Philippines

Country: Philippines

Human name: Maria Clara De La Cruz

Age (Appearance): 19

Age: 117

Gender: Female

Love Interest: None (Yet XD Maybe Japan)

Nicknames: Phil, Piri, Pearl of the Orient seas

Siblings: Mexico (Juan Carlos De La Cruz), Luzon (Vanessa De La Cruz),Visayas (Manuel Emilio De La Cruz) and Mindanao (Julian Lorenzo De La Cruz).

Birthday: June 12

Star Sign: Gemini

Languages known: Filipino/English

Capital: Manila

Height: 5"4

Appearance:[]

Philippines has a darker complexion. Her wavy, dark-chocolate hair falls beyond her shoulders, bottom length and three jasmine flowers are clipped on the right side of her fringe. They represent the three major islands of the archipelago, Luzon,Visayas and Mindanao. The color, white, represents purity. A thin line of ahoge can be seen sticking out on the left side of her head, nearly invisible.Her hair his quite thick thus hard to comb or brush.

She has prominent black eyes, although they are depicted as honey-brown. Her body frame looks petite, yet a little curvy.

Philippines can be often seen in a casual clothing. Occasionally, she wears her national outfit, Baro't-Saya but she usually wears red skirt and white shirt or a light green shirt with a picture of a mango on it as casual summer clothing. She has a necklace with a christian cross as a parting gift from Spain which she wears too and when wearing her Baro't-Saya she wears a pearl choker necklace from Japan.

Personality/Interests:[]

Philippines is known to be incredibly friendly toward guests, especially foreigners. She always keeps a positive demeanor, making her look approachable to every one. A smile never leaves Philippines's face. Although at times, her happy-go-lucky attitude can go rather overboard. She has a known "tsundere" side and all people who encounter her with her "tsundere" side, often get punched in the face.

Philippines deeply treasures the ASEAN (Association of the South-East Asian Nations), and considers her neighbors as a big family. In fact, her notable trait is being family-oriented

She excellently gets along with America and Indonesia. She has befriended Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico (her brother), and Romano.

Despite the numerous positive traits she possess, Philippines has her own flaws. She is deeply terrified of spiders, typhoons and earthquakes. She is known to be as headstrong as Vietnam, although it makes her look "uncool" and "immature". Plus she is normally late for things excluding world meetings.

As a bubbly,friendly country, Philippines is quite talkative, especially with her family and friends. She is never behind the current events, as a result for gossiping with every one, every where she goes. Also, she loves to sing. Her melodic voice can be heard in the bathroom, and no one seems to be bothered at it.

Philippines' favorite past-time is boxing, cockfighting, cooking, Karaoke and siesta. She is incredibly fond of pandesal and mangoes. Oddly, she dislikes tomatoes Unlike Romano and Spain. She is quite hard working and does most of the chores in the house and does all the cooking (because Mexico and Mindanao are too lazy to even bother and Luzon is busy training to be a boxer/housemaid. Visayas is the only one who helps Philippines).

Relationships:[]

America (Alfred .F. Jones):[]

America bought Philippines from Spain for $ 20 million in the Treaty of Paris. When Philippines learned about this, she got very angry with America, and they started the Philippine-American war. She had just won her independence from one country, and she was not about to be taken by another. America tried to convince her to surrender to him, saying that he was a friend and that he would give her everything that Spain didn't give her. She did not believe him, but she later surrendered because 1) her boss had surrendered to the United States, 2) many of her soldiers had died, and 3) she herself was ill and could barely fight. America brought her to his house and asked doctors to give her medical treatment, but she still didn't trust him. She tried not to speak to him, and when she did, she called him all the swear words she knew. She later stopped when she realized that he could not understand what she was saying.

It took years, but she grew to trust America, and she even considered him a sort of big brother.She later grew restless and began demanding independence. He kept insisting she wasn't ready yet, while she retorted that she'd done everything he'd asked her to. She pestered him further, until he finally decided to pass the Tydings-McDuffie Law, which stated that she would be independent after 10 years. Until then, she would be known as the Commonwealth of the Philippines: still a territory of the United States, but with powers of self-government. She accepted, and for a brief time, they thought things would go smoothly from there. They were wrong. While she was preparing to move out, Japan invaded the Philippines, and America's boss called him back to the States. He reluctantly agreed, but before he left, he promised Philippines that he would return. He made good on his promise, and by March 1945, Manila, her capital, had been liberated. By then, however, Philippines was in no position to enjoy the "liberation" - she was weak and badly injured from the fighting. So America had to take her back to his house again.

