My Philippines OC
Picture to come soon~ Maybe. I need a good enough drawing and a scanner first orz So If anyone wants to send me a Christmas present...
(That was a joke, btw)
Republic of the Philippines
Republika ng Pilipinas
Name: Originally Liwayway Saguisag; Spain renamed her Maria Josefa de la Cruz to be “more civilised”. She shortened that to “Mari-jo”. (It’s popular to give your daughter the first name “Maria” followed by a second name, and shorten it to “Mari” with the first syllable of their second name at the end.)
Personality: A cheerful, family-oriented and hardworking young woman who loves music and celebrations. Although her house is always chaotic and in terrible shape, she tries her best and remains optimistic that things will change for the better. Unfortunately, she is a terrible judge of character and almost always places her trust in the wrong person.
She seems to be plagued by bad luck since birth, having to deal with storms, volcanoes and earthquakes as well as normal nation-tan problems such as corrupt politicians and the after-effects of colonisation. Despite this, she smiles and looks forward to tomorrow, hoping that her efforts will someday pay off.
When interacting with other nations, she is polite, open and friendly. She likes spending time with and getting to know others. When nations visit her house, she always treats them as well as she can. Sometimes she will try to feed them too much without realising it, being a big eater herself- did you know Filipinos can eat as many as 10 meals a day? Breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon meal, dinner, midnight snacks and several other snacks between meals. Usually though, we eat less than that. For households with average income and above, main meals comprise of a plate of rice served with a dish of meat and/or vegetables. Snacks would be packets of biscuits (around 3-5 pieces) or bags of chips (crisps to the British), fruits, things like that. Really impoverished families are lucky if they can afford even one meal of rice a day with maybe some salt. Philippines treats food as sacred, even before her country became so poor, as she considers it a gift from God (or gods during pre-colonial era). She hates to see anyone throw food away and will often be upset with them for days.
She likes foods to be either really sweet or really sour. We are notorious for dumping buckets of sugar in spaghetti sauce- which made Italy cry in despair the first time he tasted it xD We enjoy fruits that are sour, like green Indian mangoes and santol- a brown, round fruit with sour flesh and a pulpy, sweet white centre. We often dip them in salt, soy sauce or bagoong (shrimp paste) to balance out the taste (a/n being the weird little thing that I am, I used to dip green mango slices in sugar :P). A few of her dishes, like sinigang and paksiw, use tamarind in the soup. She loves all fruits, especially tropical fruits like pineapple and coconut. Of course, nothing could be better than SWEET, GOLDEN MANGOES! She loves mangoes very much, not only because it tastes great, but also because of a story someone used to tell her…
“Once upon a time there was a girl who was very good and very kind. Her parents loved her very much, and the villagers doted on her because she was always ready to help them when needed. One day while she was alone at home, an old woman passing through the village she lived in asked her for shelter for one night because she was so tired. Since her parents were not there, the girl made the decision herself. Of course, she agreed. The woman was a fairy, who gave the girl a blessing. When the girl grew old and the time came for her to die, she was buried beneath a mysterious old tree that never once bore fruit. A few years after, the tree grew golden, heart-shaped fruits- just like the girl’s heart. Though she was gone, she would be remembered forever. “
(This is one version of the Filipino legends pertaining to the origin of the mango fruit. I thought it would suit a nation-tan more than the one where a girl killed herself rather than marry a man she didn’t love.)
Since hearing that story, she admired the girl and wanted to be as kind as her. She’s always ready to help her friends and family, and tries to see the best in people. Her trusting nature often gets her in trouble, though. This will be elaborated on in her history.
She is often working for other nations as a nurse, maid/caretaker, doctor, sailor, etc. In her work she is conscientious and diligent, eager to earn more money to send back home to try and improve conditions there. She tries not to show her negative emotions (such as when she feels depressed whenever she’s away from home for too long).
She is a surprisingly heavy drinker (according to surveys, second only to Japan in Asia). It is likely that this is not a true representation of her drinking habits (no seriously, I grew up seeing people walk around drunk in broad daylight). She handles alcohol pretty well, and some of her concoctions are lethal. There is an urban legend of her lambanog knocking out an American G.I. in three shots- after she diluted it with whiskey. It is apparently something like 90% alcohol. Her company, San Miguel Beer (San Mig for short), is the largest alcohol producer in Southeast Asia.
The more negative parts of her personality she tries to hide, but they do come out, especially if she's drunk. In fact, one of her bad habits is drinking too much, especially on weekends and when she's tired or depressed from having been away from home from so long. I've mentioned that she can handle alcohol pretty well, so when you think about just how much she would need to drink in order to get drunk.....
She's usually a pushover in order to avoid conflict, but is known to get violent fairly quickly when the right buttons are pushed (insulting her home, being too persistent, heck, even karaoke- re: My Way). She tends to hold grudges for a long time as well.
She's terrible at politics as well, and that's a large part of why she always gets stuck with horrible bosses and pushed around by stronger nations. Her optimism in always seeing the best in people plays a role in it, as it blinds her to their darker natures unless they make it really freaking obvious.
Philippines is a bit sensitive about national identity. Having been colonised so often, she's forgotten quite a lot of her roots and this upsets her. She's not sure how to define herself. She's the most westernised country in Asia and the only country in that continent whose main religion is Roman Catholic, so she feels isolated from her neighbours, yet she is supposed to be part of the MaPhilIndo archipelago. Then there's Mindanao in the south wanting to be their own country. Of course, she doesn't fit in with the countries across the Atlantic or in Europe either. A lot of people from her house support her, but she's still unsure of herself. It doesn't help that a lot of Filipinos want to be white, or at least mixed-blood, as it has connotations of wealth and beauty. Chinese people are stereotyped as smarter and richer as well, due to years and years of interacting with China. Koreans are said to make better boyfriends and girlfriends since most Filipinos' only knowledge of Korea comes from K-pop and TV shows.
History: Much of her time before Spain has been forgotten, though she still retains things she's learned like culture and food influenced by others. Lately, she has been remembering more and more, with the help of archaeologists and historians. The younger generation seems to be taking more of an interest in their roots. Spain burned down a lot of her old documents and relics- except for the ones made of gold, which he had melted down and used for his own country. (I’ll be going with what Hima said about Spain being strict with his colonies except Romano unless he states otherwise.) The ones people from her house managed to hide from him were mostly either lost or taken by America and put in his museums. He also tried to make her forget her native tongue and speak only English, since it was clearly the superior language. Spain was craftier, and realised that if he only taught her Spanish, she and her people would be able to hold secret conversations. He had his people who had the most contact with Filipinos learn their native language. His priests and monks also took to studying the native culture of the people, and most records of Philippines' pre-colonial pasts are from their observations.
