Country

Philippines

Also Known As Filipino

Asia

The Philippines is the largest Catholic country in Asia, a legacy of more than three centuries of Spanish rule during which the friar orders held both parish and civil authority. Filipino Catholicism carries strong indigenous and folk elements, visible in the Black Nazarene procession in Manila, the Santo Nino devotion in Cebu and the penitential rites of Holy Week. Two large churches founded on Philippine soil, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente of 1902 and the Iglesia ni Cristo of 1914, broke from Rome and from Protestantism respectively. Islam predates Christianity in the archipelago, arriving through Sulu and Mindanao trade routes in the fourteenth century, and Muslim communities there sustained a long armed struggle for autonomy that produced the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in 2019. Indigenous animist practice persists among highland peoples of Luzon and Mindanao.

Facts

Law and State

Establishment Status

No Establishment 3

The constitution separates church and state and bars an established religion.

State Funding Mechanism

The Philippines has no state funding mechanism for religion. Section 29(2) of Article VI of the 1987 Constitution bars public money or property from being appropriated, applied, paid or employed for the use, benefit or support of any sect, church, denomination or religious teacher, with a narrow carve-out for chaplains assigned to the armed forces, penal institutions or government orphanages, an application of the Constitution's broader declaration that the separation of church and state is inviolable. 4

Apostasy or Blasphemy Lawthe subject's own account

Article 133 of the Philippine Revised Penal Code of 1930, in force since 1932, criminalizes acts notoriously offensive to the feelings of the faithful when performed in a place devoted to religious worship or during a religious ceremony, punishable by arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period. The offense requires neither an ongoing ceremony nor any single named religion, and legal commentators have criticized it as amorphous, leaving courts wide discretion to decide what counts as offensive to wounded religious feelings; repeal proposals have been raised in the legislature without success to date. 5

Registration or Recognition Regime

Corporation Code language on a religious corporation is permissive rather than mandatory, so a congregation can worship and operate with no Securities and Exchange Commission filing at all. Registration under the Religious Corporations Code becomes necessary once a group holds property or opens a bank account in its own name, and registration with both the SEC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue is required to obtain tax exempt status, so the practical trigger for registering is acquiring assets rather than the act of worship itself. 3

Concordat Basisthe subject's own account

The Philippines holds no concordat with the Holy See, despite being one of only two Catholic-majority states in Asia. The relationship runs through an Apostolic Nunciature in Manila and a Philippine Embassy to the Holy See in Rome, with multiple papal visits over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but no bilateral treaty has ever formalized the Church's legal standing the way the Holy See's agreements with Malta, Poland or Slovakia do for those countries. 6

Classification

State Funding of Religion

State Neutrality Among Religions 7

Disputed

Legal Status

The constitution separates church and state and bars an established religion; Sharia courts operate for Muslims in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region created in 2019, and Catholic teaching remains influential in law on divorce, which is still not generally available. 3

The Philippine constitution separates church and state and bars an established religion, while Sharia courts operate for the Muslim population within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, created by a 2019 plebiscite as an autonomous region with its own religiously specific court system for family law matters, a carve-out from the otherwise secular national court structure. Separately, and reflecting the country's large Catholic majority, Catholic teaching on the indissolubility of marriage remains influential in national civil law: the Philippines is one of the only countries in the world, along with the Vatican, without a general law allowing civil divorce, so that annulment remains the primary legal route out of a marriage for most Filipinos regardless of their own religion. The dispute recorded here has two parts, whether the Bangsamoro Sharia carve-out is compatible with the national secular framework, and whether the absence of civil divorce reflects impermissible religious influence for non-Catholic citizens as well as Catholic ones; a national divorce bill has been repeatedly proposed without passing.

Demographics

Religious Composition

Roughly 79 per cent Catholic, about 10 per cent other Christian including Iglesia ni Cristo and evangelical churches, and about 6 per cent Muslim concentrated in western Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020; Philippine Statistics Authority). 1

Government

Capital

Manila 2

Government Type

presidential republic 2

Sovereignty Status

Sovereign UN member state 2

Established Year

1946 2

4 July 1946 (from the US)

Geography

Latitude

12.9 degrees north 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Longitude

121.8 degrees east 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Government type (class)

Presidential republic 2

Location

Learn More

Religion and History in the Philippines

Spain governed the Philippines for over three centuries largely through the religious orders, which meant that in most of the archipelago the parish priest was the effective agent of the state. That produced the deepest Catholic penetration in Asia and also produced the reaction against it: the execution of the three priests Gomez, Burgos and Zamora in 1872 for seeking the transfer of parishes from Spanish friars to Filipino clergy is generally treated as the beginning of Filipino nationalism, and Jose Rizal's novels are directed at friar power as much as at Spain.

