Philippines is one of the most diverse nation with respect to language, religion and geographical locations. It consist of about 7107 islands which lying between the South China Sea and around the Pacific Ocean. It has a population of 76.5 million as of May 2000, and majority of the population around 90% are Christians, mostly Roman Catholic, and about 5% of the population are Muslims. These people reside on the islands of Mindanao and Palawan which are very close to the Muslim countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
Philippines is widely divided into three main regions they are Luzon in the north, Mindanao in the South and Visayas in the Centre. Filipino is the official language of Philippines and Tagalog is the one of the most predominant local language which is spoken throughout the Islands. In spite of these languages, English is the language which is widely spoken over entire Philippines.
The Currency of the Philippines is the Peso (PHP), divided into 100 centavos. You will find ATM’s only in the major cities and not all the banks accept traveler’s cheque.
The Philippines is 8 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