During pre-colonial times, it is often said that the various kingdoms, tribes, rajahnates, and other forms of territory on her islands had nothing in common with each other, which is why Spain managed to divide and conquer them so easily. This wasn’t exactly true, though. They had geographic proximity to each other, moreso than mainland Asia and the other island countries. With that came wars and alliances, communication, closer trade links than with, say, China or what would become Malaysia and Indonesia, similar alphabets and some similarities in language. Some smaller kingdoms were united under stronger rulers.
Her home was a trading hub in Asia, and she happily traded with her neighbours, enjoying meeting and spending time with so many interesting people. China influenced her greatly, teaching her things like how to cook some of his dishes, giving her some words in his language (such as the sibling terminology used by the Tagalog people), and parts of her culture like touching her forehead to an elder’s hand in greeting as a sign of respect. Even during the Sea Ban, he still traded with her every other year rather than every ten years like other countries. Japan valued her “Rusun” (Luzon) jars more than gold, for they were valuable in the fermentation of tea leaves. Several of his people immigrated to her place, especially during the colonisation by Europe when the Japanese who converted to Christianity were being persecuted in their own country.
er closest friends were her sisters Malaysia and Indonesia, with whom she shares many similarities in costume, language, alphabet and culture, and Brunei, a childhood friend that she was joined in marriage with at some point (based on an arranged marriage between two royal families from Brunei and one of the kingdoms in the Philippines). The southern islands were closer to the islands that would become Indonesia, which was strongly influenced by India in terms of language, culture, and religion. Statues of Hindu deities were found on the islands, but the major religion was Islam. The unity under a common religion helped them fend off Spain when he came along. The highland peoples were also relatively safe from him and his men, due to their isolated and hard-to-find homes.
Though evidence has been found that she had contact with Europeans before Magellan came, after him, Spain started sending more and more missionaries to “enlighten” the heathen barbarians. Then came the military, with aforementioned colonising and burning and destroying her history. He turned the different kingdoms and territories against each other, using the “divide and conquer” strategy to take over every part of the islands he could get his hands at. While he did bring some good things, such as making education public and building the first university in Asia, and siestas some very beautiful clothes, he also told her that her culture was “ugly” and “uncivilised” and had her get rid of them. Although he meant well, he honestly believed what he said and saw her as a savage. At first, he left her governance to Mexico and barely paid any attention to her. He still isolated her from her neighbouring countries, friends and family, for fear that their “heathen ways” would taint her- and to stop her from realising what colonisation really is and getting help from others. China and Japan both tried to send help, as they tried to help the others, but failed. China was forbidden by his bosses, and the supplies Japan sent were sunk.
A strange country with green eyes, rather thick eyebrows and TERRIBLE food tried to take her from Spain, once, but the earthquakes, storms and landslides that were considered a common occurrence at her place convinced him it was cursed and he hastily gave her back.
She and Mexico grew to be close friends, as they were in the same boat. She helped him with his rebellion against Spain , even though she didn’t really get why as, in her naïvete, she believed in everything Spain told her. After he won, he wanted to return the favour, but his leaders decided that she had neither the resources nor the military strength to win, even with their help.
Since then, Spain kept a closer eye on her, occasionally allowing her to visit his place for her education. She was surprised by the difference between his house and hers, and started to see why Mexico wanted to get away. At first she wanted a peaceful resolution, with more independence to her and more authority given to her people. She wanted to be an autonomous province of Spain, rather than just a colony. However, as the Spanish committed more and more atrocities and killed more and more innocent people, she grew disillusioned with him. Finally, the slaughter of her supporters and the execution of three innocent priests on false charges of sedition and violent rebellion pushed her over the edge and she finally gave in to the rebels baying for blood.
A young country called the United States of America, whom one of her dearest friends, Jose Rizal, mentioned in a letter, waged war with Spain. He promised her freedom from oppression. He promised to teach her to govern herself for ten years before making her independent. He promised her friendship and support. All while his bosses bought her for a million dollars, then staged a false naval battle in Manila Bay, a place she holds dear because she used to come here to calm down and feel better by watching the beautiful sunsets there. Since she learned of that betrayal, she could never watch the sun set there again without remembering what happened, and envies the tourists and ordinary people who can enjoy it so much.
Of course, America also had good intentions. It’s just that his bosses decided that they liked owning a place so beautiful and full of natural resources, and people they could boss around. Like Spain and his bosses, they saw the natives as inferior savages. This led to the Philippine-American War, with unspeakable horrors committed by both sides. However, American soldiers burned down several villages with people still in them and killed more than a million civilians- and believed they were right in doing so.
America regretted it, being a very much freedom-loving country who only wanted to help others. He tried to make it up to her during the Second World War by supporting her more than his bosses wanted him to. However, the Filipino army was inadequately trained and had nowhere near enough equipment and weapons to fight back against Japan. He had no choice but leave, declaring her capital an open city in order to prevent any more deaths of the innocent and promising to return and liberate her.
In the meantime, she was reunited with an old friend. Japan was nothing like the reserved but likeable friend she remembered. He was a fanatic, convinced of his so-called Asia Greater Co-prosperity Sphere, unaware that his soldiers were treating hers like sub-human scum, slaughtering her people and raping her women. He set up a puppet government to try and convince her of his ideals. It worked for a lot of people, but from her previous experience she saw through it and decided her best bet would be with the Allied Forces. She went into hiding in the forests and mountains she grew up in, that Japan and his military could not navigate. She spied on his activities and relayed vital information to the Allies, sabotaging him whenever she could.
Finally, America returned as promised. She managed to lead him to where the American POWs were being held and had her men hold off the Japanese forces while America liberated his soldiers. One of her men destroyed four tanks with a bazooka. Together they took back her land piece by piece, until finally only Manila was left. The Allies decided it would be best to bomb the city and kill of the Japanese still inside, refusing to surrender- but did they order the evacuation of Filipinos still there? No. That would take too long and might allow the Japanese to escape. Never mind the buildings full of her memories and historic value. Never mind the lives of innocent people. Kill them all. Destroy every place where Japanese were known to be hiding.
