial ancestry, as per the Philippine nationality law and as described by Wenceslao Retana's Diccionario de filipinismos, where he defined Filipinos as follows,[69]

todos los nacidos en Filipinas sin distincion de origen ni de raza.
All those born in the Philippines without distinction of origin or race.

— Wenceslao E. Retaña, Diccionario De Filipinismos: Con La Revisión De Lo Que Al Respecto Lleva Publicado La Real Academia Española

Origins and genetic studies

[edit]
Migration of the Austronesian peoples and their languages.[172]

The aboriginal settlers of the Philippines were primarily Negrito groups. Negritos today comprise a small minority of the nation's overall population, and received significant geneflow from Austronesian groups, as well as an even earlier "Basal-East Asian" group, while the modern Austronesian-speaking majority population does not, or only marginally show evidence for admixture, and cluster closely with other East/Southeast Asian people.[173][174] There were also immigrations from Austroasiatic, Papuan, and South Asian peoples.[175]

The majority population of Filipinos are Austronesians, a linguistic and genetic group whose historical ties lay in Maritime Southeast Asia and southern East Asia, but through ancient migrations can be found as indigenous peoples stretching as far east as the Pacific Islands and as far west as Madagascar off the coast of Africa.[176][177] The current predominant theory on Austronesian expansion holds that Austronesians settled the Philippine islands through successive southward and eastward seaborne migrations from the Neolithic Austronesian populations of Taiwan.[178]

Other hypotheses have also been put forward based on linguistic, archeological, and genetic studies. These include an origin from mainland southern China (linking them to the Liangzhu culture and the Tapengkeng culture, later displaced or assimilated by the expansion of speakers of Sino-Tibetan languages);[179][180] an in situ origin from the Sundaland continental shelf prior to the sea level rise at the end of the last glacial period (c. 10,000 BC);[181][182] or a combination of the two (the Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network hypothesis) which advocates cultural diffusion rather than a series of linear migrations.[183]

Genetics

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The results of a massive DNA study conducted by the National Geographic's, "The Genographic Project", based on genetic testings of 80,000 Filipino people by the National Geographic in 2008–2009, found that the average Filipino's genes are around 53% Southeast Asia and Oceania, 36% East Asian, 5% Southern European, 3% South Asian and 2% Native American.[184]

According to a genetic study done by the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health (RPGEH), most self-identified Filipinos sampled, have "modest" amounts of European ancestry consistent with older admixture.[185]

Dental morphology

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Dental morphology provides clues to prehistoric migration patterns of the Philippines, with Sinodont dental patterns occurring in East Asia, Central Asia, North Asia, and the Americas. Sundadont patterns occur in Southeast Asia as well as the bulk of Oceania.[186] Filipinos exhibit Sundadonty,[186][187] and are regarded as having a more generalised dental morphology and having a longer ancestry than its offspring, Sinodonty.

Historic reports

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Filipino members of Knights of Columbus.

Published in 1849, The Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos contains 141 pages of surnames with both Spanish and Hispanicized indigenous roots.

Authored by Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria y Zaldua and Domingo Abella, the catalog was created in response to the Decree of November 21, 1849, which gave every Filipino a surname from the book. The decree in the Philippines was created to fulfill a Spanish colonial decree that sought to address colonial subjects who did not have a last name. This explains why most Filipinos share the same surnames as many Hispanics today, without having Spanish ancestry.

Augustinian Friar, Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga, in the 1800s, measured varying ratios of Spanish-Mestizos as percentages of the populations of the various provinces, with ranges such as: 19.5% of the population of Tondo (The most populous province), to Pampanga (13.7%), Cavite (13%) and Bulacan (10.8%) to as low as 5% in Cebu, and non-existent in the isolated provinces.[144][145] Overall the whole Philippines, even including the provinces with no Spanish settlement, as summed up, the average percentage of Spanish Filipino tributes amount to 5% of the total population.[144][145]

The book, "Intercolonial Intimacies Relinking Latin/o America to the Philippines, 1898–1964 By Paula C. Park" citing "Forzados y reclutas: los criollos novohispanos en Asia (1756-1808)" gave the number of later Mexican soldier-immigrants to the Philippines, pegging the number at 35,000 immigrants in the 1700s,[141] in a Philippine population which was only around 1.5 Million,[188] thus the Latin Americans, mainly Mexicans, formed 2.33% of the population.[189]

In relation to this, a population survey conducted by German ethnographer Fedor Jagor concluded that 1/3rd of Luzon which holds half of the Philippines' population had varying degrees of Spanish and Mexican ancestry.[190]

Meanwhile, according to older records held by the Senate of the Philippines, there were approximately 1.35 million ethnic (or pure) Chinese within the Philippine population, while Filipinos with any Chinese descent comprised 22.8 million people (20% of the population).[191]

Current immigration

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Recent studies during 2015, record around 220,000 to 600,000 American citizens living in the country.[192] This increased to 750,000 Americans living in the Philippines by year 2025, forming 0.75% of the population.[193] There are also 250,000 Amerasians across Angeles City, Manila, Clark and Olongapo, forming 0.25% of the population.[194] Together, the total percentage of individuals who possess full or partial American descent form 1% of the total demographics of the Philippines.

Languages

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The indigenous (native) Philippine languages spoken around the country that have the largest number of speakers in a particular region with Tagalog being the largest. Note that on regions marked with black diamonds, the language with the most speakers denotes a minority of the population.

Austronesian languages have been spoken in the Philippines for thousands of years. According to a 2014 study by Mark Donohue of the Australian National University and Tim Denham of Monash University, there is no linguistic evidence for an orderly north-to-south dispersal of the Austronesian languages from Taiwan through the Philippines and into Island Southeast Asia (ISEA).[181] Many adopted words from Sanskrit and Tamil were incorporated during the strong wave of Indian (Hindu-Buddhist) cultural influence starting from the 5th century BC, in common with its Southeast Asian neighbors. Chinese languages were also commonly spoken among the traders of the archipelago. However, with the advent of Islam, Arabic and Persian soon came to supplant Sanskrit and Tamil as holy languages. Starting in the second half of the 16th century, Spanish was the official language of the country for the more than three centuries that the islands were governed through Mexico City on behalf of the Spanish Empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Spanish was the preferred language among Ilustrados and educated Filipinos in general. Significant disagreements exist, however, on the extent Spanish use beyond that. It has been argued that the Philippines were less hispanized than Canaries and America, with Spanish only being adopted by the ruling class involved in civil and judicial administration and culture. Spanish was the language of only approximately ten percent of the Philippine population when Spanish rule ended in 1898.[195] As a lingua franca or creole language of Filipinos, major languages of the country like Chavacano, Cebuano, Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Bikol, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, and Ilocano assimilated many different words and expressions from Castilian Spanish.

Chavacano is the only Spanish-based creole language in Asia. Its vocabulary is 90 percent Spanish, and the remaining 10 percent is a mixture of predominantly Portuguese, Hiligaynon, and some English. Chavacano is considered by the Instituto Cervantes to be a Spanish-based language.[196][failed verification]

In sharp contrast, another view is that the ratio of the population which spoke Spanish as their mother tongue in the last decade of Spanish rule was 10% or 14%.[197] An additional 60% is said to have spoken Spanish as a second language until World War II, but this is also disputed as to whether this percentage spoke "kitchen Spanish", which was used as marketplace lingua compared to those who were actual fluent Spanish speakers.[197]

In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced universal education, creating free public schooling in Spanish, yet it was never implemented, even before the advent of American annexation.[198] It was also the language of the Philippine Revolution, and the 1899 Malolos Constitution proclaimed it as the "official language" of the First Philippine Republic, albeit a temporary official language. Spanish continued to be the predominant lingua franca used in the islands by the elite class before and during the American colonial regime. Following the American occupation of the Philippines and the imposition of English, the overall use of Spanish declined gradually, especially after the 1940s.

According to Ethnologue, there are about 180 languages spoken in the Philippines.[199] The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines imposed the Filipino language[200][201] as the national language and designates it, along with the English language, as one of the official languages. Regional languages are designated as auxiliary official languages. The constitution also provides that Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.[202]

Other Philippine languages in the country with at least 1,000,000 native and indigenous speakers include Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Central Bikol, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Chavacano (Spanish-based creole), Albay Bikol, Maranao, Maguindanao, Kinaray-a, Tausug, Surigaonon, Masbateño, Aklanon and Ibanag. The 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet, adopted in 1987, is the official writing system. In addition, each ethnicity's language has their own writing scripts and set of alphabets, many of which are no longer used.[203]

However, there has been a resurgence of these ancient scripts, and initiatives to push the government for standardization. The most prominent script, Baybayin, is a writing system native to the Philippines, with the word 'baybay' meaning "to spell" in Tagalog (Bielenberg, 2018). Due to Spanish colonization, this script was replaced with the Latin alphabet which became the standard of the Philippines. In recent times, there has been a large interest in revitalizing Baybayin, with scholars spreading awareness and education online, and artists interpreting this script into their work.[204]

Religion

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Devotees flock to the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño during the novena Masses.

