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Samar Western Samar | |
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(from top: left to right) San Juanico Bridge, Tarangnan town, Talalora Bay, San Pedro Bay, Rocks of Marabut and Samar Provincial Capitol | |
Nickname: The Caving Capital Province of the Philippines [1] | |
![]() Location in the Philippines | |
Coordinates: 11°50′N125°00′E / 11.83°N 125°E | |
Country | Philippines |
Region | Eastern Visayas |
Founded | August 11, 1841 |
Capital | Catbalogan |
Largest city | Calbayog |
Government | |
• Type | Sangguniang Panlalawigan |
• Governor | Sharee Ann T. Tan (NP) |
• Vice Governor | Arnold V. Tan (PFP) |
• Legislature | Samar Provincial Board |
Area | |
• Total | 6,048.03 km2 (2,335.16 sq mi) |
• Rank | 10th out of 81 |
Highest elevation | 890 m (2,920 ft) |
Population (2024 census) [3] | |
• Total | 806,179 |
• Rank | 39th out of 81 |
• Density | 130/km2 (350/sq mi) |
• Rank | 64th out of 81 |
Divisions | |
• Independent cities | 0 |
• Component cities | |
• Municipalities | |
• Barangays | 951 |
• Districts | Legislative districts of Samar |
Time zone | UTC+8 (PHT) |
IDD : area code | +63 (0)55 |
ISO 3166 code | PH-WSA |
Spoken languages | |
Highway routes | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Website | samar |
Samar, officially the Province of Samar (Waray : Probinsya han Samar; Tagalog : Lalawigan ng Samar), or also known as Western Samar, is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is the city of Catbalogan while Calbayog is the most populous city in the province. It is bordered by Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte and Leyte Gulf, and includes several islands in the Samar Sea. Samar is connected to the island of Leyte via the San Juanico Bridge.
In 1768, Leyte and modern Samar were created out of the historical province of Samar. In 1965, Northern and Eastern Samar were created.
Fishing and agriculture are the major economic activities in the province. [4]
On 8 November 2013, the province was significantly damaged by Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), particularly the towns of Basey, Marabut and Santa Rita. [5]
Around 2 million to 8000 B.C., based on geologic findings, during the ice ages (2 million years – 8000 B.C.), the islands of Mindoro, Luzon, and Mindanao were connected as one big island through the islands of Samar, Leyte and Bohol.
In 8550 B.C., diggings in Sohoton Caves in Basey, Samar showed stone flake tools. In 1200 A.D., other diggings along the Basey River revealed other stone flakes used until the 13th century. [6]
In 1543, the explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, first came to the island and named it Las Islas Filipinas.
In 1596, many names, such as Samal, Ibabao, and Tandaya, were given to Samar Island prior to the coming of the Spaniards in 1596. During the early days of Spanish occupation, Samar was under the jurisdiction of Cebu.
On October 15, 1596, the first Jesuit missionaries arrived in Tinago (now Dapdap) in Tarangnan. From Tinago, the missionaries, Fr. Francisco de Otazo, Bartolome Martes and Domingo Alonzo began teaching Catechism, healing the sick and spreading the Christian faith into the interior settlements.
On June 1, 1649, the people of Palapag led by Agustin Sumuroy revolted against the decree of Governor General Diego Fajardo requiring able bodied men from the Visayas for service at the Cavite Shipyards. Like wildfire, the revolt quickly spread to the neighboring town in the Northern and Western coast of Samar and to the nearby provinces of Bicol, Surigao, Cebu, Camiguin and as far as Zamboanga. It was suppressed in 1650 by the combined forces of the Spaniards, Lutaos, and Pampangos.
In 1735, Samar and Leyte were united into one province with Carigara, in Leyte, as the capital town. In 1747, Samar and Leyte were separated for administrative effectiveness. In 1762, complaints from the Jesuits that the division was not working well, thus it was reunited again by the approval from the King of Spain.