Filipino Catholicism absorbed a great deal of what preceded it. The Santo Nino image given to the wife of Rajah Humabon at Cebu in 1521 is venerated in the Sinulog with dancing that predates the image; the Black Nazarene procession in Quiapo draws millions who attempt to touch a dark wooden Christ credited with healing; and the self flagellation and voluntary crucifixions of Holy Week in Pampanga continue despite consistent episcopal disapproval. Islam reached Sulu and Mindanao through trade in the fourteenth century and had established sultanates before the Spanish arrived, which is why the Spanish never fully subdued the south and why the region's subsequent history differs from the rest of the country.

Islam in Mindanao and the Bangsamoro Settlement

The Muslim south is not a minority that arrived; it is the part of the archipelago Spain failed to conquer. Sultanates at Sulu and Maguindanao predated Spanish arrival and survived it, and the Spanish word for Philippine Muslims, Moro, was carried over from the Iberian Reconquista and has been reclaimed as a national name. American administration and then Philippine government resettlement policy moved large numbers of Christian settlers from Luzon and the Visayas into Mindanao through the twentieth century, turning Muslims into a minority in much of their own region and creating the land disputes that underlie the conflict.

Armed struggle began in earnest after the Jabidah massacre of 1968, with the Moro National Liberation Front and later the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and continued for more than four decades at a cost of well over a hundred thousand lives. A 2008 agreement was struck down by the Supreme Court, and the 2015 clash at Mamasapano that killed forty four police commandos nearly destroyed the process.

The Bangsamoro Organic Law was eventually ratified by plebiscite in 2019, creating an autonomous region with its own parliament and a Sharia jurisdiction over Muslim personal status. Its durability is the open question, complicated by the 2017 siege of Marawi by fighters pledged to the Islamic State, which destroyed the largest Muslim city in the country.

Connections

Ancient and Historical Regions

Luzon

Source GeoNames: GeoNames search for Luzon

Southeast Asia

Source United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions

Associated With

About RVA (Radio Veritas Asia)

This source names Philippines directly: "The network's own about page, explicitly distinguishing Radio Veritas Asia's continental mission from the domestic Philippine Radio Veritas station."

Source About RVA (Radio Veritas Asia)

Bahá'í Radio, Stations Invite Participation, Connect People During Pandemic (Bahá'í World News Service)

This source names Philippines directly: "of individual stations in the Philippines, Chile and Panama and their community-participation programming model."

Source Bahá'í Radio, Stations Invite Participation, Connect People During Pandemic (Bahá'í World News Service)

Christianity

Roughly 79 per cent Catholic after three centuries of Spanish rule, alongside the Philippine founded Iglesia Filipina Independiente and Iglesia ni Cristo.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Holy See-Philippines Relations (Wikipedia)

This source names Philippines directly: "between the Holy See and the Philippines, one of two Catholic-majority states in Asia, including the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila and the Philippine Embassy to the Holy See in Rome, and multiple..."

Source Holy See-Philippines Relations (Wikipedia)

Iglesia ni Cristo (Media Ownership Monitor Philippines)

This source names Philippines directly: "Registry's Media Ownership Monitor Philippines profile of the Iglesia ni Cristo, recording its revenue and operating profit fields as missing data and listing the financial statements of its..."

Source Iglesia ni Cristo (Media Ownership Monitor Philippines)

Iglesia ni Cristo (Wikipedia)

This source names Philippines directly: "Wikipedia's article on Iglesia ni Cristo, community edited."

Source Iglesia ni Cristo (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Igorot

This source names Philippines directly: "mountains of northern Luzon in the Philippines, among them the Ifugao, Bontoc, Kankanaey and Ibaloi."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Islam

About 6 per cent of the population, present since the fourteenth century and concentrated in western Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Islam in the Philippines (Wikipedia)

This source names Philippines directly: "Wikipedia's article on Islam in the Philippines, community-edited."

Source Islam in the Philippines (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

National Museum of the Philippines, "Senakulo"

This source names Philippines directly: "from the National Museum of the Philippines, the country's own government heritage and culture authority, the closest institutional analogue here to UNESCO's voice for a national tradition that..."

Source National Museum of the Philippines, "Senakulo"National Museum of the Philippines

Offending Religious Feelings (Philippines) (Wikipedia)

This source names Philippines directly: "A Wikipedia article on Article 133 of the Philippine Revised Penal Code of 1930, in force since 1932, which criminalizes acts notoriously offensive to the feelings of the faithful performed in a..."

Source Offending Religious Feelings (Philippines) (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Philippine Folk Literature: The Myths

This source names Philippines directly: "Eugenio edited this University of the Philippines Press volume, part of her multi volume Philippine Folk Literature series, gathering and translating creation and origin myths from across the..."

Source Philippine Folk Literature: The MythsDamiana L. Eugenio (ed.)

Radio Bahá'í

This source names Philippines directly: "Peru (1986), plus Radyo Bahá'í in the Philippines and WLGI in the United States, each independently licensed and locally run rather than centrally relayed."

