Economy
Industry
According to ebizdir, in a regional comparison, the Philippines only made the transition from import-substituting to export-oriented industrialization with some delay. The export of industrial products is mainly driven by the electronics and semiconductor industries. However, these are mainly outsourced, labor-intensive manufacturing steps by foreign companies. State-supervised export production zones, usually supported by private investors, are an important instrument for promoting export-oriented industrialization. Exports from these accounted for over half of the Philippines’ total export value. In addition to the electrical / electronics industry, mechanical engineering, the food and luxury food industry (rice and oil mills, sugar refineries, Factories for canned fruit and vegetables, coconut processing, tobacco industry, breweries), but also the textile and clothing, paper, furniture, chemical, cement, tire, glass, plastics and metal industries (including steel production) as well as the Motor vehicle assembly. Despite efforts to decentralize, the Filipino industry is geographically extremely concentrated in the greater Manila area. The service sector has recorded the highest growth rates in recent years, especially data processing and software development as well as call centers.
Transportation
Road transport and inter-island shipping are the most important modes of transport. Due to the archipelago character of the country, rail traffic is relatively insignificant (484 km route length, limited to the islands of Luzon and Panay). Around 50% of freight and 90% of passenger traffic are handled by road. However, only a quarter of the approximately 200,000 km road network is paved. Shipping transports around half of the freight. There are around 1,000 ports for inland navigation; the main ports for international shipping are Manila and Cebu City, both with container handling facilities. Air traffic accounts for around 10% of the passenger volume. There are 85 major airports, including 4 international airports (Manila and Cebu City, and the former US Army bases Clark and Subic). The state-owned airline Philippine Airlines (PAL), founded in 1941, was partially privatized in 1992. There are also several small airlines.
Filipino languages and literature
Filipino languages and literature. The roughly 100 languages spoken in the Philippines and neighboring regions belong to the western Malayo-Polynesian group of Austronesian languages. The Filipino languages include Tagalog (in standardized form since 1946 the official language of the Philippines, since 1959 Pilipino, since 1987 called Filipino) and Cebuano (also called Sugbuhanon) with around 10 million speakers each and with around 5 million speakers each Ilokano and Ilongo (also called Hiligaynon), as well as Bicolano and Waraywaray. The languages of the Philippines are characterized by the use of reduplication and affixes to denote tense, aspect and mode as well as a complex case system.
Original versions of the genuinely Filipino literature before the Spanish conquest in 1565 have not survived, as the Spanish missionaries fought the native culture for reasons of faith. Myths, heroic epics, fables, legends, proverbs and riddles were passed down orally (later also recorded). Songs and poems dealt with rites of passage (birth, marriage, death) and livelihoods (house building, hunting, fishing); Singing and recitation were accompanied by wind and string instruments; Even today’s type of poetry recitation is reminiscent of the old forms with its “high” pitch. The literature during the Spanish colonial rule (1565–1898) was written in Spanish and Filipino languages (especially Tagalog). The Christianization of the Filipinos found its expression in literature under the sign of Christian proclamation (spiritual games, edification literature). In the 18th century, a secular literature emerged with the popular theater (“komedya”), the material basis of which was the translation and processing of medieval Spanish romances. In the 19th century a Filipino national consciousness and the resistance against the Spanish colonial power began to articulate literarily, especially in J. P. Rizal, whose works initiated the 1896 census. In the history of the Filipino drama, the “komedya” was replaced in the 19th century by a separate version (“sarsuwela”) of the Spanish Singspiel (“zarzuela”) with a specific Filipino theme. The literary development since the American takeover (1898) was characterized by the fact that the traditional romantic direction, represented e.g. B. by the playwright José Corazon de Jesus (* 1896, † 1932) and the novelist Iñigo E. Regalado (* 1888, † 1976), increasingly more realistic (in the succession of Rizal standing) directions was pushed back. The latter got involved in the struggle for liberation from American colonialism, although they often followed Western models in literary terms and – in addition to the Tagalog – also used the English language as a medium. a. the playwrights Aurelio Tolentino (* 1868, † 1915) and Juan Abad (* 1872, † 1932) as well as the novelist Faustino Aguilar (* 1882, † 1955), also the poet Alejandro G. Abadilla (* 1904, † 1969), the brought about a kind of revolution in Tagalog poetry around 1940. In the narrative literature, the (previously unknown) short story, as its pioneer José García Villa (* 1908, † 1997) with his collection (1931) is considered to be the most popular genre. Some of their representatives from the Villas generation have achieved international standing in the field of short stories and / or novels, which are thematically mostly socially critical, such as Bienvenido N. Santos (* 1911, † 1996), Amador Daguio (* 1912, † 1966), Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez (* 1915, † 1999), Francisco Arcellana (* 1916, † 2002), Nick Joaquin (* 1917, † 2004), the founders (1958) of the Philippine PEN center Francisco Sionil José (* 1924) and Rony V. Diaz (* 1932).