In 1768, Jesuits were expelled in all Spanish dominions. The Franciscans arrived on September 25, 1768, and took over the administration of 14 of the 17 parishes which were under the spiritual care of the Jesuits for almost 172 years. The administration of the remaining three parishes namely Guiuan, Balangiga and Basey in the south of Samar were given to the Augustinians.
In 1777, the two provinces were divided for the last time, it was approved in Madrid in 1786 and had been effective in 1799.
In 1803, Guiuan, Balangiga and Basey were turned over to the Franciscans for the lack of Augustinian priests.
On August 11, 1841, Queen Isabella II of Spain signed a Royal Decree declaring Samar as a province.
The Battle of Catubig occurred on April 15–18, 1900 during the Philippine–American War.
On April 15, 1900, the Filipino guerrillas launched a surprise attack on a detachment of the US 43rd Infantry Regiment, forcing the Americans to abandon Catubig town after the four-day siege.
In 1901, the Balangiga massacre occurred during the Philippine–American War.
On September 28, 1901, the people of Balangiga, Giporlos, Lawaan and Quinapondan in Eastern Samar surprised and attacked the American forces stationed there, killing 48 American soldiers. To avenge their defeat, American general Jacob H. Smith ordered his men to turn Samar into a "howling wilderness".
On April 10, 1910, upon the papal bull of Pope Pius X separated the islands of Samar and Leyte from the Diocese of Cebu and erected the Diocese of Calbayog comprising both islands. Pablo Singzon de Anunciacion was named first Bishop and consecrated on June 12, 1910.
In 1942, the occupying Imperial Japanese forces arrived in the province of Samar.
On October 24, 1944, the Battle off Samar took place as Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force warships clashed with several allied naval vessels in a collision course. His forces sank escort carrier USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), destroyers USS Hoel (DD-533) and USS Johnston (DD-557), and escort destroyer USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), but at a cost of his cruisers Chikuma, Chokai, and Suzuya. Despite being a tactical victory for the Imperial Japanese Navy, it did not alter the course of the Philippines campaign.
On June 19, 1965, the Philippine Congress along with the three Samar Representatives, Eladio T. Balite (1st District), Fernando R. Veloso (2nd District) and Felipe J. Abrigo (3rd District), approved Republic Act No. 4221 dividing the region of Samar into three divisions: Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, and Western Samar. Each region adopted a new capital: Catbalogan (Western Samar), Borongan (Eastern Samar), and Catarman (Northern Samar). [7] The law was later ratified by the majority of voters through a plebiscite held on November 9, 1965. [8] Esteban Piczon, the last governor of undivided Samar, continued as the first governor of Western Samar, while the aforementioned representatives were re-elected for the new provinces in 1965. The first provincial officials of Western Samar were elected on November 14, 1967, and on January 1, 1968, they officially assumed office.
On June 21, 1969, under Republic Act No. 5650, Western Samar was renamed Samar with Catbalogan still as the capital. [9]
The beginning months of the 1970s had marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines, as well as in Samar. [10] respectively [11] [12] [13] During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of foreign debt-funded public works projects. This caused [14] [15] the Philippine economy to take a sudden downwards turn known as the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, which led to a period of economic difficulty and a significant rise of social unrest. [16] [17] [18] [19] : "43" With only a year left in his last constitutionally allowed term as president, Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law in September 1972 and thus retained the position for fourteen more years. [20] This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses, [21] [22] particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. [23] In Samar province itself, there were a number of Human rights violations particularly associated with the various political detainees at Camp Lukban in Barangay Maulong, which was then still under the Philippine Constabulary. [10]
This era also saw the construction of the San Juanico Bridge between Samar and Leyte, which began as one of the high-visibility foreign-loan funded projects of Ferdinand Marcos’ 1969 reelection campaign, and finished four years later in time to be inaugurated on then-First Lady Imelda Marcos' birthday on July 2, 1973. [24] The project was initially criticised as a white elephant by officials at the National Economic and Development Authority, noting that it was "useless and expensive to maintain", [25] because its average daily traffic was too low to justify the cost of its construction. [25] As a result, its construction has been associated with what has been called the Marcoses' "edifice complex" [26] [27] although economic activity in Samar and Leyte has since finally caught up with the bridge's intended function. [27] At the time, its name was used as a slang term for onte of the torture methods used by the Marcos dictatorship, in which a person being beaten while the victim's head and feet lay on separate beds and the body is suspended as though to form a bridge. [28] [29] [30]
The capital town Catbalogan became a component city by virtue of Republic Act No. 9391 which sought to convert the municipality into a city. The law was ratified on June 16, 2007. However, the cityhood status was lost twice in the years 2008 and 2010 after the League of Cities of the Philippines questioned the validity of the cityhood law. The cityhood status was reaffirmed after the Supreme Court finalized its ruling on February 15, 2011, which declared the cityhood law constitutional.
