Philippines (TTtC)

Republic of the Philippines Republika ng Pilipinas (Filipino) Timeline: Third Time's The Charm OTL equivalent: Philippines
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem:  Lupang Hinirang "Chosen Land"
Capital		New Manila (de jure) New Manila (de facto)
Largest city		Quezon City
Demonym		Filipino (masculine and neutral) Filipina (feminine)
Government		Unitary presidential republic
-	President	Leni Robredo
-	Vice President	Sara Duterte
Legislature		Congress
-	Upper house	Senate
-	Lower house	House of Representatives
Population
-	2022 estimate	110,000,000
GDP (PPP)		2021 estimate
-	Total	▲ $1.0 trillion (29th)
Calling code		+63

The Philippines (/ˈfɪlɪpiːnz/ (listen); Filipino: Pilipinas), officially the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. The Philippines is the world's thirteenth-most-populous country and has diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. New Manila is the country's capital, while the largest city is Quezon City; both lie within the urban area of Metro Manila.

Negritos, some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants, were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Adoption of animism, Hinduism and Islam established island-kingdoms called kedatuan, rajahnates, and sultanates. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for Spain, marked the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. Spanish settlement through Mexico, beginning in 1565, led to the Philippines becoming ruled by the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. During this time, Catholicism became the dominant religion, and Manila became the western hub of trans-Pacific trade. In 1896, the Philippine Revolution began, which then became entwined with the 1898 Spanish–American War. Spain ceded the territory to the United States, while Filipino revolutionaries declared the First Philippine Republic. The ensuing Philippine–American War ended with the United States establishing control over the territory, which they maintained until the Japanese invasion of the islands during World War II. Following liberation, the Philippines became independent in 1946.

During the Moscow-Washington Conflict of 1968, the Philippines was a close ally of the United States that made it a target for nuclear strikes. During the outbreak of the conflict, the republic was governed by the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos who were all killed following the detonation of a nuclear missile in the capital of Manila. The sudden annihilation of most of the government and the news that the Third World War had started pushed the Philippine society into a state of chaos and anarchy leading to the deaths of thousands of Filipinos until the Philippine Armed Forces eventually took control and instituted martial law by the end of 1968.

On February 1969, the Philippine military government took the opportunity to take the Paracel Islands from the Chinese as most of the communist forces were diverted elsewhere to fight against the Americans. Following this attack, the Filipino forces with their allies in the Pacific completely joined the war against the remains of the People's Republic of China until the Philippine military were eventually force to sign an armistice with the Chinese as casualties were increasing and a devastating blow was inflicted to the morale of the Filipinos leading to mass riots that called for the end of conflicts. The end of the war saw the Philippines taking the Paracel Islands and the islands off the coast of Southern Taiwan with the consequence of losing over 3 million men and losing large amounts of necessary materials from food to money.

From 1969 - 1986, the Philippines has been under a new totalitarian military government under the leadership of Fidel V Ramos in the new capital of Quezon City. The military government primarily used fear and oppression to keep the "peace and order" throughout the country by committing daily executions of suspected "enemies of the state" and arresting those that they saw as a threat to their power. The years under the military saw widespread crime, poverty, and dissent throughout the archipelago which the Filipinos named "The Fallen Years". However, the dictatorial military regime would be overthrown and replaced with a democratic government under the first woman president, Corazon Aquino, by a combination of armed rebel groups and a peaceful revolution.

The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, whose economy is transitioning from being agriculture-centered to services and manufacturing-centered. It is a founding member of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization and a member of the United Pacific Alliance. The location of the Philippines as an island country both on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone to earthquakes and typhoons. The country has a variety of natural resources and is home to a globally significant level of biodiversity.