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Philippines, Republic of the, republic in the western Pacific Ocean, made up of the Philippine Islands and forming in physical geography a part of the Malay Archipelago. Situated about 1,210 km (about 750 mi) east of the coast of Vietnam, the Philippines are separated from Taiwan on the north by the Bashi Channel. The republic is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea, on the south by the Celebes Sea, and on the west by the South China Sea. The country comprises about 7,100 islands, of which only about 460 are more than 1 sq mi in area (equivalent to 2.6 sq km). Eleven islands have an area of more than 2,600 sq km (1,000 sq mi) each and contain the bulk of the population. These islands are Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, Negros, Palawan, Panay, Mindoro, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, and Masbate. The total area of the Philippines is 300,000 sq km (about 115,831 sq mi). Manila is the capital and largest city of the Philippines.

The Philippines are the northernmost island group of the Malay Archipelago, extending about 1,850 km (about 1,150 mi) almost due north and south between Borneo and Taiwan; the eastern and western extent is almost 1,100 km (700 mi). The islands, of volcanic origin, are the summits of a partly submerged mountain mass, and all are mountainous. In general the Philippine ranges extend north to south paralleling the coasts and in many places bordering them. Earthquakes are fairly common in the islands, which include about 20 active volcanoes.

On the smaller islands the mountains form a backbone and are the principal topographical feature. The larger islands, particularly Luzon and Mindanao, have a more diversified topography, with broad plains and level, fertile valleys in the interior. In northern Luzon the valley of the Cagayan River is a plain about 80 km (about 50 mi) wide, surrounded by the mountains of the Sierra Madre on the east, the Cordillera Central on the west, and the Caraballo Mountains on the south. To the south of the Caraballo Mountains is the Central Luzon Valley, which extends from Lingayen Gulf to Manila Bay, and Laguna de Bay, the largest lake of Luzon. The plain is drained by the Agno River in the north and by the Pampanga River in the south. On the southwestern coast are the Zambales Mountains. Luzon has a narrow, mountainous extension to the southeast called the Bicol Peninsula. Mayon Volcano, an active volcano that erupted without warning in February 1993, is on this peninsula just north of Legaspi. Dormant for about 600 years, Mount Pinatubo, a volcano located in central Luzon, erupted in late June 1991 and again in July 1992.

On Mindanao, the largest island of the Philippines after Luzon, the Diuata Mountains border the Pacific coast, and west of them lies the valley of the Agusan River. In southwestern Mindanao is a large lowland area, the valley of Mindanao. One of the southern Mindanao ranges contains Mount Apo (2,954 m/9,692 ft), which is the highest point in the Philippines. The coastlines of all the islands are extremely irregular, measuring 36,290 km (22,550 mi) in length.

The principal islands of the Philippines are traversed by large rivers, some of which are navigable. The longest river on Luzon is the Cagayan; other important rivers on the island include the Chico, Abra, Pampanga, and Bicol. The Mindanao (known in its upper course as the Pulangi) and the Agusan are the principal rivers of Mindanao.

The Philippine Islands are within the Tropics and have a mean annual temperature of about 27�C (about 80�F). In general, interior valleys and leeward sides of islands are warmer than the mean; mountain slopes and peaks and windward sides of islands are cooler than the mean. Rainfall averages about 2,030 mm (about 80 in) a year in the lowlands. In most of the Philippine Islands the rainy season occurs during the summer monsoon, from May to November, when the wind blows from the southwest; the dry season occurs during the winter monsoon, from December to April, when the wind blows from the northeast. From June to October the Philippine Islands are sometimes struck by typhoons, which occasionally cause great damage.

The Philippines are richly endowed with mineral and forest resources. The principal minerals are gold, copper, iron, chromite, manganese, salt, and coal. Other minerals found here include silver, lead, mercury, limestone, petroleum, nickel, and uranium.

