Talk:Regions of the Philippines

NCR

In the article it says November 7, 1975: Metropolitan Manila (National Capital Region) created But actually only Metropolitan Manila was created. PD 824 has no mention of National Capital Region. In fact, when Metro Manila was created in 1975, it was part of Region 4. Its status is similar to a province, with Imelda Marcos as Governor. In 1987, Metro Manila was elevated to a region under Cory Aquino, and its name was changed to National Capital Region (NCR). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.190.91.34 (talk) 14:38, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

• Metropolitan Manila was actually declared as the NCR in 1978, also under Marcos. Added this bit and source in the article's history section.--RioHondo (talk) 14:58, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

Palawan - from Region IV-B to Region VI and back again

Readers of this page: please note that Palawan was moved to Region VI as of June 5, 2005. Essentially, Palawan is now in the Visayas and as such is no longer part of Region IV-B. -- Josh Lim 4 July 2005 13:53 (UTC)

Executive Order No. 429 dated May 23, 2005 transferred the province of Palawan from Region IV-B (MIMAROPA) to Region VI (Western Visayas). However, the transfer has not yet actually happened. Due to what I presume was some sort of back-lash, the transfer has been put on hold pending the submission of "implementation plan" as specified in Administrative Order No. 129 dated August 19, 2005. Given that the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the National Statistical Coordination Board currently group Palawan in Region IV-B (although they did both show it under Region VI briefly somewhere between EO 429 and AO 129 being issued), I think it is currently incorrect to show Palawan under Region VI rather than Region IV-B. There is also the issue of Region IV-B being renamed from MIMAROPA to MIMARO. As I can find no offical (i.e. government) reference to this name change and given that DILG and NSCB continue to use MIMAROPA, I feel this is also an error.

I suppose the current "legal status" is that Palawan is eventually going to be transferred to Region VI but hasn't yet officially.

Taiwai94 July 17, 2006, 18:07, UK time

Taken from the Palawan Page -- Meynardtengco

Palawan was transferred to Region VI (Western Visayas) on May 23, 2005 by virtue of Executive Order 429. However, Palaweños criticized the move, citing a lack of consultation, with most residents in Puerto Princesa City and all municipalities but one preferring to stay with Region IV-B.

Consequently, Administrative Order No. 129 was issued on August 19, 2005 to address this backlash. This Order directed the abeyance of Executive Order 429 pending the approval of an implementation plan for the orderly transfer of Palawan from MIMAROPA to Region VI.

Hence, Palawan is currently still part of MIMAROPA.

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Storing overviews here. —seav 09:26 26 Jun 2003 (UTC)

What do you mean by overviews. This is the first time, I've visited this. Why did you not just paste them into individual pages. By the way, I copied your Central Luzon to complete the Regions. sorry. wayne manuel 01:25, 19 Aug 2003 (UTC)

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Overview of the Regions

National Capital Region (NCR)

Manila, the capital of the country lies within a special administrative region commonly known as Metro Manila and officially as the National Capital Region (NCR). It consists of 13 cities and 4 municipalities, and is the only region in the country that has no provinces.

Ilocos Region (Region I)

Ilocos Region is located in the northwest portion of Luzon island. Most of its inhabitants speak Iloko and are of Ilocano descent. The provinces in the region are: Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, and Pangasinan. Some of its cities are Vigan, Laoag, Dagupan, and San Fernando, which is the regional capital.

Cagayan Valley (Region II)

Cagayan Valley is located in the northeast portion of Luzon. Running through its center is the country's longest river, Cagayan River. Its provinces are: Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino. The regional capital is Tuguegarao City.

Central Luzon (Region III)

Central Luzon contains the largest plain of the country and produces most of the country's rice supply. Its provinces are: Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Zambales. San Fernando, in Pampanga, is the regional capital. Other major cities include Olongapo, Angeles, Malolos, and Tarlac City.

CALABARZON (Region IV-A)

CALABARZON, one of the newest regions of the country, was previously a part of Southern Tagalog (Region IV). It is one of the most populated areas of the country and the second most densely populated region after Metro Manila. The name of the region is actually an acronym that stands for its provinces, which are: Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, and Rizal. Some of the chief cities are Lucena, Batangas City, Tagaytay, and San Pablo. The regional capital is Quezon City, which is in Metro Manila.

MIMAROPA (Region IV-B)

MIMAROPA, also one of the newest regions of the country, was previously a part of Southern Tagalog (Region IV). It contains most of the islands in the Luzon group. The name of the region is an acronym that stands for its provinces, which are: Marinduque, Mindoro Occidental, Mindoro Oriental, Palawan, and Romblon.

