Regions of the Philippines

Last updated

Regions of the Philippines
PH Administrative Map.svg
Administrative Map of the Philippines
Category Region
Location Philippines
Number17 (as of 2019)
Possible status
PopulationsSmallest: 1,791,121 (CAR)
Largest: 16,139,770 (Calabarzon)
AreasSmallest: 619.57 km2 (239.22 sq mi) (NCR)
Largest: 29,620.90 km2 (11,436.69 sq mi) (Mimaropa)
Government
  • Regional development council
    Metropolitan authority
    Autonomous regional government
Subdivisions

In the Philippines, regions (Filipino : rehiyon; ISO 3166-2:PH) are administrative divisions that primarily serve to coordinate planning and organize national government services across multiple local government units (LGUs). Most national government offices provide services through their regional branches instead of having direct provincial or city offices. Regional offices are usually but not necessarily located in the city designated as the regional center.

Contents

As of 2019, the Philippines is divided into 17 regions. Sixteen of these are mere administrative groupings, each provided by the president of the Philippines with a regional development council (RDC) – in the case of the National Capital Region (Metro Manila), an additional metropolitan authority serves as the coordinating and policy-making body. Only one, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, has an elected government and parliament to which the Congress of the Philippines has delegated certain powers and responsibilities.

History

Regions first came to existence on September 24, 1972, when the provinces of the Philippines were organized into eleven regions under Presidential Decree No. 1 as part of the Integrated Reorganization Plan of President Ferdinand Marcos. [1] Since that time, other regions have been created and some provinces have been transferred from one region to another.

Timeline

List of regions

As of June 30,2019, the Philippines is divided into 17 regions. [28] The traditional island groups of Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao are composed of eight (Regions I, II, III, IV-A, and V, and CAR, NCR, and Mimaropa), three (VI, VII, and VIII), and six (IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, and BARMM) regions, respectively. The names of Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and Soccsksargen are acronyms signifying their component provinces and cities; and are usually capitalized in official government documents.

Types of regions

Administrative region

An administrative region is a grouping of geographically adjacent LGUs that may be established, disestablished, and modified by the president of the Philippines based on the need to formulate coherent economic development policies, more efficiently provide national government services, and coordinate activities beneficial to the development of larger area beyond the province level. No plebiscites have been conducted so far to democratically confirm the creation, abolition or alteration of the boundaries of regular administrative regions, as the Constitution does not mandate it. [29]

An administrative region is not a local government unit (LGU), but rather a group of LGUs to which the president [30] has provided an unelected policy-making and coordinating structure, called the Regional Development Council (RDC). [31] Metro Manila is recognized in law as a "special development and administrative region", and was thus given the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA); [32] the Metro Manila Council within the MMDA serves as the National Capital Region's RDC. [31]

Autonomous region

The 1987 Constitution allows for the creation of autonomous regions in the Cordillera Central of Luzon and the Muslim-majority areas of Mindanao. [29] However, only the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and its predecessor, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have been approved by voters in plebiscites held in 1989, 2001, and 2019. Voters in the Cordilleras rejected autonomy in 1990 and 1998; hence the Cordillera Administrative Region remains as a regular administrative region with no delegated powers or responsibilities.

The Supreme Court has ruled that an autonomous region established by statute must be composed of more than one province, thereby invalidating the proposed establishment of the Autonomous Region of Ifugao following the results of the original 1990 Cordillera autonomy plebiscite, which saw only Ifugao's voters casting a majority 'yes' vote towards autonomy. [33]