That is the reason why Manila is called “The Warsaw of Asia”.
After that, with help from America, she recovered and even became the second most prosperous nation in Asia. Many Filipinos nowadays believe that we owe America a debt of gratitude (utang na loob) for this. Not really. This barely made up for the atrocities during his colonial rule. The sentiment at the time was “get out of our country and take your junk with you so that we can finally govern ourselves”. America left, leaving behind several laws and bills that gave him an advantage over her, including one Mutual Defense Treaty that meant whenever one of them went to war, the other had to help. Guess who benefitted from that the most. Though she didn’t mind helping out South Korea and Vietnam, she was devastated at having to fight another old friend: China, who was her Kuya (older brother). Whom she admired and respected for his skills, business savvy, and yes, his physical beauty. Who had always treated her well and taught her many things.
When her president during the Cold War, Ramon Magsaysay, saw that America would lose the Vietnam War, he ordered her to go and make friends with Russia. She was scared at first, having heard many horrible stories about him (mainly from- you guessed it- Red Scare America). Though geographically speaking, his house was closer to hers than America’s, and he was a good…acquaintance to China, they had never had contact before. (Actually, I read an article where one Russian guy tried to establish ties between the two countries during Spanish colonial rule, but of course Spain wanted her to have as little contact with others as possible so that didn’t work.) She asked another old friend, India for help. Kuya India agreed to be a mediator of sorts and let them meet at his house, on neutral grounds.
Russia turned out to be a rather childish man who just wanted friends. He liked sunflowers, as well. He can’t be all that bad, can he? They got on well, and he invited her to come to his house to finalise the treaty. (I got this from Wikipedia when I was looking up our foreign relations, so unless that was a lie, I’m not making this up.) Since then they’ve been on friendly terms, if not very close.
A business-savvy president saw the value in strengthening ties with their neighbours, especially China. He managed to quell civil unrest and lower crime by placing the country under martial law. However, his lackeys, his wife, and a lot of people argue that even he was corrupt. He did use the people’s taxes to buy his wife around three thousand pairs of shoes, after all. And used martial law to turn the country into a dictatorship. He was ousted by a peaceful revolution, and his rival’s (whom, as it turns out, he didn’t kill after all) widow took his place.
She did her best, but she was surrounded by vultures looking to get ahead and giving her terrible advice. Not to mention, she herself was never trained in politics and had no idea what she was doing. She chose to eschew Marcos’ foreign policy, thinking that anything associated with him would be a bad thing- in the people’s eyes, anyway. Bad move. She decided that enough was enough, she was no good at this, and stepped down from power when the time came.
Since then Philippines has had ridiculously corrupt government officials, a movie-star president chosen for his popularity with the masses, and another business-savvy president who spent money on herself, on bribes and on her cronies. The current president started out so well. Philippines had such high hopes for him. She should have known that it wouldn’t last. It was too good to be true. Still, she refuses to give up hope that someday, things might get better.
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dinosaurusgede (the author of Maaf, a popular Hetalia-based doujinshi about Southeast Asia) was kind enough to volunteer what she found from Indonesian historical records of the Philipines. Her deviantart is here: http://dinosaurusgede.deviantart.com/
"Philippines Pre-Colonial Kingdom Memories :
This is taken from
Indonesia's perspective and historical tomes Indonesia collected about
Philippines kingdoms she interacted with.
=> Namayan Kingdom.
The oldest of Philippines kingdom. It was very famous as trade centers in
13th century, especially since she's situated in the South China Sea.
The Chinese use this Kingdom as a stop-over in their voyage to ASEAN and
India. Namayan was a protectorate of Srivijaya and Majapahit empire of
Indonesia, which means Namayan can retains her soverignity and she will
be protected from foreign invasion (it was high time Mongol invasion) in
exchange Srivijaya (Buddhist) and Majapahit (Hindu) has exclusive trade
relation with Namayan. This is how the Buddhist, Hindu and Indian
culture got through Philippines.
=> Tondo Kingdom
The second oldest kingdom in Philippines. She has exclusive trading rights
with China. Unlike other nations, she gets to trade with China every
year and sell the Chinese goods like silk and porcelain for very high
price. Japan has to pirate her trading ships just to get a hand on
Chinese goods. Her political marriage with Brunei is so Brunei can get
the well-sought Chinese goods from Tondo. Her culture is very influenced
by China and there are as so many Chinese traders in Tondo until the
massacre of 50,000 Chinese traders by Spain. Spain suspected the Chinese
for conspiracy against Spain occupation in the Philippines. Lakandula
(king of Tondo) with the allies from Brunei and Japan, designed a revolt
called Maharlika Conspiracy to oust Spain from Tondo. He will pick up a
military aid from Brunei and burn the city of Maynila with the Spanish
inside. Alas, there was a traitor who leaked this info to Spain.
Lakandula was executed before Brunei could took him to safety. Spain
then waged the Castile war with Brunei which ended in Brunei lost and
Spain claiming Tondo, ending the alliance of Brunei-Tondo.
=> Butuan Kingdom
Is very famous for their gold artworks. They are very good in their
goldsmith they could make a thread out of gold. Their closest trade
partners is Majapahit empire of Indonesia which is why Butuan is heavily
Indianized and using Javanese Kawi script. Majapahit (Indonesia) often
buy her gold works like the Brahmin priest belts, etc. They often
exchanged gold-smiths artisan, that why Butuan gold works is very
similiar to Javanese (Indonesia) gold works. Spain invaded in 16th
century because of the gold, but the Butuan people are very smartly hid
their gold so the Spanish couldn't get a hand to all of Butuan gold.
That is how there are still many Butuan gold artifacts to be discovered.
Butuan and Indonesian gold help combat inflation created by the Spanish
silver (imported from Mexico) in SEA. China and India weren't so lucky,
they were caught up by the silver inflation created by the over supply
of silver by Spain. Their economic downfall helped invasion of China and
India by Western powers.
=> Sulu Kingdom
Sulu warriors are often feared during in the 12th century as they often invade Brunei,
Brunei often ask protection from Majapahit empire (Indonesia). During
colonial era Sulu was the protector of the Sulu sea. She helps Brunei
and Indonesia expels Spain from this water. Sulu often helped Brunei in
Brunei civil wars and Spanish invasion thus as gratitude Brunei gave
Sabah to Sulu. The royals of Sulu are still family with the royals of
Ternate (Indonesia) since their royals marriage.
