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| Capital | Manila (de jure) Baguio (temporary and de facto) | ||||||
| Largest city | Quezon City (overrun) | ||||||
| Other cities | Cebu, Davao, Zamboanga, Olongapo, Angeles, San Fernando, Ilo-Ilo, Tacloban, Dumaguete, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro | ||||||
| Language official |
Filipino | ||||||
| others | English, Tagalog, Bisaya, Chavacano, Waray-Waray, Ilongo, Tausug | ||||||
| Demonym | Filipino | ||||||
| President | Rodrigo Duterte | ||||||
| Established | June 12, 1898 | ||||||
| Independence | from United States | ||||||
| declared | March 24, 1934 | ||||||
| recognized | July 4, 1946 | ||||||
| Currency | Philippine peso | ||||||
| Organizations | UN, ASEAN | ||||||
The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is an sovereign island nation located in Southeast Asia. It is composed of 7,107 islands and is divided into three island regions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. With a population of over a 100 million people, the Philippines is heavily affected with the Zombie Fish Worm Outbreak of 2017. It was the third country to report cases of the Wildfire parasite, next to the United States and Portugal.
History[]
See also: History of the Philippines (1986-present)
The Philippines recently held the 2016 Presidential Elections. Rodrigo Duterte, formerly the mayor of Davao City, was elected President. Duterte was inaugurated on June 30, 2016. His first act in office was the police and the military crackdown on drug lords and pushers. Dubbed by the media as the "War on Drugs," it was initially hailed by the public with drugs being blamed on the high crime rate of the country. However, it was also met with criticism by various human rights organizations and the international community. By the end of 2016, over 7,000 were killed in this operation. Majority of those killed were either suspected drug users or bystanders who happened to be in an area of operation.
On the international scale, Duterte has been a vocal critic of the West, particularly the European Union and the United States, the country's oldest ally. Instead, he has sought rapprochement with the adversaries of the U.S. such as Russia and China. This shift of foreign policy towards China has somewhat eased tensions between the countries even with unresolved issues in the South China Sea. The country was recently awarded with the rights of sovereignty of the Scarborough Shoal, which was seized by China in 2012. It was given during the international arbitration headed by the UN in The Hague, the Netherlands. Even with this, China still retains most of the shoal.
Zombie Fish Worm Outbreak[]
The first cases of the Zombie Fish Worm occurred on March 28, 2017. Philippine authorities reacted fast, as most of the government was informed of the nature infection by its diplomatic staff stationed in the Embassy of the Philippines in Washington, D.C. The Department of Health issued an order that raw fish cannot be consumed and therefore must be cooked properly to kill the parasite. The police and the military quickly rounded up the infected and executed them on sight. Orders were given to shoot any infected in the head, since head shots would bring them down faster. However, three weeks later, cases were soon multiplying and hospitals started overflowing with the infected. When things got out of hand, there was a nationwide panic in the Philippines. Many citizens began panic buying food, supplies, fuel, and even guns as it was believed the government could no longer cope with the crisis. Riots soon occurred throughout most of the major cities throughout the country. It was no doubt that Metro Manila will fall because of its population density. In addition, there were reported cases in Cebu, Tacloban, and Zamboanga City.
PSG Bell-412 allegedly carrying President Duterte taking off from the Malacañang Palace.
President Duterte continued to work in the Malacañang Palace despite the infected being witnessed only blocks away. This saw the increased security measures employed by the Presidential Security Group (PSG) with elements of the PNP and the Army regular. The Palace was attacked by a horde of 50 infected which was quickly decimated by the security detail. However, it became clear that the capital would indeed fall. Following the orders of his advisers, Duterte reluctantly agreed to abandon Manila and head to Baguio City, where government operations will continue. Duterte was evacuated from Manila on April 30, 2017, where a group of PSG choppers picked him up from the Palace and flew to Baguio. The remaining units of PSG, police, and military continued to hold off the palace in a last stand manner before deciding to retreat. Armored vehicles were abandoned as UH-1 Hueys picked up the soldiers and police. The rest who could not make it escaped via a speedboat or Philippine Navy patrol boats in the Pasig River. Two PAF AW109s provided covering fire at the hordes before the Palace was breached. With Manila having been overrun with the infected, chaos reigned south of the country.
Some survivors, mainly news reporters, were relocated on the VGC Plaza, the headquarters of the network VGC. VGC relocated everyone into the VGC Plaza's vast, expandable area, equipped with advanced technologies and an anti-zombie shield, blocking zombies and infected non-zombies wherein the virus caoccupy the whole body. E-Media and it's sister The E Company made E-Media Television City a shelter and built a 50-storey (with 20 floors underground) ECondo to be a shelter. E-Media also needed to produce 100,000 ECable boxes everytime and they removed the subscription fees and plans and made all channels available in all DTV boxes since some news channels were on other plans. E-Media also protected their buildings in the whole country by putting some technologies from VGC with permission and building a 5-foot staircase and doors with guns and detectors to see the zombies. They also built 50-foot walls with rockets able to kill 50 zombies. This was approved by the FDA and was deemed not harmful to humans but harmful to zombies. All E-Media stations and ENetwork O&O stations in Manila still kept their normal programming. ABS-CBN and GMA were broadcasting here for the survivors as VGC and E-Media dropped digital TV boxes in plastic bags with balloons all over the Philippines to see what is happening.
