Government

Republic.
History
The Philippines' aboriginal inhabitants arrived from the Asian mainland around 25,000 BC They were
followed by waves of Indonesian and Malayan settlers from 3000 BC onward. By the 14th century AD ,
extensive trade was being conducted with India, Indonesia, China, and Japan.
Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain, explored the Philippines in 1521.
Twenty-one years later, a Spanish exploration party named the group of islands in honor of Prince Philip,
who was later to become Philip II of Spain. Spain retained possession of the islands for the next 350
years.
The Philippines were ceded to the U.S. in 1899 by the Treaty of Paris after the Spanish-American War.
Meanwhile, the Filipinos, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, had declared their independence. They initiated
guerrilla warfare against U.S. troops that persisted until Aguinaldo's capture in 1901. By 1902, peace was
established except among the Islamic Moros on the southern island of Mindanao.
The first U.S. civilian governor-general was William Howard Taft (19011904). The Jones Law (1916)
established a Philippine legislature composed of an elective Senate and House of Representatives. The
Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934) provided for a transitional period until 1946, at which time the Philippines
would become completely independent. Under a constitution approved by the people of the Philippines in
1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines came into being with Manuel Quezon y Molina as president.
On Dec. 8, 1941, the islands were invaded by Japanese troops. Following the fall of Gen. Douglas
MacArthur's forces at Bataan and Corregidor, Quezon instituted a government-in-exile that he headed
until his death in 1944. He was succeeded by Vice President Sergio Osmea. U.S. forces under
MacArthur reinvaded the Philippines in Oct. 1944 and, after the liberation of Manila in Feb. 1945, Osmea
reestablished the government.

Teenage pregnancies have become a public health issue because of their

observed negative effects on perinatal outcomes and long-term morbidity.
The association of young maternal age and long-term morbidity is usually
confounded, however, by the high prevalence of poverty, low level of
education, and single marital status among teenage mothers. The authors
assess the independent effect of teenage pregnancy on educational
disabilities and educational problems in a total population of children who
entered kindergarten in Florida in 19921994 and investigate how controlling
for potentially confounding factors affects the relation between teenage
pregnancies and poor outcome. When no other factors are taken into
account, children of teenage mothers have significantly higher odds of
placement in certain special education classes and significantly higher
occurrence of milder education problems, but when maternal education,
marital status, poverty level, and race are controlled, the detrimental effects
disappear and even some protective effects are observed. Hence, the
increased risk for educational problems and disabilities among children of
teenage mothers is attributed not to the effect of young age but to the
confounding influences of associated sociodemographic factors. In contrast
to teen age, older maternal age has an adverse effect on a child's
educational outcome regardless of whether other factors are controlled for or
not.