Spanish in the Philippines belongs to the so-called – Asian and Pacific species of this language. But this kind of Spanish language developed not only in the Philippines, was a former center Spanish colonial administration in the region, but also in such areas as Guam, Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands, Palau and other islands of Micronesia. All these territories were previously in the so-called Captaincy-General of the Philippines. The most distinctive feature of this variety of Spanish is that it is in these areas in writing-official character. That is, despite its official status in For over 300 years, by the end of Spanish rule (1521-1899 gg.) only about one percent of the population in these regions was considered that their native language. These were mostly people of European descent. Although estimates of historians about 60% of the same population considered Spanish as their second or third language, and the other foreign language.
In this language in the colonies was carried out official correspondence, published literature, laws and regulations. Crushing blow to the Spanish language in this region caused the Spanish-American War of 1898, resulting in the Philippines have become a de facto U.S. colony. The Americans immediately began to pursue a policy of replacing the Spanish language English. Only in the south (Zamboanga Peninsula) there are a large number of carriers of the Spanish-Creole chavakano (more than 0.6 million people.), Very close to Spanish. I should say that about 40% vocabulary of indigenous languages Philippines has a Spanish origin. In 2008, after a long hiatus (since 1986) Philippine President Gloria Arroyo launched the Spanish language as a compulsory subject for study in schools.