History of Philippines

The History of the Philippines The archipelago of the Philippine is made up of over 7,100 islands and lies off the south coast of Taiwan and its Southeastern neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia (Kittler & Sucher, 2000). The nation is surrounded by the South China Sea on the west and by the Pacific Ocean on the east. The Filipinos are descendants of migrants from Southeast Asia such as Indonesia and Malaysia who came to the islands in successive waves over many centuries and largely displaced the aboriginal inhabitants, the Aetas, who were Negritos with small stature and dark skin (Kittler & Sucher, 2000). The country is composed of three major regions: foremost on the north is the main island of Luzon, where Manila is. In the center is the Visayas which includes the island of Cebu was the landing spot for Ferdinand Magellan during his exploratory voyage around the world. On the far south is the large island of Mindanao. Tagalog forms the basis of Filipino language, which over the last decades has made true progress in becoming the national language although there are over a hundred over different dialects spoken in this archipelago. The increasing involvement of the Philippines in the international trading roused with China, Southeast Asia, and India extends from the period during the fifteenth century was made possible by the introduction of Islam (Kittler & Sucher, 2000). Islam was introduced through the trade routes, and in the Philippines its first foothold was in the Sulu island chain and Mindanao (Naudea, 2008). Christianity came to the Philippines as the religion of the conqueror. Although Spain came to rule in the prospect of looking for wealth, religion also played an important role of during Spanish colonization. In fact, the importance of religion during the Philippine colonial experience shaped the nation’s culture and political life (Rodell, 2008). The Philippine is perceived as a Christian country because of the three centuries of Spanish colonization. Although the Philippines is occupied overwhelmingly by Roman Catholic, the nation’s religion diversities also include two other major indigenous Christian churches (Protestant and Mormon) and the Muslim population of the southern islands (Rodell, 2008). The Philippines history may be said to have begun with Spanish colonization during the year of 1521 to 1896. The main goals for the colonization were to gain profits and spread the religion, Christianity (Rodell, 2002). The first Spaniard arrived in 1521, Ferdinand Magellan, who came to the Philippines as part of his attempt to circumnavigate the globe for Spain. But not long after his arrival, the expedition ended on the small island of Mactan near Cebu where Magellan got involved with the local rulers and was killed in battle. A few decades after Magellan’s death, Spanish conquerors returned in force to the Philippines in another expedition under the command of Miguel López de Legazpi in 1565 (Rodell, 2002). After establishing themselves on Cebu Island, Legazpi learned about an important trading point called Manila on the island of Luzon. By 1571, Manila was in the hand of Spain (Nadeau, 2008). Legazpi built government buildings, churches, monasteries, and houses. Spanish leadership was soon established over many small independent communities that previously had known no central rule. However, throughout the next three centuries the new rulers had to deal with uprising from the native populations that were increasing in frequency and getting larger in scale.
