They are a former Spanish colony and also many Arabs and Chinese settled there. SO it's sort of a combination of all those cultures. They speak many languages but mostly something called Tagalog (that's Taw GAW log)

The Philippines were founded by Spaniards. They have over 170 languages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Philippines

Sometime in 1849 (almost the twilight period of Spanish colonization), Governor-General Claveria promulgated a decree for the systematic distribution of family names and the implementation of Spanish naming system for the use of the natives. Thus, the "Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos" (Alphabetical Catalogue of Surnames)was produced. The catalogue was distributed in the entire territory through its provincial heads. The father or oldest member of the family will choose its surname based on the catalogue. Prior to that, many christianized natives opted to adopt religious materials or saints' names that soon many people had the same surname but not related at all. Despite of more than 300 years of colonization, Spanish was not widely being spoken by the natives.

we Filipinos have our own language.... its called Filipino.... or Tagalog if your asking it in our language the reason why some Filipinos are having the Spanish-sounding names because we were invaded by Spanish men by over 333 years......

The Philippines was colonized by Spain for 333 years, but Spanish is NOT the national language because the Spaniards did not teach it to the natives. They feared that if the natives had a common language, that would unify them and therefore, could wage an effective revolt against the colonial masters. You see, the Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands, and naturally, would have many languages. The national language of the Philippines is Filipino, based on Tagalog, the language spoken in the capital, Manila, and surrounding areas. However, many other languages are spoken in the Philippines, the major ones in terms of number of speakers are Cebuano and Ilocano. To answer the Spanish-sounding names issue, I will quote from the book "History of the Filipino People" written by Teodoro A. Agoncillo: "Probably one of the indelible marks left by the Spanish conquest on the Filipinos was the adoption of Hispanic names, as decreed by Governor Narciso Claveria in 1849. Filipinos were obligated to adopt surnames like Rizal, Del Pilar and Luna although some indigenous surnames like Mabini and Panganiban were retained. Not only were Filipinos given family names as bases for census and statistics, but the surnames also guaranteed exact tax collection, regular performance of polos y servicios personales, and control of population movement."

it is spanish that dominates the philippine language because it is spain who colonize the country the longest. philippineswas under the spanish colony for more that 300 years. as though, the filipinos were more influenced by the spaniards.

Some Filipinos got Spanish last names when they got christianized while others have Spanish blood.

Philippines have 2 official national languages. English and Tagalog. aside from these, Philippines has over seven thousand islands, which have different languages and practices. Spain, though, has influenced the Philippines in many ways. the country have also adopted some Spanish terms, ways of living, culture, religion, even surnames, and etc.