Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines

Tagbilaran City is a 1st class component city in the island province of Bohol, Philippines and serves as its capital.

It is the principal gateway to Bohol and is known as the "City of Friendship". Tagbilaran is considered by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia as one of the eight (8) Philippine Dream Cities, along with Samal, San Fernando, La Union, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Marikina, Naga, Calbayog City and Surigao City. It was also recognized as one of the (20) "Most Competitive Cities in the Philippines" and "Pinoy Cities on the Rise" in 2005 and 2007, and First in the Quality of Life Category for the same 2 years, awarded by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center.

History

A hundred years before Spaniards arrived in the Philippines, the settlement of which eventually became Tagbilaran City was already involved in trading with both China and Malaysia. This early settlement had contact with the Spaniards in 1565, when the Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and the native chieftain Datu Sikatuna pledged peace and cooperation through the famous blood compact.

(San Jose de) Tagbilaran was established as a town on February 9, 1742, when it was separated from the town of Baclayon. The town was dedicated to St. Joseph the Worker. Since then it was part of the province of Bohol until it became a chartered city on July 1, 1966 by virtue of Republic Act No. 4660.

The city was occupied by the United States during the Philippine-American War, and by Imperial Japan during World War II.

Historical events

One of the most important historical events in Philippine History and immortalized in canvass by the famous Filipino painter Juan Luna is the Blood Compact between Datu Sikatuna, a local native chieftain, and Captain Miguel López de Legazpi, the Spanish explorer and colonizer. It took place in the coast of Bool, now a district of Tagbilaran, on March 16, 1565, a day after Legazpi and his crew of conquistadores on four ships chanced upon the shores of Bool during the course of their trip to the province of Butuan from Camiguin Island because of strong southwest monsoon winds and low tide. On that day, March 16, 1565, Captain General Miguel López de Legazpi, with Fray Andres de Urdaneta and some of his crew set foot on land for an audience with the local chieftain Sikatuna. The two bands of different race and creed met a few hundred meters away from the beach and after a few pleasantries, the Basque seafarer and the native chieftain of Bool sealed and strengthened their treaty of friendship in a historic Blood Compact. Sikatuna and Legazpi each made a cut on the left arm and collected the drop of blood into a single vessel and mixed with wine. To honor this treaty of friendship, the late President Elpidio Quirino established the "Order of Sikatuna", a presidential award and decoration conferred upon visiting dignitaries. A historical marker now stands on the very spot where Sikatuna and Legaspi perpetrated that famous Blood Compact.

Another significant event that took place during the Japanese Occupation was the Battle of Ubujan wherein a guerilla unit under the command of Captain Francisco Salazar,a.k.a. Vicente Cubello, engaged Japanese troops against overwhelming odds. It was a display of Boholano bravery against the well-equipped, well-trained Japanese soldiers.


Transportation

One of Cebu Pacific's Airbus A319 Landing at Tagbilaran City.
CPG Avenue, Tagbilaran City

Air

The city and the entire province of Bohol is mainly served by Tagbilaran Airport. Cebu Pacific Air using Airbus A319 have (2) flights daily, Philippine Airlines using Airbus A320 have (3) flights daily, Zest Airways using Airbus A320 has (1) flight daily plus an additional flight every Tue/Wed/Sat and Airphil Express using Airbus A320 has (1) flight daily starting 28 October 2010 to Manila. Flights to and from Tagbilaran to Manila takes around 1 hour and 15 minutes. There are no commercial flights out from Tagbilaran City to other destinations in the Philippines.

Sea

The Tagbilaran City Tourist Port serves boats plying the busy Cebu-Bohol sea traffic and major port cities in Mindanao. A fastcraft ferry ride from Cebu would take about 1.75 hours. OceanJet with (5) trips daily, SuperCat with (3) trips daily and Weesam Express with (4) trips daily are the fastcraft companies plying the Tagbilaran City to Cebu City route.

Land

Transportation within the city consists of tricycles, multicabs, jeepneys, buses, taxis and vans. Multicabs and jeepneys ply the longer routes while taxis and vans-for-hire are usually used for out-of-town travel. All of them are found in the Tagbilaran City Integrated Bus Terminal in Dao District. Bolanios Bus Lines, Mega Bus Lines, UltraBus Lines and Silver Star Bus Lines are the bus companies plying the Tagbilaran City to Metro Manila (Pasay City / Cubao, Quezon City) route with each bus line having at least (1) daily trip.

Economy

The City of Tagbilaran has that relative advantage as Bohol's main business capital and center of governance, education and transportation. It is on this climate that commerce and trade is very promising in the City, nonetheless, business activities also thrives in Port Towns (e.g. Ubay, Tubigon, Talibon, Jagna) known to be growth centers of the province.

Many residents of Tagbilaran City are considerably moneyed, but when it comes to business development, they become investment-shy. It is observable that dollar earners and entrepreneurs would rather save and bank their money rather than invest them for business endeavor. In the light of this situation, the inflow of investments from foreign investors are steadily pouring in to finance business ventures especially in the area of tourism.

The two local food delicacies, Peanut Kisses and Edelweiss torta, were started and promoted by the Alvarez family.

For a City its size, Tagbilaran ironically has more than 20 different banking institutions serving its populace as well as the entire province. This is due to the "thriftiness" attitude of Bol-anons and remittances received from locals working abroad who hail from the city and other towns in Bohol. The average household income is P 141,028.00/annum in 12,876 households.