War commenced between Spain and the United States in 1898. Commerce operations were targeted against the Spanish fleet. The Philippines was soon caught in the middle of the Spanish-American War. Commodore George Dewey and his crew entered Manila Bay and instantly destroyed the defending Spanish fleet. The provisional president of the Filipino Revolutionary Congress, Emilio Aguinaldo, and Commodore Dewey joined forces to fight back the Spanish fleet (Nadeau, 2008). The Americans assumed that the surrender of Manila by the Spain was translated as the transfer of the country from Spain to the United States as it stated on the Treaty of Paris, but Aguinaldo and his revolutionaries expected the United States to support the Philippine independence (Rodell, 2002). Relation between the Americans and the Filipinos started to deteriorate and increasingly become worse. Soon after victory over Spain, the Philippine was re-colonized again, only this time it was by the United States. During the American colonization in the Philippines from 1899 to 1946 the Americans impacted strongly on the Philippines cultural life. English was programmed as a medium of communication in education, business, and government offices. Widespread knowledge of English facilitated the American’s general prosperity, new cultural influences, and political advances in the Philippine, but Filipino aspirations for independence remained strong. The Philippine independence was under the legislation of the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1943, and the Philippines Commonwealth was scheduled to obtain independence in 1946 (Rodell, 2002).
Although tensions extended to the fatal level between America and Philippine society, the World War II did not disarray the relationship between these nations. In fact, the war strengthened the bond between the United States and its colonial possession. While other nations around the region took advantage of the Japanese attacks to throw off their colonial masters, most Filipinos defended the American colony. Due to the recent attack of Japanese on the Pearl Harbor, the United States could not send reinforcements to fight back the Japanese and was forced to take off from the Philippines, thus the Japanese occupied Philippine in 1942 (Nadeau, 2008). During the Japanese occupation period, many Filipino farmers and peasants joined the guerillas to fight back because of the unfair landlord practiced by the Japanese. By the time the Americans returned to the Philippines, the resistance movement called Hukbalahap (People’s Army Against the Japanese) joined forces and fought along with the American troops against the Japanese until they were completely defeated (Nadeau, 2008). At the end of the war, the U. S. government granted the-long standing agreement of the Philippines independence in 1945. As expected after the war, most of the infrastructures and foundations in the country should have been demolished. Schools, housing, government buildings, and churches were destroyed. Medicines and food supplies were desperately needed. Living was hard during that time and the economy was in the worst conditions. The Philippines signed the Bell of Trade Act for a substantial amount of loan from the United States due to desperately needed reconstruction and rehabilitation aid to help rebuild the nation after the war. This agreement allowed free trade and diminishing tariff references (Nadeau, 2008).
In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos won the election and became the first President of the Philippines. At first, Marcos was assumed to make a substantial progress in the nation’s project development and simulate production. Marcos increased the size of the military forces and expanded its role in governance. Marcos held the presidencies with an authoritarian government and took apart the democracy. The Marcos government lost its legitimacy. The suffering citizens demonstrated across the nation calling for reform, end to corruption, to improve education, and make affordable prime commodities, and create jobs. Marcos ruled the Philippine for a total of 20 years, until he was overthrown by an extensive People’s Power revolution in 1986 (Nadeau, 2008). Marcos regime fell for a substantial amount of political and economic reasons, but the main reason was the death of Senator Benigno Aquino, which was then strongly led his widow, Corazon Aquino who took the presidency seat in 1986 to 1992 (Rodell, 2002). In 2009, the people of the Philippines called the son of Senator Benigno Aquino and Corazon Aquino, Benigno S. Aquino III to run for the 15th presidency race. He won the election and was elected as the president of the Philippines in 2010 (Manila Bulletin, 2010).

