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Independent component city in Leyte, Philippines From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ormoc (IPA: [ʔoɾˈmok]), officially the City of Ormoc (Cebuano: Dakbayan sa Ormoc; Waray: Syudad han Ormoc; Filipino: Lungsod ng Ormoc), is a 1st class independent component city in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 230,998 inhabitants,[3] making it the second most-populous city in the province of Leyte after the provincial capital of Tacloban. Ormoc is the economic, cultural, commercial and transportation hub of western Leyte.
Ormoc | |
|---|---|
| City of Ormoc | |
 View of Ormoc from Ormoc Bay | |
.png) Flag  Seal | |
| Motto(s): Ormoc, Beautiful Land | |
| Anthem: Ormoc, Dutang Matahum (English: Ormoc, Beautiful Land) | |
 Map of Leyte with Ormoc highlighted | |
OpenStreetMap  | |
.svg)  Ormoc Location within the Philippines | |
| Coordinates: 11°00′38″N 124°36′27″E | |
| Country | Philippines |
| Region | Eastern Visayas |
| Province | Leyte (geographically only) |
| District | 4th district |
| Founded | February 26, 1834 |
| Cityhood | June 21, 1947 |
| Barangays | 85 (see Barangays) |
| Government | |
| • Type | Sangguniang Panlungsod |
| • Mayor | Lucy Torres-Gomez (PFP) |
| • Vice Mayor | Leo Carmelo J. Locsin Sr. (PFP) |
| • Representative | Richard I. Gomez (PFP) |
| • City Council | List |
| • Electorate | 143,686 voters (2022) |
| Area | |
• Total | 613.60 km2 (236.91 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 234 m (768 ft) |
| Highest elevation | 1,318 m (4,324 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| Population (2020 census)[3] | |
• Total | 230,998 |
| • Density | 380/km2 (980/sq mi) |
| • Households | 56,048 |
| Demonym | Ormocanon |
| Economy | |
| • Income class | 1st city income class |
| • Poverty incidence | 25.51 |
| • Revenue | ₱ 1,674 million (2020) |
| • Assets | ₱ 6,575 million (2020) |
| • Expenditure | ₱ 1,591 million (2020) |
| • Liabilities | ₱ 878.7 million (2020) |
| Service provider | |
| • Electricity | Leyte 5 Electric Cooperative (LEYECO 5) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (PST) |
| ZIP code | 6541 |
| PSGC | |
| IDD : area code | +63 (0)53 |
| Native languages | Cebuano Tagalog Waray |
| Website | www |
Ormoc is an independent component city, not subject to regulation from the Provincial Government of Leyte. However, the city is part of the 4th Congressional District of Leyte together with Albuera, Kananga, Merida, Palompon and Isabel, and statistically grouped under the province by the Philippine Statistics Authority. On November 8, 2013, the city was extensively damaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), having previously suffered severe destruction and loss of life in 1991 from torrential flooding during Tropical Storm Thelma (Uring).[5]
The city's name is derived from ogmok, an archaic Visayan term for "lowland" or "depressed plain".[6] The city also celebrates an annual thanksgiving festival called the Piña Festival in honor of the saints Peter and Paul in thanks for the bountiful pineapple harvest.[7]
The place got its name from the word ogmok, an old Visayan term for lowland or depressed plain.
This place was used during the Spanish occupation and the migration of the neighboring towns to settle in the more fertile plains of Ormoc. Much of the settler in the town were the Malayans. These people had a constant trading with the Chinese, Javans and Indonesians. Their living, however, was always threatened by the attack of the Moro pirates. It is said that the people in Ormoc developed a warning system communication through people manning watch towers to inform and warn the people of the coming of these pirates.
July 16, 1595, Jesuit missionaries arrived in Leyte. On May 1597, a mission in Ormoc was established by these missionaries. That year, the locals were converted to Christianity. Their years of peace was shortly felt when in year 1634, a ruler of Sulu by the name of Raja Bungsu captured 300 natives from Ormoc after the invasion of the notorious pirates in the town. The towns of Sogod, Kabalian, Inopacan and Baybay were also invaded and plundered. More locals of Ormoc still fought Raja and his men but because they were outnumbered, they were massacred up to the last man.
