Origins

The Filipinos in Canada trace their origins to the Philippine Islands, an independent country along the rim of the Pacific Ocean about halfway between China and Indonesia. The Philippine archipelago consists of over 7,100 islands (only 800 inhabited), most of which are covered by high mountains. The island chain stretches from north to south for about 1,800 kilometres. Eleven of the islands account for about 95 percent of the country’s land mass (300,000 square kilometres), and of these the largest are Luzon in the north, Mindanao in the south, and a cluster in between called the Visayan Islands.

The 62.4 million inhabitants of the Philippine Islands (1992) are characterized by great ethnic and linguistic diversity. Four groups are identifiable in terms of their distinctive physical characteristics: the Negritos, who are considered the original inhabitants; peoples of Indonesian-Malay origin who constitute the majority of the population; the Chinese, who constitute the largest foreign national group; and the Americans, Spanish, and other Europeans. Intermarriage among the Chinese, Spanish, and Americans has resulted in a mixed people known as mestizo (masculine) and mestiza (feminine). Depending on the combination, they are called Spanish mestizos/mestizas, Chinese mestizos/mestizas, and so on. There has been considerable intermarriage with Chinese, so that approximately one out of every ten Filipinos has Chinese ancestry. Like the Chinese in other southeast Asian countries, the Filipino-Chinese (about 10 percent of the population) continue to play important roles in the economy and are engaged primarily in wholesale and retail businesses, banking and credit, trade, and manufacturing.

Although there is controversy over how to classify the numerous languages and dialects, the Philippine census lists seventy, of which the two largest are Tagalog and Sugbuanon (Cebuano), followed by Ilocano, Hiligaynon (Ilongo), Bicolano, and Waray. The national language is Pilipino, which is based on one of the country’s major languages, Tagalog. Pilipino has been taught in schools only since 1946, when the country gained its independence; both before and since then, English has been the primary medium of instruction at all levels of schooling. It is also the language of government, business and industry, and of the largest media. Although historically important, Spanish became less popular after World War II. It is still spoken, however, by the older generation, and knowledge of it is identified as an elite status symbol.

The Philippines is a Christian country, with 93 percent of the population adhering to some form of that faith. The very term Filipino, which technically refers to any citizen of the Philippines, is often used to refer only to its Christian population. By far the most important religious body is the Roman Catholic Church, to which 85 percent of the population adhere. Another 6 percent are members of the Philippine Independent Church (the Aglipayans), which is a Filipinized form of Catholicism, and about 2–3 percent belong to various Protestant denominations. The only other large group are the Muslims, who account for about 5 percent of the population. Known as the Moros, they are concentrated largely in southern Mindanao and beyond that in the Sulu archipelago, which stretches towards Borneo. Other groups such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and the Iglesia ni Kristo (Church of Christ) constitute the remaining 1 percent.

The Philippines became known to Europeans when, in 1521, the explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed on an uninhabited islet south of Samar and sailed west to Cuba shortly thereafter. Magellan was killed by an island chieftain, Lapulapu, who for this act was later transformed into a national symbol of resistance to European aggression and of the striving for Philippine independence. The Spanish did not return until the middle of the sixteenth century, when they named the Philippines in honour of King Philip II of Spain. A Spanish administration was set up in 1565, after which colonial rule was characterized by an economic system based on landed estates, the prominent role of the Roman Catholic Church, and the imposition of the Spanish language and cultural institutions. Spanish rule remained basically undisturbed until the end of the nineteenth century, when Filipino political activists, including the popular writer José Rizal, led a series of local revolts.

One of the insurrectionists, Emilio Aguinaldo, hoped for assistance from the United States, which in 1898 was engaged in a war with Spain. At the war’s conclusion the United States acquired the Philippine Islands, but for the next three years it found itself engaged in a conflict with Aguinaldo and his forces, who had expected that their country would gain its independence. The Moros on the island of Mindanao were not defeated by U.S. troops until 1913.

The United States government introduced a series of reforms. Of particular importance was a network of primary and secondary schools throughout the Philippines, which in 1903 made English the medium of instruction. Local and national representative government as well as an independent judiciary were based on American models. Government support for the Catholic Church as the state religion was terminated, and church lands were redistributed to former tenants at reasonable cost. Despite the positive aspects of these reforms, there remained a widespread desire, articulated by the Nationalist (Nacionalista) party, for Filipino independence. Finally, in 1934, the United States created the basically self-governing Commonwealth of the Philippines and promised to grant the country full independence and to withdraw its military at the end of ten years. World War II and the Japanese conquest of the islands delayed the granting of Philippine independence until 1946.

Since becoming an independent country, the Philippines has been plagued by ongoing protests against the government and by economic stagnation and widespread poverty. Aside from frequent protests in the countryside and cities against the widespread poverty of most Filipinos, the early 1950s were marked by an organized Communist-led insurgency aimed at overthrowing the government, and in the 1960s a movement arose among the Moros for independence. A degree of political stability was forced upon the Philippines by the dictatorial regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, who imposed martial law throughout the country for nearly a decade (1972–81). Whereas this same period did see industrial growth, it also contributed to the increasing gap between the small percentage of wealthy people and the poverty-stricken masses, whose status was made worse by rapid demographic growth (at 3 percent annually one of the highest in the world) and political corruption. Growing popular discontent led to the overthrow of Marcos in 1986 following a peaceful revolution that captured the attention of the world. Despite the return to civilian government, the Philippines have continued to be plagued by political unrest, a weak economy, and widespread poverty.