Republic of the Philippines (Lourdes Magsaysay)

The Republic of the Philippines (フィリピン, Firipin) is a fanmade character for the anime and webcomic Axis Powers Hetalia. Her human name is Lourdes Magsaysay.

Appearance
Lourdes is a small, young-looking nation who stands at 4'11" and has a slim build. When she was younger, she had long black hair that reached down to her waist, but she later cut it off, leaving it at shoulder-length. Like most of her countrymen, she has dark brown eyes and moderately tanned skin, and she often has an easy smile on her face.

Her usual outfit is a simplified version of the Baro't Saya, the unofficial national costume of the Philippines. She wears a knee-length red skirt and a wide-sleeved, off-white blouse, and over that she wears a green-and-yellow checkered tapis (overskirt) and a short piece of similarly patterned cloth slung over her left shoulder. When going to meetings, she wears bakya (wooden slippers) but when at home, she either wears rubber flip-flops or walks barefoot. Usually, she covers her head with a white kerchief, but sometimes, she just leaves her head bare, and she wears a buri hat when she has to work under the sun for long periods of time.

Prior to colonization, she wore a simpler collarless blouse with long sleeves, a long red wraparound skirt, and gold jewelry, like bangles and a necklace. She walked barefoot, and she liked to put sampaguita in her hair. But when she began living under Spain's control, she lost her jewelry and did not put flowers in her hair anymore.

Personality and Interests
The first thing others notice about Lourdes is that she almost always seems to be happy. Despite the many problems her country faces every day, she still manages to smile and say that everything will be all right in the end. She believes that all problems are solvable, if given time; if she can't solve something immediately, she just shrugs her shoulders and says "Bahala na." She has a crazy sense of humor and laughs even at stupid jokes. She prefers to look at the good side of people and situations; this is why she can't stay angry for long even if she wants to.

She is very friendly and is quick to offer help when she sees others having difficulties. Most of the time, she's polite and respectful, but when she gets angry or overexcited, she doesn't hesitate to use her extensive store of swear words. That rarely happens though. Her hospitality is legendary; she likes to welcome visitors to her home and happily offers them the best food and entertainment. Basically, she likes humankind in general and wishes others, both people and countries, would like her too. She's very trusting, sometimes to the point of being gullible, and as a result has gotten tricked several times. However, she's also forgiving, and is more than happy to forget the bad things that happened in the past.

She's pretty good at housekeeping, but her own house often ends up messy because she also has to clean other people's houses. When it comes to the domestic arts (and to some extent, show business) she's a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. She can do a lot of things decently and under time pressure, a trait she learned and mastered when she was still working for Spain. However, if you leave her alone, you'll see that she's actually quite lazy. The only reason why she works as hard as she does is because she really, really needs the income to survive. She often starts ambitious things but doesn't always finish them ("ningas-cogon.") Her famously poor time management (aka Filipino time) means that she is late for many important events. She also has the tendency to procrastinate/put off things until the next day. All this results in her accomplishing less than she should, given her abilities and the circumstances available.

Lourdes cares deeply about her family, especially Fatima (the personification of Mindanao) who is her older sister. She constantly tries to reach out to her although the latter barely trusts her anymore. In fact, one of her dreams is that she and her siblings will be reunited with each other and have the same happy relationship that they had before colonization. The thought of this is enough to bring her to tears, so she nearly always keeps it to herself. She is very emotional and can get riled up fairly easily.

Although she's been raised Catholic, she is still very superstitious and believes in monsters, like the aswang, kapre, and manananggal. Until now, she says "tabi apo" before entering dark, isolated places to avoid angering the ghosts. But at the same time, she likes watching horror movies and laughs at America when he gets scared of something on the movie screen.

Some of her hobbies include singing, watching TV dramas, and playing basketball.

China (Yao Wang)
Yao and Lourdes first met during the pre-Hispanic period. Merchants from Yao's place would often come over to her house to trade, and Lourdes realized that this was a good opportunity to get some necessities. Whenever the Chinese ships came to dock, she would gather all her villagers, and together, they would grab all the merchandise they wanted and run off. They would then go to the neighboring islands, barter the goods they took with them, and return to the Chinese and give them products of their own, like pearls, beeswax, cotton, and tortoise shells. Since the Chinese had to wait for all the locals to come back, their ships were often the last to come back home. In exchange for her goods, Lourdes would receive such things as porcelain, iron pots, iron needles, and glass beads.

Over time, the two nations became closer friends, and Lourdes picked up a lot of things from him. She grew to love Chinese food, like pancit and siopao, and adopted some of his words, customs, and beliefs. Yao, for his part, trusted her for her honesty, knowing that he could easily leave his goods with her and that she would nearly always return them in one piece or in better condition. However, during colonization, she lost most of her contact with him, and they could only keep trading with each other because Spain needed products from China.

Nowadays, the two still trade and keep in touch, but their relationship has gotten somewhat strained because they often argue about the ownership of the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal.

Spain (Antonio Fernandez Carriedo)
Antonio first spotted her in 1521, but he put up his first permanent settlement a few decades later. At first, she trusted him when he said that he wanted to make friends, and she converted to Catholicism shortly after meeting him. It didn't take her long to realize that he wanted to take her as his colony, and she rebelled. He put down the rebellion quickly enough, and she became one of his many servants. She resented the loss of her freedom, the loss of contact with her siblings, the loss of most of her indigenous culture, and the way she was treated. Lourdes still rebelled against him, but over the centuries, when she realized she wasn't succeeding, she became a "submissive Maria Clara", at least on the outside. She would show her discontent in small ways, like breaking a dish or two when no one was looking. But that was it: small ways. She didn't mount a successful revolt until 1896.