Source Bahá'í Radio (Wikipedia)

Radio Veritas (Wikipedia)

This source names Philippines directly: "General reference encyclopedia entry, corroborated here against Radio Veritas Asia's own about page (S9); used here only for the facts the two accounts share about the founding and the continental..."

Source Radio Veritas (Wikipedia)

Radio Veritas Asia

This source names Philippines directly: "Radio Veritas Asia is the continental Catholic broadcasting service the Southeast Asian Bishops' Conference resolved to build in December 1958 and formally launched on April 11, 1969, transmitting..."

Source About RVA (Radio Veritas Asia)

Relacion de las Costumbres de los Tagalos

This source names Philippines directly: "religion and social structure in the Philippines, written within a few decades of Spanish colonization."

Source Relacion de las Costumbres de los TagalosFray Juan de Plasencia

Religious Affiliation in the Philippines (2020 Census of Population and Housing)

This source names Philippines directly: "The Philippine Statistics Authority's official press release reporting the 2020 Census of Population and Housing's religious affiliation results nationwide, including a household population count..."

Source Religious Affiliation in the Philippines (2020 Census of Population and Housing)Philippine Statistics Authority

Shamanism, Catholicism and Gender Relations in Colonial Philippines, 1521-1685

This source names Philippines directly: "and Gender Relations in Colonial Philippines, 1521 to 1685, published by Ashgate in 2004, is an academic monograph examining how Spanish colonial missionaries targeted the babaylan, the..."

Source Shamanism, Catholicism and Gender Relations in Colonial Philippines, 1521-1685Carolyn Brewer

Thailand Calls for Dissolution of Buddhist Temple's Charitable Foundations (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2018)

This source names Philippines directly: "A Philippine Daily Inquirer report on Thailand's Department of Special Investigation seeking court dissolution of the Wat Phra Dhammakaya-linked Khun Yay Maha Ratana Upasika Chandra Khonnokyoong..."

Source Thailand Calls for Dissolution of Buddhist Temple's Charitable Foundations (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2018)

The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, Article VI (Official Gazette)

This source names Philippines directly: "Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, hosted on the government's own Official Gazette."

Source The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, Article VI (Official Gazette)Republic of the Philippines, 1986 Constitutional Commission

The Spanish Philippines

This source names Philippines directly: "The Spanish Philippines, administered from 1565 to 1898 under the Real Patronato de Indias, was a colonial administration in which the Catholic Church was directly woven into governance: the friar..."

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The United Methodist Church Ratifies Worldwide Regionalization, Ending the Denomination's US Centered Structure

This source names Philippines directly: "Conferences of Africa, Europe and the Philippines."

Source New United Methodist Church Structure Ratified (UM News)

Wikipedia, "Passion Play" (Philippines section)

This source names Philippines directly: "Play, cited specifically for its Philippines section, read directly for this entry."

Source Wikipedia, "Passion Play" (Philippines section)Wikipedia contributors

Wikipedia, "Pasyon"

This source names Philippines directly: "against the National Museum of the Philippines' own dating of Senakulo."

Source Wikipedia, "Pasyon"Wikipedia contributors

Originated Here

Tagalog

Related To

Senakulo

Source National Museum of the Philippines, "Senakulo"National Museum of the Philippines

Spread Events Here

Islam Reaches the Philippines via the Sulu Sultanate

Source Islam in the Philippines (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Worship Of

Bathala

Source Relacion de las Costumbres de los TagalosFray Juan de Plasencia

Sources

1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020

Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source

2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)

Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyGovernment, government type: PhilippinesView the Source

3. International Religious Freedom Report

United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source

4. The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, Article VI (Official Gazette)

Republic of the Philippines, 1986 Constitutional Commission, Official Gazette of the Republic of the PhilippinesView the Source

5. Offending Religious Feelings (Philippines) (Wikipedia)

Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationView the Source

6. Holy See-Philippines Relations (Wikipedia)

WikipediaView the Source

7. Religion in Philippines (Wikipedia)

Lead

Quote, Lead

The country is officially secular and its constitution guarantees freedom of religion.

View the Source

The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition

Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source

GeoNames: GeoNames search for Luzon

GeoNamesAncient and Historical Regions: Luzon, Search result for Luzon

Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Luzon, Search result for Luzon

16.0 121.0 Philippines , island

View the Source

United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions

United Nations Statistics DivisionAncient and Historical Regions: Southeast Asia, Geographic regions table, South-eastern Asia

Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Southeast Asia, Geographic regions table, South-eastern Asia

South-eastern Asia 035 Brunei Darussalam 096 BRN Cambodia 116 KHM LDC Indonesia 360 IDN Lao People's Democratic Republic 418 LAO LDC LLDC Malaysia 458 MYS Myanmar 104 MMR LDC Philippines 608 PHL Singapore 702 SGP SIDS Thailand 764 THA Timor-Leste 626 TLS LDC SIDS Viet Nam 704 VNM

View the Source

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