Are the Filipinos Pacific Islanders or Asians? On my opinion we Filipinos are both. However we are more of Asian than Pacific Islander. To make it clear let me divide this into 5 major areas of knowledge; Geographicaly, Ethnicaly, Linguisticaly, Culturaly, and Historical or Politically.

Geographically speaking the Pacific Islands is an expression commonly accepted as including all of those islands in the Pacific Ocean that are collectively reffered to as Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, also sometimes known as Oceania. This usage rules out the Australian Isalnd continent, the Asia-related Indonesian, Philippine, and Japanese Archipelagoes.

The Republic of the Philippines is an archipelago of about 7,107 islands and islets lying on the southeast coast of Asia. You may consider the Philippines part of the Pacific since it can be found west of the Pacific Ocean. Only few of the Western Phgilippine Islands borders nbot even the Pacific Ocean itself but the Philippine Sea which is somehow a sub-region of the Pacific Ocean. Plants and Animal life in the Philippines are closely related to her Asian neighbors. Geographically speaking the Philippines is considered part of Asia.

Ethnically the people of the Philippines are calleg Filipinos. Their ancestors who were of Malay stock, came from the Southeastern Asian mainland as well as from what is now Indonesia. From the 10th century, contacts with china resulted in a group of mixed Filipino-Chinese descent. Who account for a minotiry of the population. Spanish-Filipino and Filipino-Americans maybe distinguished by their fairer complexion, taller structure, & aquiline nose structure. A relively small numbers of Emigrants from the Indian subcontinent added to the population's racial mixture. The aboriginal inhabitants of the islands were Negritos, or Pygmies, also called Aetas or Balugas. The Malays or natives of Southeast Asia developed seaward contacts with the outside world, occured in the early centuries, they spread, traded and settled as far as Magadascar in Africa and Polynesia. Ethnically the Filipinos are Asians.

Linguistically, estimates of the total number of native languages or dialects spoken in the Philippines differ; around 70 to 100 ore more. Traditionally, 8 major linguistic groups are identified; Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Ilongo, Bicolano, Waray-Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinense. The national and most widely spoken language of the Philippines is Filipino, based on Tagalog. Filipino and English are the two official languages & mediums of instruction. The languages of the Philippines belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian family also called Austronesian Languages, takes roots from Southeast Asia and stretches From the island of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, all the way to tiny, isolated Easter Island (Rapa Nui), and extending into Taiwan, Vietnam, Northern Australia, New Zealand and most of the Melanesian and Polynesian Islands, the languages in this single family show the common ancestry by the many cognates (words in common) present. Linguistically Filinos are Asians.

Culturally, The philippines had been strongly influenced by the west because of 333 years of Spanish and 48 years of U.S. rule. But string family ties and other Asian customs remained. SOme cultural influences such as Sanskrit-based writting system were carried to the Islands. But in comparison with other parts of the region, the influence of bith China and India were of little importance. The filipinos unlike most of his Malay brothers, never adopted Hinduism or Buddhism.The Philippines has been strengthening its Asian ties without abandoning its Western acquisitions. Culturally, Filipinos are Asians.

Historically or Politically, the Philippines is the only nation in Southeast Asia that became a subject to western colonialism before it had the opportunity to develop either a centralized government ruling over a large territory or an advanced elite culture. The Philippines was also the only Spanish colony in Asia. History has it that the Philippines was once one of the most progressive nation in Asia, only second to Japan. The Philippines is one of the nations who founded the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations or ASEAN. Politically and Historically speaking the Philippines is part of Asia.

I hope this would clear some confusions if the Filipinos are Asians or Pacific Islanders. I hope I made it clear that the Filipinos are more of an Asian than Pacific Islander, unless someone would come up with superior evidences that could prove me wrong.

(I wrote this for my classmates and friends who were saying that Filipinos are Pacific Islanders and not Asians)