Forests cover 19 percent of the Philippines. Among the trees are the banyan, many varieties of palm, trees yielding rubber, and many indigenous trees with extremely hard wood such as apitong, yacal, lauan, camagón, ipil, white and red narra, and mayapis. Bamboo and cinnamon, clove, and pepper plants grow wild, as do numerous species of orchid. One of the most valuable indigenous plants is the abaca, or Manila hemp, a plantain, the fiber of which is used in making cordage, textiles, and hats. Mangrove trees and nipa palms grow in coastal swamps, and considerable areas of the uplands are covered by coarse grasses of little value for cattle. Except for rodents, comparatively few varieties of mammals are found in the islands. The most important are the domesticated water buffalo called the carabao, several species of deer, wild and domesticated pigs, the mongoose, and a variety of humped cattle. Reptiles are numerous, and the islands contain 556 species of birds, including colorful parrots. Coastal waters teem with marine fauna, particularly mollusks, for which the Philippines are noted. Pearl oysters are abundant around the Sulu Archipelago, in the extreme southwest, and Sulu pearls are famous.

About 34 percent of the land is farmland. In the northern islands the soils are chiefly of volcanic origin; coral limestone is an important constituent of the soils in the southern islands. In general the soils of the archipelago are of poor quality.

Deforestation poses the most direct threat to the remarkable biodiversity of the Philippines. Largely due to loss of habitat, 387 (2000) animal species are threatened with extinction. Water pollution threatens the coastal ecosystems of a significant area of the country�s coastal wetlands, including sizable mangrove swamps. Water pollution is caused in part by inadequate sewerage systems, agriculture runoff, silt from soil erosion, and aquaculture (the controlled cultivation of fish and shellfish). Serious air pollution is another environmental concern, primarily in Manila.

The Philippines has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. From 1990 to 1995, 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of forestland were cleared. The annual rate of deforestation from 1990 to 2000 was 1.4 percent. Many factors contribute to the practice of clearing natural forestland, including population growth, urban development, migration to the upland regions, commercial logging, and the creation of more agricultural land. The widespread clearing of forests has led to soil erosion, which damages the ecological health of waterways. The Philippine government imposed restrictions on logging in the late 1970s, but illegal logging undermines the effectiveness of the restrictions. Reforestation programs have met with limited success. In an effort to restore and protect land, the World Wildlife Fund conducted a debt-for-nature swap with the Philippine government, with proceeds going to various environmental projects and to two national parks. About 5 percent of the land in the Philippines is designated for preservation in parks and other reserves.

The Philippines has ratified international treaties concerning biodiversity, climate change, endangered species, hazardous wastes, marine dumping, tropical timber, and wetlands.

The term Filipino originally denoted a person of Spanish descent born in the Philippines and was comparable to the term Creole in the Spanish-American colonies. Since the 19th century it has been used to refer to the Christianized Malays who constitute the bulk of the Philippine population.

The aboriginal inhabitants of the archipelago were pygmy Negritos. During the prehistoric period Malayan peoples invaded the islands in successive waves beginning about 200 bc. The present Filipinos, principally descendants of the Malay invaders, are divided mainly according to language and religion. The most important numerically are the Visayans, living primarily in the central portion of the archipelago, and the Tagalogs, in central Luzon. The Ilocanos (also spelled Ilokanos), the third most important group, live mainly in the Cagayan Valley on Luzon. People of Spanish and Chinese descent constitute the chief non-Malay groups. In the southern portion of the archipelago, particularly in western Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, and southern Palawan Island, are Moro Muslim groups. Mestizos, people of mixed Filipino and white or Chinese descent, form a small but economically and politically important minority.

At the time of the 1990 census, the Philippines had a population of 60,703,206. The estimated 2001 population was 82,841,518, yielding an average population density of 276 persons per sq km (715 per sq mi). The distribution, however, is uneven; large areas are virtually uninhabited, while others have a relatively high population density. The nation was about 58 percent urban in 1999. In 2001 the annual population growth rate was 2 percent.