Resettling in Baguio[]
Baguio City became the temporary capital of the Philippines. The city was chosen because of its ideal locations deep within the mountains of Luzon island. The roads could easily be blocked from infected hordes. There were some cases of the infected in Baguio but were quickly dealt with. Besides being the de facto seat of what remained of the Philippine government, the was also the de facto HQ of the Armed Forces, which made the Philippine Military Academy their forward operating base (FOB). The first order of Duterte was to muster up remaining military and police units still in Luzon and regroup at their current position in Baguio. However, only a few were able to report, as most were blocked by hordes of infected. Other places, a few military units were holding up outposts or supply depots. Only two airbases remained operational in Luzon: Clark Air Base in Angeles City (which was blocked from the infected) and Basa Air Base in Floridablanca. Nearby air bases have been overrun or abandoned while the others were too far out of reach. The contingent of S-211s, FA-50s, and OV-10 Broncos began conducting air raids on infected towns or within Metro Manila but these soon stopped on the order of the Secretary of National Defense since fuel and munitions were too costly. They were only to be deployed on grave instances. Mostly transport planes such as the C-130 and the C-295, which evacuated to Baguio's small airport, began supplying air drops to survivor outposts and scattered military garrisons throughout Luzon.
Situation in the South[]
Only a few surviving provinces maintained contact with the emergency cabinet in Baguio. South of the capital, the country fared either better or worse. Some islands were blessed due to virtue of isolation in the high seas or are mountainous enough to provide a rallying point.
Most of Palawan's cities and famous tourist areas were overrun, but many isolated towns in the province survived. Mindoro was declared safe too, with some military units relocating there.
In the province of Cebu, the city governments of Cebu City, Mandaue City, Talisay City, and Carcar City evacuated to the West. The mountain passes were blocked by destroying cliffs with dynamite. Toledo City was declared a safe zone as with most of western Cebu, though they had to deal with some potential infected refugees in neighboring Negros Island. Lapu-Lapu City on Mactan Island managed to weather the crisis by blowing up the two bridges connecting it to Cebu. It also has an airport and an airbase, which is essential to supply survivor holdouts within Visayas as well as conducting strikes at infected hordes. Most of the popular tourist areas of Visayas fell, such as the two Negros, Bohol, Samar, Leyte, and Panay. In Negros, many refugees settles in the mountains dividing the two provinces. The same happened in Bohol were many settled among the isolated jungles or the famous Chocolate Hills. The island of Siquijor, though isolated, was overrun since it was the choice of most refugees and only a meager police and military defending it but there are reports of survivors holding out in the mountains in the island.
CAFGU personnel in the rural areas of Misamis Occidental.
In Mindanao, most cities fell with the exception of Davao due to the PNP, military, CAFGU, and the alleged "Davao Death Squad" killing the infected before they grew to exponential numbers. The defense of Davao is also symbolic, since it is the hometown of President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter is currently the mayor there. Basilan and Tawi-Tawi escape untouched by the infection, since most refugees tended to avoid areas where BIFF or the Abu-Sayaff operated.
Not surprisingly, the rural portions of the Philippines fared better. Bands of CAFGU paramilitary personnel, the elite Scout Rangers, and civilian militias formed groups to counter the infected roaming the countryside. The Scout Rangers operated mainly in the jungles and with their skills in stealth and jungle warfare, we able to kill many infected and even clear small towns.
As for the insurgents, there were unconfirmed reports of NPAs joining along side government forces in fighting the infected. This eased some animosity between the two groups, mainly since the start NPA's Maoist offensives in 1969. With this, the NPA think this may bring the government into negotiations on land and agrarian reform.
Government and Politics[]
The Philippines is a democratic unitary presidential republic. The President is the head-of-state and the head-of-government. He has powers over the police and armed forces, being also known as the commander-in-chief. The legislature is the Congress which is composed of the Senate (upper house) and the House of Representatives (lower house); while the judiciary branch is the Supreme Court.
Barangays are headed by the barangay tanod. Towns and cities are headed by mayor. Provinces are headed by a provincial governor.
With the fall of Manila, government operations are transferred to Baguio for at least the time being.
Military[]
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is the military forces responsible for the defense of the republic. It is divided into the following branches: Army, Air Force, and Navy. Most of the AFP is currently holding out in Baguio, in which it has taken the Philippine Military Academy as its temporary HQ. With most elements scattered throughout the islands, many AFP personnel are either holding out their current position or are fighting offensives against the infected in the rural portions.
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