According to then National Statistics Office (NSO) as of 2010, over 92% of the population were Christians, with 80.6% professing Roman Catholicism.[205] The latter was introduced by the Spanish beginning in 1521, and during their more than 330-year colonization of the islands, they managed to convert a vast majority of Filipinos, resulting in the Philippines becoming the largest predominantly catholic country in Asia. There are also large groups of Protestant denominations, which either grew or were founded following the disestablishment of the Catholic Church during the American Colonial period. The homegrown Iglesia ni Cristo is currently the single largest church whose headquarters is in the Philippines, followed by United Church of Christ in the Philippines. The Iglesia Filipina Independiente (also known as the Aglipayan Church) was an earlier development, and is a national church directly resulting from the 1898 Philippine Revolution. Other Christian groups such as the Victory Church,[206] Eddie Villanueva-founded and led Jesus Is Lord Church, Jesus Miracle Crusade, Mormonism, Orthodoxy, and the Jehovah's Witnesses have a visible presence in the country.

The second largest religion in the country is Islam, estimated in 2014 to account for 5% to 8% of the population.[207] Islam in the Philippines is mostly concentrated in southwestern Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago which, though part of the Philippines, are very close to the neighboring Islamic countries of Malaysia and Indonesia. The Muslims call themselves Moros, a Spanish word that refers to the Moors (albeit the two groups have little cultural connection other than Islam).

Historically, ancient Filipinos held animist religions that were influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism, which were brought by traders from neighbouring Asian states. These indigenous Philippine folk religions continue to be present among the populace, with some communities, such as the Aeta, Igorot, and Lumad, having some strong adherents and some who mix beliefs originating from the indigenous religions with beliefs from Christianity or Islam.[208][209] There are temples also for Sikhism, also located in the provinces and in the cities, sometimes located near Hindu temples.[210]

As of 2013, religious groups together constituting less than five percent of the population included Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Seventh-day Adventists, United Church of Christ, United Methodists, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, Assemblies of God, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and Philippine (Southern) Baptists; and the following domestically established churches: Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ), Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayan), Members Church of God International, Jesus Is Lord Church, and The Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name. In addition, there are Lumad, who are indigenous peoples of various animistic and syncretic religions.[211]

Diaspora

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Spectators at the annual Philippine Independence Day Parade on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City

There are currently more than 10 million Filipinos who live overseas. Filipinos form a minority ethnic group in the Americas, Europe, Oceania,[212][213] the Middle East, and other regions of the world.

There are an estimated four million Americans of Filipino ancestry in the United States, and more than 300,000 American citizens in the Philippines.[214] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, immigrants from the Philippines made up the second largest group after Mexico that sought family reunification.[215]

Filipinos make up over a third of the entire population of the Northern Marianas Islands, an American territory in the North Pacific Ocean, and a large proportion of the populations of Guam, Palau, the British Indian Ocean Territory, and Sabah.[213][failed verification]

See also

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Notes

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References

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Publications

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia

Filipinos are the ethnolinguistic groups indigenous to the , a Southeast Asian of 7,641 islands with a of approximately 117 million as of 2025. Their genetic makeup reflects multiple ancient migrations, including hunter-gatherers and Austronesian settlers from arriving around 4,000 years ago, who introduced farming, pottery, and advanced boat-building techniques. Subsequent waves of Chinese traders, Spanish colonizers from 1565 to 1898, and American administrators until 1946 added layers of cultural and genetic admixture, resulting in a predominantly Malay-Austronesian core with Sino-European elements.
The major ethnolinguistic families include Tagalog (28%), Cebuano (13%), and Ilocano (9%), alongside indigenous highland and Moro Muslim groups, fostering a of languages, customs, and social structures. Pre-colonial societies featured barangay-based polities engaged in extensive maritime trade across and the , evidenced by 9th-10th century boat remains and imports. This seafaring legacy persists, with Filipinos forming the world's largest group of merchant seafarers, numbering around 400,000 and staffing a quarter of global shipping vessels. A defining characteristic is the vast , exceeding 10 million who remit over $30 billion annually, bolstering the economy but highlighting domestic and skill mismatches. Achievements span and caregiving professions worldwide, icons like , and cultural exports like cuisine, yet empirical data underscore persistent hurdles: rates hovering near 18%, losses estimated in trillions of pesos over recent decades, and vulnerability to typhoons due to geographic exposure. These factors, rooted in institutional weaknesses rather than inherent traits, continue to shape national resilience and reform imperatives.

Nomenclature

Terminology and self-identification

The term "Filipino" derives from the Spanish colonial name las Islas Filipinas, applied to the archipelago in honor of King Philip II of Spain; Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos first used "Felipinas" in 1542 to designate the islands of Leyte and Samar after the then-Prince Philip. During early Spanish rule, "Filipino" initially denoted Spaniards born in the Philippines (known as insulares), distinguishing them from peninsulares (Spain-born Spaniards) and indios (native inhabitants). By the late 16th century, some Jesuit missionaries, such as Pedro Chirino, extended the term to local natives in their communities, though this usage remained limited. In the 19th century, amid growing nationalist sentiments, reformist indios and mestizos during the appropriated "Filipino" as a unifying identity, rejecting colonial hierarchies; figures like and employed it to assert equality and shared destiny with the archipelago's inhabitants. formalized this shift in 1896 by applying "Filipino" to all residents of the , regardless of ethnic or colonial origin, in the context of the against . This evolution reflected a deliberate reclamation, transforming a colonial label into a marker of emerging national consciousness, distinct from pre-colonial identifications tied to local polities, barangays, or linguistic groups like Tagalog or Visayan. Contemporary self-identification centers on "Filipino" (masculine) or "Filipina" (feminine) as the standard national for citizens of the of the , encompassing over 170 ethnolinguistic groups without implying a singular ethnic homogeneity. Colloquially, many Filipinos use "" (for males) and "Pinay" (for females), terms originating among Filipino laborers in the United States during the and later adopted domestically, derived from an informal contraction of "Filipino." These terms emphasize national rather than ethnic affiliation, though individuals often retain subgroup identities (e.g., Ilocano or Cebuano) in regional or familial contexts; pre-colonial societies lacked a pan-archipelagic self-designation, identifying primarily by , locale, or linguistic affiliation. The "Filipino" persists from its Spanish roots, contrasting with the English "Philippines" (via Greek Philippos), while the Tagalog endonym is "Pilipino."

Origins and peopling

Genetic and anthropological evidence

Anthropological evidence indicates early hominin presence in the Philippines dating back at least 700,000 years, based on stone tools found on island, suggesting occupation by unidentified archaic humans prior to modern Homo sapiens arrival. Fossils attributed to , discovered in Callao Cave on and dated between 50,000 and 67,000 years ago, represent a small-bodied hominin species with curved phalanges and dental morphology distinct from other Homo species, highlighting complex Pleistocene dispersals into but not direct ancestry for modern Filipinos. Genetic studies reveal that the Philippine archipelago was peopled by at least five major migration waves over the last 50,000 years, beginning with basal East Asian-related populations around 40,000–50,000 years ago, followed by later influxes including Austronesian speakers. Indigenous groups, such as the Ayta Magbukon, exhibit the highest known levels of admixture globally, with estimates 30–40% greater than in Papuans or , reflecting archaic in early Southeast Asian foragers who survived as hunter-gatherers. These groups represent pre-Austronesian layers, with (mtDNA) haplogroups like M and N tracing to initial Pleistocene settlements. The dominant genetic component in most contemporary Filipinos derives from the Austronesian expansion originating in approximately 5,000–6,000 years ago, introducing Y-chromosome haplogroups O-M95 and O-M119, alongside mtDNA lineages such as B4a and E, which form the core of lowland ethnic groups like Tagalogs and . Complete mtDNA genome analyses of ethnolinguistic groups confirm high Austronesian maternal diversity, with limited admixture in mainstream populations, underscoring that while physical traits may suggest continuity, autosomal DNA shows predominant Taiwanese-like ancestry admixed with minor indigenous basal components. Cordilleran highlanders, such as Igorots, preserve earlier pre-Austronesian East Asian signatures, predating the main Austronesian dispersal.

