Insular Southeast Asia - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 481

line as of 2004. The population is growing at a rate of
3.1 percent. The total fertility rate is 6.5, and 45 percent
of the population is under 15 years of age.
In 1999, anti-independence militias, along with the
Indonesian army , destroyed the country' s entire infra-
structure. Homes, schools, irrigation and water supply
systems, and the electrical grid must be rebuilt from
scratch. As of 2009, 90 percent of Timorese are involved
in agriculture and coffee is the main export. More than
half of those employed work in the service sector. Indus-
try accounted for only 13 percent of the economy . Unem-
ployment and underemployment are widespread—as
much as 50 percent. However, there is the possibility of
new jobs in the production of coffee and vanilla and in
the oil industry .
The development of oil and gas resources in offshore
waters has boosted government revenues. However, as
there are no production facilities on the island, few jobs
have been created. Gas is piped to Australia. In 2005, the
government created a Petroleum Fund to preserve the oil
and gas revenues for future generations.
In 2008, the government resettled tens of thousands
of an estimated 100,000 internally displaced people.
Problems with the development of Timor-Leste are ex-
tremely challenging. As the government has not yet de-
termined how best to use oil and gas revenue to create
employment and reduce poverty , it remains heavily re-
liant on international assistance.

typhoon belt and experience about 15 cyclonic
storms yearly , which are increasingly violent and de-
structive. Active volcanoes and earthquakes can also
wreak havoc.
In June 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted and devas-
tated an area of 154 square miles (400 km 2 ) with vol-
canic ash. Fortunately , predictions allowed precautions
to be taken, and only 250 people died in the event.
Knowledge of the Philippines' prehistory is
sketchy , but Hominid remains estimated to be 30,000
years old have been discovered on Palawan. Malay-
related people of Mongoloid descent are predominant
today . Other groups are Negritos of obscure origin.
Chinese trace their origins back to traders of the tenth
century . Five centuries later, Islam from Borneo and
the Sulu Islands diffused as far as Mindanao, only to be
stopped by the arrival of the Spanish Christians in the
sixteenth century .
Philippine society is complex, with at least 60 ethnic
groups among the Malay majority . Chinese, Americans,
other Asians, and indigenous people are also part of the
population mix. Several languages are spoken, with
Tagalog —the language of the people around Manila
Bay—being the official language. However, English is the
lingua franca throughout the islands.

THE SPANISH PHILIPPINES
Ferdinand Magellan claimed the Philippines for Spain in
1521. Magellan came upon the islands during his circum-
navigation of the world. He never completed that journey ,
however, and was murdered in the Philippines. Only one
of his ships managed to complete the entire voyage.
Spain controlled the Philippines for the next 377
years, with the familiar twin goals of spreading the Chris-
tian faith and setting up trade. The first settlement was
on the island of Cebu in 1565, but headquarters were
moved to Manila in 1571. The islands were named after
the Spanish Crown Prince Felipe.
The economic base of Spanish occupation of the is-
lands was the galleon trade between Macao on the south
China coast, Manila, and Acapulco in Mexico. Great
galleons left Acapulco for Manila laden with silver. In
Manila the silver was exchanged for silk brought from
Portuguese Macao. The silk was then taken to Acapulco
and on to Europe.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Manila
became a rival of the major colonial port of Batavia
(Jakarta). By this time Manila was in many ways a Chi-
nese city . Chinese traders and mestizos (Chinese-Filipino

The Philippines: Pearl of the
Orient Seas

The Philippine archipelago began to take shape about
50 million years ago, the result of volcanic eruptions and
the buckling of the Earth' s crust. The archipelago, com-
prising more than 7,000 islands, stretches 1,100 miles
(1,770 km), forming a land chain between the Pacific
Ocean and the South China Sea. Only 154 of these is-
lands exceed 5 square miles (14 km 2 ) in area, and 11 of
them contain about 95 percent of the total population.
Luzon and Mindanao are the largest islands. These
bracket a regional grouping of islands, known as the
Visayas (Figure 16-24).
Rainfall is variable because of the mountainous na-
ture of the islands and shifting wind directions. On Lu-
zon, for instance, rainfall ranges from 35 to 216 inches
(84-549 cm) a year. Manila is wettest during the
southwest monsoon, which delivers 82 inches (208 cm)
from June to November. The islands also straddle the