Cultural institutions

The National Museum in Manila, which houses a substantial ethnographic collection,

is the principal government vehicle for preservation and conservation of the
country’s tangible and intangible cultural property. Many of the provinces have
established their own museums dedicated to local history and tradition. A few
institutions of higher education—such as the University of Santo Tomas, Silliman
University in eastern Negros, Mindanao State University in Lanao del Sur, and the
University of the Philippines at Diliman—likewise have added museums to their
campuses. The National Library serves as a repository for Philippine literary
materials and supervises public libraries throughout the country.

A number of locations in the Philippines have been designated as UNESCO World

Heritage sites. These include four 16th-century churches built by the Spanish in
Manila, Santa Maria, Paoay, and Miag-ao (collectively designated in 1993), the 16th-
century trading town of Vigan (1999) in northwestern Luzon, and the ancient rice
terraces of the northern Luzon cordilleras (1995). Local nongovernmental
organizations such as the Heritage Conservation Society and some historical groups
have also sought to preserve the local heritage.

Sports and recreation

A number of sports introduced by the Americans in the early 20th century enjoy
great popularity in the Philippines. Basketball is particularly prominent, with
amateur games occurring regularly in neighbourhoods throughout the country. The
Philippines has also fielded formidable national teams for the World Basketball
Championships. Tennis, golf, and various aquatic sports such as diving and
windsurfing are widely practiced.

Filipinos have excelled in various internationally competitive martial arts,

including boxing, wushu, and tae kwon do, while local Filipino martial arts traditions
have experienced a resurgence since the end of the 20th century. The country has
produced champion boxers in competitions hosted by the World Boxing Association,
and the Philippines has taken several medals in martial arts in the Asian and
Southeast Asian Games.

The Philippines has participated in the Summer Olympic Games since 1924 and in

the Winter Games since 1972. Filipino athletes generally have been most successful
in swimming, boxing, and track and field events.

Cockfighting (sabong), an age-old pastime in the Philippines, has retained a

passionate following. It is a popular form of gambling, with many spectators betting
on the outcome of the fights. Although practiced throughout the country,
cockfighting is most strongly associated with Cebu.
Media and publishing
A highly independent press developed in the Philippines under U.S. administration,
but many newspapers ceased publication during the period of martial law under the
Marcos regime. Limited press freedom was granted in the early 1980s, and full
freedoms returned after the change of government in 1986. Newspapers are
published in English, Pilipino, and many of the country’s vernacular languages. The
major English-language dailies—all published in Manila—include the Manila
Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Manila Times. Some newspapers have
English and Pilipino editions, as well as online circulation. The operators of radio
and television stations belong to a national organization called the Association of
Broadcasters in the Philippines that regulates the broadcasting industry.
Gregorio C. BorlazaCarolina G. HernandezThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
History
The Philippines is the only country in Southeast Asia that was subjected to Western
colonization before it had the opportunity to develop either a centralized government
ruling over a large territory or a dominant culture. In ancient times the inhabitants of
the Philippines were a diverse agglomeration of peoples who arrived in various waves
of immigration from the Asian mainland and who maintained little contact with each
other. Contact with Chinese traders was recorded in 982, and some cultural
influences from South Asia, such as a Sanskrit-based writing system, were carried to
the islands by the Indonesian empires of Srivijaya (7th–13th century)
and Majapahit (13th–16th century); but in comparison with other parts of the region,
the influence of both China and India on the Philippines was of little importance. The
peoples of the Philippine archipelago, unlike most of the other peoples of Southeast
Asia, never adopted Hinduism or Buddhism.
Pre-Spanish history
According to what can be inferred from somewhat later accounts, the Filipinos of the
15th century must have engaged primarily in shifting cultivation, hunting, and
fishing. Sedentary cultivation was the exception. Only in the mountains of
northern Luzon, where elaborate rice terraces were built some 2,000 years ago, were
livelihood and social organization linked to a fixed territory. The lowland peoples
lived in extended kinship groups known as barangays, each under the leadership of
a datu, or chieftain. The barangay, which ordinarily numbered no more than a few
hundred individuals, was usually the largest stable economic and political unit.

Within the barangay the status system, though not rigid, appears to have consisted
of three broad classes: the datu and his family and the nobility, freeholders, and
“dependents.” This third category consisted of three levels—sharecroppers,
debt peons, and war captives—the last two levels being termed “slaves” by Spanish
observers. The slave status was inherited but, through manumission and interclass
marriage, seldom extended over more than two generations. The fluidity of the social
system was in part the consequence of a bilateral kinship system in which lineage
was reckoned equally through the male and female lines. Marriage was apparently
stable, though divorce was socially acceptable under certain circumstances.