Archaeological and migration models

Archaeological findings establish early hominin occupation in the Philippines dating to 709,000 years ago, evidenced by stone tools and cut-marked rhinoceros bones at a site in Kalinga Province, Luzon, attributable to archaic humans likely comparable to Homo erectus. Later, remains of Homo luzonensis, a small-statured hominin species, were recovered from Callao Cave in northern Luzon, with a third metatarsal bone directly dated to 67,000 years ago via uranium-series analysis, indicating persistence of archaic forms distinct from Homo sapiens. The transition to modern human (Homo sapiens) presence occurred by at least 50,000 years ago, supported by genetic and limited fossil evidence, with initial settlers represented by groups such as the Aeta and Ati, who exhibit basal East Asian genetic affinities and the highest known admixture among contemporary populations. These trace to multiple pre-Austronesian waves, including northern and southern lineages, arriving via coastal or island-hopping routes during lowered sea levels in the , as inferred from phylogenetic analyses showing divergence from other Southeast Asians over 40,000 years ago. The dominant migration model for the ethnolinguistic ancestors of most Filipinos posits an Austronesian expansion from , commencing around 4,000–3,500 years , introducing Proto-Malayo-Polynesian , red-slipped , polished stone tools, and domesticated plants like and to initially. This "Out of Taiwan" framework, corroborated by linguistic phylogenies, archaeological sequences at sites like Nagsabaran, and Y-chromosome O-M95 distributions, describes a rapid "express train" dispersal southward through the , with subsequent admixture absorbing 10–30% ancestry in varying regional groups. Earlier models invoking origins or mainland Southeast Asian homelands have been supplanted by this evidence, though debates persist on exact voyaging capabilities and interaction dynamics with indigenous foragers.

History

Prehistoric migrations and early societies

Archaeological evidence from the Kalinga site in northern reveals stone tools dated to 709,000 years ago, indicating the presence of early hominins, likely or a related , who utilized the islands long before modern humans. These toolmakers hunted large game, such as the extinct Philippine , demonstrating advanced for butchery and processing. Fossils from Callao Cave on , including seven teeth, hand and foot bones, and a partial , represent , a small-bodied hominin dated to at least 50,000–67,000 years ago. These remains exhibit a mosaic of primitive and modern traits, such as curved phalanges suggestive of arboreal adaptation, challenging models of Homo sapiens exclusivity in island Southeast Asia during this period. Debate persists on whether H. luzonensis derives from earlier migrations independent of Homo sapiens or reflects archaic admixture, but the site's confirms pre-modern human occupation. Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) arrived by 67,000 years ago, as evidenced by a third metatarsal bone from Callao Cave directly dated to 66.7 ± 1 ka via uranium-series method. analyses of contemporary Philippine indigenous groups, particularly s like the Aeta and Agta, support initial colonization over 60,000 years ago through long-distance dispersals from both northern (East Asian) and southern (Oceanian) sources. These populations, characterized by short stature, dark skin, and curly hair, exhibit the highest genetic ancestry globally—up to 5% in Ayta Magbukon, exceeding that in Papuans—indicating interbreeding with archaic hominins en route or locally. As hunter-gatherers, they subsisted on , deer and , and gathering tubers and fruits in tropical forests, with minimal beyond flaked stone tools and perishable wooden implements. Around 4,000 years ago, Austronesian-speaking peoples expanded from into the , reaching the Islands by 2200 BCE and the mainland shortly thereafter, as traced by linguistic phylogenies and shared vocabulary for outrigger canoes and . Archaeological markers include red-slipped , shell adzes, and domestic remains, signaling maritime prowess and exchange networks. These migrants introduced practices, including wet-rice by the 2nd millennium BCE, domesticated animals, and weaving, transitioning coastal and riverine areas from pure to mixed economies. Interactions with indigenous Negritos involved rather than displacement, with evident in modern populations; hunter-gatherers adopted farming selectively, maintaining in interiors while farmers worked longer hours in lowlands. This period laid foundations for stratified early societies, blending resilience with agricultural surplus in a diverse .

Pre-colonial polities and social systems

Pre-colonial Philippine societies were organized into small-scale polities known as barangays, typically comprising 20 to 100 families bound by and loyalty to a hereditary leader called the . These units functioned as autonomous villages or settlements, with the exercising executive, judicial, and military authority, often advised by elders or councils. Larger confederations of barangays formed chiefdoms, such as the of Tondo in northern , which served as a major trade hub engaging with regional networks from the onward. Similarly, the Rajahnate of in northeastern maintained contacts with China's by 1001 AD, evidenced by tributary missions and archaeological finds of gold artifacts and imported ceramics. Social stratification within these polities followed a three-tier : the ( or tumao), including the and his kin; freemen ( or ), who were warriors or commoners able to own and participate in ; and dependents ( or uripon), comprising debt bondsmen or war captives who performed labor but retained some rights, such as the ability to marry freely and redeem themselves through service or payment. Alipin status was not absolute chattel ; it diminished across generations, with offspring inheriting partial dependency based on parental lines. Women across classes held significant roles, inheriting and wielding influence in family decisions, as reflected in practices and leadership examples. Archaeological evidence supports this hierarchy through elite burials containing gold ornaments, Chinese porcelain, and Indian beads, indicating datu control over luxury trade goods from the 10th to 15th centuries. The , dated to 900 AD and written in Old Malay using , documents a remission involving officials under a (sri), with titles like purahita (ministers) and kumaramata (princes), demonstrating , administrative complexity, and Indianized influences in polities. These structures emphasized maritime trade, boat-building (as seen in Butuan's boats), and inter-polity alliances via and , without centralized empires. Regional variations existed, with Visayan societies featuring more fluid warrior classes and polities incorporating early Islamic elements by the 14th century, but core kinship-based systems persisted archipelago-wide.

Spanish colonial period (1565–1898)

Spanish colonization of the Philippine archipelago commenced in 1565 with the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi's expedition from New Spain, which established the first permanent settlement at Cebu on February 13 after departing Acapulco in late 1564. Legazpi, appointed as the first governor-general, subdued local chieftains through alliances and military force, including the conquest of Rajah Tupas of Cebu, securing Spanish foothold amid resistance from pintados warriors. By 1571, Legazpi transferred the capital to Manila, fortifying it as the administrative and commercial hub after defeating Rajah Sulayman, thus extending control over Luzon. The colony operated initially under the Viceroyalty of New Spain until Mexico's independence in 1821, after which direct governance from Madrid ensued. The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, initiated in 1565 with Andrés de Urdaneta's discovery of the eastward return route across the Pacific, became the economic lifeline, facilitating the exchange of Mexican silver for Chinese silks, , and spices via Manila's entrepôt. Annual voyages from 1565 to 1815 transported vast quantities of silver—estimated at over 100 tons yearly by the —fueling global trade networks while enriching Spanish elites and fostering a multicultural port city with significant Chinese (Sangley) merchant communities. This system integrated the into Spain's trans-Pacific empire, though it imposed heavy tribute and labor demands via the and polo y servicios systems, extracting resources from indigenous barangays reorganized into reducciones for administrative control. Christianization advanced rapidly under Franciscan, Augustinian, Jesuit, and Dominican friars accompanying Legazpi, with mass baptisms beginning in in 1565; by the early 17th century, over 250,000 natives in and had converted, supplanting animist and Islamic practices in lowlands through missions, fiestas, and coercion. Friars wielded substantial influence, often mediating governance and land disputes, though their roles in suppressing revolts and enforcing orthodoxy drew indigenous resentment. Demographic shifts included population declines from introduced diseases and warfare—estimated from 1-2 million in 1565 to stabilization around 1.5 million by 1650—alongside the emergence of classes from Spanish-indigenous unions, comprising a small elite by the . Resistance manifested in over 100 documented revolts, driven by abuses like excessive (falling from 10 reales in to burdensome impositions) and friar dominance; early uprisings included Dagami's in (1565) and later coordinated efforts like the Panay revolts (1896), culminating in the where Filipino troops and workers protested labor drafts, leading to executions that galvanized reformist sentiments among ilustrados. Spanish forces, bolstered by local auxiliaries, quelled most insurrections through superior arms and divide-and-rule tactics, maintaining control until external pressures from the eroded the regime in 1898.

