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• Understanding the history of any country requires understanding its geography.
• Geography gives individuality to nations and produces the variety of customs and occupations, which are a product of man’s reaction to different environments, as per the words of Dr. Harry E. Barnes.
• Friedrich Hegel, a famous German philosopher, regarded geography as the basis of history.
• The present name “Philippines”, by which the country is known to the world, was given by the Spanish explorer, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, in the year 1543 in honor of Crown Prince Philip, who later became King Philip II of Spain (1566-1598).
• The name “Philippines” first appeared in a rare map published in 1554 by Giovanni Ramusio (Italian cartographer) in the second edition of his book Della Navigationi et Viaggi (published in Venice, 1554).
• The narra tree is stalwart and enduring, symbolizing the steadfast persistence of the Filipinos in their demand for freedom.
• The Philip-pines rank third in forest reserves, after Indonesia and Japan.
• The narra tree is a tall tree, which characteristic is expressive of the lofty aspiration of the people to be one of the independent nations of the world.
• The narra tree is a massive, frank clothed with a soft grayish bark that exudes a scarlet liquid of great value for dyeing and medicinal purposes.
• The forests of the Philippines are home to 3,800 species of trees, including timber of almon, apitong, guijo, ipil, red and white lauan, narra, tangile, tindalo, and yakal.
• The rate of destruction of forests in the Philippines is one of the fastest in the world.
• The Philippines could become deforested within a few decades at the current rate of destruction.
• When the bark of the narra is injured, red sap oozes out, a constant reminder of the blood that has consecrated Philippine soil in the numerous daring attempts of the Filipinos to free their country from foreign domination, and of the blood still running through the veins of the people, ready to be shed upon their country’s call.
• The narra symbolizes Filipino hopes and ideals.
• The Philippine forests have been destroyed by illegal logging, fires and slash-and-burn (kaingin) farming.
• The narra (Pterocarpus indicus) is the national tree of the Philippines and is regarded by foresters as the “Queen of Philippine Trees”.
• During certain parts of the year, the narra tree sheds its foliage, and new leaves grow, symbolizing the disappearance of old customs and their replacement by new ones, or, in other words, the onward march of progress.
• The Philippine forests yield valuable dyewoods, medicinal plants, ore (tanbark), guttapercha, resins, nipa palms and rattan.
• An early Recollect friar-historian, Rodrigo de Aganduru Moriz (1584-1626), asserted that the Philippines was an ancient country called Ophir, a country mentioned in the Old Testament which supplied King Solomon with gold (1 Kings 9:28).
• The largest island in the Philippines is Luzon (40,814 sq miles), which is bigger than Hungary (35,918 sq miles) or Portugal (35,510 sq miles).
• The archipelago principle was established in the Philippines' national legislation, most recently in Article 1 of the 1986 Constitution.
• Mindanao, the second largest island (36,906 sq miles), is bigger than Austria (32,374 sq miles).
• The Philippines has secured sovereign title over its overall archipelagic waters, the air space above them, the seabed and subsoil below them, and the resources contained therein.
• The Philippines serves as a bridge linking the Oriental and Occidental worlds, is the crossroad of Asia’s air and sea routes, looms as democracy’s bastion against the surging tides of communism in the Asian world, and is the lone citadel of Christianity in the non-Christian world of the Orient.
• The Philippines is a broken rosary of verdured islands and islets floating athwart the southeastern rim of Asia.
• Since 1956, the Philippines has declared an archipelago principle of internal waters, meaning that the islands, waters and other natural features of the country are to be regarded as a single geographical, economic and political unit.
• The Philippines' strategic geographical location in the Asian world makes her destined to play a significant role in global affairs.
• The various islands of archipelago nations (e.g. the Philippines, Greece, Indonesia, etc.) will no longer be regarded as separate units, each with its own separate territorial sea.
• The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,100 islands (of which 2,773 are named), with a total land area of 115,707 square miles (299,681 square kilometers).
• The northernmost point of the Philippines is Y’Ami Isle, which is 78 miles from Taiwan and the southernmost point is Saluag Isle, only 34 miles east of Borneo.
• Through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which was signed by 117 states in Jamaica on December 10, 1982, the Philippine Delegation won recognition for the archipelago principle, which is a distinct Philippine contribution to international law.
• The legal milestone of the archipelago principle has far-reaching implications.
• Some early Spanish friar-historians, including Father Francisco Colin (Jesuit) and Fray Juan Francisco de San Antonio (Franciscan), claimed that the Philippines was the Maniolas, a group of islands mentioned by Claudinus Ptolemy (A.D. 90-168) in his geographical work titled Geographia.
• Because of its beauty and durability, the narra is highly in demand for building and ornamental purposes.
• The smallest fish in the world is Pandaka pygmaea (dwarf pygmy), discovered in 1925 by Dr. Albert Herre in the Malabon River which empties into Manila Bay, and rediscovered in 1951 by the Filipino ichthyologists, H.R. Rabanal, Inocencio Ronquillo, and Artemio Sarenas, at the Dagatdagatan Salt-Water Fishery Experimental Station in Malabon.
• Pandaka pygmaea has no native name yet, with an average length of 9.66 millimeters, being 3 millimeters smaller than the famous sinarapan (Mistichtvs luzonensis) which exists in Lake Buhi, Camarines Sur.
• The sinarapan, also known locally as tabyos, which was discovered in 1902 by Dr. Hugh M. Smith in Lake Buhi, held the title of “the smallest fish in the world” until Pandaka pygmaea was discovered.
• Among the commercially known fish found in the numerous fishing grounds of the archipelago are the banak (mullet), bangus (milkfish), dalag (mudfish), dilis (anchovy), kandule (catfish), lapulapu (seabass), talakitok (pampano), tam-ban and tunsoy (sardines), tanguingui (mackerel), and bariles (tuna).
• Philippine rivers, lakes and seas teem with fish, shells, pearls, corals, seaweeds and other forms of marine wealth, with more than 2,000 species of fish found in Philippine waters.
• The narra has a thousand uses in the daily life of man, including being carved by skilled Filipino woodcarvers into statues of Catholic saints, made into beautiful chairs, tables, cabinets, beds, and used in the construction of ceilings, floors, and walls of aristocratic homes and swanky offices.