abstract:The provinces of the Philippines are the primary political and administrative divisions of the Philippines. There are 80 provinces (called lalawigan or probinsiya in the native languages) at present, further subdivided into component cities and municipalities.
Glenda Gloria, a Manila-based author and historian, notes that residents ofthePhilippines' Muslim provinces frequently traveled back and forth between Malaysia and Indonesia, trading and speaking a similar language before European and American colonizers introduced national boundaries.