Laguna, officially the Province of Laguna, is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Its capital is Santa Cruz while its largest city is the City of Calamba and the province is situated southeast of Metro Manila, south of the province of Rizal, west of Quezon, north of Batangas and east of Cavite. Laguna hugs the southern shores of Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the country. As of the 2020 census, the province's total population is 3,382,193. It is the seventh richest province in the country in 2016.
Calabarzon, sometimes referred to as Southern Tagalog and designated as Region IV‑A, is an administrative region in the Philippines. The region comprises five provinces: Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, and Rizal; and one highly urbanized city, Lucena. It is the most populous region in the Philippines, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), having over 16.1 million inhabitants in 2020, and is also the country's second most densely populated after the National Capital Region. It is situated southeast of Metro Manila, and is bordered by Manila Bay and South China Sea to the west, Lamon Bay and the Bicol Region to the east, Tayabas Bay and the Sibuyan Sea to the south, and Central Luzon to the north. It is home to places like Mount Makiling near Los Baños, Laguna, and Taal Volcano in Batangas.
Cavinti, officially the Municipality of Cavinti, is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 23,980 people.
Los Baños, officially the Municipality of Los Baños, colloquialy 'elbi' or simply LB, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 115,353 people.
Pagsanjan, officially the Municipality of Pagsanjan, is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 44,327 people.
Lumban, officially the Municipality of Lumban, is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 32,330 people.
Santa Cruz, officially the Municipality of Santa Cruz, is a 1st class municipality and capital of the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 123,574 people.
The Bumbungan River is a river in the province of Laguna in the Philippines. It is commonly referred to as the Pagsanjan River because of the popularity of the municipality of Pagsanjan and Pagsanjan Falls, one of the province's tourist destinations. The municipality of Pagsanjan was named so because it is where the Balanac River, originating from Mount Banahaw, joins the Bumbungan. Its old name, Pinagsangahan, which literally means branching, was changed to Pagsanjan during the Spanish Colonial Era.
Hinulugang Taktak Protected Landscape, also known as Hinulugan Taktak, is a protected area located in Rizal, Philippines. Initially assigned as a recreation area, the waterfall area has been designated as a national park by virtue of Republic Act No. 6964 in 1990. Ten years later, it became a protected landscape in accordance to Proclamation No. 412. It is being managed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Rizal Provincial Government. As of 2003 and 2004, Hinulugang Taktak is the second most popular national park in the Philippines in terms of number of visitors.
Pagsanjan Falls, also known as Cavinti Falls, is one of the most famous waterfalls in the Philippines. Located in the province of Laguna, the falls is one of the major tourist attractions of the region. The three-drop waterfall is reached by a river trip on dugout canoe, known locally as "Shooting the Rapids", originating from the municipality of Pagsanjan. The falls can also be reached from the top by a short hike from Cavinti.
The Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape is a protected area and national park in Peñablanca, Cagayan. It is on the border with Isabela province, contiguous with the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park. The protected area, best known as the location of Callao Cave, covers the largest block of forest under conservation in the province. It covers 118,781.582 hectares of the northern Sierra Madre mountain range and its adjacent Pacific coast.
The Manleluag Spring Protected Landscape is a protected area containing natural hot springs in the Ilocos Region of the Philippines. It is one of 34 protected landscapes in the Philippines located in the municipality of Mangatarem, Pangasinan in the west-central area of the island of Luzon.
Mounts Banahaw–San Cristobal Protected Landscape is a protected landscape park in the Calabarzon region of the Philippines, 120 kilometres (75 mi) south of Manila. It is the second largest protected area in Calabarzon, after the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape, with an area of 10,900.59 hectares. The park is located at the border of Laguna and Quezon provinces and includes the features it is named after: Mount Banahaw and, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) to its west, Mount San Cristobal.
Emilio Ramon Pelayo Ejercito III, commonly known as E. R. Ejercito, is a Filipino actor and former governor of Laguna from 2010 until his removal in 2014. Prior to his election as governor, he served as mayor of Pagsanjan, Laguna, from 2001 until 2010. He is the son of actor George Estregan and the nephew of former President and former Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.
The Angat Watershed Forest Reserve is a conservation area that protects the drainage basin in the southern Sierra Madre range north of Metro Manila in the Philippines where surface water empties into the Angat River and its distributaries. It is spread over an area of 62,309 hectares in the eastern portion of Bulacan and northern Rizal province at an altitude of between 490 and 1,206 metres. The conservation area also extends to the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Quezon and is centered on an artificial lake created by the Angat Dam which, together with the Ipo Dam located 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) downstream, supply 97% of the water requirement of Metro Manila via an aqueduct system to the La Mesa Dam and Reservoir and the Balara Filtration Plant in Quezon City. The Angat Dam and Reservoir is also a major source of hydroelectricity for Metro Manila and surrounding provinces, contributing some 200 megawatts to the Luzon grid. The watershed is a popular birdwatching site and is a biodiversity hotspot containing most of the remaining closed-canopy forests in Central Luzon.
The Samar Island Natural Park, in Samar, is the largest contiguous tract of old-growth forest in the Philippines. It is the country's largest terrestrial protected area, with an area of 333,300 hectares. The buffer is spread north to south over the island's three provinces and totals 458,700 hectares, about a third of the entire island of Samar.
The Pamitinan Protected Landscape is a Philippine protected area of approximately 608 hectares in the Sierra Madre mountain range, just 34 kilometres (21 mi) northeast of Manila. It contains and protects the Montalban Gorge formed by the Marikina River that separates Mount Pamitinan and Mount Binacayan in the municipality of Rodriguez in Rizal. Established in 1996 through Proclamation No. 901 issued by President Fidel Ramos, the park is originally a component of the Mariquina Reserve founded in 1904 to protect the watershed of the Marikina River that supplied water to the city of Manila from the Wawa Dam located just above the Montalban Gorge in the early 1900s.
The Upper Agno River Basin Resource Reserve is a protected area located on the southeast flank of the Cordillera Central in the Philippine province of Benguet along its border with Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya. It is a resource reserve located high in the Central and Polis ranges protecting the headwaters of the Agno River. According to section 4 of the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act, a resource reserve is an extensive and relatively isolated area designated as such to preserve the natural resources of the area. The reserve comprises 77,561 hectares of the catchment area that feeds the Ambuklao and Binga dams, two of the country's oldest hydroelectric plants that supply power to the city of Baguio and entire Benguet province. Upper Agno is north of and contiguous with the Lower Agno Watershed Forest Reserve that preserves the immediate downstream of the Binga Dam where the Agno River is impounded by a third dam, the San Roque Dam, the largest in the Philippines and the main source of water, electric energy and irrigation for surrounding regions in Luzon.
