position_played_on_team_/_speciality gilbert lao
Luzon is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines and the 15th largest in the world . Located in the northern region of the archipelago , it is the economic and political ___MASK78___ of the nation , being home to the country ' s capital city , Manila , as well as Quezon City , the country ' s most populous . With a population of 52 . 99 million , it is the fourth most populous island in the world ( after Java , Honshu , and Great Britain ), containing about 53 % of the country ' s total population . The Philippines , officially the Republic of the Philippines , is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean . It consists of about 7 , 641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south : Luzon , Visayas , and Mindanao . The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City , both part of Metro Manila . Bounded by the South China Sea on the west , the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest , the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north , Vietnam to the west , Palau to the east and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south . The world is the planet Earth and all life upon it , including human civilization . In a philosophical context , the world is the whole of the physical Universe , or an ontological world . In a theological context , the " world " is the material or the profane sphere , as opposed to the celestial , spiritual , transcendent or sacred . The " ___MASK94___ of the world " refers to scenarios of the final ___MASK94___ of human history , often in religious contexts . Basketball is a sport that is played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court . The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop in diameter and mounted at a height of to backboards at each ___MASK94___ of the court . The game was invented in 1891 by Dr . James Naismith , who would be the first basketball coach of the Kansas Jayhawks , one of the most successful programs in the game ' s history . The Philippine Basketball Association ( PBA ) is a men ' s professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company - branded franchised teams . It is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the second oldest continuously existing in the world after the NBA . The league ' s regulations are a hybrid of rules from the NBA . Gilbert Y . Lao ( born September 13 , 1978 in Manila , Philippines ) is a Filipino professional basketball player in the Philippine Basketball Association .