Manila is the capital of the Philippines and the country�s chief port, main commercial center, and largest city. Other important cities include Quezon City, which is part of the Manila metropolitan area, and served as the country�s capital from 1948 to 1976; Davao, a provincial capital and a seaport; Cebu, a seaport and the trade center for a farming and coal-mining region; and Zamboanga, also a seaport.

Of the Philippine population, 83 percent are Roman Catholics, 5 percent are Muslims, and 9 percent are Protestants or of other denominations, including the Philippine Independent Church, or Aglipayans, a schismatic group of Roman Catholics founded about 1902 by Gregorio Aglipay, a Filipino priest.

English and Filipino (formerly spelled Pilipino), which is based on Tagalog, are the country�s official languages. About 55 percent of the population speaks Filipino. English is commonly used for educational, governmental, and commercial purposes. Spanish, formerly an official language, is spoken by a dwindling minority of the population. About 80 languages and dialects are spoken in the islands, of which about 10, belonging to the Austronesian language family, are of regional importance.

Education in the Philippines is free and compulsory for children ages 6 through 12. Although Filipino is taught and, in the lower grades, local dialects are also used, English is the main language of instruction. Some 99 percent of the adult population is literate.

In the 1997-1998 school year 12.2 million pupils were enrolled in elementary schools, and 5 million students attended secondary schools. Approximately 2 million students attended universities and colleges, such as the University of the Philippines (1908), in Quezon City; Adamson University (1932), the University of the East (1946), Far Eastern University (1928), Feati University (1946), and the University of Santo Tomás (1611), all in Manila; Bicol University (1969), in Legaspi; the University of Mindanao (1946), in Davao; Saint Louis University (1911), in Baguio; and Southwestern University (1946), in Cebu.

The existence of a number of different languages, dialects, and religious traditions has meant that the Filipinos developed no single national culture. Over many centuries of Philippine history cultural development has been local in nature, enriched by influences from China, Malaysia, Europe, and the United States. Indigenous folk elements find expression in literature and music as well as other cultural forms. Traditional sports include arnis, a kind of fencing with wooden sticks, and sipa, a game much like volleyball, except that the players use their feet rather than their hands and arms. Such sports as cockfighting and boxing are very popular, and American influence is seen in the wide popularity of baseball and basketball.

One of the most notable characteristics of the Filipino society is the tradition of strong family loyalty. This is reflected in the absence of such institutions as retirement homes and orphanages. Since precolonial times Filipino women have held high positions in the society, and today many businesses are managed by women.

In addition to the university libraries, the major libraries of the country are the Manila City Library, the National Library, and the library of the Science and Technology Information Institute, all in Manila. The Lopez Memorial Museum and Library, in Pasay, has collections of paintings by major Filipino artists, as well as the letters and manuscripts of the writer and patriot José Rizal. The Santo Tomás Museum, in Manila, has major archaeological and natural-history collections, illustrating the history of the islands. The National Museum, in Manila, has divisions of anthropology, botany, geology, and zoology, along with art collections and a planetarium.

Philippine literature before the arrival of the Spanish consisted of oral folk stories and proverbs passed down in the various dialects of the islands. Literature under Spanish influence was primarily religious, and it developed further under the American influence to include short stories and drama. Among the writers of the Philippines are novelist José Rizal; Francisco Balagtas, a poet and philosopher; José Garcia Villa, a poet and one of the outstanding short-story writers; Carlos Peña Romulo, a journalist and diplomat; poet and playwright Claro Recto; poet, novelist, and playwright Nick Joaquín; and Pas Marques Benitz, a short-story writer.

The kundiman, a combination of words and music, is unique to the islands. Musicians of some fame in the Philippines include Rodolfo Cornejo, composer and conductor; Antonino Buenaventura, conductor; and Antonio J. Molina, conductor and composer. Folk dancing is also popular and includes many ceremonial and traditional dances for a variety of occasions.

