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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.

Contents

History [edit]

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 [edit]

A clickable map of the Philippines exhibiting its 17 regions and 80 provinces.
Metro Manila South China Sea South China Sea Philippine Sea Philippine Sea Sulu Sea Malaysia Cordillera Administrative Region Ilocos Region Cagayan Valley Central Luzon CALABARZON MIMAROPA Bicol Region Western Visayas Central Visayas Eastern Visayas Zamboanga Peninsula Northern Mindanao Davao Region SOCCSKSARGEN Caraga Region Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Basilan Lanao del Sur Maguindanao Sulu Tawi-Tawi Agusan del Norte Agusan del Sur Surigao del Norte Surigao del Sur Cotabato Sarangani South Cotabato Sultan Kudarat Compostela Valley Davao del Norte Davao del Sur Davao Oriental Bukidnon Camiguin Lanao del Norte Misamis Occidental Misamis Oriental Zamboanga del Norte Zamboanga del Sur Zamboanga Sibugay Biliran Eastern Samar Leyte Northern Samar Samar Southern Leyte Bohol Cebu Negros Oriental Siquijor Aklan Capiz Guimaras Iloilo Negros Occidental Albay Camarines Norte Camarines Sur Catanduanes Masbate Sorsogon Marinduque Oriental Mindoro Occidental Mindoro Palawan Romblon Batangas Cavite Quezon Rizal Laguna (province) Aurora (province) Bataan Bulacan Nueva Ecija Pampanga Tarlac Zambales Batanes Cagayan Nueva Vizcaya Quirino Ilocos Norte Ilocos Sur La Union Pangasinan Abra (province) Apayao Benguet Ifugao Kalinga Mountain ProvinceA clickable map of the Philippines exhibiting its 17 regions and 80 provinces.
About this image


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.

Luzon [edit]

Map Region
(short name)		 Regional center Component local government units Area (km2) Population
(2010)[3]		 Density
(per km2)
Ph fil ncr.png National Capital Region
(NCR)		 Manila 636 11,855,975 18641.5
Ph fil car.png Cordillera Administrative Region
(CAR)		 Baguio 18,294 1,616,867 88.4
Ph fil ilocos.png Ilocos Region
(Region I)		 San Fernando, La Union 12,840 4,748,372 369.8
Ph fil cagayan valley.png Cagayan Valley
(Region II)		 Tuguegarao 26,838 3,229,163 120.3
Ph fil central luzon.png Central Luzon
(Region III)		 San Fernando, Pampanga 21,470 10,137,737 472.2
Ph fil calabarzon.png CALABARZON
(Region IV-A)		 Calamba, Laguna 16,229 12,609,803 777
Ph fil mimaropa.png MIMAROPA
(Region IV-B)		 Calapan 27,456 2,744,671 100
Ph fil bicol.png Bicol Region
(Region V)		 Legazpi 17,632 5,420,411 307.4

Visayas [edit]

Map Region
(short name)		 Regional center Component local government units Area (km2) Population
(2010)[3]		 Density
(per km2)
Ph fil western visayas.png Western Visayas
(Region VI)		 Iloilo City 20,223 7,102,438 351.2
Ph fil central visayas.png Central Visayas
(Region VII)		 Cebu City 14,951 6,800,180 454.8
Ph fil eastern visayas.png Eastern Visayas
(Region VIII)		 Tacloban 21,432 4,101,322 191.4

Mindanao [edit]

Map Region
(short name)		 Regional center Component local government units Area (km2) Population
(2010)[3]		 Density
(per km2)
Ph fil zamboanga peninsula.png Zamboanga Peninsula
(Region IX)		 Pagadian 14,811 3,407,353 230.1
Ph fil northern mindanao.png Northern Mindanao
(Region X)		 Cagayan de Oro 17,125 4,297,323 250.9
Ph fil davao region.png Davao Region
(Region XI)		 Davao City 20,244 4,468,563 220.7
Ph fil soccsksargen.png SOCCSKSARGEN
(Region XII)		 Koronadal 18,433 4,109,571 222.9
Ph fil caraga.png Caraga Region
(Region XIII)		 Butuan 18,847 2,429,224 128.9
Ph fil armm.png Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
(ARMM)		 Cotabato City 12,695 3,256,140 256.5

Defunct regions [edit]

The following are regions that do not exist, explanations about their current status follow each region's name.

See also [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Regions of the Philippines

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ List of Regions, National Statistical Coordination Board.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ a b c "Population and Annual Growth Rates for The Philippines and Its Regions, Provinces, and Highly Urbanized Cities Based on 1990, 2000, and 2010 Censuses". 2010 Census and Housing Population. National Statistics Office. Retrieved 12 October 2012. 
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q A highly urbanized city, independent from any province.
  5. ^ a b c d An independent component city, not under the jurisdiction of any provincial government.
  6. ^ A component city, part of the province of Basilan, but whose regional services are provided by the offices of Region IX.

References [edit]

Regions of the Philippines
Luzon
Visayas
Mindanao
Capital
Coat of Arms of the Philippines

Map of the Philippines
Regions
Autonomous
Administrative
Provinces
Historical
Other subdivisions
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