The first Philippine stamp was issued in 1854 by the Spanish monarch, making the Philippines the first Southeast Asian country to issue its own stamps and one of the first colonies of Spain to do so. Since then the Philippines has been issuing stamps.

On the 12th of June 1898, the country declared its independence from Spain and the new republic began issuing its own stamps. To mark the centennial of independence in 1998, the authors put together this collection of stamps depicting important events in Philippine history.