Bicol Region (Region V)

Bicol Region occupies the Bicol Peninsula at the southeastern end of Luzon island. The inhabitant call themselves Bicolanos and speak the Bicolano language. The region is where Mayon Volcano can be found. The provinces in Bicol are: Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate, and Sorsogon. The major cities in this region are Naga City and Legazpi City. Legazpi City is the regional capital.

External Link)

• DILG Regional Office No. 5 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.213.136.98 (talk) 03:08, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)

CAR, located in the Cordillera mountains of Northern Luzon, is a special region for the indigenous tribes of these mountains. Some of the provinces are actually names of tribes living there. Its provinces are: Abra, Apayao,Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Mountain Province. Baguio City, which is also the regional capital, is a popular tourist destination especially among Filipinos. The famed Banaue Rice Terraces in Ifugao is another tourist attraction.

Western Visayas (Region VI)

Western Visayas consists of the island of Panay and the western half of Negros. People here primarily speak Ilonggo and a dialect of Cebuano called Binisaya. Its provinces are Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental. The chief cities in this region are Iloilo City and Bacolod City. Iloilo City is the ragional capital.

Central Visayas (Region VII)

Central Visayas includes the islands of Cebu, Bohol, and Siquijor, all provinces, and the eastern half of Negros which is the province of Negros Oriental. This is the third most developed region after Metro Manila and CALABARZON. Cebu City is its regional capital and the most important city in this region. Other cities include Dumaguete, Mandaue and Tagbilaran.

Eastern Visayas (Region VIII)

Eastern Visayas consists of the islands of Leyte and Samar Most people in this region speak Waray. The region is usually the first region to be hit by typhoons being in the easternmost portion of the typhoon belt. The provinces in this region are Biliran, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, and Samar. Tacloban City is the regional capital.

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Capitalization

Why are the names of some regions in all capitals and others in mixed case? Gdr 6 July 2005 23:52 (UTC)

The ones in all caps are acronyms, containing the names of their provinces or cities. TheCoffee 9 July 2005 07:11 (UTC)

I think this article needs a brief note explaining this. Otherwise it seems rather odd. Gdr 12:44:38, 2005-08-03 (UTC)

Okie, fixed. Coffee 13:33, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Region Name "Nomenclature"

Throughout Wikipedia, as a general rule (NCR, CAR and ARMM are the exceptions) regions are listed with region name followed by the region number as a numeral, enclosed in brackets such as Central Visayas (Region VII). However, many websites and documents, especially from Philippine government department/bureau/agency websites list regions by the region number as a numeral then by name enclosed in brackets i.e. Region VII (Central Visayas).

It makes sense to put more emphasis on the region number than the name as the region name is subject to change whereas the number isn't such as the renaming of Region XI (Southern Mindanao) to Region XI (Davao Region). Same applies to Regions IX and XII.

Although I can't find any exact specification as to how regions should be presented, an extract from certain technical notes from PSGC codes from NSCB says:

Regions are given a Region number and at the same time a general descriptive clause to describe the area. For example: Region 6 has a descriptive clause, Western Visayas attached to it. In such case, where the descriptive clause is changed, without any change in the regional boundary lines, the Region Code remains the same.

I think this article really only applies to PSGC but the "general consensus" seems to indicate more emphasis on region numbers with some variations, such as Region VII, Region 7, Region VII (Central Visayas) and ''Region VII - Central Visayas. Likewise, many of Ferdinand Marcos' Presidential Decrees refer to regions just by number (Region 7, Region VII). Since Marcos was the one who created regions, I think this puts argument in favour of region numbers as opposed to names. Also, Republic Act No. 7901: An Act Creating Region XIII To Be Known As The Caraga Administrative Region, And For Other Purposes.

Assuming I've made the point with region number over names, then the listings of regions on Wikipedia is therefore technically incorrect. Of course, there are the 3 odd exceptions (NCR, CAR and ARMM) which are listed by full name and then by abbreviation, such as National Capital Region (NCR) If anyone agrees with me point, shouldn't we change the way regions are listed on Wikipedia?

Taiwai94 20:23, 6 November 2005 (UTC);

I'd agree that government institutions would refer to the regions by number. However, I think it is more encyclopedic to use the descriptive name as the article title. I bet more people know "Bicol Region" than "Region V." As for renaming problems (e.g., Western Mindanao to Zamboanga Region), that's what the Move tool is for. For common usage, I think periodicals are a better gauge than administrative/government sites. See these Google results:

                 "Western    "Region 6" OR    "Ilocos     "Region 1"     CARAGA    "Region 13" OR
                  Visayas"    "Region VI"      Region"   OR "Region I"             "Region XIII"
Daily Inquirer      279            77           239          155           160           15
Manila Times        239            27           351          145           154            3
Manila BUlletin     207            62           121          165           427           17
Philippine Star      20             4            24           36            45            0

While it's not a landslide, you can see that newspapers generally prefer to refer to the region by their descriptive names rather than their designated number. Of course, you're free to do your own experimentation.