Ormoc is a hotbed of revolutionaries seeking independence from Spanish rule. The revolutionary leader Faustino Ablen inspired locals to join the Pulahan Movement.
In 1903, the municipality of Albuera was consolidated into Ormoc.[10]
After the Japanese Occupation and a rule of Second Philippine Republic. Ormoc is a garrison of small divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army. With the Allies near the City. Japan begin to reinforce the city and the Battle of Ormoc Bay begins. The city is liberated afterwards.
Ormoc became a city by virtue of Republic Act No. 179 on October 20, 1947, becoming the fifteenth city in the Philippines and the first in the Eastern Visayas region.[11]
Kananga was created in 1950 from the barrios of Lonoy, Kananga, Rizal, Tugbong, Montebello, Aguiting, Tagaytay, Montealegre, Libungao, Naghalin, and Masarayao which all used to be part of Ormoc City.[12]
On the morning of November 5, 1991, the Ormoc region was inundated by Tropical Storm Uring. The city government recorded 4,922 deaths, 3,000 missing persons, 14,000 destroyed houses and more than P600 million worth of damaged property.[13] None of the 3,000 missing persons were ever found and are now presumed dead.[14] Illegal logging and kaingin (slash-and-burn farming) were blamed as the reasons of the flood.[13] Heavy rainfall caused water to collect upstream the Anilao and Malbasag rivers until it poured to the lowlands in Ormoc, particularly District 26, also known as Isla Verde.[13]
On November 5, 2011, a monument by national artist Francis Cinco commemorating the 20th anniversary of the event was inaugurated.[15] It sits on top of the mass grave at the Ormoc City Public Cemetery where an estimated 4,900 victims are buried.[16] The sculpture, entitled "Gift of Life", is an abstract depicting a life taken to heaven.[13][15]
On November 7, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, made a landfall in the Philippines. While it killed far fewer people as Tropical Storm Uring, it left widespread devastation to the city with destruction and damages in 90% of its structures.[17]
On January 19, 2021, the City Council enacted Ordinance 52 Series of 2021 to merge the numbered barangays (all in Poblacion) and renaming them:
The ordinance require a plebiscite and the determination of an affirmation will be based on the majority vote of the proposed administrative subdivision and not a majority vote per barangay. This is to avoid creation of enclaves and exclaves. Then mayor Richard Gomez approved the ordinance on January 22, 2021. On June 22, 2022, the Commission on Elections through Resolution No. 10796 set the plebiscite on October 8.[18][19][20][21][22]
The plebiscite was held at the Ormoc City Central School, with 35 polling precincts, wherein 10,209 registered voters from 29 barangays were expected to participate. With a voter turnout of more than half, majority of them approved the reorganization.[23][24][25]
| Proposed barangay | Yes | No | Valid votes | Actual voters | Registered voters | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | Total | % | Total | % | Total | % | ||
| North | 236 | 98.74% | 3 | 1.26% | 239 | 100% | 239 | 10.44% | 2,290 |
| East | 1,546 | 87.2% | 227 | 12.8% | 1,773 | 100% | 1,773 | 66.58% | 2,663 |
| West | 1,395 | 93.94% | 90 | 6.06% | 1,485 | 99.13% | 1,498 | 61.07% | 2,453 |
| South | 1,590 | 87.94% | 218 | 12.06% | 1,808 | 99.5% | 1,817 | 64.82% | 2,803 |
| Total | 4,767 | 89.86% | 538 | 10.14% | 5,305 | 99.59% | 5,327 | 52.18% | 10,209 |
| Source: (1) (2) (3) | |||||||||
Ormoc City is a port city and is the largest city in Leyte by land area and the second-largest in Eastern Visayas after Calbayog in Samar. At the head of Ormoc Bay, the city's terrain is mostly of gently rolling plains. It is bounded on the northwest by the towns of Matag-ob and Merida, in the north by Kananga and Carigara, in the northeast by the towns of Jaro, Pastrana and Dagami, and in the south by the town of Albuera. High mountain ranges separate Ormoc from the eastern portion of Leyte. Numerous rivers and streams traverse Ormoc. Among them are the Bao River in the north, Pagsangahan River in the west, the Bagong-bong River in the south, the Panilahan River also in the south and the Anilao and Malbasag Rivers which border the eastern and western flanks of Ormoc City Proper.[26]
Ormoc is politically subdivided into 85 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.
