Arabic

Arabic (العربية) is a Semitic language, like Hebrew and Aramaic.

Around 292 million people speak Arabic as their first language. Many more people can also understand it as a second language.

The Arabic language has its own alphabet written from right to left, like Hebrew.

Since it is so widely spoken throughout the world, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, the others being English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.

The Arabic language is mentioned in the Philippine constitution of 1986. It specifies that "Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis." 

Arabic has been mainly used by a number of Filipino Muslims in a liturgical and instructional capacity since the arrival of Islam and establishment of several Sultanates (like Sultanate of Maguindanao, Sultanate of Sulu and Sultanate of Ranaw) and during Bruneian Empire in the present-day state Philippines.

Along with Malay, Arabic was the lingua franca of the Malay Archipelago among Muslim traders and the Malay aristocracy in the history. Arabic is taught for free and is promoted in some Islamic centres predominantly in the southernmost parts of Philippines.