Republic of the Philippines.

HISTORY of the Philippines; PHILIPPINE economy; PHILIPPINE politics & government

This article provides information on the Philippines. The majority of Philippine people are of Malay stock descendants of Indonesians and Malays who migrated to the islands long before the Christian era. The history of the Philippines may be divided into four distinct phases, the pre-Spanish period (before 1521), the Spanish period (1521-1898), the American period (1898-1946) and the years since independence (1946-present). The Philippines has a representative democracy modeled on the U.S. system. It has a government with a bicameral legislature and an independent judiciary. Since the end of the Second World War, the Philippine economy has had a mixed history of growth and development. Over the years, the Philippines has gone from being one of the richest countries in Asia to being one of the poorest. Important sectors of the Philippine economy include agriculture and industry particularly food processing, textiles and garments and electronics and automobile parts. Most industries are concentrated in the urban areas around metropolitan Manila. Mining also has great potential in the Philippines, which possesses significant reserves of chromite, nickel, and copper.