FILIPPINE (Philippi[ius]), Pietro Paolo. - Dominican theologian from Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, d.
reused inscriptions employed to construct later tombs in the basilica known as Direkler: four use the expression xoxqctrìpsev to indicate a single tomb. Other inscriptions, however, date as late as the 9th century.
profess pagan cults or adhere to Islam; the remaining 80% are dominated by Catholicism, introduced by the Spanish during the conquest. The Philippines are in fact the only predominantly Christian country in East Asia. The islands, conquered by Philip II in 1570, passed to the United States in 1890, which on July 4, 1906, recognized their full political independence. The archipelago is organized as a parliamentary bicameral republic.
The capital, Manila (684,000 inhabitants), is the only true large urban center; Cebú, on the island of the same name, Zamboanga and Davao in Mindanao also exceed 100,000 inhabitants.