American colonial era and World War II (1898–1946)

Following the Spanish-American War, the defeated the Spanish fleet in on May 1, 1898, leading to the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, by which ceded the Philippine Islands to the U.S. for $20 million. Filipino revolutionaries under had declared independence from on June 12, 1898, and initially viewed the Americans as allies against colonial rule, but tensions escalated when U.S. forces refused to recognize the . The Philippine-American War erupted on February 4, 1899, when U.S. troops fired on Filipino forces near Manila, marking the start of conventional and guerrilla conflict that lasted until President Theodore Roosevelt declared it ended on July 4, 1902, though sporadic fighting persisted until 1913 in the Moro regions. U.S. forces suffered approximately 4,200 deaths, mostly from disease, while Filipino combatants numbered around 20,000 killed; civilian deaths exceeded 200,000, primarily from famine, disease, and combat-related hardship, with U.S. tactics including scorched-earth policies and concentration camps contributing to the toll. The war established U.S. control, transitioning from military governance in 1898 to a civil government under the Philippine Organic Act of 1902, which created a bicameral legislature with appointed U.S. oversight. American administration emphasized infrastructure, , and , establishing over 1,000 public schools by and introducing English as the , which increased from under 10% to around 50% by . Economic policies like the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909 facilitated partial , boosting sugar and tobacco exports, though dependency on U.S. markets persisted. The Jones Law of 1916 expanded Filipino self-rule with an elected legislature and pledged eventual independence, fostering nationalist movements amid growing demands for sovereignty. The Tydings-McDuffie Act, signed March 24, 1934, authorized a ten-year transition to , leading to the establishment of the on November 15, 1935, with Manuel Quezon as president and a constitution ratified by plebiscite. This period focused on preparing for , including military training and economic diversification, though U.S. military bases remained under lease. World War II disrupted the Commonwealth when Japanese forces invaded on December 8, 1941, following the , overrunning U.S.-Filipino defenses by May 1942 after the falls of and . The occupation involved systematic atrocities, including mass executions, forced labor, and sexual slavery of an estimated 1,000 Filipino women as "comfort women," alongside economic plunder and that killed hundreds of thousands. Filipino resistance persisted through guerrilla units like the and USAFFE remnants, conducting sabotage and intelligence operations that tied down 250,000 Japanese troops. U.S. forces under General returned in October 1944, landing on and initiating the liberation campaign; the Battle of Manila from February to March 1945 resulted in the city's near-total destruction and massive civilian casualties from Japanese holdouts' deliberate killings, bayoneting, and before their defeat. The 's end in 1945 left the devastated, with over 1 million dead from combat, atrocities, and privation. Full independence was granted on July 4, 1946, via the Treaty of Manila, ending U.S. sovereignty and recognizing the Republic of the under President , though military and economic ties endured through bases and trade preferences.

Independence and post-colonial development (1946–present)

The Republic of the achieved formal from the on July 4, 1946, following the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 and amid the devastation from , which had left in ruins and the economy crippled with widespread infrastructure damage and agricultural disruption. , elected in April 1946, became the first president of the independent Third Republic, focusing on post-war reconstruction, including rehabilitation loans from the U.S. and addressing communist insurgency through promises, though implementation faltered amid corruption allegations. succeeded Roxas upon his death in 1948 and won election in 1949, but his administration grappled with escalating Huk rebellion, economic stagnation, and U.S. agreements that fueled nationalist discontent. Ramon Magsaysay's presidency from 1953 to 1957 marked a pivot toward anti-communist counterinsurgency, bolstered by U.S. aid, which weakened the Huk movement through rural development programs and military reforms, though dependency on American support persisted. Subsequent leaders like Carlos García (1957–1961) pursued Filipino First policies to prioritize local businesses, while Diosdado Macapagal (1961–1965) devalued the peso in 1962 to spur exports and shifted Independence Day to June 12, commemorating the 1898 declaration against Spain. Ferdinand Marcos, elected in 1965 and reelected in 1969 amid claims of electoral fraud, initially promoted infrastructure projects like roads and irrigation, but rising debt, inflation, and insurgencies from the Moro National Liberation Front in the south and New People's Army in the north prompted him to declare martial law on September 21, 1972, via Proclamation 1081, citing threats from communist subversion and civil unrest. This suspension of Congress, media censorship, and mass arrests—estimated at over 70,000 detentions with widespread reports of torture and extrajudicial killings—centralized power, enabling Marcos to rule by decree until 1981, when he nominally lifted martial law but retained authoritarian controls. The martial law era exacerbated economic woes, with GDP per capita stagnating around $500–$700 (in constant dollars) through the 1970s amid oil shocks and crony capitalism that funneled public funds to allies, leading to a foreign debt ballooning to $28 billion by 1986. Marcos called snap elections in February 1986 against Corazon Aquino, widow of assassinated opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr.; allegations of vote-rigging sparked the People Power Revolution from February 22–25, when up to two million civilians, backed by defecting military factions led by Fidel Ramos and Juan Ponce Enrile, blockaded Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in Manila, forcing Marcos to flee to Hawaii on February 25 amid U.S. pressure. Aquino assumed the presidency, restoring the 1935 Constitution via a 1987 plebiscite, dismantling monopolies, and pursuing agrarian reform, though persistent communist and Muslim insurgencies required ceasefires and autonomy deals like the 1989 Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Fidel Ramos (1992–1998) liberalized the economy through privatization, foreign investment incentives, and the 1994 ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, yielding average annual GDP growth of 3.7% and gains from about $800 in 1990 to over $1,100 by 1998, though the exposed vulnerabilities. Joseph Estrada's 1998–2001 term focused on poverty alleviation for the 40% of Filipinos below the poverty line but ended in trial over corruption charges, leading to his ouster via Elite in January 2001; (2001–2010) stabilized recovery with 4–5% growth but faced coup attempts, election scandals, and criticisms. (2010–2016) emphasized anti-corruption via the Reform and infrastructure, boosting GDP growth to 6.2% annually, while (2016–2022) pursued a brutal anti-drug campaign claiming over 6,000 deaths in police operations by 2019, alongside infrastructure pushes and assertiveness, amid economic expansion to 6.4% pre-COVID. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., elected in 2022, has continued economic reopening post-pandemic, with GDP reaching $3,805 in 2023, driven by services and recovery. Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have sustained development, with remittances hitting a record $38.34 billion in 2024—equivalent to about 8.5% of GDP—funding household consumption, , and while mitigating and deficits, though reliance on labor export perpetuates brain drain and inequality, as hovers around 20% despite urban growth. Political instability, including ongoing insurgencies and dynastic politics, has hindered sustained growth, which averaged 2–3% annually from 1946–2024, lagging regional peers due to governance failures and rather than inherent resource limits. As of 2025, the archipelago's 115 million faces challenges from climate vulnerability, with typhoons displacing millions yearly, and geopolitical tensions in the West , yet remittances and BPO sectors underpin resilience.

Demographics and ethnic composition

Population statistics and subgroups

The population of the Philippines stood at 112.73 million as of July 2024, an increase of 3.69 million from the 109.04 million enumerated in the . This growth equates to an annual rate of 0.80% from to 2024, down from 1.63% in the prior inter-censal period (2015–2020), attributable to declining rates and rising . The population is concentrated in (accounting for over 50% of the total), with alone housing about 13 million residents amid high urbanization pressures. Filipinos comprise a diverse array of ethnolinguistic subgroups, primarily Austronesian in origin, with the 2020 Census of Population and Housing identifying over 100 groups based on self-reported ethnicity among the 108.67 million household . The lowland Christianized groups dominate numerically, while highland indigenous and Muslim Moro subgroups maintain distinct cultural identities often tied to ancestral domains. Ethnic data rely on self-identification, which can undercount remote or assimilated communities.
Ethnic GroupPercentage of Household PopulationApproximate Number (2020)
Tagalog26.0%28.25 million
Bisaya/Binisaya14.3%15.54 million
Cebuano8.0%8.69 million
Ilocano8.0%8.69 million
Hiligaynon/Ilonggo7.9%8.58 million
Bikol/Bicol6.5%7.06 million
Waray3.8%4.13 million
Data from 2020 Census; smaller groups like Kapampangan, , and Maranao fill the remainder, with no single subgroup exceeding Tagalog dominance concentrated in southern . (IPs), encompassing groups such as the Aeta and highland communities like the Igorot (e.g., , Kankanaey) and (e.g., Manobo, T'boli), number between 11.3 million and 17 million, or roughly 10–15% of the population, with concentrations in the (33%), Mindanao (61%), and scattered Visayan pockets. Moro subgroups, including the Maranao, , and Tausug, form about 5–6% of the total, predominantly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, distinct by Islamic adherence and resistance to lowland assimilation. Minority mestizo populations, such as Chinese-Filipinos (estimated at 1–2%, influential in commerce despite historical discrimination), and smaller foreign-descended communities add further diversity but remain under 1% combined in census data.