She noticed that Antonio favored one particular servant (Romano, but she didn't learn who he was until much later) and paid relatively little attention to her, mostly leaving her to Mexico. It was only when the others started leaving that she rose in importance. He opened Manila to trade in 1834, but then tightened his grip on her because he sensed she would soon run away from him. Friction between them increased, until she finally blew up and fought against him. After two years of fighting, she declared her independence on June 12, 1898. She thought it was the end of her troubles, but she learned that it was not so.

Lourdes was bitter toward Antonio for quite some time, but later, she decided to forgive him. The two have a decent relationship with each other in the present day. Until now, her culture is still heavily influenced by his: even her own name comes from him.

America (Alfred F. Jones)
Alfred bought Lourdes from Antonio for $ 20 million in the Treaty of Paris. When Lourdes learned about this, she got very, very angry with Alfred, and they started the Philippine-American war. She had just won her independence from one country, and she was not about to be taken by another. Alfred tried to convince her to surrender to him, saying that he was a friend and that he would give her everything that Antonio didn't give her. Lourdes did not believe him, but she later surrendered because 1) her boss had surrendered to the United States, 2) many of her soldiers had died, and 3) she herself was ill and could barely fight. Alfred brought her to his house and asked doctors to give her medical treatment, but she still didn't trust him. She tried not to speak to him, and when she did, she called him all the swear words she knew. She later stopped when she realized that he could not understand what she was saying. For a brief time, she also tried to tick him off by speaking in Spanish (although she didn't know the language very well) despite the fact that she hated Spain at the time.

It took years, but she later grew to trust Alfred, and she even considered him a sort of big brother. She spent a lot of time with him, and she admired him for being strong and influential, even though he was relatively young compared to many nations. She learned to like American music, movies, and pop culture, and one of the things she inherited was his love for hamburgers and fatty food. However, she later grew restless and began demanding independence. He kept insisting she wasn't ready yet, while she retorted that she'd done everything he'd asked her to. She pestered him further, until he finally decided to pass the Tydings-McDuffie Law, which stated that she would be independent after 10 years. Until then, she would be known as the Commonwealth of the Philippines: still a territory of the United States, but with powers of self-government. She accepted, and for a brief time, they thought things would go smoothly from there. They were wrong. While she was preparing to move out, Kiku invaded the Philippines, and Alfred's boss called him back to the States, telling him to prioritize the war in Europe over the war in the Pacific. Alfred reluctantly agreed, but before he left, he promised Lourdes that he would return. He made good on his promise, and by March 1945, Manila, her capital, had been liberated. By then, however, Lourdes was in no position to enjoy the "liberation" - she was weak and badly injured from the fighting. So Alfred had to take her back to his house again. He finally let her move out on July 4, 1946, which she celebrated as Independence Day until 1962.

Until now, Lourdes feels that she's eternally indebted to Alfred for saving her, and they have close relations with each other, although they have had their share of disagreements, like the issue of the military bases. Some of her television shows (like Deal or No Deal and The Voice of the Philippines) are copies or adaptations of American shows.

Japan (Kiku Honda)
Around the time when Lourdes and Yao were trading with each other, she became acquainted with Kiku, who also came to trade every now and then. However, they didn't interact that much, so it came as a shock when he invaded her many centuries later, during World War II.

He didn't occupy her for very long, but his two to three years of staying on her islands took their toll on her. His troops abused her and her people constantly, and she was made to work for them day in and day out. To make things worse, he tried to convince her that this was all for her good. Obviously, this did not work on her, so she fought back. She helped the guerillas mount surprise attacks on the Japanese. She often said that she hated him, and during that time, she did; but when she heard that America made him surrender by bombing his house, she couldn't help but worry, much to Alfred's surprise.

For some time after the war, the two were still tense around each other, but after he apologized to her, sent her reparations for the damage he did, and generally acted more nicely towards her, she said she'd forgive him.

Nowadays, they get along quite well together. Lourdes especially likes the gadgets and anime Kiku produces.

Indonesia (Aini Hermawan)
Lourdes considers Aini as one of her older sisters. They were quite close to each other in the pre-colonial period, trading frequently and visiting each other's houses. Their relationship was interrupted when their countries were divided by colonial powers. Lourdes was taken by Antonio and became the Spanish East Indies, while Aini came under the Netherlands' rule and became the Dutch East Indies. They lost nearly all contact with each other, but they started talking again when they became independent. They have maintained a cordial relationship ever since.

In 1963, they tried to form a union called the "Maphilindo," but they did not succeed because Malaysia perceived it as a plot to prevent her from achieving full sovereignty. Nevertheless, their plans to come together were not in vain: the three of them, along with Thailand and Singapore, founded the ASEAN four years later.

Malaysia (Safiah Nalawangsa)
Just like Aini, Safiah is considered as one of Lourdes's older sisters. She was also close to the two of them, but lost contact thanks to colonization. She and Lourdes get along well with each other, but they sometimes argue over the ownership of Sabah. Lourdes claims the state on behalf of Mindanao, while Safiah considers it a nonissue and refuses to argue the point further.

~under construction~