Eastern Visayas

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Region VIII
EASTERN VISAYAS Regional center Tacloban City, LeytePopulation 3,610,355 – Density 168.5 per km² Area 21,431.6 km² Divisions – Provinces6 – Cities6 – Municipalities137 – Barangays4,390 – Cong. districts12 Languages Waray-Waray(Leyte-Samarnon), Cebuano, Abaknon

Eastern Visayas is one of the two regions of the Philippines having no land border with another region, MIMAROPA being the other, and is designated as Region VIII. It consists of six provinces, namely, Biliran, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar and Southern Leyte. These provinces occupy the easternmost islands of Visayas: Leyte, Samar and Biliran. The regional center is Tacloban City, one of three cities of Leyte. Catbalogan City and Calbayog City are the two cities in Samar Province.

1 Shopping Malls
2 Cultural groups
3 Climate
4 Land use
5 Natural Resources
6 Economy
7 Political Divisions
- 7.1 Component Cities
8 Languages
9 External links

Shopping Malls

Wilsam Uptown Mall in Borongan City is one of the few shopping malls in Eastern Visayas. Robinsons in Tacloban city had already started constructing a 3 hectare floor space shopping mall and is expected to finish on December 2008. To rival Robinsons presence in Tacloban city, Gaisano decided to build another store which will be located at the former Republic theater. It will be called Gaisano Capital Mall and is also expected to finish by December 2008. This would mean that before the year 2008 ends there will be 2 new big shopping malls opening simultaneously in Tacloban city.

Cultural groups

Region VIII is inhabited by the Waray-Warays , the country’s fourth largest cultural linguistic group. But Cebuanos, from the nearby island of Cebu live in Ormoc City, Western Leyte and parts of the southwest of Leyte.

Climate

The eastern portion of the region is frequently visited by storms from the Pacific Ocean. The region receives heavy rainfall throughout the year with no pronounced dry season.

Land use

Eastern Visayas is primarily an agricultural region with rice, corn, coconut, sugarcane and banana as major crops. Its total land area is 21,431.7 km². 52% of its total land area are classified as forestland and 48% as alienable and disposable land.

Natural Resources

The region’s sea and inland waters are rich sources of salt and fresh water fish and other marine products. It is one of the fish exporting regions of the country.

There are substantial forest reserves in the interiors of the islands. Its mineral deposits include chromite, nickel, clay, coal, limestone, pyrite and sand and gravel.

It has abundant geothermal energy and water resources to support the needs of medium and heavy industries.

Economy

Primary sources of revenue are manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade and services. Mining, farming, fishing and tourism contribute significantly to the economy Manufacturing firms include mining companies, fertilizer plants, sugar central, rice and corn mills and other food processing plants. Cebu is the hub of investment, trade and development in the region.

Other industries include mining, rice, corn and sugar milling, coconut oil extraction, alcohol distilling, beverage manufacture and forest products. Home industries include hat and basket weaving, metal craft, needlecraft, pottery, ceramics, woodcraft, shell craft and bamboo craft.

Political Divisions

Political map of Eastern Visayas ProvinceCapital Population
(2000) Area
(km²) Pop. density
(per km²) Biliran Naval140,274 555.4 252.6 Eastern Samar Borongan City375,822 4,339.6 86.6 Leyte Tacloban City1,592,336 5,712.8 278.7 Northern Samar Catarman500,639 3,498.0 143.1 Samar Catbalogan City641,124 5,591.0 114.7 Southern Leyte Maasin City360,160 1,734.8 207.6

Component Cities

¹ Ormoc City is an independent component city.

Languages

Waray-Waray is spoken on the island of Samar, eastern Biliran and the eastern part of the province of Leyte while Cebuano is spoken in the rest of Leyte, western Biliran, as well as in the province of Southern Leyte; both of these languages are called Visayan by their speakers. A Samar language, distantly related to the languages of the region, called Abaknon is spoken in the island of Capul in Northern Samar.