Urbanization and family structures

The Philippines has experienced rapid , with the urban population reaching 58.93 million, or 54 percent of the total 109.03 million people, as of the 2020 Census of Population and Housing conducted by the (PSA). This marked an increase from 51.2 percent in 2015, driven primarily by rural-to-urban migration in search of employment opportunities in sectors like , services, and concentrated in metropolitan areas such as (population density exceeding 20,000 per square kilometer), , and . Economic pull factors, including higher wages in urban informal economies and remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) supporting rural-to-urban transitions, have accelerated this shift, though it has also contributed to challenges like proliferation, with an estimated 3.62 million informal settler families nationwide as of 2015 data updated in subsequent reports. Urbanization has influenced family structures by promoting a gradual transition from predominantly extended networks in rural areas to more nuclear households in cities, where average sizes are smaller—approximately 3.07 members in compared to 3.41 in rural areas, based on structural analyses of composition. However, high urban costs and limited space have paradoxically sustained multigenerational living arrangements in many urban s, with extended families comprising up to 90 percent nuclear core plus relatives in rural settings versus 83 percent in urban ones, reflecting adaptive economic strategies rather than cultural erosion. National average size declined to 4.0 persons in 2020 from 4.3 in 2015, a trend more pronounced in urban zones due to delayed marriages, lower fertility rates ( at 2.5 children per woman in 2022), and labor migration splitting families, yet strong familial obligations persist, often manifested through co-residence or financial support networks. This evolution is shaped by causal factors like modernization and economic pressures, where correlates with increased non-relative household members in cities (up to 5.2 percent of size in ), indicating boarders or helpers as coping mechanisms for income supplementation, while rural areas retain tighter kin-based units for agricultural labor sharing. Recent analyses note rising extended households amid housing shortages, reshaping demand for affordable multigenerational dwellings rather than fully fragmenting traditional structures. Despite these adaptations, core Filipino values of (debt of gratitude) and close-knit support systems endure, mitigating full nuclear isolation even as urban densities strain interpersonal dynamics.

Languages

Linguistic diversity and national languages

The Philippines is characterized by extensive linguistic diversity, with documenting 175 living indigenous languages as of recent assessments. This diversity arises from the country's archipelagic geography, which fostered isolated linguistic evolution among over 7,000 islands, compounded by historical migrations of Austronesian-speaking peoples beginning around 4,000–5,000 years ago. Of these languages, 168 are classified as Austronesian, primarily within the Malayo-Polynesian branch, with the remainder including minor Austroasiatic influences or unclassified substrates among indigenous groups. Major languages by speaker population include Tagalog (spoken natively by approximately 25 million), Cebuano (around 20 million), and Ilocano (about 9 million), though varies widely due to phonological, lexical, and syntactic differences. The 1987 Constitution designates Filipino as the , mandating its development and enrichment from existing Philippine and foreign linguistic sources to promote unity. Filipino is a standardized register primarily derived from Tagalog, the dominant language of and the Manila metropolitan area, selected as the national language basis by Commonwealth Act No. 570 on December 30, 1937, during the American period. Initially termed "Pilipino" to avoid regional connotations, it was renamed Filipino in the 1987 Constitution to reflect broader incorporation of vocabulary from other local languages, though Tagalog forms the core grammar and lexicon, comprising over 80% of its structure. English retains co-official status with Filipino for , legal, and educational purposes, a policy rooted in the 1935 Constitution and retained post-independence to facilitate international communication and administrative continuity from colonial eras. Regional languages function as auxiliary official languages within their respective provinces under constitutional provisions, supporting local and media. The Department of Education recognizes 19 such languages for use in the K-3 Mother Tongue-Based program, implemented since 2012, which prioritizes native-language instruction to enhance literacy before transitioning to Filipino and English. These include Cebuano (Bisaya) in the and , Hiligaynon (Ilonggo) in , Waray in , and Bikol in the , each serving millions of speakers and preserving distinct cultural narratives despite pressures from national standardization. This multilingual framework acknowledges the limitations of a single in a fragmented society, where over 90% of Filipinos are multilingual, often navigating between local tongues, Filipino, and English in daily interactions.

External influences and code-switching

Philippine languages, primarily Austronesian in origin, have incorporated substantial loanwords from Spanish due to over three centuries of colonial rule from 1565 to 1898, with estimates indicating that approximately 20% of Tagalog (the basis of Filipino) vocabulary derives from Spanish sources. These include terms for administration, , and daily objects, such as mesa for table (from mesa) and libro for book (from libro), reflecting adaptations in and usage to fit native grammar. English influences, stemming from the American colonial period (1898–1946) and reinforced by post-independence policies designating English as an alongside Filipino, contribute the second-largest foreign lexicon, particularly in domains like , , and ; examples encompass kompyuter for computer and tren for train, often retaining English forms in informal speech. This bilingual framework has led to hybrid forms, with English loanwords increasingly supplanting some Spanish ones in contemporary usage. Code-switching between Filipino (Tagalog-based) and English, termed , is a pervasive linguistic practice across the , especially in urban centers like [Metro Manila](/page/Metro Manila), where it occurs in daily conversations, media, and . Studies of Filipino television discourse reveal its commonality among speakers, with all analyzed participants employing both languages fluidly to convey nuance, emphasize points, or accommodate interlocutors' proficiency levels. This phenomenon arises from mandatory —English for and sciences since the 1987 Constitution—and socioeconomic factors, enabling seamless shifts for clarity or prestige, as in sentences like "Babe, I'll text you later after the meeting" blending native structure with English verbs. In classrooms, Taglish facilitates comprehension among learners transitioning between languages, though it sometimes draws critique for diluting monolingual proficiency. Its prevalence underscores the ' status as one of the world's most proficient English-speaking nations outside native contexts, with over 90% literacy in English among the educated population, yet it also highlights tensions in preserving indigenous linguistic purity amid .

Religion

Historical adoption and predominant faiths

Prior to Spanish arrival, indigenous Filipinos practiced polytheistic animist religions centered on nature spirits (anito), ancestor veneration, and a supreme deity often called Bathala in Tagalog traditions, with rituals led by babaylan shamans who served as spiritual intermediaries. These beliefs varied by ethnic group but emphasized communal ceremonies for harvest, healing, and protection against malevolent forces, lacking centralized dogma or scripture. Islam entered the archipelago through Arab and Malay traders starting around 1350, establishing footholds in the and by the late , where sultanates like (founded circa 1405) adopted it as a unifying political and religious framework. By the 16th century, Islam had spread northward to parts of via commerce and intermarriage, influencing local governance with concepts of divine kingship, though it remained confined to southern polities amid resistance from animist majorities elsewhere. This adoption was gradual and elite-driven, blending with pre-existing customs rather than wholesale replacement. Christianity first appeared in 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan's expedition baptized Cebuano leaders, including and his wife, on April 14, marking the initial conversions amid alliances for trade and military aid. Systematic adoption accelerated with Miguel López de Legazpi's 1565 colonization of , followed by Manila's conquest in 1571, as Franciscan, Augustinian, Jesuit, and Dominican friars established missions, built churches, and enforced baptisms through incentives, coercion, and integration with local power structures. By the late , mass conversions had Christianized much of and the , often superficially at first—tied to Spanish administrative control—resulting in widespread adherence by the , though southern Muslim resistance persisted via sultanates opposing colonial incursions. The American era (1898–1946) introduced via missionaries, establishing denominations like and Methodists, but these gained limited traction, comprising under 2% of adherents by mid-20th century amid entrenched Catholicism. Historical emerged as indigenous elements fused with Catholic rituals—equating saints to pre-colonial deities, incorporating babaylan roles into folk healing, and blending animist processions with feast days—creating "" that sustained deeper spiritual continuity beneath official doctrine. Today, Roman Catholicism predominates, accounting for over 86% of Filipinos, a direct legacy of Spanish evangelization that unified diverse groups under a shared faith structure while marginalizing non-converts. follows as the largest minority at approximately 6%, concentrated in regions with roots in pre-colonial trade networks, while Protestants and indigenous sects make up the remainder, reflecting incomplete homogenization from colonial impositions.