Until the 19th century painting and sculpture of the Philippines were strongly influenced by the Roman Catholic church. More recent painting generally has secular themes or is abstract. Noted painters include Juan Luna and Félix Resurrección Hidalgo, whose works are in romantic and impressionist styles; Fernando Amorsolo, known for his landscapes; Fabián de la Rosa, who specialized in portraiture; and Carlos Francisco and Vicente Manansala, both muralists.

In 1999 the labor force of the Philippines numbered 31.1 million people. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing employed 40 percent of the labor force; manufacturing, construction, and mining, 16 percent; and services, 44 percent. The estimated governmental budget in 1998 included revenues of $11.3 billion and expenditures of $12.5 billion. Gross domestic product (GDP) was $76.6 billion in 1999.

In 1999 agriculture, forestry, and fishing contributed 18 percent of the GDP. The most important subsistence crops are rice, corn, cassava, and sweet potatoes. Copra, bananas, and pineapples are the principal commercial crops. Other crops include sugarcane, oranges, mangoes, and papayas. Livestock on farms include water buffalo, cattle, chickens, goats, horses, and hogs.

Forests and woodlands in the Philippines contain valuable hardwood trees that are a significant resource, although extensive logging has caused significant deforestation. Lumber products are a major export. In addition, bamboo and rattan were cut for use in making furniture, baskets, and other products. Marine fishing is an important industry. Shrimp and prawn exports to Japan are a significant source of foreign exchange. Other catches include milkfish, scad, anchovy, tuna, squid, and crab.

The mining industry is an important aspect of the economy of the Philippines. Leading products include gold, silver, copper, nickel, salt, and coal.

The manufacturing sector has expanded greatly since the 1950s. In 1999 manufacturing contributed 21 percent of the GDP. Processed food, textiles, tobacco products, and other nondurable goods continue to make up the largest percentage of manufacturing output. The production of durable items, however, especially furniture, electrical and electronic items, nonelectrical machinery, and transport equipment, has shown substantial gains. Other major products include refined petroleum, chemicals, construction materials, and clothing.

Since the 1970s the Philippines has developed a variety of domestic energy resources, including offshore oil reserves, geothermal resources, hydroelectric power, and coal fields. Production of domestic energy, however, is insufficient to meet the energy needs, and the country remains dependent on imported petroleum.

The unit of currency is the Philippine peso, which is divided into 100 centavos (39.09 pesos equal U.S.$1; 1999 average). The Central Bank of the Philippines (1949) has sole control of the credit and monetary supply, independent of the treasury. In addition, the country is served by commercial banks and private development banks. The Philippine Stock Exchange is located in Makati, a suburb of Manila.

The Philippines generally spends considerably more on imports than it earns from exports; in 1999 imports totaled $31.8 billion and exports $35.8 billion. The leading imports are petroleum, machinery, transportation equipment, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs, and textiles. The main exports are electrical and electronic components, textiles, coconut products, and fish. Principal purchasers of the country�s exports are the United States, Japan, Singapore, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, and Thailand; leading sources of imports are Japan, the United States, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Germany, and Malaysia. The country is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional trade organization.

Despite the difficult terrain, the Philippines has an extensive road system, although only about 14 percent of roads are paved. The rail system, concentrated on Luzon, is limited. The national air carrier is Philippine Airlines (PAL), and the main international airport serves Manila. The country has many seaports, the busiest including Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, and Zamboanga.

The Philippines has 47 daily newspapers, many published in Manila. The People�s Journal and People Tonight have large circulations. Many newspapers are written both in English and Filipino. The country has an extensive broadcasting system, with more than 300 commercial and noncommercial radio stations and 5 major television stations.

A new constitution was ratified by national referendum in February 1987. Voting is universal beginning at age 18.

