the philippines is a sovereign island country in southeast asia situated in the western pacific ocean. it is a founding member of the united nations, world trade organization, association of southeast asian nations, the asia-pacific economic cooperation forum, and the east asia summit. it also hosts the headquarters of the asian development bank. the philippines is considered to be an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, which has an economy transitioning from being one based on agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing.