Paradise Philippines Introduction

The Philippines (Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Republika ng Pilipinas; RP), is an archipelagic nation located in Southeast Asia, with Manila as its capital city. The Philippine Archipelago comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country, with a population of 88 million. Its national economy is the 39th in the world with a 2007 gross domestic product (GDP) of over US$145 billion.

Filipinos are mostly of Austronesian descent, but there are significant American, Arab, Chinese, Hispanic and Indian minorities. There are more than 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, about 11% of the total population of the Philippines.

The Philippines became a Spanish colony in the 16th century, and then a U.S. colony after the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War. The Philippines has many affinities with the Western world, derived mainly from the cultures of Spain, Latin America, and the United States. Roman Catholicism became the predominant religion, although the pre-Hispanic indigenous religious practices and Islam still exist. The two official languages of the Philippines are Filipino, which is based on Tagalog, and English.