The head of state and chief executive of the Philippines is a president, elected by direct universal suffrage to a nonrenewable six-year term. The vice president may serve no more than two successive six-year terms.

Under the Philippine constitution, the bicameral legislature consists of a Senate of 24 members, serving six-year terms, and a House of Representatives with a maximum of 250 members, serving three-year terms.

The highest tribunal in the Philippines is the Supreme Court, made up of a chief justice and 14 associate justices, all appointed to four-year terms by the country�s president. Other judicial bodies include a court of appeals, courts of the first instance, and municipal courts.

The Philippines is divided into 75 provinces, each headed by a governor, plus the National Capital Region. Four southern provinces in Mindanao form the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, headed by a governor with limited executive power. Additional local administrative units include 60 chartered cities and more than 1,500 municipalities.

In the 1995 legislative elections, a majority of candidates from a coalition of Lakas ng EDSA (Lakas), the National Union of Christian Democrats (NUCD), and Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), won seats in both houses. In the 1998 presidential elections, Laban ng Masang Pilipino (LMP) backed Joseph Estrada, who won the election.

Most cities of the Philippines have modern health facilities, which are usually lacking in rural areas. The government manages a retirement and life insurance program for employed people.

In 1999 the armed forces of the Philippines included an army of 66,000 members, a navy of 24,000, and an air force of 16,000. Military service is voluntary.

The first humans in the Philippine Islands are thought to have come from China and the Malayan Archipelago some 250,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, but few remains from that time have been discovered. Afterward, other peoples migrated to the islands, among them Negritos, who probably arrived about 25,000 years ago. A Mongoloid people from Southeast Asia followed about 10,000 years later. All are thought to have reached the islands across a land bridge that no longer exists. Larger groups of people from the regions of present-day China and Vietnam arrived from about 7000 bc to 2000 bc. The largest migrations to the islands, however, probably occurred after the 3rd century bc. The last arrivals were people from the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian archipelago. These migrants brought with them their iron tools and a technology that included glassmaking and tie-and-dye weaving.

By the 5th century ad a new Filipino civilization had emerged from the mixture of cultures. Traders from as far away as India became frequent visitors to the islands. Competing influences from the Middle East, India, and China brought many changes in the economy and social life. Mining, metallurgy, and lumbering developed, and gold and coins were introduced as media of exchange. By the 12th century, the powerful Sumatra-based kingdom of Sri Vijaya had also extended its considerable influence to the Philippines. Starting in the 13th century, Islam spread through the southern parts of the archipelago and became firmly established there. The Chinese Ming dynasty maintained tributary commercial and diplomatic relations with the islands throughout the 15th century.

The islands were first seen by a European in March 1521, when Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached them during his attempted circumnavigation of the earth in the service of Spain. The following month Magellan was killed on the island of Mactan, near Cebu Island, when he tried to impose Christianity and Spanish sovereignty on the local chief, Lapulapu. For his successful defiance of the Spanish, Lapulapu is a national folk hero.

The Spanish claim to the islands was disputed by Portugal, which was already in possession of the nearby Moluccas and could invoke the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, whereby the Eastern Hemisphere was reserved to Portuguese colonization. In 1542, however, a Spanish expedition reasserted the claims of Spain and named the archipelago the Islas Filipinas, or Philippine Islands, in honor of the royal heir, later King Philip II.

The first Spanish expedition to achieve lasting results was headed by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, who landed in 1564. Legazpi gradually advanced Spanish power over the islands, and in 1572 established Manila as the administrative center. Portuguese threats were entirely eliminated after 1580, when King Philip also became king of Portugal.

Representatives of various Roman Catholic religious orders, such as the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits, came to the islands immediately after the successful Legazpi expedition. Conversions were rapid, as coercion mixed with the ceremonial splendor of the Roman Catholic rites aroused fear and admiration in the local peoples. The work of the missionaries was of utmost importance in establishing Spanish rule and was comparably important to the Filipinos, united at last into a fairly homogeneous people by a common religion. The monastic orders eventually secured the possession of large tracts of land, and they became wealthy and politically powerful.