He finally let her gain independence July 4, 1946,celebrated as Independence Day until 1962.

Now they are good friend but at times he can annoy her, making her mad. Despite this they go along pretty well. She calls him "kuya" as he is like an older brother to her. (Despite being older hand him anyway)

China (Yao Wang):[]

China had met Philippines before Spain and had taken care of her along with some other nations. Yao, her for her honesty, knowing that he could easily leave his goods with her and that she would nearly always return them in one piece or in better condition. However, during colonization, she lost most of her contact with him, and they could only keep trading with each other because Spain needed products from China.

Nowadays, the two still trade and keep in touch, but their relationship has gotten somewhat strained because they often argue about the ownership of the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal.

Spain (Antonio Fernandez Carriedo):[]

Antonio first spotted her in 1521. At first, she trusted him when he said that he wanted to make friends, and she converted to Catholicism shortly after meeting him. It didn't take her long to realize that he wanted to take her as his colony, and she rebelled. He put down the rebellion quickly enough, and she became one of his many servants. She resented the loss of her freedom, the loss of contact with her siblings, the loss of most of her indigenous culture, and the way she was treated. Philippines still rebelled against him, but over the centuries, when she realized she wasn't succeeding, she became a "submissive Maria Clara", on the outside. She would show her discontent in small ways, like breaking a dish when no one was looking. But that was it: small ways. She didn't mount a successful revolt until 1896.

She noticed that Antonio favored one particular servant Romano, (but she didn't learn who he was until much later) and paid relatively little attention to her, mostly leaving her to Mexico. Spain came overprotective He opened Manila to trade in 1834, but then tightened his grip on her because he sensed she would soon run away from him. Friction between them increased, until she finally blew up and fought against him. After two years of fighting, she declared her independence on June 12, 1898.

Japan (Kiku Honda):[]

Around the time when Philippines and China were trading with each other, she became acquainted with Japan. They were good friends and enjoyed each others company, so it came as a shock when he invaded her many centuries later, during World War II.

He didn't occupy her for very long, but his two to three years of staying on her islands took their toll on her. His troops abused her and her people constantly, and she was made to work for them day in and day out. He tried to convince her that this was all for her good. Obviously, this did not work on her, so she fought back. She helped the guerrillas mount surprise attacks on the Japanese. She often said that she hated him, but during that time, she didn't; but when she heard that America made him surrender by bombing his house, she couldn't help but worry, much to America's surprise.

After Japan invaded The Philippines and occupied it in WWII, Philippines grew to be bitter towards Japan. Much like the other countries he had invaded and occupied during WWII, he treated Philippines badly, almost daily basis, thus showing his authority over her. For some time after the war, the two were still tense around each other. Japan has apologized for his actions but after he apologized to her, sent her reparations for the damage he did, and generally acted more nicely towards her, it was clear Philippines believed and accept his apologies so she said she'd forgive him.

Despite all of this, their countries have a good diplomatic relationship, although Philippines does make it hard sometimes. Nowadays, they get along quite well together. Philippines especially likes the gadgets and anime Japan produces. She looks up to Japan as an older brother and calls him "kuya" like America.

Indonesia (Aini Hermawan):[]

Philippines considers Indonesia as one of her older sisters. They were quite close to each other in the pre-colonial period, trading frequently and visiting each other's houses. Their relationship was interrupted when their countries were divided by colonial powers. Philippines was taken by Spain and became the Spanish East Indies, while Indonesia came under the Netherlands' rule and became the Dutch East Indies. They lost nearly all contact with each other, but they started talking again when they became independent. They have maintained a cordial relationship ever since.

In 1963, they formed a union called the "Maphilindo,". Nevertheless, their plans to come together and the three of them, along with Thailand and Singapore, founded the ASEAN four years later.

Malaysia (Safiah Azura Nalawangsa):[]

Just like Indonesia, Malaysia is considered as one of Philippines' older sisters. She was also close to the two of them, but lost contact thanks to colonization. She and Philippines get along well with each other, but they sometimes argue over the ownership of Sabah and Spratly Islands . Philippines claims the state on behalf of Mindanao, while Malaysia considers it a nonissue and refuses to argue the point further.

Trivia[]

Her birthday corresponds with the day The Philippines became independent from Spain, June 12
She is twin sister to Mexico and older sister (or "ate") to Luzon, Mindanao and Visayas