Its nearest neighbours are Taiwan to the north, Eastern Malaysia and Brunei to the southwest and Indonesia to the south. Luzon in the north and Mindanao in the south are the two biggest islands. The Philippines can be divided into four main areas:

Luzon and Mindoro: Luzon is the largest island and is home of the capital, Manila. Mindoro lies close by.

The Visayas: this is a group of scattered islands south of Luzon, including Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Masbate, Negros, Panay and Samar.

Mindanao: the second-largest island and the Muslim centre in the south, together with a series of islands in the Sulu Archipelago.

Palawan Island: almost 400km (249 miles) long. The Philippine's coastline is about twice the length of that of the USA. It has 61 natural harbours, 20 landlocked straits and hundreds of rivers, bays and lakes. Laguna de Bay is the largest lake in the country. The Cagayan is the longest river on Luzon.
Other important rivers are the Chico, Abra, Pampanga and Bicol, and the Mindanao and Agusan on Mindanao. All of the islands are mountainous and much of the territory is covered by jungle. About half of the land area is cultivated, while roughly a third remains forested.
There are 21 active volcanoes in the Philippines. The Taal Volcano south of Manila has erupted twice this century. Mayon,in southern Luzon just north of Legaspi City, also erupted without warning in February 1993, while Mount Pinatubo erupted in June 1991 and again in July 1992. Earthquakes are fairly common throughout the islands.

Volcanos

Lake Taal surrounding Taal Volcano creates an incredible scenic view which can be seen easily during a day trip away from Manila. You can hire a small banca for a half a day so you enough time to ride ponies up to its crest, walk around its rim and relax bfore going back. Mayon Volcano's shape is the world's most perfect cone and makes a fantastic photo opportunity if you're lucky enough visit on a clear cloudless day with blue sky. I never forget the eruption of Mt Pinatubo when I was in Manila struggling to even walk a few hundred meters away from our house. I raised my T-shirt over my head so it served as a filter to the incredible thick dusty saturated air from the floating lahar particles. What really seemed weird in a tropical climate was it looked just like a snowy blizzard does in the middle of a cold winter. After the lahar settled it took us several days to clean up and the consistency of the lahar resembling wet cement and being heavier than ordinary dust.