The number had reduced from 110 upon ratification of an ordinance merging 29 of them to four.
| Climate data for Ormoc City | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 28 (82) |
29 (84) |
29 (84) |
30 (86) |
30 (86) |
30 (86) |
29 (84) |
29 (84) |
29 (84) |
29 (84) |
29 (84) |
29 (84) |
29 (84) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 22 (72) |
22 (72) |
22 (72) |
23 (73) |
25 (77) |
25 (77) |
25 (77) |
25 (77) |
25 (77) |
24 (75) |
24 (75) |
23 (73) |
24 (75) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 78 (3.1) |
57 (2.2) |
84 (3.3) |
79 (3.1) |
118 (4.6) |
181 (7.1) |
178 (7.0) |
169 (6.7) |
172 (6.8) |
180 (7.1) |
174 (6.9) |
128 (5.0) |
1,598 (62.9) |
| Average rainy days | 16.7 | 13.8 | 17.3 | 18.5 | 23.2 | 26.5 | 27.1 | 26.0 | 26.4 | 27.5 | 24.6 | 21.0 | 268.6 |
| Source: Meteoblue (modeled/calculated data, not measured locally)[27] | |||||||||||||
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: Philippine Statistics Authority[28][29][30][31] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The natives of this city are called Ormocanons, with most being Cebuano speakers, as with the whole western and southern parts of the island of Leyte. A definite number of Waray speakers is also present within the city.
Like most Filipinos, Ormocanons are predominantly Roman Catholic, and the city celebrates its annual fiesta in honour of the patron saints Saint Peter and Saint Paul on June 28 and 29. Other main Catholic holy days, including the local fiestas of barangays, are observed throughout the year. There is also a visible Muslim minority within the city and all over the island, evidenced by the mosques within the cityscape and most of them are Maranaos from the twin provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur in Mindanao. [citation needed]
Poverty incidence of Ormoc
5
10
15
20
25
30
2006
25.50 2009
28.34 2012
25.69 2015
29.36 2018
22.12 2021
25.51 Source: Philippine Statistics Authority[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] |
Ormoc's economic base is a mix of agriculture, aquaculture, industry, tourism, and commercial services. Sugar cane, rice and pineapple are the major agricultural production.
The city enjoys economic growth because it supplies a large part of the country's power needs with its abundant geothermal power resources from the Tongonan Geothermal Power Plant in Barangay Tongonan and the neighbouring Kananga town. Ormoc is also the gateway to the Leyte Industrial Development Estate in the nearby town of Isabel, home of the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Plant, the largest fertilizer factory in Asia, and the Philippine Associated Smelter and Refining Company, the country's biggest copper processing plant, among other industries. [citation needed]
 | This section is written like a travel guide. (December 2016) |
Among sites visited by the city's tourist are:
The Port of Ormoc serves as the seaport of the city. For air transport, Ormoc Airport serves the city, although no regular commercial flights fly to this airport. Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban is the closest airport with commercial flights.
Ormoc hosts the biggest power plant in Southeast Asia - the Tongonan Geothermal Power in Barangay Tongonan which supplies electricity not only in the Eastern Visayas Region but power demand in Luzon and Mindanao as well.[citation needed]
Ormoc is the educational center for western Leyte. It has a range of primary and secondary schools, both public and private. Tertiary education was originally offered by Saint Peter's College of Ormoc, a Benedictine-run Catholic college and the oldest, followed by Western Leyte College of Ormoc City, Inc.,[49] a private non-sectarian college. In the 1980s-1990s, the city saw the establishment of Santo Niño College of Ormoc, Saint Paul's School of Ormoc Foundation, Inc. and the STI College - Ormoc. In the 2000s, tertiary institutions founded were ACLC College of Ormoc, San Lorenzo Ruiz College of Ormoc, Ormoc City Institute of Technology (OCIT) and the Ormoc campus of the Eastern Visayas State University.
Ormoc also has their own Chinese school which is Ormoc Se San School.
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