15 Interesting Facts About the Philippines?

There is a lot of things to learn about the Philippines but it is hard getting all the facts about my home country. So, allow me to briefly introduce some things to you by showing you 15 general information of my home country.

• Manila is the capital city of the Philippines situated in the northern part of the country.
  

• According to Worldometer, the population of the Philippines has more than 109,000,000 residents currently in 2020 (Philippine Population, 2020).

• The official language spoken in the Philippines is Tagalog.

• The current leader/president is Rodrigo Duterte, and he has been in the seat since 2016.

• The currency in the Philippines is simply called Philippine Peso.

• Canadian Residents do need to have a regular passport. If you are a tourist or business traveler usually visa is not required for stays up to 30 days. However, if you wish to study in the Philippines, you do need a student visa (Philippines, 2020).

• According to travel.gc.ca, for health advisories, currently there are 3 health travel related notices which are namely: Polio, Zika virus, and Global Measles (Philippines, 2020).

• In 2015 Roman Catholic is the most huge religion in the country having 79.5% the rest are Muslim having 6.0%, Iglesias ni Cristo (INC) having 2.6%, Evangelical having 2.4% and other religions are 9.5% (Hernandez, Cullinane, & Borlaza, 2020).

• The national airline is Philippine Airlines (PR).

• Some of the unique forms of transportation are Jeepney, Tricycle (it is kind of like the tuk-tuk of Thailand), Pedicab or in our province we call it "Padyak" (it is just a bicycle but with a side-car to fit 2-3 people.)

• The Philippines is the only country around the world to have two different flags, one is when the country is at peace and the other one is when the country is at war. 
  

• People say that in the Philippines Christmas starts in September and ends in January during the feast of the three kings. This is a tradition that I really like the most because comes September we are already starting to decorate our houses and even municipalities and churches. Christmas celebration is fun in the Philippine because children and even teenagers never miss going to their neighbors' houses and sing a Christmas carol in exchange for a little money of sometimes food.
  

• The Philippines has three major island group which are namely Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao but people call it in more simpler way, LuzViMinda.
  

• Balut is one of the most common and known Filipino street food. It is a hard-boiled duck egg with a partially formed duck fetus. I have tried it several times but either I, couldn't eat the duck fetus. I only eat the "soup" of it and the yolk.
  

• Tinikling is the traditional folk dance of the Philippines and also the national dance. It is a unique dance where there are people tapping the bamboo poles on the ground and there are people dancing and passing through it without hurting themselves. I actually tried dancing this when I was in sixth grade and I must say that it is not easy and I have hurt my feet several times.