Did You Know!

FACTS ABOUT PHILIPPINES

• Cebu is the first Philippine City.
• Maria Teresa Calderon - World champion speed reader as listed in the Guinness Book of World Records
• In the Philippines, Filipinos were introduced to the English language in 1762 by British invaders, not Americans. Philippines is the world's 3rd largest English-speaking nation, next to the USA and the UK.
• Coconuts - the Philippines is considered to be the largest producer of coconuts
• Gemma Cruz was the first Filipina to win an international beauty title - Miss International 1964.
• Dan Inosanto - from Mike Robandido - Pinoy who taught Bruce Lee how to use arnis de mano.
• The second oldest Philippine printing press next to Manila can be found in Pila Laguna. The first book printed was named Vocabulario Delengua Tagala - the Philippines first Filipino - Spanish dictionary that was printed in 1613, 25 years older than the first book printed in the United States.
• The Philippine Basketball Association is Asia's premier and the world's second oldest professional league.
• After Happy Birthday, the song most sung in the Philippines is Lupang Hinirang, the national anthem.
• Philippine Airlines took to the skies on March 15, 1941, using a Beech Model 18 aircraft amid the specter of a global war. It became Asia's first airline.
• The world's largest pearl was discovered by a Filipino diver in a giant Tridacna (mollusk) under the Palawan Sea in 1934. Known as the "Pearl of Lao-Tzu", the gem weighs 14 pounds and measures 9 1/2 inches long and 5 1/2 inches in diameter. As of May 1984, it was valued at US$42 million. It is believed to be 600 years old.
• Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) Channel 3, the first television station in the country, went on the air in 1953.
• Fernando Amorsolo, a painter, was the first national artist declared by the Philippine government. The award was conferred on Amorsolo in April 1972, several days after his death.
• The world's second deepest spot underwater is in the Philippines. This spot, about 34,440 feet (10,497 meters) below the sea level, is known as the Philippine Deep or the Mindanao Trench. The Philippine Deep is in the floor of the Philippine Sea. The German ship Emden first plumbed the trench in 1927. The world's deepest part of the ocean is the Marianas Trench, which is over 11,000 meters below the seal level.
• The symbolic name for the Philippines, Juan dela Cruz, is not a Filipino invention? It was coined by R. McCulloch-Dick, a Scottish-born journalist working for the Manila Times in the early 1900s, after discovering it was the most common name in blotters
• Mayon is the most beautiful mountain I have ever seen, the world-renowned Fujiyama (Mt. Fuji) of Japan sinking into perfect insignificance by comparison. British traveler-writer A. Henry Savage Landor
• Ilo-Ilo golf and country club is the oldest golf club in the Philippines. It was built at 1908 by Irish Engineers.
• Emilio Aguinaldo lost to Manuel L. Quezon in the country's first presidential elections in 1935.
• Bagumbayan was the original name of Luneta Park.
• Of the 500 known coral species in the world, 488 are found in the Philippines.
• The Philippines is home to some of the world's most exotic birds. One of the most endangered species is the exotic Kalangay or the Philippine cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia), which belongs to Psittacidae or the family of parrots. Some cockatoos can live up to 50 years. They are known for mimicking human voices. Most of them measure 33 centimeters in length and weigh 0.29 kilogram.