Quick Facts
- Capital city is Manila
- Current population is about 91,100,000 people.
- Land area is 300,000 sq km (115,830 sq miles)
- Money is the Philippine Peso
- GDP per capita is about $ 5,000
- Time zone is GMT +8
About the Philippines
The Philippines is an isolated archipelago of over seven thousand islands situated in the western Pacific Ocean. Its closest neighbour is Malaysia.
Well away from the regular South East Asian tourist
trail, the Philippines does not seem to attract the large numbers of tourists seen elsewhere in Asia. A poor transport infrastructure, difficult politics, and terrorist problems do not help.
More than one hundred distinct languages are spoken by the Filipinos, but the two official languages are Filipino (Tagalog based), and English.