=> Tawalisi kingdom
In the 10th century, when a Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, visited
Sumatra(Indonesia) he was asking for a sea route to China. Sumatra
(Indonesia) recommended In Battuta to visit Tawalisi as there reign the
great Queen Urduja. Queen Urduja welcomed the Moroccan traveler very
warmly and generously gave him many presents. Ibn Battuta then record
this travels which become an inspiration for Jose Rizal. Many westerners
are skeptic about the existance of Tawalisi and Queen Urduja but Rizal
is the biggest supporter of the Tawalisis kingdom and Ibn Battutta
acounts. In Pangasingan many has names of Urduja (if I'm not mistaken).
There's even an animation movie aout Urduja, the warrior princess turned
into Queen.
=> Philippines during colonization and Indonesia
Despite Philippines was under colonization, Indonesia traders often visits
Manila to trade. Manila was a meeting point between Indonesia and
Chinese traders. The main commodity of their trade is trepang (sea
cucumber), pearls, spices and sea shells from Marege (Australia).
Indonesian has been viewing the Philippines Katiputan closely as it was
one of the early organization of anti-colonialism struggle. When USA
imassacred Philippines people in the PH-US war, many Indonesians are
protesting and demanding the Netherlands colonial government to
interfere. Unfortunately since Netherlands is Britain's ally he was
forced to stay neutral towards USA conduct in the Philippines. Many
Indonesians are entering the Philippines illegaly to help fight the
Philippines people in the Philippines-America war. We were the silent
witness of the dehumanization USA done to the Philippines, including the
show case of Human Zoo of the Igorot people where Pinoys were forced to
eat dogs everyday in the zoo, to show how Philippines are "half-devil
half-child".
Jose Rizal longed for a united Malay nations called
Maphilindo. To unite all the Malay race which were fracture by years of
colonization."
Current international relations:
Africa- she doesn’t really have much contact with African countries, except for helping with UN missions there and some of her people working in places like Egypt. As such, they don’t really know much about each other.
ASEAN- while she considers them her family, her 400 years apart from them means that she isn’t as close to them as she used to be. Sometimes, she feels somewhat isolated among them. Still, she cares about them very much and knows she can rely on them. Currently, they are trying to get China to leave off a bit and respect them more.
China- they have reconciled and are business partners, but again, not as close as they used to be. Also, they have been arguing a lot more recently, and it’s really starting to get worrying. Both sides are hoping for a peaceful solution…
France- she is uncomfortable with how physical he is at showing affection when they’re not that close, but she likes him well enough and admires his love of freedom. They share similar sentiments about love- how wonderful it is, and everyone should be able to experience it, even once. Though it is painful when you are separated, all the joy you gave each other was worth that suffering. Not to mention his fashion, ooh. He used to hold a fashion fete at her house once a year.
European Union- one of her biggest trading partners. She occasionally works for the members. Lately, they and the UK have been pressuring her to stop taxing them so much to sell their alcoholic drinks at her place. She argues that she would lose far too much money if she did, as such drinks are significantly less popular than her home brews and not that many people buy them/can afford them/want them. She has agreements on paper with most of them, and a lot of her military equipment comes from them (mostly the cheap antiques because she has a low military budget).
India- currently a friend and business outsourcing rival. They have a friendly competition to see who can outdo the other. They also have joint projects on some research areas such as agriculture and green technology.
Indonesia and Malaysia- out of all of ASEAN, she is closest to these two and the three of them are sisters that make up the MaPhilIndo Archipelago. They visit each other often, chatting, going out, and just generally bonding.
Ireland- they share a love of drinking and religious fervour. As such, she is a welcome helper at his home. She is also welcome to help him deplete his stores of alcohol.
Japan- they reconciled through the power of…basketball? According to what I’ve read, the thawing of their post WWII relationship began through sporting events. Huh. The anime and manga boom probably helped. They are very popular at her place, especially with the younger kids, but she herself is too busy with work to pay much attention. Nowadays Japan is a valued friend and potential ally. They also both like to take pictures of everything.
United Arab Emirates- she often works for them as a housekeeper.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland- both England and Scotland often hire her, usually in a job to do with medicine and/or care. Wales, not as much. They get on fine, and like to try out her foods on occasion. Except balut. They didn’t like that very much. England is more formal and proper with her, treating her like a lady, while Scotland is more easy-going and often invites her out for a drink after a hard day’s work (until the offcial design for him comes out, I'll go with Hima's previous post saying he's brave, friendly and an alcoholic).
United States of America- she stills relies on him for a lot of things, but is trying to change that. Although she does consider him a friend and an admirable person for his strength and courage, she dislikes being bossed around by him. They get on well most of the time, except when he acts all superior. He still helps her a lot.
Russia-a friendly country, though she doesn’t know him very well. Babysitters from her house are apparently popular at his, so they have agreed to capitalise on that. Lately he has been visiting more often to escape his cold house into the warmth of her home.
South Korea- well, she has a nurturing nature, so she dotes on her younger brother figure. He is excitable and cheerful, which she likes. Hanging out with serious people all the time would tire her out, you know? He often comes to visit, and they watch his TV shows together. Older folk are joking that South Koreans are taking over the country, though it is a serious concern for some as Korean pop culture is ridiculously popular.
Spain- he doesn’t pay her much attention nowadays, though they are friends and he does feel guilt about the things he did. He sometimes visits.
Taiwan- she technically doesn’t recognise her as her own country, but has trade links with her anyway. They sometimes team up together to protect mutual interests when China starts getting too pushy.
Vietnam- her “only communist ally”, they are currently trying to reach an agreement with China over matters of territory. They are good friends.
Trivia:
(That was a joke, btw)
Republic of the Philippines
Republika ng Pilipinas
Name: Originally Liwayway Saguisag; Spain renamed her Maria Josefa de la Cruz to be “more civilised”. She shortened that to “Mari-jo”. (It’s popular to give your daughter the first name “Maria” followed by a second name, and shorten it to “Mari” with the first syllable of their second name at the end.)
Personality: A cheerful, family-oriented and hardworking young woman who loves music and celebrations. Although her house is always chaotic and in terrible shape, she tries her best and remains optimistic that things will change for the better. Unfortunately, she is a terrible judge of character and almost always places her trust in the wrong person.