Other European nations, by the end of the 16th century, began attempts to acquire a foothold in the Philippines. English mariners, including Sir Francis Drake in 1579, harassed Spanish shipping. Later the Dutch, beginning to take an active imperialistic role in Asia, raided the islands, as well as Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese trading vessels. Dutch attacks gradually ceased after 1662, when The Netherlands occupied the rich Moluccas.

Upon the overthrow of Spanish rule in Mexico by the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the Philippines were put directly under the administrative control of Madrid. Filipino nationalism, however, was little in evidence at that time, and the islands remained relatively quiet until the late 19th century.

In 1892 several secret societies were organized to act against the Spanish authorities. The foremost of these was the Philippine League, founded by José Rizal in 1891. Rizal, a political moderate who, nevertheless, was executed in 1896 by the Spanish authorities, became the martyred symbol of his nation. Truly radical was the Katipunan, or Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (The Highest and Most Respectable Society of the Sons of the People), who desired complete independence. The existence of the Katipunan was discovered by Spanish officials on August 19, 1896, and on August 26, the insurrectionists, no longer able to hide their activity, began armed hostilities.

Under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, chief of the rebel forces, the insurgents were initially successful. Reinforcements from Spain, however, substantially weakened the rebellion in 1897, and in December of that year Aguinaldo and the Spanish governor-general signed the Pact of Biac-na-bató, guaranteeing Spanish reforms within three years. The pact was conditional upon the withdrawal of the Filipino leaders from the islands, and Aguinaldo went to Hong Kong with his associates. Domestic events, however, were soon overshadowed by the beginning of the Spanish-American War on April 21, 1898. On May 1 the Asian squadron of the United States Navy destroyed the Spanish fleet situated in Manila Bay.

With U.S. help, Aguinaldo returned to the islands on May 19 and proclaimed an independent Philippine republic. By the terms of the Treaty of Paris (December 10, 1898), however, Spain ceded the entire archipelago to the United States in return for $20 million, and on December 21 the United States proclaimed the establishment of U.S. military rule. Aguinaldo and his associates refused to acknowledge U.S. domination. They proclaimed independence in June 1898 and a provisional Philippine government was established at Malolos, in central Luzon. Tension increased, and on February 4 hostilities began at Manila when a Filipino patrol provoked the fire of a U.S. sentry. The insurgents were driven back almost at once by U.S. troops, and in November 1899 the Filipinos resorted to guerrilla warfare. Aguinaldo was captured on March 23, 1901, and he swore an oath of allegiance to the United States in April, but sporadic warfare continued for still another year.

At the end of the insurrection in 1902, U.S. civil government replaced the military authority, and on July 4, 1902, William Howard Taft, later president of the United States, became the first civil governor. The Philippine Bill of 1902 provided for the establishment of a bicameral legislature, and five years later, on October 16, 1907, the first session of the Philippine assembly opened, with an elected lower house and the Philippine Commission, previously established, as the upper house.

U.S. politics soon began to influence the course of events in the islands. Taft and his immediate successors were unwilling to delegate much authority to the Filipinos. With the election of Woodrow Wilson to the United States presidency in 1912, a new policy was adopted. In 1916 the Jones Act instituted an elected Philippine senate, and promised eventual independence. These moves, however, were slowed with the election of Warren G. Harding as president of the United States in 1920. Harding, in 1921, appointed a commission to investigate the political and economic situation in the islands. Shortly thereafter, General Leonard Wood, head of the commission, was appointed governor-general. In its report the commission declared that immediate independence would be �a betrayal of the Philippine people.� Wood, basing his policies on those delineated by the commission, found himself bitterly opposed by the Filipino advocates of independence, among whom were Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, president of the Philippine Senate; Sergio Osmeña, speaker of the House of Representatives before 1922; and Manuel Roxas y Acuña, the speaker after 1922.

