Physical Features 2w241h

1. Physical Features a. Taal Volcano in Talisay, Batangas, is one of the world’s 17 Decade Volcanoes — volcanoes that need to be looked after given their active state and explosive history. It’s also located in a lake, and has a lake inside it, with an even smaller island in it! b. c. The amount of sulfur dioxide expelled by Mount Pinatubo during its eruption on Jun. 15, 1991, created a two-year haze of sulfuric acid all over the world. It caused global temperatures to drop by 0.5 °C (0.9 °F). d. In the province of Camiguin, there are more volcanos (seven) than towns (five). There hasn’t been an eruption since the mid-1950s, but the island has the most number of volcanoes per square kilometer in the world. e. The rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The terraces were built about 2,000 years ago and — thanks to the rough terrain keeping settlers out — remain as they would have been in pre-colonial times. f. The cone of the sea snail Conus gloriamaris is a highly valued collector’s item, the first examples of which were found in the Philippines and sold at auction for upwards of $5,000. 2. History a. After the Second World War, the Philippine jeepney was born out of the G.I. Jeeps American soldiers brought to the country in the 1940s. It’s Pinoy upcycling! b. About 25 years before the first book was printed in the United States, the Tagala, the first Filipino-Spanish dictionary, was printed in 1613. c. The Philippines has won at least eight major international beauty pageant titles: two for Miss Universe; five for Miss International; and at least one for Miss World, the current titleholder being Megan Young. d. In 2002, the world’s biggest pair of shoes was made in Marikina City. The wingtips clock in at about 5.3 meters in length, 2.4 meters in width, and almost 2 meters in height. They cost two million Philippine pesos. e. The positioning of the Philippine flag’s colors indicates a message. If it is flown with the red stripe on top, the nation is in a state of war. Otherwise, during peacetime, the blue is on top. 3. Natural Resources a. The largest Philippine wild animal, the tamaraw, is a species of the buffalo that is similar to the carabao. It is found only in the island of Mindoro. b. The largest fish in the world, the Whale Shark, locally known as Butanding, regularly swims to the Philippine waters. c. The world’s shortest and lightest freshwater fish is the dwarf pygmy goby (Pandaka Pygmaea), a colorless and nearly transparent species

found in the streams and lakes of Luzon. Males have an average length of 8.7 mm. and weigh 4-5 mg. d. There are 12,000 or so species of seashells in the Philippines. The Conus Gloriamaris or "Glory of the Sea" is the rarest and most expensive in the world. e. Waling Waling Orchids - With some 800 to 1,000 species of orchids, the Philippines has one of the richest orchid floras in the world. Philippine orchids come in an amazing array of shapes, sizes and colors. Most grow only in old-growth forest, often on branches of huge trees dozens of meters above the forest floor. 4. Climate / Weather a. Filipinos celebrate the world’s longest religious holiday. The Christmas season begins on September 1st, as chillier winds and Christmas carols start filling the air, and ends on the first week of January, during the Feast of the Three Kings. b. Kibungan is known as the “Switzerland of Benguet” because of the frost during the cold months. c. The coldest temperature ever recorded in our country happens in January ‘1903 at Baguio where the temperature plump to just 3 degrees Celsius. d. In May ‘1987, the hottest temperature in Metro Manila was recorded at 38.5 degrees Celsius. e. The 42.2 degrees C recorded on April ‘1969 in Tuguegarao, Cagayan which is considered as the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Philippine history. 5. Government a. The Philippines, in southeastern Asia, consists of 7,107 islands lying between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The islands of Luzon and Mindanao for two-thirds of the land area. b. The Philippines lies just north of the world's largest Muslim state, Indonesia, it is about 94 percent Christian—mostly Roman Catholic. c. The government continues to make progress in negotiations with Muslim rebels with a cease-fire in 2003, and it works to provide political representation and economic development to the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. d. The Philippines is a republic with a presidential form of government wherein power is equally divided among its three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. e. One basic corollary in a presidential system of government is the principle of separation of powers wherein legislation belongs to Congress, execution to the Executive, and settlement of legal controversies to the Judiciary.