Early Filipinos followed various local religions, a mixture of monotheism and

polytheism in which the latter dominated. The propitiation of spirits required
numerous rituals, but there was no obvious religious hierarchy. In religion, as in
social structure and economic activity, there was considerable variation between—
and even within—islands.
This pattern began to change in the 15th century, however, when Islam was
introduced to Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago through Brunei on the island
of Borneo. Along with changes in religious beliefs and practices came new political
and social institutions. By the mid-16th century two sultanates had been established,
bringing under their sway a number of barangays. A powerful datu as far north
as Manila embraced Islam. It was in the midst of this wave of Islamic proselytism
that the Spanish arrived. Had the Spanish come a century later or had their motives
been strictly commercial, Filipinos today might be a predominantly Muslim people.

The Spanish period

Spanish colonial motives were not, however, strictly commercial. The Spanish at first
viewed the Philippines as a stepping-stone to the riches of the East Indies (Spice
Islands), but, even after the Portuguese and Dutch had foreclosed that possibility, the
Spanish still maintained their presence in the archipelago.

Ferdinand Magellan
The Portuguese navigator and explorer Ferdinand Magellan headed the first Spanish
foray to the Philippines when he made landfall on Cebu in March 1521; a short time
later he met an untimely death on the nearby island of Mactan. After King Philip
II (for whom the islands are named) had dispatched three further expeditions that
ended in disaster, he sent out Miguel López de Legazpi, who established the first
permanent Spanish settlement, in Cebu, in 1565. The Spanish city of Manila was
founded in 1571, and by the end of the 16th century most of the coastal and lowland
areas from Luzon to northern Mindanao were under Spanish control. Friars marched
with soldiers and soon accomplished the nominal conversion to Roman
Catholicism of all the local people under Spanish administration. But the Muslims of
Mindanao and Sulu, whom the Spanish called Moros, were never completely
subdued by Spain.

Spanish rule for the first 100 years was exercised in most areas through a type of tax
farming imported from the Americas and known as the encomienda. But abusive
treatment of the local tribute payers and neglect of religious instruction
by encomenderos (collectors of the tribute), as well as frequent withholding of
revenues from the crown, caused the Spanish to abandon the system by the end of
the 17th century. The governor-general, himself appointed by the king, began to
appoint his own civil and military governors to rule directly.

Central government in Manila retained a medieval cast until the 19th century, and
the governor-general was so powerful that he was often likened to an independent
monarch. He dominated the Audiencia, or high court, was captain-general of the
armed forces, and enjoyed the privilege of engaging in commerce for private profit.

Manila dominated the islands not only as the political capital. The galleon trade
with Acapulco, Mex., assured Manila’s commercial primacy as well. The exchange of
Chinese silks for Mexican silver not only kept in Manila those Spanish who were
seeking quick profit, but it also attracted a large Chinese community. The Chinese,
despite being the victims of periodic massacres at the hands of suspicious Spanish,
persisted and soon established a dominance of commerce that survived through the
centuries.

Manila was also the ecclesiastical capital of the Philippines. The governor-general

was civil head of the church in the islands, but the archbishop vied with him for
political supremacy. In the late 17th and 18th centuries the archbishop, who also had
the legal status of lieutenant governor, frequently won. Augmenting their political
power, religious orders, Roman Catholic hospitals and schools, and bishops acquired
great wealth, mostly in land. Royal grants and devises formed the core of their
holdings, but many arbitrary extensions were made beyond the boundaries of the
original grants.

The power of the church derived not simply from wealth and official status. The
priests and friars had a command of local languages rare among the lay Spanish, and
in the provinces they outnumbered civil officials. Thus, they were an invaluable
source of information to the colonial government. The cultural goal of the Spanish
clergy was nothing less than the full Christianization and Hispanization of the
Filipino. In the first decades of missionary work, local religions were vigorously
suppressed; old practices were not tolerated. But as the Christian laity grew in
number and the zeal of the clergy waned, it became increasingly difficult to prevent
the preservation of ancient beliefs and customs under Roman Catholic garb. Thus,
even in the area of religion, pre-Spanish Filipino culture was not entirely destroyed.

Economic and political institutions were also altered under Spanish impact but
perhaps less thoroughly than in the religious realm. The priests tried to move all the
people into pueblos, or villages, surrounding the great stone churches. But the
dispersed demographic patterns of the old barangays largely persisted.
Nevertheless, the datu’s once hereditary position became subject to Spanish
appointment.

Agricultural technology changed very slowly until the late 18th century, as shifting
cultivation gradually gave way to more intensive sedentary farming, partly under the
guidance of the friars. The socioeconomic consequences of the Spanish policies that
accompanied this shift reinforced class differences. The datus and other
representatives of the old noble class took advantage of the introduction of the
Western concept of absolute ownership of land to claim as their own
fields cultivated by their various retainers, even though traditional land rights had
been limited to usufruct. These heirs of pre-Spanish nobility were known as
the principalia and played an important role in the friar-dominated local
government.