Contemporary shifts and indigenous beliefs

In the 2020 Philippine census, Roman Catholics comprised 78.8% of the household population, a decline from 82.9% in 2000, reflecting a gradual erosion of the Catholic majority amid broader Christian adherence holding steady at approximately 90%. This shift correlates with the doubling of evangelical Protestant denominations' share over the preceding two decades, driven by rapid expansion of Pentecostal and born-again movements, which emphasize personal conversion and charismatic practices, attracting converts particularly from rural and urban poor demographics dissatisfied with institutional Catholicism. , a homegrown restorationist group, maintained around 2.6% affiliation, while held at 6.4%, concentrated in . These changes stem from socioeconomic factors, including and exposure to global media, which facilitate evangelical outreach via television and megachurches, contrasting with Catholicism's hierarchical structure perceived by some as distant from daily hardships. Surveys indicate evangelicals now approach 10% of the , with growth rates outpacing Catholicism due to higher and retention among . UnaFFiliated or "other" categories remain marginal at under 2%, underscoring Christianity's enduring dominance despite internal realignments. Indigenous folk beliefs, centered on anito—ancestor and nature spirits—officially account for 0.23% of affiliations in the 2020 census, up slightly from prior decades, yet persist broadly through syncretism with Christianity rather than outright rejection. Practices like offerings to household guardians (lakapati or localized spirits) or consulting manghihilot (folk healers invoking pre-colonial rituals) blend with Catholic devotions, such as equating saints with anito intermediaries, evident in festivals like the Ati-Atihan where animistic dances honor both biblical and indigenous figures. This folk religiosity, termed "popular spirit-world beliefs," influences up to 25% of Filipinos indirectly through customs addressing misfortune or fertility, often bypassing formal doctrine and posing challenges to orthodox evangelism by prioritizing experiential causality over scriptural exclusivity. Among ethnic minorities like the Ifugao or T'boli, pure animist adherence endures, involving rice terrace rituals or forest spirit pacts, resisting full Christian assimilation due to cultural isolation.

Culture and social norms

Kinship, family dynamics, and gender roles

Filipino kinship follows a bilateral system, reckoning relatives equally through both maternal and paternal lines, with distinct terminologies for extended kin such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and their descendants. This structure fosters broad networks of reciprocity and support, extending obligations beyond the nuclear unit to include distant relatives who may co-reside or provide mutual aid during crises. The typical Filipino family centers on the nuclear unit of parents and children but functions as an extended system, with 28.8% of households in 2020 comprising multifamily or extended arrangements, often including three generations under one roof. Grandparents frequently assist in child-rearing, while elders command respect and influence decisions, reflecting and values like utang na loob (debt of gratitude), which obligates reciprocity for favors received, particularly from . Dynamics emphasize collectivism and harmony (pakikisama), with high intergenerational exchanges of resources, labor, and emotional support; younger members prioritize elders' views, and families adapt to separations via remittances in transnational contexts driven by labor migration since the 1970s. Wealthier households show a 6.5 higher likelihood of extended living, often as an adaptive response to shortages estimated at 12.4 million units in 2023. Gender roles retain traditional elements shaped by colonial influences, with men positioned as primary breadwinners and heads responsible for heavy labor and external decisions like loans, while women manage domestic affairs, -rearing, and budgets—97% of wives control funds per 1981 survey data. Yet empirical findings indicate substantial with a bias: couples jointly decide (80%) and (~50%), wives dominate and decisions, and their educational edge enhances influence more than contributions. Matriarchal tendencies persist, as the eldest often oversees finances, and women's workforce participation has risen, though their economic roles remain secondary to domestic ones; pre-colonial has partially endured despite patriarchal overlays from Spanish and American rule.

Core values, customs, and interpersonal relations

Filipino core values are deeply rooted in collectivism, prioritizing relational harmony over individual assertion. A primary value is pakikisama, which entails fostering smooth interpersonal relations through accommodation and avoidance of discord, as evidenced in validating its role in social cohesion. This manifests in everyday interactions where Filipinos often yield personal preferences to preserve group unity, contributing to low confrontation rates in social settings. Complementing pakikisama is hiya, a multifaceted of propriety and that regulates behavior to prevent to oneself, , or . Empirical scales confirm hiya's influence on decision-making, where fear of social disapproval discourages rule-breaking or overt self-promotion. This value enforces conformity but can inhibit candid feedback, as individuals prioritize face-saving over direct criticism. Utang na loob, or debt of gratitude, imposes a lifelong obligation toward benefactors, extending beyond mere repayment to enduring loyalty and favors. This principle, observed in family and communal exchanges, strengthens reciprocal bonds but may foster dependency if reciprocity is unbalanced. Studies link it to familial support systems, where aid received prompts sustained assistance in return. Customs reflecting these values include bayanihan, a tradition of communal labor where neighbors collectively assist in tasks such as relocating homes or harvesting crops, embodying mutual aid without expectation of immediate return. Documented in rural practices as late as the 20th century, it underscores resource-pooling in resource-scarce environments. Hospitality customs demand lavish treatment of guests, offering food and shelter reflexively, rooted in cultural norms of generosity that trace to pre-colonial barter systems adapted under Spanish influence. Interpersonal relations emphasize and respect, particularly toward elders (paggalang), with deference shown through linguistic markers like honorifics and physical gestures such as mano (). Surveys indicate over 80% of Filipinos uphold elder authority in , correlating with structures. Communication tends indirect to uphold , using euphemisms or to navigate conflicts, which aids short-term but can obscure issues in professional contexts. Family-centric ties extend obligations across generations, with remittances and caregiving reinforcing interdependence, as 70% of households report multigenerational support networks.

Arts, cuisine, and material culture

Filipino encompass indigenous folk dances and music traditions that originated from pre-colonial Austronesian practices and evolved through regional adaptations. , recognized as the national dance, simulates the movements of tikling birds dodging traps set by farmers in , performed by dancers stepping between clapping poles at increasing speeds. Other folk dances, such as the from , Laguna, feature male performers using coconut shells as percussion instruments to depict mock combat over harvest spoils, highlighting rhythmic coordination and cultural narratives of agrarian life. Music traditions include the ensemble in , consisting of bossed chimes arranged in rows and played with mallets, rooted in animist rituals and communal celebrations among Muslim and indigenous groups. Visual arts in the Philippines draw from indigenous animist traditions emphasizing magical and religious symbolism, evident in wood carvings of ancestral figures () and geometric motifs on shields and boats used in rituals. Pre-colonial body art included intricate tattoos (pintados) among Visayan warriors, signifying status, bravery, and spiritual protection, as documented in 16th-century accounts. Material culture reflects adaptation to tropical environments and ethnic diversity, with textiles produced from local fibers like abaca, cotton, and . T’nalak cloth, woven by T’boli women in from abaca fibers, features patterns derived from dreams interpreted as divine instructions, used for rituals and garments. textiles from the employ cotton dyed with natural pigments in geometric designs for blankets and attire, while fabric from pineapple leaves yields fine, translucent weaves prized for dresses. Pottery traditions include the from , dated to 890-710 BCE, featuring anthropomorphic lids symbolizing soul boats in animist beliefs, and Kalinga earthenware with incised motifs for storage and cooking. features the , a stilted nipa hut with bamboo walls and thatched roof designed for ventilation and earthquake resistance, contrasting with post-16th-century stone houses blending Spanish masonry with indigenous elevation. Filipino cuisine originates from Austronesian staples like rice, fish, and root crops, augmented by trade and colonial introductions since the 10th century. Chinese merchants introduced soy sauce and stir-frying techniques around that era, influencing dishes like sinigang (sour tamarind-based soup with seafood or meat). Spanish colonization from 1565 added tomatoes, vinegar, and frying methods, yielding adobo—pork or chicken stewed in vinegar, soy, garlic, and bay leaves—as a preservation technique adapted to humid climates. Regional variations incorporate coconut milk in Visayan kinilaw (raw fish ceviche) and Mindanao's curries with turmeric, reflecting Malay-Polynes ian roots shared across maritime Southeast Asia. Meals emphasize communal feasting with rice as the core, accompanied by ulam (protein side) and sawsawan (dipping sauces), with lechon (whole spit-roasted pig) central to fiestas since pre-colonial times but enhanced with Spanish stuffing.

Socioeconomic characteristics

Education, literacy, and human capital

The exhibits a high nominal adult rate of 98% among individuals aged 15 and above as of 2020, according to World Bank data derived from estimates. However, functional —encompassing comprehension, , and basic problem-solving skills—is substantially lower at 70.8% for Filipinos aged 10 to 64, based on the 2024 Functional , Education, and Survey (FLEMMS) conducted by the (PSA). This discrepancy highlights limitations in outcomes, with approximately 91% of 10-year-olds unable to read simple text proficiently, per World Bank assessments exacerbated by pandemic disruptions. stands at 93.1% under revised FLEMMS metrics, reflecting widespread ability to read and write simple statements but not to apply knowledge effectively. Enrollment rates remain robust at lower levels but decline in higher education. Gross primary enrollment approaches near-universal levels, exceeding 96% historically, while secondary gross enrollment reached 92.87% in 2023. Tertiary gross enrollment has risen to 45.28% in 2023, up from 39.59% in 2022, indicating expanded access amid population growth. Despite these figures, completion rates suffer from high dropout risks due to poverty, rural-urban disparities, and overcrowded classrooms, with around 18 million high school graduates potentially functionally illiterate. Educational quality lags internationally, as evidenced by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 results, where Filipino 15-year-olds scored 355 in mathematics (marginally up from 353 in 2018), 347 in reading (down from 353), and similarly low in science, placing the country among the lowest performers globally—third worst in science and sixth in reading and math. These scores fall well below OECD averages, underscoring deficiencies in critical thinking and application despite rote learning emphasis. Systemic challenges include chronic underfunding (education comprising about 3-4% of GDP), teacher shortages with low salaries leading to overburdened workloads, outdated curricula, and infrastructure deficits like dilapidated facilities. Corruption in procurement and accreditation further erodes resource allocation, as noted in reports on graft within the Department of Education. Human capital development is constrained, with the World Bank's (HCI) at 0.52 for 2020, implying a born today achieves only 52% of potential productivity by age 18 due to and gaps—below the East Asia & Pacific regional average of 0.56 for upper-middle-income peers. Emigration of skilled workers exacerbates this, as the exports professionals such as nurses, engineers, and teachers, resulting in domestic shortages amid a surplus of graduates mismatched to local needs; labor migration policies incentivize skill acquisition for overseas employment but deplete on-site expertise, contributing to "brain drain" effects despite remittances. Reforms like the K-12 program aim to align skills with global demands, yet persistent governance failures in implementation limit gains.