With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 as president of the United States, the official policy changed once again. On January 13, 1933, the Congress of the United States passed the Howes-Cutting Bill granting Philippine independence after 12 years, but reserving military and naval bases for the United States and imposing tariffs and quotas on Philippine exports. The bill was rejected by the Filipinos. Led by Quezon, the Philippine Senate advocated a new bill and won the support of President Roosevelt. The Tydings-McDuffie Bill, passed in 1934, granted absolute and complete independence by 1946 and provided for an interim commonwealth supervised by the United States, but with a Philippine president elected by national vote and with a constitution. Adopted in February 1935, the constitution was approved by President Roosevelt and ratified by a plebiscite of the Philippine people on May 14. The commonwealth was formally established on November 15, with Quezon as the first president. He was reelected in 1941.

During World War II Japanese planes attacked the Philippines on December 8, 1941, and a large-scale invasion began two weeks later. The subsequent Japanese occupation and warfare caused widespread destruction in the islands. On October 20, 1944, U.S. forces returned to the Philippines under General Douglas MacArthur, who had been military commander in the islands before the Japanese attack. The Japanese officially surrendered on September 2, 1945.

Quezon had died in 1944, and he was succeeded by Sergio Osmeña, his vice president. The government returned to Manila in 1945, and on April 23, 1946, Roxas was elected president, with Elpidio Quirino as vice president. To help in the rehabilitation of the islands, the United States established preferential trade relations and awarded the islands several hundred million dollars in war damage and rehabilitation aid.

The Republic of the Philippines was formally proclaimed on July 4, 1946. In addition to the problem of economic rehabilitation, the new state was faced with internal strife. In central Luzon the Hukbalahaps, or Huks, a Communist-led group of former guerrillas who had fought the Japanese, organized a rebel government with its own military, civil, and administrative procedures. Demanding collectivization of farmlands and the abolition of tenant farming, the Huks became a powerful force in Luzon.

Philippine cooperation with the United States became the keynote of the postwar policy. In 1947 the United States was awarded military bases on a 99-year lease, shortened in 1959 to 25 years. Vice President Quirino, who became acting president on the death, in April 1948, of President Roxas, won a term on his own in 1949. The Huk rebellion continued to gather momentum in 1949 and 1950.

The government signed a peace treaty with Japan in September 1951, but talks in early 1952 were soon suspended because of Philippine demands for $8 billion in war damages. Pending settlement of the issue, the Philippine legislature refused to ratify the peace treaty.

In 1953 the government attempted unsuccessfully to end the Huk rebellion by a peace parley with the rebel leaders. In the presidential elections, held on November 10, former Defense Minister Ramón Magsaysay won a decisive victory over the incumbent Quirino, and because of his vigorous conduct of the campaign against the Huks, the back of the rebellion was broken, although it was not entirely suppressed.

Congress approved, on August 11, 1955, legislation empowering President Magsaysay to break up large landed estates and distribute the land to tenant farmers. On September 6 the Philippines and the United States concluded a trade agreement on private U.S. investment in Philippine enterprises.

In the mid-1950s the United States and the Philippines jointly acknowledged Philippine ownership of U.S. military bases in the islands. The Philippine Senate also ratified the peace treaty with Japan and a Philippine-Japanese agreement providing for $800 million in Japanese reparations.

Magsaysay died on March 17, 1957, in an airplane crash, and Vice President Carlos P. Garcia succeeded him as president. In June a statute outlawing the Communist Party was promulgated. The statute provided a maximum sentence of death for active party membership but allowed surrender without penalty within 30 days after promulgation. Some 1,400 holdouts of the Huk movement surrendered. Garcia subsequently won an elected term as president, and Diosdado Macapagal, an opposition Liberal Party candidate, was elected vice president. Macapagal was elected president in 1961, but in the elections of 1965 he lost to the Nationalist candidate, Ferdinand Marcos.