Table of regions

LocationRegion
(regional designation)
PSGC [34] Island
group
Regional
center
Component local
government units
Area [lower-alpha 1] Population
(2020) [38]
Density
Metro Manila in Philippines.svg National Capital Region
(NCR)
13Luzon Manila 619.57 km2
(239.22 sq mi)
13,484,462
(12.41%)
Cordillera Administrative Region in Philippines.svg Cordillera Administrative Region
(CAR)
14Luzon Baguio 19,422.03 km2
(7,498.89 sq mi)
1,791,121
(1.65%)
Ilocos Region in Philippines.svg Ilocos Region
(Region I)
01Luzon San Fernando 13,012.60 km2
(5,024.19 sq mi)
5,292,297
(4.87%)
Cagayan Valley in Philippines.svg Cagayan Valley
(Region II)
02Luzon Tuguegarao 28,228.83 km2
(10,899.21 sq mi)
3,679,748
(3.39%)
Central Luzon in Philippines.svg Central Luzon
(Region III)
03Luzon San Fernando 22,014.63 km2
(8,499.90 sq mi)
12,387,811
(11.40%)
CALABARZON in Philippines.svg Calabarzon
(Region IV-A)
04Luzon Calamba 16,873.31 km2
(6,514.82 sq mi)
16,139,770
(14.85%)
MIMAROPA in Philippines.svg Southwestern Tagalog Region
(Mimaropa) [lower-alpha 4]
17Luzon Calapan 29,620.90 km2
(11,436.69 sq mi)
3,212,287
(2.96%)
Bicol Region in Philippines.svg Bicol Region
(Region V)
05Luzon Legazpi 18,155.82 km2
(7,010.00 sq mi)
6,067,290
(5.58%)
Western Visayas in Philippines.svg Western Visayas
(Region VI)
06Visayas Iloilo City 20,794.18 km2
(8,028.68 sq mi)
7,935,531
(7.30%)
Central Visayas in Philippines.svg Central Visayas
(Region VII)
07Visayas Cebu City 15,487.69 km2
(5,979.83 sq mi)
8,046,285
(7.40%)
Eastern Visayas in Philippines.svg Eastern Visayas
(Region VIII)
08Visayas Tacloban 23,251.10 km2
(8,977.30 sq mi)
4,531,512
(4.17%)
Zamboanga Peninsula in Philippines.svg Zamboanga Peninsula
(Region IX)
09Mindanao Pagadian 17,056.73 km2
(6,585.64 sq mi)
3,862,588
(3.55%)
Northern Mindanao in Philippines.svg Northern Mindanao
(Region X)
10Mindanao Cagayan de Oro 20,496.02 km2
(7,913.56 sq mi)
5,007,798
(4.61%)
Davao Region in Philippines.svg Davao Region
(Region XI)
11Mindanao Davao City 20,357.42 km2
(7,860.04 sq mi)
5,223,802
(4.81%)
SOCCSKSARGEN in Philippines.svg Soccsksargen
(Region XII)
12Mindanao Koronadal 22,513.30 km2
(8,692.43 sq mi)
4,351,773
(4.0%)
Caraga Region in Philippines.svg Caraga
(Region XIII)
16Mindanao Butuan 21,478.35 km2
(8,292.84 sq mi)
2,795,340
(2.57%)
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Philippines.svg Bangsamoro
(BARMM) [lower-alpha 7]
19Mindanao Cotabato City 12,535.79 km2
(4,840.10 sq mi)
4,938,539
(4.54%)
Notes
  1. Land area figures are the sum of each region's component provinces and independent cities, derived from the National Statistical Coordination Board (Philippine Statistics Authority) official website. For the BARMM, land area is derived from the Bangsamoro Development Plan Integrative Report. [35] [36] [37]
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 A highly urbanized city, independent from any province.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 An independent component city, not under the jurisdiction of any provincial government.
  4. Formerly designated as Region IV-B until 2016.
  5. A component city, part of the province of Basilan, but whose regional services are provided by the offices of Region IX.
  6. 1 2 The province of Cotabato, which is part of the Soccsksargen region, has 63 of its barangays included in the BARMM.
  7. Following the Bangsamoro autonomy plebiscite and the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was superseded by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in February 2019, which transferred the provinces and cities already in the ARMM, as well as surrounding communities that voted for inclusion.

Judicial regions

As far as the judiciary is concerned, specifically the first and second level courts, the country is divided into judicial regions as provided by Batas Pambansa Bilang 129. The coverage of these judicial regions generally coincides with that of the administrative regions in 1980, with some exceptions.

Legislative districts

Representation for the Interim Batasang Pambansa was mostly through parliamentary districts based on how regions were organized in 1978. Metro Manila was "Region IV", while Southern Tagalog was "Region IV-A". This was the only time the national legislature was represented via regions; in a 1984 plebiscite, voters approved a constitutional amendment that reverted to representation per province and city.

Proposed regions

Defunct regions

The following are regions that no longer exist, listed along with their current status:

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Philippines is divided into four levels of administrative divisions, with the lower three being defined in the Local Government Code of 1991 as local government units (LGUs). They are, from the highest to the lowest:

  1. Regions are mostly used to organize national services. Of the 17 regions, only one—the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao—has an elected government to which the central government has devolved competencies.
  2. Provinces, independent cities, and one independent municipality (Pateros)
  3. Component cities and municipalities within a province
  4. Barangays within a city or municipality
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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bangsamoro</span> Autonomous region of the Philippines

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References

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  2. "Presidential Decree No. 224" . Retrieved November 5, 2016.
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