I believe that the status quo is okay as it is. --seav 14:27, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Palawan

In what region is Palawan included? Is it on Region IV-B or VI? i think it should be in IV-B because it belong to MAMIROPA. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.54.96.2 (talk) 03:54, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

neds1OVERVIEWMAP

+thumbs2smal-----Please note, I have [[Repetitive Strain Injury]] and find typing very hard. I use a form of shorthand, which may be difficult to understand. I can be contacted through MSN (sven70) or Skype (sven0921) if my meaning is unclear. (talk) 04:47, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Autonomous Regions

I am suggesting to make correction in the information on autonomous region.

Following Regions have its own autonomy

• Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMN)
• Caraga
• Cordillera Administrative Region

Help me to get reference. I found in in a Elementary Book ( Grade 4) I wil look again the ISBN Bonvallite (talk) 10:33, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

In Zamboanga Peninsula, these are the following 1. Zambaonga del Norte Province 2. Zamboanga del Sur Province 3. Zamboanga Sibugay Province 4. Independent, Chartered & Highly-Urbanized City of Zamboanga 5. City Isabela

Zamboanga City was never been or is never been part of any of the 3 Provinces as mentioned.

meaning... el mapa pa lang del Filipinas es mali ya! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.136.59.145 (talk) 15:18, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Map

http://wikitravel.org/upload/shared//3/3f/Map_of_Philippines.png

Rajmaan (talk) 19:56, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Styling

This edit caught my eye. It looks to me as if some attention ought to be paid to the Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting guideline, regarding boldface, italics and emphasis. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 21:53, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

MIMAROPA as Southwestern Tagalog Region

RA 10879 (lapsed into law on July 17, 2016) calls the region now as either Southwestern Tagalog Region or MIMAROPA Region (no more numerics, such as "IV-B"). Even the Philippine Statistics Authority removed the "IV-B" designation and news articles say the former "Region IV-B" has been replaced with "MIMAROPA Region" already. Xeltran (talk) 05:52, 4 January 2017 (UTC)

• Thanks Xeltran for updating this info! I added that no boundary changes were involved and that it was in effect merely a renaming and discontinuation of the "Region IV-B" designation. Otherwise it appears as if this is a new region.

@Xeltran: Based on the Act, it seems to me that the official designation is in all-caps. Should Mimaropa be moved back to MIMAROPA and all references to it changed back to all-caps? -- P 1 9 9  ✉ 14:47, 4 January 2017 (UTC)

@P199: Indeed it is officially written in all-caps, same goes for CALABARZON and SOCCSKSARGEN, though I think there is some sort of MOS rule that was applied that's why these are styled in title case in Wikipedia. Xeltran (talk) 03:22, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

Xeltran & P199: Thanks for the update! True, they have been moved following WP:OFFICIAL and WP:COMMONNAME, just like Metro Manila (National Capital Region), Caraga (CARAGA Region/Region XIII) and Negros (Negros Island Region/Region XVIII). And following the same WP rule, i believe we should keep Region IV-B as its alternative title alongside Southwestern Tagalog Region while leaving the article at its most common name of Mimaropa. IMO, Region IV-B may not be official anymore, but it still is a common designation for Mimaropa. For instance, cars in that region still carry "Region 4B" in their plates. Cheers!--RioHondo (talk) 04:27, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

I'd just like to query references made to Southwestern Tagalog Region which appears in several places on pages and even appears as Southwestern Tagalog Region (Mimaropa). I think there's been a misunderstanding with the name. Republic Act No. 10879 clearly states:

Section 3. The Southwestern Tagalog Region is hereby established to be known as the MIMAROPA Region which shall be composed of . . .

The words to be known as constitute an explicit reference to name. If the official law states the region is to called MIMAROPA Region then I see no reason as to why Southwestern Tagalog Region is being included as part of the name. In the context of this Republic Act, I think Southwestern Tagalog Region is simply a geographic reference to the region and nothing more. That said, I think Southwestern Tagalog Region should be completely removed as part of the name except where RA 10879 is being quoted.

Take a look at the Philippine Statistical Agency .

