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The earliest inhabitants of the Philippines were the Negritos. Other tribes later arrived from Malaysia and Indonesia. In
1521, the Portuguese navigator, Ferdinand Magellan, financed by the King of Spain, landed on the islands and named them after
Philip II of Spain. Friars converted the inhabitants to Christianity and today the Philippines is the only predominantly Christian
country in South-East Asia. Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legaspi established the first Spanish settlement in Cebu in 1565;
he moved north and defeated the Muslim Rajah Sulayman and established a Spanish base in Manila in 1571, extending the area
under Spanish control. In 1896, a revolution against Spanish rule led to the establishment of the first Filipino Republic
in 1898, under General Emilio Aguinaldo. Later, the United States took control of the islands and a constitution was drawn
up in 1935, giving the Philippines internal self-government.
The islands were occupied by the Japanese between 1942 and 1945, during World War II, only achieving independence in 1946.
During the next two decades, there was a succession of presidents who maintained strong links with the United States. In 1965,
Ferdinand Marcos of the Nacionalista party won the presidential elections and began a programme of rapid economic development.
Before his maximum of two terms in office were over, in 1972, Marcos instituted martial law and suppressed all political opposition.
He also set about large-scale looting of the country’s exchequer to fill his and his family’s own foreign bank accounts. Opposition
to Marcos evolved in two distinct forms: the ‘constitutional’ opposition, organised around dissenting senators such as Benigno
Aquino; and the Communist Party, which, linking with various tribal groups, launched an armed insurgency based in the southern
islands, particularly Mindanao.
By the mid-1980s, the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party, was able to sustain a major insurrection
right across the country in both rural and urban areas. The turning point for the regime came after the assassination of Benigno
Aquino upon his return from exile in 1983. Public opinion rallied behind his widow, Corazon Aquino in a massive campaign of
demonstrations and non-violent protest, popularly dubbed ‘People Power’. Then, US President Ronald Reagan withdrew his backing
from Marcos. The Filipino military, Marcos’ last bastion of support, followed suit and Marcos left for Hawaiian exile in February
1986. He died there in September 1989.
Lacking any political experience, Corazon Aquino took a while to settle into the presidency. She was constantly threatened
by the rump of Marcos supporters in the military who launched repeated but unsuccessful coup attempts, but earned the backing
of most of the senior command by maintaining a hard line in the campaign against the NPA.
Military issues also dominated the Philippines’ key foreign relations with the USA. The Americans had maintained two large
bases on Luzon Island at Subic Bay (navy) and Clark Air Base. By the end of 1994, both had been vacated: Clark Air Base was
badly damaged by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991; Subic Bay was vacated by mutual agreement. By this time,
the presidency had passed to Fidel Ramos, Aquino’s erstwhile Defence Minister. His term lasted until May 1998 when the Asian
financial crisis, which hit the Philippines particularly hard, offered an opportunity to new political parties. Joseph Ejercito
Estrada, leading the newly-formed Laban ng Masang Pilipino (Struggle of the Filipino Masses, LMP), won the poll by a comfortable margin.
In January 2001 he was formally thrown out of office by the Supreme Court and replaced by his deputy, Gloria Arroyo – daughter
of Diosdado Macapagal, the president during the early 1960s.
Arroyo has presided over a steady economic performance. She has also opened negotiations with the two main insurgencies: the
NPA, while much diminished from its zenith, remains a potent force in some parts of the archipelago; while the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front has grown to become the most potent of a handful of Islamic guerrilla groups. (Since the 11 September 2001
attacks in the USA, much attention has also been focused on the Abu Sayyaf group, which is believed to be affiliated with
the al-Qaeda terrorist network.). Arroyo was re-elected in May 2004.
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Overview 
