Regions of the Philippines
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In the Philippines, regions (Tagalog: rehiyon, ISO 3166-2:PH) are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the provinces (lalawigan) of the country for administrative convenience. Currently, the archipelagic republic of the Philippines is divided into 17 regions. Most government offices are established by region instead of individual provincial offices, usually (but not always) in the city designated as the regional center.
The regions themselves do not possess a separate local government, with the exception of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which has an elected regional assembly and governor. The Cordillera Administrative Region was originally intended to be autonomous (Cordillera Autonomous Region), but the failure of two plebiscites for its establishment reduced it to a regular administrative region.
History
Regions first came to existence in on September 24, 1972 when the provinces of the Philippines were organized into 11 regions by Presidential Decree No. 1 as part of the Integrated Reorganization Plan of President Ferdinand Marcos.
Since that time, other regions have been created and some provinces have been transferred from one region to another.
- July 7, 1975: Region XII created and minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions.
- August 21, 1975: Region IX divided into Sub-Region IX-A' and Sub-Region IX-B. Minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions.
- November 7, 1975: National Capital Region created.
- August 1, 1989: Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao created.
- October 23, 1989: Cordillera Administrative Region created.
- October 12, 1990: Executive Order issued to reorganize the Mindanao regions but the reorganization never happened (possibly due to lack of government funds).
- February 23, 1995: Region XIII (Caraga) created and minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions.
- 1997: Minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions.
- September 19, 2001: Most Mindanao regions reorganized and some renamed.
- May 17, 2002: Region IV-A (CALABARZON) and Region IV-B (MIMAROPA) created from the former Region IV (Southern Tagalog) region.
- May 23, 2005: Palawan transferred from MIMAROPA to Western Visayas; MIMAROPA renamed to MIMARO.
- August 19, 2005: The E.O. 429 of May 23, 2005 transferring Palawan from MIMAROPA to Western Visayas was later held in abeyance by Administrative Order #129.
List of regions
As of June 2010, the Philippines consists of 17 administrative regions. Some of the region designations include numeric components, some do not.[1] These regions are geographically combined into the three island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Following is a list of the regions in their island groupings. To get overviews of the regions, see the respective articles on the island groups. The regions CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and SOCCSKSARGEN are capitalized because they are acronyms that stand for their component provinces or cities.[2]
Note that insofar 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 the Executive branch of government.
| Location | Region (regional designation) |
Island group | Regional center | Component local government units | Area (km2) | Population (2010)[3] |
Density (per km2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
National Capital Region (NCR) |
Luzon | Manila | List
|
636 | 11,855,975 | 18641.5 |
 |
Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) |
Luzon | Baguio | List
|
18,294 | 1,616,867 | 88.4 |
 |
Ilocos Region (Region I) |
Luzon | San Fernando (La Union) |
List
|
12,840 | 4,748,372 | 369.8 |
 |
Cagayan Valley (Region II) |
Luzon | Tuguegarao | List
|
26,838 | 3,229,163 | 120.3 |
 |
Central Luzon (Region III) |
Luzon | San Fernando (Pampanga) |
List
|
21,470 | 10,137,737 | 472.2 |
 |
CALABARZON (Region IV-A) |
Luzon | Calamba | List
|
16,229 | 12,609,803 | 777 |
 |
MIMAROPA (Region IV-B) |
Luzon | Calapan | List
|
27,456 | 2,744,671 | 100 |
 |
Bicol Region (Region V) |
Luzon | Legazpi | List
|
17,632 | 5,420,411 | 307.4 |
 |
Western Visayas (Region VI) |
Visayas | Iloilo City | List
|
20,223 | 7,102,438 | 351.2 |
 |
Central Visayas (Region VII) |
Visayas | Cebu City | List
|
14,951 | 6,800,180 | 454.8 |
 |
Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) |
Visayas | Tacloban | List
|
21,432 | 4,101,322 | 191.4 |
 |
Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX) |
Mindanao | Pagadian | List
|
14,811 | 3,407,353 | 230.1 |
 |
Northern Mindanao (Region X) |
Mindanao | Cagayan de Oro | List
|
17,125 | 4,297,323 | 250.9 |
 |
Davao Region (Region XI) |
Mindanao | Davao City | List
|
20,244 | 4,468,563 | 220.7 |
 |
SOCCSKSARGEN (Region XII) |
Mindanao | Koronadal | List
|
18,433 | 4,109,571 | 222.9 |
 |
Caraga (Region XIII) |
Mindanao | Butuan | List
|
18,847 | 2,429,224 | 128.9 |
 |
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) |
Mindanao | Cotabato City | List
|
12,695 | 3,256,140 | 256.5 |
Proposed regions
- Bangsamoro (Proposed as a replacement of the ARMM. Includes areas outside the current ARMM.)
- Cordillera Autonomous Region[6] (Proposed to convert the Cordillera Administrative Region into a autonomous region)
- Negros Island Region[7] (Proposed to include both Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental provinces)
Defunct regions
The following are regions that do not exist, explanations about their current status follow each region's name.
- Southern Tagalog (Region IV, divided into CALABARZON or Region IV-A and MIMAROPA or Region IV-B)
- Western Mindanao (now Zamboanga Peninsula, still designated as Region IX)
- Central Mindanao (now SOCCSKSARGEN, still designated as Region XII)
- Southern Mindanao (now Davao Region, still designated as Region XI)
See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Regions of the Philippines. |
Notes
- ↑ List of Regions, National Statistical Coordination Board.
- ↑ Some regions use acroyms in their names, examples include CALABARZON, which is derived from CAvite, LAguna, BAtangas, Rizal, and QueZON; MIMAROPA, which is derived from MIndoro (for Mindoro Occidental and Mindoro Oriental), MArinduque, ROmblon, and PAlawan; and SOCCSKSARGEN, which is derived from SOuth Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, SARangani, and GENeral Santos.
- ↑ "Population and Annual Growth Rates for The Philippines and Its Regions, Provinces, and Highly Urbanized Cities Based on 1990, 2000, and 2010 Censuses" (PDF). 2010 Census and Housing Population. National Statistics Office. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 A highly urbanized city, independent from any province.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 An independent component city, not under the jurisdiction of any provincial government.
- ↑ "Cordillera Solons expressed views on regional autonomy". National Economic and Development Authority - Cordillera Administrative Region. 12 August 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
- ↑ Espina, Marchel (16 April 2015). "DILG endorses creation of Negros Island Region to Aquino". Rappler. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
References
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