The Metro Manila Report: National Landscape, Current Challenges and Opportunities for Growth

• Main Authors: Institute for Societal Leadership, ELLINGTON, John W.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Philippines; Culture; Development; Politics; Asian History; Asian Studies; Growth and Development; Political Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/isl_research/5; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=isl_research
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Although Western colonisers have, to varying degrees, shaped the political structures and economies of nearly all modern Southeast Asian nations, they achieved an unmatched level of cultural and institutional penetration in the Philippines. Far from the Indic influences that inspired Angkor Wat, Borobudur and Bagan, the island group was only marginally sanskritised during the pre-colonial period. With some notable exceptions in the south, Muslim communities were also never able to establish firm roots. Mindanao, Sulu and even southern Luzon were home to maritime sultanates beginning in the late 14th century, but a Spanish victory over the Muslim Rajah of Maynila in 1571 effectively halted widespread adoption of Islam throughout the archipelago. More than three centuries of Spanish rule have left a pro found mark on the culture, language and religion of the Filipinos, while the subsequent half-century of American administration has largely defined the structure of their country’s political and legal institutions.