Reference
Kittler, P. G., & Sucher, K. P. (2000). Cultural Foods: Traditions and Trends. Chapter 8 Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Manila Bulletin. (2010, July 25). The First State-of-the-Nation Address of President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III [Letter to the editor]. Retrieved from http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/268767/the-first-stateofthenation-address-president-benigno-simeon-cojuangco-aquino-iii
Nadeau, K. (2008). The History of the Philippines. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Rodell, P. (2002). Culture and Customs of the Philippines. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Test Questions 1. What was the first country colonized the Philippines? a. Arab b. Malaysia c. China d. India e. Spain

2. The capital of the Philippines, Manila is located in the island of a. Luzon b. Cebu c. Mindanao d. Sulu e. Mactan

3. The Spain surrendered the Philippines to which country? a. Portugal b. Italy c. United States d. British e. Hong Kong

Filipino Cuisine Meal Experience
For the semester project, I would like to share a meal experience on Filipino cuisine. The restaurant is located at 269 El Camino Real in South San Francisco, and it is called Boracay Garden and Grill. I went with the semester project group of five people and an ethic leader on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 for dinner. We arrived at the restaurant around 3:45 in the afternoon. This restaurant is unique because they serve authentic Filipino specialty menus, and they also use several ingredients and have specialties that are not used in my own ethnic background cooking, Indonesian cuisine. The restaurant serves many kinds of meats and seafood dishes, small side dishes, and desserts. The dishes on the menu are named in Filipino, but they have explanation on what it is and how it is prepared. Our group’s ethnic leader, Brian Delacruz recommended a couple of choices from the menus that have special flavors of Filipino cuisine, so we ordered the items which were Sinigang Na Ribs, Binagoongan Rice, Bangus Sisig, and Pork Sisig. I had met Brian in person only once during the semesterand that was when we had our dinner at the Boracay Garden on June 16th, 2011. But, we have communicated through email for several times when I had questions or needed clarification about the Filipino cuisine that we had that day. Brian explained Filipino cuisine uses mostly pork, chicken, and seafood for meat choices. He also mentioned tamarind and shrimp paste are the special ingredients in Filipino cooking.
Sinigang Na Ribs is a soup dish with green bean, tomatoes, eggplant, daikon radish, and pork ribs in tamarind-based broth. What makes sinigang so special is the tamarind as the key ingredient. The soup was really full of flavors with blowing taste of sour from the tamarind and a hint of salt. It was a wake-up call during the mid-afternoon slump, sleepiness in the afternoon. It also excited my palate, roused my senses and appetite. It was something that I’ve never had before. I was immediately woken up and ready to go for dinner although it was still early for dinner time. Indonesian cooking often uses tamarind, but it’s not the same as how it is used in sinigang. The flavor from the tamarind tasted really strong in the sinigang. Binagoongan rice is similar to fried rice dish, but the rice is flavored with shrimp paste, and then topped with cube-chopped mangoes, tomatoes, scrambled egg, scallions, and shrimp paste infused pork. The saltiness and fishy tastes from the shrimp paste blended well with the mangoes and tomatoes, which made a perfect combination when they were all mixed together. Binagoongan rice is so different from Indonesian cuisine because in Indonesian cooking, pork is rarely used and mango is only used for desserts or on a drink menu, not in cooking. Pork sisig is grilled pork ears and meats from the pig’s face which is chopped into small pieces and sautéed with garlic and onion, and then garnished with chopped jalapeno pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice on top. It was served on a sizzling plate. The pork sisig has a savory and rich flavor, adding a little spiciness from the jalapeno pepper and tang from the lemon juice, but it was also a little bit greasy because the meats from the pig’s face and ears have a high content of pork fat. The pork sisig is very different from Indonesian cuisine because majority of Indonesian are Muslims, so pork is rarely consumed and used in Indonesian cooking, let alone meats from the pig’s ears and face. Bangus sisig is flaked boneless milkfish sautéed with garlic, onion, salt and pepper, garnished with fresh chopped jalapeno and squeeze of lemon juice on top, and then served in sizzling plate. Bangus or milkfish is the staple fish of the Philippines, and they are greatly consumed by Filipino in the Philippines and in the United States. It has savory, spicy, and sour flavors. I could taste these three amazing combination of flavors together, which made this dish really good. The bangus sisig is different from Indonesian cuisine because Indonesian cooking generally often use spices such as cumin, coriander, galangal, and turmeric especially when cooking with fish, yet this bangus sisig was so simple, but was very tasty and flavorful. The main ingredients with tamarind, mango, and shrimp paste in cooking contribute greatly to Filipino cuisine because these three ingredients are typical flavor of the islands or tropical flavor. It is not very much of other countries in Southeast Asia make good use of mango in their cooking method, like Filipino use mango in making binagoongan rice. Other countries in Southeast Asia might use mango for dessert and drink menus, but rarely in cooking, just like Indonesia. Moreover, the choice of meat for pork over beef is closely contributed to Filipino cuisine because based on my research on the Philippines brief history and background, the majority of Filipino community is Christian, so pork is preferred over beef or lamb or any other animals. In addition, chilies were introduced to Philippines by Spain and Portugal exploration to the New World, thus Filipino cuisine share the use of jalapeno pepper or any other chili peppers in their cuisine.
Overall, the meal experience in Filipino cuisine was very delicious, flavorful, and interesting. I learned about several different kinds of ingredients which are unique to Filipino cuisine that are not used for Indonesian cooking such as meat components from pig’s head and pig’s ears and mango in the main dish. Also, meal experience in Filipino cuisine with another five members and Brian as our ethnic leader was a valuable learning experience because I learned that the Philippines have great food and great people, and Filipino are very hospitable. The restaurant owner generously offered and allowed us to order food from the dinner menu although they only served snacks menu during the time we were there because it was during afternoon break time menu program after we told him that we needed to taste the authentic Filipino cuisine for our writing assignment. As for our ethnic leader, Brian, he was very friendly and patiently answered all of our questions regarding the Philippines and its cuisine. If he didn’t know the answer, he would called and to ask his grandmother and get back to us.