Collected Trivia About the Philippines

1. Doctrina Christiana is the first book published in the Philippines, was published in 1593, by the Dominican press. Because of the monopoly of printing presses by religious orders prior to the 19th century, early written literature was predominantly religious in content and in purpose.

2. The first women’s magazine in the Philippines was El Hogar (The Home), which first came out in 1893.

3. The first Filipino immigrants to the United States (1850) settled in Louisiana.

4. Emilio Aguinaldo lost to Manuel L. Quezon in the country’s first presidential elections in 1935.

5. The largest crocodile ever captured in the Philippines (1823) was found in Laguna de Bay.

6. Fort San Pedro was the nucleus of the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

7. Farmers’ Market Foodome is the largest restaurant in the Philippines (in Quezon City).

8. Cesar Virata is the first and last Prime Minister of the Philippines after WW II.

9. The Cagayan River, the Philippines longest river, originates in Nueva Vizcaya.

10. Aimee Carandang is the first Filipina to become a commercial plane pilot.

11. The oldest Philippine university for women is Centro Escolar University.

12. Jose P. Laurel has the most children (7) among the Philippine presidents.

13. Eva Estrada Kalaw is the first Filipina to be elected senator twice, in 1965 and in 1971.

14. The first modern building in the Philippines is considered to be the Crystal Arcade in Escolta, completed in 1932.

15. Aurora is the only Philippine province named after a first lady.