The Country and its People / People
The rapid growth in population is a problem of increasing magnitude and concern and while the government does maintain population control centers in every city, these do little good because of the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church to abortion and any other methods but 'natural' birth control'. (This will frequently reduce childbearing to once a year.)
Filipinos love children and each birth is traditionally regarded as a blessing. A typical mother will have one walker, one toddler, one in arms and one in the hopper.
Due to the extended family concept of Filipinos it is not possible to state with any degree of accuracy the size of an average family. Any attempt to do so would find its limitation in the definition of the family. Different figures for the same 'family' will result depending on whether one wants to count just those living under one roof (ten to twenty) or those with first degree relationship (often twenty to thirty) or those an average Filipino regards as members of the family he belongs to (easily five hundred).
Ethnic Structure
The Country has 10 major cultural groups and many ethnic minority groups. Nine of the major cultural groups are of Malay extraction, while the tenth is Chinese. Eight of the major Malay groups have adopted Christianity. These include Tagalogs, Cebuanos, Hilongos, Warays, Ilocanos, Bicolanos, Pangasinense, and Pampangos. The ninth Malay group are the Muslim Filipinos or Moros, which are subdivided into ten major groups, some regarded as cultural minorities. Aside from their distinct languages, the eight Christian Filipino-Malay groups only partly differ in culture. There are comparatively few disagreements among Filipinos based on belonging to different language groups. However, except for Manila which is a melting pot, all nine major Filipino-Malay groups have geographically distinct areas of settlement, whereas the Chinese are found in most communities. The Chinese are integrated to a much higher degree in the Philippines than in some neighboring Asian countries.On the other hand, a large segment of the Muslim Filipinos decline to integrate into the mainstream Philippine society and is at war with the Philippine state.
Cultural groupings:
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Summers are hot with the temperatures reaching 40 C and winters can get very cold. Spring (October to November) and Autumn (March to May) are warm and pleasant. Rain can come at any time but it tends not to be heavy.
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http://www.asiatour.com/philippines/e-01land/ep-lan12.htm
Jan Garanoz
869/116 Thanon Pemavipat,
Chiang Rai, 57000 Thailand
Created: September 1, 1995
Last updated: January 25, 2010