Labor force, remittances, and occupational patterns

The Philippine labor force participation rate was estimated at 63.3 percent in October 2024, reflecting a slight decline from prior periods amid seasonal variations in opportunities. The rate for the same month stood at 3.9 percent, contributing to an annual average of 3.8 percent in 2024, the lowest on record, though remains prevalent due to mismatches between skills and available formal jobs. Employment distribution by sector in 2024 showed services dominating at 61.1 percent of total employed persons, driven by wholesale and retail trade, transportation, and informal vending, while accounted for about 20 percent—primarily subsistence farming and —and industry for 17.5 percent, including and . Domestically, occupational patterns favor low-to-medium skilled roles, with a significant portion of workers in informal economies lacking or benefits, exacerbating vulnerability to economic shocks. Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) play a pivotal role in the economy through remittances, which totaled an amount equivalent to 8.3 percent of GDP and 7.4 percent of in 2024, surpassing and providing a buffer against domestic fiscal shortfalls. These inflows, primarily from land- and sea-based workers in the , , and , grew modestly year-over-year, with monthly figures averaging around US$3.2–3.4 billion in late 2024. Among OFWs, occupational patterns skew toward elementary and service roles, with 41.1 percent engaged in basic tasks such as cleaning, food preparation, and delivery, often in domestic helper positions that attract female migrants—comprising 64 percent of such workers. Annually, around 172,000 Filipino women deploy abroad for household-related work, reflecting systemic export of labor in low-wage, high-demand sectors despite risks of exploitation. Professional niches, including nursing and seafaring, persist but represent a minority, as the majority of deployments prioritize volume over skill premiums to sustain remittance flows. This pattern underscores a reliance on temporary migration for income, with limited reintegration support upon return, perpetuating cycles of outbound labor.

Poverty, inequality, and development challenges

As of 2023, the national poverty incidence in the Philippines stood at 15.5 percent, affecting approximately 17.05 million Filipinos, down from 16.7 percent in 2018 but following a spike to 18.1 percent in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This rate reflects the proportion of the population falling below the official poverty line, set by the Philippine Statistics Authority at ₱13,873 per month for a family of five in 2023, equivalent to basic food and non-food needs. Despite remittances and post-pandemic recovery, poverty remains concentrated in rural areas and among agricultural workers, with urban poverty also persistent due to high living costs in Metro Manila. Income inequality exacerbates poverty, with the Gini coefficient at 42.3 percent in 2018—one of the highest in —indicating significant disparities in . The top 1 percent of earners captured 17 percent of national income in recent assessments, while the bottom 50 percent received a far smaller share, reflecting of economic gains and limited upward mobility for the majority. Wealth concentration is evident in land ownership and business control, where oligarchic families dominate key sectors, hindering broad-based growth. Development challenges stem from structural weaknesses, including chronic at 10.7 percent in August 2025, where employed individuals seek additional hours due to insufficient earnings, particularly in informal and sectors. The (HDI) value of 0.720 in 2023 placed the at 117th globally, trailing regional peers like and despite comparable population sizes, due to gaps in quality and healthcare access. GDP per capita on a purchasing power parity basis reached about $10,989 in 2023, but this masks uneven distribution and vulnerability to external shocks. Corruption in public infrastructure projects represents a core barrier, with estimates indicating losses of up to ₱118.5 billion ($2 billion) in flood control initiatives alone from 2023 to 2025, diverting funds from essential development and amplifying risks in a typhoon-prone . Inadequate infrastructure, including poor roads, ports, and defenses, perpetuates logistical inefficiencies and hampers industrial competitiveness, while rapid —exceeding 110 million—strains resources without corresponding investments in . failures, characterized by networks and weak institutions, sustain these issues, as evidenced by recurring scandals that erode investor confidence and fiscal capacity for alleviation. Overseas remittances, totaling over $30 billion annually, provide short-term relief but fail to address root causes like job scarcity and elite-driven policy distortions.

Diaspora

Historical and modern migration waves

Filipino outward migration traces back to the Spanish colonial period, with small numbers serving as sailors on galleons crossing to and some deserting to settle in the as early as the late 1700s. By , a community known as the Manila men had established a in after escaping Spanish ships. These early movements involved limited hundreds, primarily young men seeking escape from colonial labor conditions, but lacked organized waves due to restrictive colonial policies. The first significant wave occurred under U.S. colonial rule from 1906 to the 1930s, when Filipinos, as U.S. nationals, migrated en masse for agricultural work. Approximately 120,000 arrived in as sakadas (contract laborers) starting with 15 in 1906, followed by tens of thousands to farms, forming the "Manong generation." This period ended with the 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act, which imposed quotas and shifted status to aliens, curtailing inflows amid and economic depression. Post-World War II migration remained modest until the 1965 U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, which prioritized and skilled professionals, spurring a second major wave of nurses, doctors, and teachers. By the , under President Ferdinand Marcos's labor export policy formalized in 1974, organized deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) accelerated, initially to the for construction jobs. This policy, driven by domestic unemployment and debt, institutionalized temporary labor migration, with annual deployments rising from thousands to over 1 million by the 1990s. Modern migration since the features sustained high volumes, peaking in feminized patterns where women comprise about 60% of OFWs, often in domestic service, , and . In 2023, 2.33 million OFWs were registered, with major destinations including , UAE, and the U.S., where 2.1 million Filipino immigrants resided. Total exceed 10 million, reflecting economic push factors like and wage gaps rather than pull alone, with remittances totaling $36 billion in 2023, surpassing . Recent shifts include skilled migration to and via points systems, alongside irregular flows amid global labor demands.

Global distribution and assimilation

As of recent estimates, the global Filipino numbers over 10 million individuals living outside the , with the largest concentrations , hosting approximately 2.1 million foreign-born Filipinos as of 2023. Other major destinations include Middle Eastern countries, where around 2.2 million Filipinos resided as of 2020, primarily in and the as temporary contract workers. Significant populations also exist in (e.g., with 313,588 and with 620,043), (e.g., with 299,787), and (e.g., with 304,093), according to Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs data.
Country/RegionEstimated Filipino Population
United States2,100,000 (2023)
Saudi Arabia~1,000,000+ (est.)
United Arab Emirates541,593
Japan313,588
Australia304,093
Italy299,787
Assimilation patterns among Filipinos vary markedly by host country and migration type. In the , Filipinos exhibit high rates of socioeconomic integration, with many achieving above-average , English proficiency, and household incomes, facilitated by historical colonial ties and selective policies favoring skilled professionals. Intermarriage rates are elevated, and second-generation Filipinos often blend cultural practices while advancing economically, though challenges like reliance persist in some communities. Similarly, in and , Filipinos integrate effectively through skilled migration pathways, leveraging English skills and qualifications for professional roles, with policies supporting aiding long-term settlement. In contrast, assimilation in Middle Eastern Gulf states remains limited due to the temporary nature of labor contracts under systems like kafala, which tie workers to employers without pathways to citizenship or permanent residency. Filipino migrants there, predominantly in domestic, construction, and service sectors, maintain strong ties to the Philippines through remittances and rotation, facing barriers to cultural or social embedding amid restrictive host policies. In Europe, integration in countries like Italy involves mixed outcomes, with many women in domestic work experiencing social exclusion despite economic contributions, though younger cohorts show gradual adaptation via education and community networks. Overall, Filipino diaspora success in assimilation correlates with host country openness to permanent migration, linguistic alignment, and economic opportunities rather than inherent cultural factors alone.

