Banawe Rice Terraces, reputedly the 8th Wonder of the World. Built over a period of 2000 years by the natives of the region using only the crudest wooden tools, if these terraces were put end to end, they would extend halfway around the globe.
The Ifugao Rice Terraces was inscribed in the UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LIST in 1995 ""because of its great beauty that expresses conquered and conserved harmony between humankind and the environment.""

"The Philippine NatureScape"

Located at the heart of the southern Sulu Sea, 98 nautical miles from Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, fragile Tubbataha Reef is a marvelous marine wilderness and a special eco-system much appreciated for its beauty as well as its scientific value. In the heart of Sulu Sea, a wide expanse of sea that lies between Palawan and the Southern Island of Mindanao, nestles Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park. This unique 33,200-hectare underwater splendor teems with abundant flora and fauna of the sea. The name Tubbataha is a derivative of two muslim words, ""Tubba"" (meaning long) and ""Taha"" (referring to something related to shore, reefs, or lagoon). It is composed of two distinct atoll reef systems, the North Reef and the South Reef, separated by a four-mile channel. Tubbataha's North Reef is a nesting site for sea birds of all kinds as thousands of birds converge there every year. Boobies and terns are some of the birds that fly into Tubbataha to lay their eggs. It is also a nesting site for endangered sea turtles. Its seaworld is a diver's paradise with gorgonian seafans, soft corals, and gigantic sea sponges serving as home to turkey fish, anemone crab, banded sea snakes, nudibranches, starfish, cat sharks, surgeon fish, bat fish, and butterfly fish. Rare fish can be found in the Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park, like the unusual-looking Fox-faced Rabbit fish. Because of its fabulous beauty, the marine park was honored by UNESCO on December 11, 1993, as the first natural site in the Philippines to be inscribed in the prestigious World Heritage List.

The Church of Santo Tomas de Villanueva in Miag-ao, Iloilo was built in 1768. The facade had a bas-relief with a native botanical motif, reminiscent of the Aztec Art. Made of a distinct local yellow-orange sandstone, the fortress-church took ten years to build, beginning in 1797. Miag-ao's church is ""the most outstanding example of the peripheral baroque style blended with embellishment [from] naïf folk motifs found in the Philippines,"" according to the 1992 report of Jorge Gazano, an architectural expert of ICOMOS, the United Nations' International Committee for Monuments and Sites. Any visitor will be able to translate the jargon into layman's language just by looking at the profusely ornamented church-front. Reigning over its fully hand-sculptured pediment is St. Christopher, dressed Filipino-farmer style with his pants rolled up, and carrying the Christ Child on his back. The holy figures stand beside coconut, papaya and guava trees ready for harvest. They were rendered by folk artisans working from their imagination and whatever guidance the priest, who had no architectural training, could offer. No similar tropical-Asian composition exists. It was one of the 4 Baroque churches in the Philippines included in the UNESCO's Heritage List and was declared a national landmark in 1973.

San Agustin Church (1571) is the oldest structure in the Philippines and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

While the mission trio projects fine folk aesthetics, the last of the churches selected as baroque model is a grande dame of metropolitan achievement for the late 16th century. Built from 1586 to 1606 inside Intramuros, the Walled City where the city of Manila began, San Agustin Church is the oldest extant Christian sanctuary in the Far East, and the Philippines' oldest stone edifice. It marks the start of using permanent materials in contrast to indigenous, lightweight architectural media. A plain exterior hides a sanctuary that attempts to bring heaven, in all its visual splendor, down to earth. The nave is a marvel of 19th-centry handpainted trompe-l'oeil. The magnificent retable is alive with antique images tucked into gilded niches. Throughout the sanctuary, in the convent and rooms converted into museum displays, are rare works of art accumulated from Asia and the Philippines over the centuries. In a chapel beside the main altar, the last conquistador, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, is entombed

The majestic stone church of Saint Augustine in Paoay, Ilocos, Norte was built in 1704. Made of coral rubble and mortar faced with brick, the structure exudes the grandeur of baroque architecture while retaining the unique charm of an Asian temple. The church has been declared a National Cultural Treasure, and was named a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO IN 1994.

It is the premier example of Philippine Earthquake Baroque, an architectural solution to the area's challenging, natural setting. Both sides of the nave are lined with the most voluminous stone buttresses seen around the islands. They are decorated with huge scrolls, and topped by decorative pinnacles. A coralstone belltower stands a safe distance away to spare the sanctuary in case of collapse. Originally, the church roof was thatched; and it is conjectured so that buttresses not only support walls but give roof access during fire and typhoon.

Another mission that doubled originally as a fortress is Nuestra Seņora de la Asuncion in Santa Maria town of Ilocos Sur, a province on the country's northwestern seaboard. The citadel complex was the hub for evangelizing pagan peoples living in adjacent highlands. The best way to appreciate the architectural mood is to ascend the church's grand stairway of 85 wide steps starting at the town proper. Another stairway descends to a circular cemetery overwhelmed by exuberant foliage and an air of romanticism.

The old Mestizo district of Vigan, Ilocos Sur is a 'living museum' of Filipino-Spanish-Chinese architectural heritage.

The historic town of Vigan was inscribed in the World Heritage List in November 1999 because of its outstanding development in architecture, urban planning, and landscape design. It also serves as a testimony to a cultural tradition which has disappeared.

The justification for inscription is as follows:

• ""Criterion (ii): Vigan represents a unique fusion of Asian building design and construction with European colonial architecture and planning.
• Criterion (iv): Vigan is an exceptionally intact and well preserved example of European trading town in East and South-East Asia.""