She seems to be plagued by bad luck since birth, having to deal with storms, volcanoes and earthquakes as well as normal nation-tan problems such as corrupt politicians and the after-effects of colonisation. Despite this, she smiles and looks forward to tomorrow, hoping that her efforts will someday pay off.
When interacting with other nations, she is polite, open and friendly. She likes spending time with and getting to know others. When nations visit her house, she always treats them as well as she can. Sometimes she will try to feed them too much without realising it, being a big eater herself- did you know Filipinos can eat as many as 10 meals a day? Breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon meal, dinner, midnight snacks and several other snacks between meals. Usually though, we eat less than that. For households with average income and above, main meals comprise of a plate of rice served with a dish of meat and/or vegetables. Snacks would be packets of biscuits (around 3-5 pieces) or bags of chips (crisps to the British), fruits, things like that. Really impoverished families are lucky if they can afford even one meal of rice a day with maybe some salt. Philippines treats food as sacred, even before her country became so poor, as she considers it a gift from God (or gods during pre-colonial era). She hates to see anyone throw food away and will often be upset with them for days.
She likes foods to be either really sweet or really sour. We are notorious for dumping buckets of sugar in spaghetti sauce- which made Italy cry in despair the first time he tasted it xD We enjoy fruits that are sour, like green Indian mangoes and santol- a brown, round fruit with sour flesh and a pulpy, sweet white centre. We often dip them in salt, soy sauce or bagoong (shrimp paste) to balance out the taste (a/n being the weird little thing that I am, I used to dip green mango slices in sugar :P). A few of her dishes, like sinigang and paksiw, use tamarind in the soup. She loves all fruits, especially tropical fruits like pineapple and coconut. Of course, nothing could be better than SWEET, GOLDEN MANGOES! She loves mangoes very much, not only because it tastes great, but also because of a story someone used to tell her…
“Once upon a time there was a girl who was very good and very kind. Her parents loved her very much, and the villagers doted on her because she was always ready to help them when needed. One day while she was alone at home, an old woman passing through the village she lived in asked her for shelter for one night because she was so tired. Since her parents were not there, the girl made the decision herself. Of course, she agreed. The woman was a fairy, who gave the girl a blessing. When the girl grew old and the time came for her to die, she was buried beneath a mysterious old tree that never once bore fruit. A few years after, the tree grew golden, heart-shaped fruits- just like the girl’s heart. Though she was gone, she would be remembered forever. “
(This is one version of the Filipino legends pertaining to the origin of the mango fruit. I thought it would suit a nation-tan more than the one where a girl killed herself rather than marry a man she didn’t love.)
Since hearing that story, she admired the girl and wanted to be as kind as her. She’s always ready to help her friends and family, and tries to see the best in people. Her trusting nature often gets her in trouble, though. This will be elaborated on in her history.
She is often working for other nations as a nurse, maid/caretaker, doctor, sailor, etc. In her work she is conscientious and diligent, eager to earn more money to send back home to try and improve conditions there. She tries not to show her negative emotions (such as when she feels depressed whenever she’s away from home for too long).
She is a surprisingly heavy drinker (according to surveys, second only to Japan in Asia). It is likely that this is not a true representation of her drinking habits (no seriously, I grew up seeing people walk around drunk in broad daylight). She handles alcohol pretty well, and some of her concoctions are lethal. There is an urban legend of her lambanog knocking out an American G.I. in three shots- after she diluted it with whiskey. It is apparently something like 90% alcohol. Her company, San Miguel Beer (San Mig for short), is the largest alcohol producer in Southeast Asia.
The more negative parts of her personality she tries to hide, but they do come out, especially if she's drunk. In fact, one of her bad habits is drinking too much, especially on weekends and when she's tired or depressed from having been away from home from so long. I've mentioned that she can handle alcohol pretty well, so when you think about just how much she would need to drink in order to get drunk.....
She's usually a pushover in order to avoid conflict, but is known to get violent fairly quickly when the right buttons are pushed (insulting her home, being too persistent, heck, even karaoke- re: My Way). She tends to hold grudges for a long time as well.
She's terrible at politics as well, and that's a large part of why she always gets stuck with horrible bosses and pushed around by stronger nations. Her optimism in always seeing the best in people plays a role in it, as it blinds her to their darker natures unless they make it really freaking obvious.
Philippines is a bit sensitive about national identity. Having been colonised so often, she's forgotten quite a lot of her roots and this upsets her. She's not sure how to define herself. She's the most westernised country in Asia and the only country in that continent whose main religion is Roman Catholic, so she feels isolated from her neighbours, yet she is supposed to be part of the MaPhilIndo archipelago. Then there's Mindanao in the south wanting to be their own country. Of course, she doesn't fit in with the countries across the Atlantic or in Europe either. A lot of people from her house support her, but she's still unsure of herself. It doesn't help that a lot of Filipinos want to be white, or at least mixed-blood, as it has connotations of wealth and beauty. Chinese people are stereotyped as smarter and richer as well, due to years and years of interacting with China. Koreans are said to make better boyfriends and girlfriends since most Filipinos' only knowledge of Korea comes from K-pop and TV shows.
History: Much of her time before Spain has been forgotten, though she still retains things she's learned like culture and food influenced by others. Lately, she has been remembering more and more, with the help of archaeologists and historians. The younger generation seems to be taking more of an interest in their roots. Spain burned down a lot of her old documents and relics- except for the ones made of gold, which he had melted down and used for his own country. (I’ll be going with what Hima said about Spain being strict with his colonies except Romano unless he states otherwise.) The ones people from her house managed to hide from him were mostly either lost or taken by America and put in his museums. He also tried to make her forget her native tongue and speak only English, since it was clearly the superior language. Spain was craftier, and realised that if he only taught her Spanish, she and her people would be able to hold secret conversations. He had his people who had the most contact with Filipinos learn their native language. His priests and monks also took to studying the native culture of the people, and most records of Philippines' pre-colonial pasts are from their observations.
During pre-colonial times, it is often said that the various kingdoms, tribes, rajahnates, and other forms of territory on her islands had nothing in common with each other, which is why Spain managed to divide and conquer them so easily. This wasn’t exactly true, though. They had geographic proximity to each other, moreso than mainland Asia and the other island countries. With that came wars and alliances, communication, closer trade links than with, say, China or what would become Malaysia and Indonesia, similar alphabets and some similarities in language. Some smaller kingdoms were united under stronger rulers.
