Lecture 1

• The Philippines is based on the grid, longitude and latitude, lying on 4° 23” and 21° 25” North latitude and 116° and 127° East longitude.
• The Philippines is insular based on the bodies of water, with North being the Bashi Channel, South being the Celebes Sea, East being the Pacific Ocean, and West being the South China Sea.
• The Philippines is bisinal based on the neighboring countries, with North being Taiwan, South being Malaysia, East being Palau Island, and West being Vietnam.
• Mountain: a large landform that straddles the surrounding land in a limited area.
• Volcano: an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface which allows hot magma, ash and gases to escape from below the surface.
• Mountain range: a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by passes or valleys.
• The Philippines is the only Christian nation in the non-Christian Asian world.
• The Philippines is a melting pot of races and culture, with a unique heritage from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
• The Philippines is the bridge that links the Oriental and Occidental Worlds.
• The Philippines is the crossroads of Asia’s air and sea routes.
• The Philippines is the bastion of democracy in Asia where most countries are kingdoms, military dictatorships, or one-party governments.
• The second highest falls in the Philippines is found in Mindanao and is the landmark of Iligan City known as the “Mother of Industry” & “Fountainhead of Progress”.
• The Philippines has 7,107 islands, 2,773 of which have names and 1,190 are inhabited.
• The longest and largest river in Luzon, located in the Cagayan Valley region in the northeastern part of Luzon island, traverses the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Isabela and Cagayan.
• The third largest river basin of the Philippines is located in the eastern part of Mindanao island in the Philippines, draining majority of the Caraga Region and some parts of Compostela Valley province.
• Magdapio Falls is one of the most famed waterfalls in the Philippines, its actual location is not in Pagsanjan at all but in the adjacent town of Cavinti, Laguna.
• A freshwater lake in the province of Batangas has an active volcano in its center, lies a few miles to the southwest of Laguna de Bay.
• Total land area of the Philippines is 115,707 square miles or 299,681 square kilometers.
• The 1982 UNCLOS Treaty also designated a new concept of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), or a 200-mile belt of water around our archipelago, subject to agreement with neighboring countries whose Zones cross our own.
• The Philippines has been using the principle of declared internal waters since 1956, meaning that the islands, waters, and other natural features of the country are to be regarded as a single geographical, economic, and political unit.
• Within the EEZ, the Philippines has the sovereign right to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage the natural resources of the ocean, the seabed, and the subsoil.
• The archipelago principle was established in Philippine legislation, most recently in Article 1 of the 1986 Constitution.
• The archipelago principle is a distinct contribution of the Philippines to international law, securing sovereign title over all our archipelagic waters, the airspace above them, the seabed and subsoil below them, and the resources contained therein.
• The Philippines won recognition for the archipelago principle for all nations through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), signed by 117 states in Jamaica on December 10, 1982.
• The Philippines has a total area of 111,707 square miles and a total area under the Economic Zone of 200 miles from baselines of 520,707 square nautical miles.
• In terms of land area, the Philippines is almost as large as Italy, larger than New Zealand, twice as big as Greece, and very much larger than Britain.
• Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines, is also the largest island in Southeast Asia, bigger than Hungary or Portugal.
• The hottest month in the Philippines is May, with an average temperature of 28.3 °C.
• The dry season in the Philippines lasts from March to June.
• A cape is a pointed piece of land that extends out into a sea, ocean, lake, or river.
• Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, is also the second largest island in Southeast Asia, bigger than Austria.
• A peninsula is a piece of land that is surrounded by water but connected to mainland via an isthmus.
• The average humidity of the Philippines in a month is from 71% in March to 85% in September.
• A headland is a type of peninsula, it is a point of land, usually high, that extends out into a body of water and thus has water on three sides.
• The coolest month in the Philippines is January, with an average temperature of 25.5 °C.
• The Philippines holds the world’s record for the heaviest 24-hour rainfall of 979.4 mm, which occurred in Manila on October 17, 1967.
• The humidity of the Philippines is high because of the high temperature and also because of the surrounding seas.
• Humidity refers to the moisture content of the atmosphere.
• There is also plenty of rain in the Philippines.
• The intervening months of the year, November to February, are neither too dry nor too wet, making it the Philippine springtime, a delightful season of the year.