DS94 (talk) 15:02, 21 January 2017 (UTC)

Wrong edit

I think someone made a wrong edit recently. This person added numerous component cities which should not be there in the table. For example, Malolos City is added in Central Luzon, but this city is a component city, not a highly centralized or independently governed one. I think it could be a mistake. Trung geo (talk) 16:01, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Languages in the regions

I wasn't sure whether to raise this issue here or in Wikipedia talk:Tambayan Philippines. As it is specific to articles about regions, I decided to raise it here.

I happened to be looking at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao article, and noticed that the {{{languages}}} parameter of the infobox is set to: Banguingui | Maguindanao | Maranao | Tagalog | Tausug | Yakan | Sama | others. It struck me that no mention is made there of the country's two official languages, Filipino and English, and that Tagalog is listed rather than Filipino (the constitutionally designated national language).

I then took a look at the Mimaropa article, and saw similar issues.

Perhaps Filipino, the national language, should be mentioned in the regional articles as a language used in the region. Also, as Filipino and English are official languages countrywide, perhaps both should be mentioned in the regional articles. Perhaps those mentions should be followed by a list of regional languages which are specific to that region. Perhaps not.

In any case, If Tagalog is mentioned in regional articles as a regional language, it probably ought to be differentiated there from Filipino. Also, the constitution designates Spanish and Arabic as auxiliary official languages countrywide for promotion on a voluntary and optional basis, and whether (and, if listed, how) those should be presented ought also to follow the same standard in all regional articles.

I think that those issues ought to be addressed in the regional articles, but perhaps it is not appropriate to duplicate info on all of those nitpicky details separately in each regional article. Perhaps a Regional languages section should be added in this article presenting this information and a {{see also}} note added to the to the infobox {{{Langauges}}} parameter in those articles directing attention to that.

The regional articles should all use the same standards for content and presentation. Perhaps a template (e.g., {{Philippine Regional Languages}}) might be created which would take a region name as an input parameter and would output content to be placed in the {{{languages}}} infobox parameter of a regional articles; grouping this info for all regions together in a subtopic-specific template would simplify assuring that presentation remains consistent across all regions. such a template might also be transcluded as appropriate by other templates in Category:Languages of the Philippines templates.

I will put a comment in the talk pages of articles for all the regions listed in this article and on the Tambayan Philippines talk page, soliciting discussion here. It might take me some time to do that, as I am currently in Romblon, Romblon, and the internet is nearly unusable here due to absolutely miserable unreliability and, when usable, it is very slow. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 02:45, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

I may be wrong, but several years ago, regions' articles were using a "locally-used" infobox, but was TFDed in favor of using {{Infobox settlement}}. Presumably, we can use that infobox as the skeleton for a new infobox, along with the settlements in the Philippines with built in templates for uniformity.

Re: Languages -- AFAIK, there are no "official" regional languages, only "official languages" in the Philippines. Presumably "Languages" can include languages that extensively used in the region. English is almost never used on the street, unless you're at work/school/talking to a foreigner. Filipino is trickier since there's a dispute on where Tagalog ends and Filipino begins. –HTD 09:33, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Yep, no official regional languages but there are 19 recognized regional languages which is a different story. :) mcLovin'tosh (talk) 15:04, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Frankly, languages is a mess all across Philippine geographic articles. In numerous municipality and city articles, there is a constant back and forth as to what languages to include, a constant adjusting of spoken language percentages. And all of it unreferenced/unsourced. It may be better to bring this to Wikipedia talk:Tambayan Philippines to decide what and how to include languages, and then make it part of MOS:PHIL. -- P 1 9 9  ✉ 18:35, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Can't we just use the census? AFAIK the census had language data for provinces. Dunno for lower level subdivisions... –HTD 14:24, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Of course. Census info is authoritative and reliable. It should be the only source used for this. But I haven't seen this for LGU's... -- P 1 9 9  ✉ 15:02, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

I think only the 2000 census had info on languages at the province level. –HTD 15:54, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Lacking anything better, then that is what we'll have to use... -- P 1 9 9  ✉ 20:11, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Boholano is not a language, it's a dialect of Cebuano. I doubt whether Porohanon is a true language either, and the whole of Camotes islands are only about 100,000 population altogether. Bantayanon is mostly Cebuano, but with underlying strata of Hiligaynon and Waray. – Not Samuel Pepys (talk) 09:18, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

This is confusing

The number after caraga or "region XIII" is very confusing "XIII" means 13 but its labeled "16", why is that? 120.28.219.20 (talk) 04:07, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

The Philippine Standard Geographic Code numbers it differently. Howard the Duck (talk) 04:11, 27 February 2022 (UTC)