On November 8, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Typhoon Yolanda, hit Samar province. [31] More than 300 people perished on the first day it hit the province. [32]
In June 2018, a friendly fire incident happened between Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the administration of Rodrigo Duterte. The incident led to the death of numerous police officials of Waray ethnic origin. [33] [34]
On January 22, 2019, House Bill No. 8824 was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Edgar Mary Sarmiento to establish a new province called "Northwestern Samar", consisting of nine municipalities and one city of Samar's 1st congressional district, of which Calbayog would be the designated capital. The bill is yet to be reviewed. [35]
Samar province covers a total area of 6,048.03 square kilometers (2,335.16 sq mi) [36] occupying the central-western sections of the Samar island in the Eastern Visayas region. The province is bordered on the north by Northern Samar, east by Eastern Samar, south by Leyte and Leyte Gulf, and west by the Samar Sea.
The province of Samar comprises two congressional districts, 24 municipalities and two component cities. It has a total of 952 barangays.
Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
---|---|---|
1903 | 118,912 | — |
1918 | 168,668 | +2.36% |
1939 | 236,909 | +1.63% |
1948 | 331,521 | +3.80% |
1960 | 368,823 | +0.89% |
1970 | 442,244 | +1.83% |
1975 | 478,378 | +1.59% |
1980 | 501,439 | +0.95% |
1990 | 533,733 | +0.63% |
1995 | 589,373 | +1.88% |
2000 | 641,124 | +1.82% |
2007 | 695,149 | +1.12% |
2010 | 733,377 | +1.97% |
2015 | 780,481 | +1.19% |
2020 | 793,183 | +0.34% |
2024 | 806,179 | +0.39% |
Source: Philippine Statistics Authority [37] [38] [38] |
The population of Samar (province) in the 2020 census was 793,183 people, [3] with a density of 130 inhabitants per square kilometer or 340 inhabitants per square mile.
Samar (Western Samar) is predominantly Roman Catholic. The Catholic Hierarchy (2014) states that 95 percent of its population adhere to Roman Catholicism.
Some other Christian believers constitute most of the remainder such as Rizalista, Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Born-again Christians, Iglesia ni Cristo, Baptists, Methodists, Jehovah's Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventist, and Members Church of God International (MCGI). Muslims are also present and a few mosques are located within the province.
Residents of Samar are mostly Waray, the fifth largest cultural-linguistic group in the country. 90.2 percent of the household population speaks the Waray-Waray language, while 9.8 percent also speak Cebuano; 8.1 percent Boholano; 0.07 percent Tagalog; and 0.5 percent other languages.
There are two types of Waray spoken in the province, Waray Lineyte-Samarnon which is spoken from the southernmost tip of the province up to the municipality of Gandara and Waray Calbayog, an intermediary between the Waray of Northern Samar and the Waray of Samar, spoken in Calbayog, Santa Margarita, and in some parts of Tagapul-an, Santo Niño, Almagro and Matuguinao.
Poverty incidence of Samar
10 20 30 40 50 60 2000 38.19 2003 45.90 2006 40.37 2009 42.50 2012 50.03 2015 49.24 2018 29.25 2021 27.00 Source: Philippine Statistics Authority [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] |
19th & 20th Centuries
21st Century
... there are more than a thousand caves in the province alone, most of them still unexplored. "Samar isn't called the Caving Capital of the Philippines for nothing," he says.