Rapid development of the economy brought prosperity during Marcos�s first term, and he was easily reelected in 1969. His second term, however, was troubled by civil unrest, caused partly by his support of U.S. policy in Vietnam. By the early 1970s two separate forces, the Communist New People�s Army and the Moro National Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist movement in the south, were waging guerrilla war on the government. The unrest and criminal depredations were cited as excuses for the declaration of martial law in 1972. Congress was dissolved, opposition leaders arrested, and strict censorship imposed. Marcos thereafter ruled by decree.

A new constitution was promulgated in January 1973, but transitional provisions attached to it gave Marcos continued absolute power, and elections were indefinitely postponed; instead, the president sought popular sanction of his acts by repeated referendums. Some relaxation was allowed in 1977 and 1978, but restiveness grew among the population, including the church hierarchy. In 1980 several opposition groups united to demand an end to martial law, and urban guerrillas carried out a series of bombings in Manila.

President Marcos ended martial law in 1981. Presidential elections were held in June, and Marcos won a new six-year term. Opposition to his rule, however, continued to grow. In 1983 opposition leader Benigno Aquino was murdered. A military conspiracy was blamed for the murder, but the defendants were acquitted when tried in 1985. Marcos called for presidential elections in February 1986; his chief opponent was Corazon Aquino, Benigno�s widow. Reports that Marcos had won through fraud stirred intense opposition, which culminated in what became known as the People Power Movement, a four-day protest in Manila. Marcos fled the country and settled temporarily in Hawaii. According to widespread accusations, he took with him undetermined amounts of illegally gained wealth.

Aquino became president and, in February 1987, won the enactment of a new constitution. Although she won a vote of confidence in legislative elections that May, military unrest, coupled with popular discontent at the slow pace of economic reform, continued to threaten her government. U.S. Air Force jets assisted Philippine government forces in suppressing a coup attempt in December 1989. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had declared Benigno Aquino�s murder trial a mistrial and a new investigation was initiated. In December 1990, 16 military officials were convicted of the murder, as well as the murder of Benigno�s alleged assassin. Damage from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in central Luzon led the United States to evacuate nearby Clark Air Base in June 1991. In September, the Philippine government rejected a treaty that would have allowed the U.S. military to remain in the Philippines. As a result, Clark Air Base did not reopen and nearby Subic Bay Naval Station closed in 1992.

Aquino, prohibited by the constitution from seeking a second term, endorsed her defense minister, Fidel Ramos, in the 1992 presidential elections. After winning narrowly, Ramos pursued an ambitious economic reform program. Voters signaled their support of the program by electing a majority of Ramos-backed candidates to the legislature in 1995 legislative elections.

In the early 1990s Muslim separatists renewed their guerrilla war for the creation of a separate Islamic state in Mindanao. The separatist rebels had been active in this region of the southern Philippines since the early 1970s. In September 1996 the Ramos government reached a peace agreement with one of the largest rebel groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Other rebel groups, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), continued the guerrilla war for a separate Islamic state, however.

In 1997 Ramos�s supporters sought to amend the constitution to allow the president to seek a second term. Corazon Aquino and Jaime Cardinal Sin, who had been influential in the People Power Movement that brought down the Marcos regime, denounced the proposed constitutional change. In the face of mounting pressure, Ramos and the ruling coalition supported Jose de Venecia, the House speaker, in the May 1998 presidential elections. However, Joseph Estrada, vice president under Ramos and a former actor, won the election by the widest margin ever in Philippine politics.

Ongoing peace negotiations with the MILF collapsed in 1999 when President Estrada adopted an all-out-war policy against all rebel groups. The military offensive displaced approximately 600,000 people in central Mindanao. By this time, more than 120,000 people were estimated to have died during the three decades of ongoing hostilities between separatist rebels and the Philippine government.