v The Philippines is the
world's leading producer of coconuts, having produced 19.5 million tons of the
fruit in 2010.
v According to the 2000 census, 52 million
people in the Philippines speak English, making it the fifth largest
English-speaking nation behind the U.S., India, Pakistan, and the U.K.
v Of the top 10 largest shopping malls in the
world, three are found in the Philippines: SM Megamall, SM North Edsa, and SM
Mall of Asia.
v Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines
in 1521, marking the start of the archipelago's colonization under Spanish
rule, a 377-year period that lasted until 1898.
v The islands were dubbed "the
Philippines" after King Philip II of Spain
v As a result of the
Spanish influence, the country is predominantly Christian with 90% of the
population practicing some mode of Christianity, the vast majority being Roman
Catholic.
v The world's largest Christmas lantern was
illuminated in San Fernando, Pampanga on Dec. 24, 2002. The structure was 26.8
meters in diameter and cost five million Philippine pesos.
v . Pope John Paul II
offered a mass to about five million Filipinos on Jan. 18, 1995, at Luneta Park
in Manila. The event went into the Guinness Book of World Records as the
Biggest Papal Crowd at the time.
v In 2009, about 1.39
billion SMS messages were being sent in the Philippines daily. The country was
one of the earliest adopters of text messaging, earning the moniker "text
capital of the world" from the mid '90s to the early 2000s.
v The English word
'boondocks' is actually a Filipino loanword: the Tagalog word for 'mountain' is
'bundok.'
v The word entered the North American vernacular
in the 1940s, just as the Philippines became involved in the Second World War.
v The amount of sulfur dioxide expelled by Mount
Pinatubo during its eruption on Jun. 15, 1991, created a two-year haze of
sulfuric acid all over the world. It caused global temperatures to drop by 0.5
°C (0.9 °F).
v A Filipino named Roberto del Rosario made the
karaoke machine in 1975, but a Japanese musician invented it four years
earlier. Del Rosario, however, was the first to patent the product, which makes
him the first patented producer of the karaoke.
v In the province of Camiguin, there are more
volcanos (seven) than towns (five). There hasn't been an eruption since the mid
1950s, but the island has the most number of volcanoes per square kilometer in
the world.
v The positioning of the
Philippine flag's colors indicate a message. If it is flown with the red stripe
on top, the nation is in a state of war. Otherwise, during peacetime, the blue
is on top.
v The modern yo-yo takes
its name from a word in the Philippine language Ilocano, yóyo.
v The University of San Carlos in Cebu City was
founded by Spanish Jesuits in 1595, making it the oldest school in the
Philippines.
v Then in 1611, the University of Santo Tomas
(or, lovingly, "Usté") was founded in Manila by the Dominican Order.
It is the world's largest Catholic university in terms of population. Both it
and University of San Carlos are older than Harvard, which was not founded
until 1636.
v The cone of the sea snail Conus gloriamaris is
a highly valued collector's item, the first examples of which were found in the
Philippines and sold at auction for upwards of $5,000.
v In 2002, the world's
biggest pair of shoes were made in Marikina City. The wingtips clock in at
about 5.3 meters in length, 2.4 meters in width, and almost 2 meters in height.
They cost two million Philippine pesos.
v Manila, the capital city
of the country, takes its name from a white flower that grew on mangrove trees,
locally known as nilad. 'May nilad' can be translated to mean 'there are
niladthere.'
v The rice terraces of the Philippine
Cordilleras are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The terraces were built about
2,000 years ago and — thanks to the rough terrain keeping settlers out — remain
as they would have been in pre-colonial times.
v The Philippines has won at least eight major
international beauty pageant titles: two for Miss Universe; five for Miss
International; and at least one for Miss World, the current titleholder
beingMegan Young.
v About 25 years before the first book was
printed in the United States, the Tagala, the first Filipino-Spanish
dictionary, was printed in 1613.
v After the Second World War, the Philippine
jeepney was born out of the G.I. Jeeps American soldiers brought to the country
in the 1940s. It's Pinoy upcycling!
v The Philippines' approximately 300,000 square
kilometers (115,831 sq mi.) of land area are spread over 7,107 islands.
v This gives the country 36,289 kilometers
(22,549 mi.) of coastline and puts the Philippines at fifth place for the
longest discontinuous coastline in the world.
v Depending on the method of classification,
there are 125 to 170 languages in use in the Philippines, such as Tagalog,
Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bicolano, Waray, and Kapampangan.
v The Philippines welcomed
its 100-millionth citizen on July 27, 2014, making the country the seventh most
populated country in Asia and the 12th in the world.