Remittances and transnational impacts

Personal remittances from reached $38.3 billion in 2024, marking a 3 percent increase from $37.2 billion in 2023 and constituting approximately 8.3 percent of the ' gross domestic product. Cash remittances from specifically totaled $34.49 billion for the year, with the , , and the as top sources. These inflows, primarily channeled through formal banking channels, have stabilized the Philippine and supported household consumption, education, and housing investments. While remittances alleviate for recipient families—enabling access to better , schooling, and healthcare—they foster economic dependency that discourages domestic and structural reforms. Overreliance on these funds, which account for nearly 11 percent of GDP in some estimates, risks creating a "remittance trap" where local labor participation declines and inequality widens, as benefits concentrate among households with migrant ties. Critics argue this model sustains underdevelopment by prioritizing export of labor over building competitive industries, with remittances often funding consumption rather than productive investments. Transnational family structures emerge as a core social impact, with prolonged separations leading to divided households, emotional strain, and altered caregiving norms. Overseas Filipino workers, often parents or spouses, remit funds that provide informal but contribute to "left-behind" children facing higher risks of behavioral issues, lower academic performance, and psychological distress due to absent caregivers. Migrants themselves report guilt and isolation, compounded by cultural expectations of familial proximity, while remittances facilitate cross-border care circulation through hired domestic help or extended kin networks. The outflow of skilled professionals exacerbates brain drain, depleting sectors like healthcare, , and , as college-educated workers migrate for higher wages abroad, hindering national development. Skilled migrants tend to remit less proportionally than unskilled ones, amplifying the loss of domestic expertise without commensurate economic returns. This migration pattern sustains transnational ties—evident in diaspora-led for and projects—but perpetuates a cycle where remittances subsidize personal resilience amid failures, rather than fostering broad-based growth.

Controversies and critiques

Cultural pathology debates

Debates on cultural pathologies among Filipinos center on whether deeply ingrained social norms and values impede national progress, particularly in , , and social cohesion. In a 1987 analysis following the ousting of , journalist contended that the suffers from a "damaged culture" characterized by intense that prioritizes kin over institutions, fostering and a lack of . Fallows observed that this familism results in , where officials appoint relatives regardless of competence, as evidenced by pervasive in post-colonial administrations, contrasting with merit-based systems in neighboring Asian economies like and . He linked this to persistent , noting the country's GDP per capita lagged behind regional peers in the , with services undermined by a view of as a vehicle for personal gain rather than collective welfare. A prominent trait cited in these discussions is "," or utak talangka, where individuals undermine peers' success out of envy, akin to crabs pulling each other back in a bucket. Anthropological studies and attribute this to scarcity mindsets rooted in historical inequality, leading to societal stagnation; for instance, it manifests in workplaces where promotions provoke sabotage, contributing to low innovation rates and high turnover in firms. Empirical indicators include the ' middling rankings in global innovation indices, such as 55th out of 132 in the 2023 , potentially exacerbated by such interpersonal dynamics. Critics like Fallows extend this to broader civic disengagement, where collective advancement is sacrificed for maintaining status quo harmony. The attitude, often translated as "leave it to God" or fatalism, draws further scrutiny for promoting passivity in the face of challenges. Frank Lynch, in his 1960s studies on Philippine values, described related norms like hiya (shame avoidance) and pakikisama (smooth interpersonal relations), which prioritize conflict evasion over accountability, potentially hindering proactive problem-solving. This manifests in , dubbed the "mañana habit," and reluctance to enforce rules, correlating with the ' 116th ranking out of 180 on the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, where lax oversight perpetuates graft. Proponents of cultural pathology arguments, including local analysts, argue these traits explain why remittances exceeding $36 billion in 2023 fail to translate into sustained domestic investment, as funds are often directed toward consumption or family networks rather than productive ventures. Counterarguments emphasize structural legacies of and over inherent cultural flaws, noting Filipino overseas workers' success—remitting funds that bolster GDP by 9-10% annually—suggests adaptability when external incentives align. Defenders of bahala na frame it as resilience rather than defeatism, enabling endurance amid typhoons and economic shocks, with the Philippines achieving 5.6% GDP growth in 2023 despite adversities. Nonetheless, empirical persistence of issues like and inequality— at 0.41 in 2021—fuels ongoing contention that cultural norms, unaddressed, reinforce vicious cycles beyond institutional reforms. These debates underscore tensions between and causal analysis, with some scholars advocating value shifts toward and rule-of-law adherence to mirror achievements.

Political corruption and governance failures

The Philippines consistently ranks poorly on global corruption metrics, with the 2024 assigning it a score of 33 out of 100 and a position of 114th out of 180 countries, reflecting stagnant or declining integrity. This score, derived from expert assessments and business surveys, indicates entrenched , graft, and that undermine institutional trust and economic efficiency. Political dynasties exacerbate this, dominating governance: as of 2024, 87% of provincial governors (71 out of 82) and over 80% of district representatives hail from such families, fostering networks that prioritize family interests over public welfare. Major scandals illustrate systemic graft. The 2013 Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam, dubbed the "pork barrel" controversy, involved legislators and officials diverting approximately 10 billion (about USD 200 million at the time) in public funds to fictitious NGOs for personal gain, leading to convictions including that of but exposing weak enforcement. Earlier, President Joseph Estrada's 2001 over gambling payoffs highlighted in . More recently, allegations since 2024 against for misusing 125 million in confidential funds without receipts underscore ongoing opacity in executive spending. Governance failures compound these issues, particularly in and . World Bank for 2023 place the in the 20-30th percentile for control of , government effectiveness, and , signaling inadequate policy implementation and . in flood control projects—such as ghost and substandard construction—has directly worsened vulnerabilities; in 2025 typhoon-induced floods, undelivered or poorly built defenses in and surrounding areas amplified deaths and displacement, with probes revealing billions in misallocated funds from the Department of Public Works and Highways. These lapses perpetuate a cycle where diverts resources from essential services, hindering despite GDP growth averaging 6% annually pre-2020.

Demographic and social policy disputes

The Philippines has experienced a sharp decline in its total fertility rate (TFR), dropping from approximately 6 births per woman in the 1960s to 1.9 in recent years, falling below the replacement level of 2.1 needed for population stability. This shift, driven by improved socio-economic conditions, urbanization, delayed marriages, and increased contraceptive use, has sparked debates over whether government policies should encourage higher birth rates to capitalize on a potential demographic dividend—estimated at P20.388 trillion in economic gains—or continue prioritizing population control to alleviate poverty and resource strains. Critics argue that further fertility reductions risk an aging population crisis similar to those in East Asia, with projections showing public school enrollment halving by 2040 and a shrinking workforce undermining long-term growth. Proponents of restraint, however, contend that unchecked growth exacerbates inequality and environmental pressures, citing historical overpopulation concerns that fueled earlier family planning initiatives. Central to these demographic tensions is the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Act of 2012, enacted after over 14 years of intense controversy pitting government advocates against the , which holds significant cultural sway in the predominantly Catholic nation. The law mandates free access to modern contraceptives, age-appropriate , and maternal care services to curb unintended pregnancies—estimated at over 50% of all pregnancies—and reduce maternal mortality, which stood at around 4,500 deaths annually pre-enactment due to limited contraception and unsafe abortions. Opponents, including Church leaders, contended that promoting artificial contraception equates to endorsing abortion-like mechanisms and undermines , leading to legal challenges that temporarily halted implementation until the upheld the law in 2014. Despite increased contraceptive prevalence from 39% in 2013 to 45% in 2016, persistent barriers like funding shortfalls, provider biases, and misconceptions—such as fears of health risks or —have limited its impact, fueling ongoing disputes over and equity, particularly for poor and rural women. Social policy disputes extend to marriage and family structures, where the absence of absolute divorce—making the Philippines one of only two countries worldwide without it, alongside —remains a flashpoint. and annulments exist but are costly, lengthy, and inaccessible, leaving many in abusive or irreconcilable unions, with advocates pushing bills like House Bill 9349 (Absolute Divorce Act) to prioritize women's safety and well-being over religious doctrine. Church-backed opposition frames as eroding marital permanence and child welfare, though public support has grown to nearly 50% in recent polls, reflecting shifting views amid high annulment rates and de facto separations. Similarly, faces staunch resistance, with the dismissing petitions in 2019, citing lack of standing and affirming the Family Code's definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, influenced by constitutional and religious interpretations. officials, including Justice Secretary Remulla in 2022, have stated the nation is "not ready," prioritizing traditional family models amid Catholic dominance, though limited recognitions of foreign same-sex unions occur via reciprocity principles. These policies intersect with demographic concerns, as low fertility and exacerbate imbalances, prompting calls for holistic reforms balancing with empirical needs for sustainable growth.

References

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