Her home was a trading hub in Asia, and she happily traded with her neighbours, enjoying meeting and spending time with so many interesting people. China influenced her greatly, teaching her things like how to cook some of his dishes, giving her some words in his language (such as the sibling terminology used by the Tagalog people), and parts of her culture like touching her forehead to an elder’s hand in greeting as a sign of respect. Even during the Sea Ban, he still traded with her every other year rather than every ten years like other countries. Japan valued her “Rusun” (Luzon) jars more than gold, for they were valuable in the fermentation of tea leaves. Several of his people immigrated to her place, especially during the colonisation by Europe when the Japanese who converted to Christianity were being persecuted in their own country.
er closest friends were her sisters Malaysia and Indonesia, with whom she shares many similarities in costume, language, alphabet and culture, and Brunei, a childhood friend that she was joined in marriage with at some point (based on an arranged marriage between two royal families from Brunei and one of the kingdoms in the Philippines). The southern islands were closer to the islands that would become Indonesia, which was strongly influenced by India in terms of language, culture, and religion. Statues of Hindu deities were found on the islands, but the major religion was Islam. The unity under a common religion helped them fend off Spain when he came along. The highland peoples were also relatively safe from him and his men, due to their isolated and hard-to-find homes.
Though evidence has been found that she had contact with Europeans before Magellan came, after him, Spain started sending more and more missionaries to “enlighten” the heathen barbarians. Then came the military, with aforementioned colonising and burning and destroying her history. He turned the different kingdoms and territories against each other, using the “divide and conquer” strategy to take over every part of the islands he could get his hands at. While he did bring some good things, such as making education public and building the first university in Asia, and siestas some very beautiful clothes, he also told her that her culture was “ugly” and “uncivilised” and had her get rid of them. Although he meant well, he honestly believed what he said and saw her as a savage. At first, he left her governance to Mexico and barely paid any attention to her. He still isolated her from her neighbouring countries, friends and family, for fear that their “heathen ways” would taint her- and to stop her from realising what colonisation really is and getting help from others. China and Japan both tried to send help, as they tried to help the others, but failed. China was forbidden by his bosses, and the supplies Japan sent were sunk.
A strange country with green eyes, rather thick eyebrows and TERRIBLE food tried to take her from Spain, once, but the earthquakes, storms and landslides that were considered a common occurrence at her place convinced him it was cursed and he hastily gave her back.
She and Mexico grew to be close friends, as they were in the same boat. She helped him with his rebellion against Spain , even though she didn’t really get why as, in her naïvete, she believed in everything Spain told her. After he won, he wanted to return the favour, but his leaders decided that she had neither the resources nor the military strength to win, even with their help.
Since then, Spain kept a closer eye on her, occasionally allowing her to visit his place for her education. She was surprised by the difference between his house and hers, and started to see why Mexico wanted to get away. At first she wanted a peaceful resolution, with more independence to her and more authority given to her people. She wanted to be an autonomous province of Spain, rather than just a colony. However, as the Spanish committed more and more atrocities and killed more and more innocent people, she grew disillusioned with him. Finally, the slaughter of her supporters and the execution of three innocent priests on false charges of sedition and violent rebellion pushed her over the edge and she finally gave in to the rebels baying for blood.
A young country called the United States of America, whom one of her dearest friends, Jose Rizal, mentioned in a letter, waged war with Spain. He promised her freedom from oppression. He promised to teach her to govern herself for ten years before making her independent. He promised her friendship and support. All while his bosses bought her for a million dollars, then staged a false naval battle in Manila Bay, a place she holds dear because she used to come here to calm down and feel better by watching the beautiful sunsets there. Since she learned of that betrayal, she could never watch the sun set there again without remembering what happened, and envies the tourists and ordinary people who can enjoy it so much.
Of course, America also had good intentions. It’s just that his bosses decided that they liked owning a place so beautiful and full of natural resources, and people they could boss around. Like Spain and his bosses, they saw the natives as inferior savages. This led to the Philippine-American War, with unspeakable horrors committed by both sides. However, American soldiers burned down several villages with people still in them and killed more than a million civilians- and believed they were right in doing so.
America regretted it, being a very much freedom-loving country who only wanted to help others. He tried to make it up to her during the Second World War by supporting her more than his bosses wanted him to. However, the Filipino army was inadequately trained and had nowhere near enough equipment and weapons to fight back against Japan. He had no choice but leave, declaring her capital an open city in order to prevent any more deaths of the innocent and promising to return and liberate her.
In the meantime, she was reunited with an old friend. Japan was nothing like the reserved but likeable friend she remembered. He was a fanatic, convinced of his so-called Asia Greater Co-prosperity Sphere, unaware that his soldiers were treating hers like sub-human scum, slaughtering her people and raping her women. He set up a puppet government to try and convince her of his ideals. It worked for a lot of people, but from her previous experience she saw through it and decided her best bet would be with the Allied Forces. She went into hiding in the forests and mountains she grew up in, that Japan and his military could not navigate. She spied on his activities and relayed vital information to the Allies, sabotaging him whenever she could.
Finally, America returned as promised. She managed to lead him to where the American POWs were being held and had her men hold off the Japanese forces while America liberated his soldiers. One of her men destroyed four tanks with a bazooka. Together they took back her land piece by piece, until finally only Manila was left. The Allies decided it would be best to bomb the city and kill of the Japanese still inside, refusing to surrender- but did they order the evacuation of Filipinos still there? No. That would take too long and might allow the Japanese to escape. Never mind the buildings full of her memories and historic value. Never mind the lives of innocent people. Kill them all. Destroy every place where Japanese were known to be hiding.
That is the reason why Manila is called “The Warsaw of Asia”.
After that, with help from America, she recovered and even became the second most prosperous nation in Asia. Many Filipinos nowadays believe that we owe America a debt of gratitude (utang na loob) for this. Not really. This barely made up for the atrocities during his colonial rule. The sentiment at the time was “get out of our country and take your junk with you so that we can finally govern ourselves”. America left, leaving behind several laws and bills that gave him an advantage over her, including one Mutual Defense Treaty that meant whenever one of them went to war, the other had to help. Guess who benefitted from that the most. Though she didn’t mind helping out South Korea and Vietnam, she was devastated at having to fight another old friend: China, who was her Kuya (older brother). Whom she admired and respected for his skills, business savvy, and yes, his physical beauty. Who had always treated her well and taught her many things.
When her president during the Cold War, Ramon Magsaysay, saw that America would lose the Vietnam War, he ordered her to go and make friends with Russia. She was scared at first, having heard many horrible stories about him (mainly from- you guessed it- Red Scare America). Though geographically speaking, his house was closer to hers than America’s, and he was a good…acquaintance to China, they had never had contact before. (Actually, I read an article where one Russian guy tried to establish ties between the two countries during Spanish colonial rule, but of course Spain wanted her to have as little contact with others as possible so that didn’t work.) She asked another old friend, India for help. Kuya India agreed to be a mediator of sorts and let them meet at his house, on neutral grounds.
Russia turned out to be a rather childish man who just wanted friends. He liked sunflowers, as well. He can’t be all that bad, can he? They got on well, and he invited her to come to his house to finalise the treaty. (I got this from Wikipedia when I was looking up our foreign relations, so unless that was a lie, I’m not making this up.) Since then they’ve been on friendly terms, if not very close.
A business-savvy president saw the value in strengthening ties with their neighbours, especially China. He managed to quell civil unrest and lower crime by placing the country under martial law. However, his lackeys, his wife, and a lot of people argue that even he was corrupt. He did use the people’s taxes to buy his wife around three thousand pairs of shoes, after all. And used martial law to turn the country into a dictatorship. He was ousted by a peaceful revolution, and his rival’s (whom, as it turns out, he didn’t kill after all) widow took his place.
She did her best, but she was surrounded by vultures looking to get ahead and giving her terrible advice. Not to mention, she herself was never trained in politics and had no idea what she was doing. She chose to eschew Marcos’ foreign policy, thinking that anything associated with him would be a bad thing- in the people’s eyes, anyway. Bad move. She decided that enough was enough, she was no good at this, and stepped down from power when the time came.
Since then Philippines has had ridiculously corrupt government officials, a movie-star president chosen for his popularity with the masses, and another business-savvy president who spent money on herself, on bribes and on her cronies. The current president started out so well. Philippines had such high hopes for him. She should have known that it wouldn’t last. It was too good to be true. Still, she refuses to give up hope that someday, things might get better.
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dinosaurusgede (the author of Maaf, a popular Hetalia-based doujinshi about Southeast Asia) was kind enough to volunteer what she found from Indonesian historical records of the Philipines. Her deviantart is here: http://dinosaurusgede.deviantart.com/
"Philippines Pre-Colonial Kingdom Memories :
This is taken from
Indonesia's perspective and historical tomes Indonesia collected about
Philippines kingdoms she interacted with.
=> Namayan Kingdom.
The oldest of Philippines kingdom. It was very famous as trade centers in
13th century, especially since she's situated in the South China Sea.
The Chinese use this Kingdom as a stop-over in their voyage to ASEAN and
India. Namayan was a protectorate of Srivijaya and Majapahit empire of
Indonesia, which means Namayan can retains her soverignity and she will
be protected from foreign invasion (it was high time Mongol invasion) in
exchange Srivijaya (Buddhist) and Majapahit (Hindu) has exclusive trade
relation with Namayan. This is how the Buddhist, Hindu and Indian
culture got through Philippines.
=> Tondo Kingdom
The second oldest kingdom in Philippines. She has exclusive trading rights
with China. Unlike other nations, she gets to trade with China every
year and sell the Chinese goods like silk and porcelain for very high
price. Japan has to pirate her trading ships just to get a hand on
Chinese goods. Her political marriage with Brunei is so Brunei can get
the well-sought Chinese goods from Tondo. Her culture is very influenced
by China and there are as so many Chinese traders in Tondo until the
massacre of 50,000 Chinese traders by Spain. Spain suspected the Chinese
for conspiracy against Spain occupation in the Philippines. Lakandula
(king of Tondo) with the allies from Brunei and Japan, designed a revolt
called Maharlika Conspiracy to oust Spain from Tondo. He will pick up a
military aid from Brunei and burn the city of Maynila with the Spanish
inside. Alas, there was a traitor who leaked this info to Spain.
Lakandula was executed before Brunei could took him to safety. Spain
then waged the Castile war with Brunei which ended in Brunei lost and
Spain claiming Tondo, ending the alliance of Brunei-Tondo.
=> Butuan Kingdom
Is very famous for their gold artworks. They are very good in their
goldsmith they could make a thread out of gold. Their closest trade
partners is Majapahit empire of Indonesia which is why Butuan is heavily
Indianized and using Javanese Kawi script. Majapahit (Indonesia) often
buy her gold works like the Brahmin priest belts, etc. They often
exchanged gold-smiths artisan, that why Butuan gold works is very
similiar to Javanese (Indonesia) gold works. Spain invaded in 16th
century because of the gold, but the Butuan people are very smartly hid
their gold so the Spanish couldn't get a hand to all of Butuan gold.
That is how there are still many Butuan gold artifacts to be discovered.
Butuan and Indonesian gold help combat inflation created by the Spanish
silver (imported from Mexico) in SEA. China and India weren't so lucky,
they were caught up by the silver inflation created by the over supply
of silver by Spain. Their economic downfall helped invasion of China and
India by Western powers.
=> Sulu Kingdom
Sulu warriors are often feared during in the 12th century as they often invade Brunei,
Brunei often ask protection from Majapahit empire (Indonesia). During
colonial era Sulu was the protector of the Sulu sea. She helps Brunei
and Indonesia expels Spain from this water. Sulu often helped Brunei in
Brunei civil wars and Spanish invasion thus as gratitude Brunei gave
Sabah to Sulu. The royals of Sulu are still family with the royals of
Ternate (Indonesia) since their royals marriage.
=> Tawalisi kingdom
In the 10th century, when a Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, visited
Sumatra(Indonesia) he was asking for a sea route to China. Sumatra
(Indonesia) recommended In Battuta to visit Tawalisi as there reign the
great Queen Urduja. Queen Urduja welcomed the Moroccan traveler very
warmly and generously gave him many presents. Ibn Battuta then record
this travels which become an inspiration for Jose Rizal. Many westerners
are skeptic about the existance of Tawalisi and Queen Urduja but Rizal
is the biggest supporter of the Tawalisis kingdom and Ibn Battutta
acounts. In Pangasingan many has names of Urduja (if I'm not mistaken).
There's even an animation movie aout Urduja, the warrior princess turned
into Queen.
=> Philippines during colonization and Indonesia
Despite Philippines was under colonization, Indonesia traders often visits
Manila to trade. Manila was a meeting point between Indonesia and
Chinese traders. The main commodity of their trade is trepang (sea
cucumber), pearls, spices and sea shells from Marege (Australia).
Indonesian has been viewing the Philippines Katiputan closely as it was
one of the early organization of anti-colonialism struggle. When USA
imassacred Philippines people in the PH-US war, many Indonesians are
protesting and demanding the Netherlands colonial government to
interfere. Unfortunately since Netherlands is Britain's ally he was
forced to stay neutral towards USA conduct in the Philippines. Many
Indonesians are entering the Philippines illegaly to help fight the
Philippines people in the Philippines-America war. We were the silent
witness of the dehumanization USA done to the Philippines, including the
show case of Human Zoo of the Igorot people where Pinoys were forced to
eat dogs everyday in the zoo, to show how Philippines are "half-devil
half-child".
Jose Rizal longed for a united Malay nations called
Maphilindo. To unite all the Malay race which were fracture by years of
colonization."
Current international relations:
Africa- she doesn’t really have much contact with African countries, except for helping with UN missions there and some of her people working in places like Egypt. As such, they don’t really know much about each other.
ASEAN- while she considers them her family, her 400 years apart from them means that she isn’t as close to them as she used to be. Sometimes, she feels somewhat isolated among them. Still, she cares about them very much and knows she can rely on them. Currently, they are trying to get China to leave off a bit and respect them more.
China- they have reconciled and are business partners, but again, not as close as they used to be. Also, they have been arguing a lot more recently, and it’s really starting to get worrying. Both sides are hoping for a peaceful solution…
France- she is uncomfortable with how physical he is at showing affection when they’re not that close, but she likes him well enough and admires his love of freedom. They share similar sentiments about love- how wonderful it is, and everyone should be able to experience it, even once. Though it is painful when you are separated, all the joy you gave each other was worth that suffering. Not to mention his fashion, ooh. He used to hold a fashion fete at her house once a year.
European Union- one of her biggest trading partners. She occasionally works for the members. Lately, they and the UK have been pressuring her to stop taxing them so much to sell their alcoholic drinks at her place. She argues that she would lose far too much money if she did, as such drinks are significantly less popular than her home brews and not that many people buy them/can afford them/want them. She has agreements on paper with most of them, and a lot of her military equipment comes from them (mostly the cheap antiques because she has a low military budget).
India- currently a friend and business outsourcing rival. They have a friendly competition to see who can outdo the other. They also have joint projects on some research areas such as agriculture and green technology.
Indonesia and Malaysia- out of all of ASEAN, she is closest to these two and the three of them are sisters that make up the MaPhilIndo Archipelago. They visit each other often, chatting, going out, and just generally bonding.
Ireland- they share a love of drinking and religious fervour. As such, she is a welcome helper at his home. She is also welcome to help him deplete his stores of alcohol.
Japan- they reconciled through the power of…basketball? According to what I’ve read, the thawing of their post WWII relationship began through sporting events. Huh. The anime and manga boom probably helped. They are very popular at her place, especially with the younger kids, but she herself is too busy with work to pay much attention. Nowadays Japan is a valued friend and potential ally. They also both like to take pictures of everything.
United Arab Emirates- she often works for them as a housekeeper.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland- both England and Scotland often hire her, usually in a job to do with medicine and/or care. Wales, not as much. They get on fine, and like to try out her foods on occasion. Except balut. They didn’t like that very much. England is more formal and proper with her, treating her like a lady, while Scotland is more easy-going and often invites her out for a drink after a hard day’s work (until the offcial design for him comes out, I'll go with Hima's previous post saying he's brave, friendly and an alcoholic).
United States of America- she stills relies on him for a lot of things, but is trying to change that. Although she does consider him a friend and an admirable person for his strength and courage, she dislikes being bossed around by him. They get on well most of the time, except when he acts all superior. He still helps her a lot.
Russia-a friendly country, though she doesn’t know him very well. Babysitters from her house are apparently popular at his, so they have agreed to capitalise on that. Lately he has been visiting more often to escape his cold house into the warmth of her home.
South Korea- well, she has a nurturing nature, so she dotes on her younger brother figure. He is excitable and cheerful, which she likes. Hanging out with serious people all the time would tire her out, you know? He often comes to visit, and they watch his TV shows together. Older folk are joking that South Koreans are taking over the country, though it is a serious concern for some as Korean pop culture is ridiculously popular.
Spain- he doesn’t pay her much attention nowadays, though they are friends and he does feel guilt about the things he did. He sometimes visits.
Taiwan- she technically doesn’t recognise her as her own country, but has trade links with her anyway. They sometimes team up together to protect mutual interests when China starts getting too pushy.
Vietnam- her “only communist ally”, they are currently trying to reach an agreement with China over matters of territory. They are good friends.
Trivia:
- Her name was originally going to be Mutya, but I thought Liwayway sounded more Filipino. Mainly due to the repeated syllable. We like those.
- Saguisag means “symbol”.
- She may or may not have had a small crush on China at some point in her early history. If she did, it was probably forgotten, but traces of the memory remain. Does that make sense?
- I don’t really ship her with anyone. Hm. Maybe Rizal. Nah, he’s a bit of a mysoginist.
- She has a pet Philippine Eagle named Adlao.
- She can also see mythical creatures, but a lot of the ones at her home scare her.
- Maria Makiling was one of the people who raised her, but never spoke to her again after she failed to save the human Maria Makiling fell in love with from Spain's soldiers.
- She is tormented by two storm spirits, Amihan and Habagat. They are sister and brother who take turns visiting her for a few months each year. They are the main reason it took Spain about a hundred years to subdue her, and why Britain thought she was cursed.
- She often complains about her house being too hot, but in reality there are few things she hates more than being too cold.
- She doesn’t remember Britain’s…attempt. It would be best to keep it that way.
- She is capable of holding grudges for a very long time. That’s why it took so long to reconcile with Japan.
- Some of the stuff here I read about when I was younger and didn’t know squat about how important it is to reference your work. I’ll try and find them, but it looks like a lot of it’s on Wiki, anyway. I made her female because according to this wonderful blog and this lovely person, the MaPhilIndo archipelago were made up of matriarchal societies before colonisation. After all, "ang nanay ay ang ilaw ng tahanan" ("the mother is the light of the home").