Eastern Visayas

Eastern Visayas or Region VIII is one of the two regions of the Philippines having no land border with another region, MIMAROPA being the other. It is composed of two main islands, Leyte and Samar, connected by the famous San Juanico Bridge. It consists of six provinces and seven cities,[2] namely, Biliran, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, Southern Leyte, the cities of Ormoc City, Baybay City, Maasin City,Calbayog City, Catbalogan City, Borongan City and the highly-urbanized city of Tacloban, the regional center. These provinces and cities occupy the easternmost islands of Visayas: Samar, Leyte and Biliran. Eastern Visayas directly faces the Pacific Ocean. The land area of the region is 2,156,285 hectares. As of 2010, it has a population of 3,912,936. Geography Eastern Visayas lies on the east central part of the Philippines archipelago. It is composed of two main islands, Leyte and Samar, which formed the eastern most coast of the archipelago. It is bounded by Philippine sea on the east and north with San Bernardo Strait separating Samar island from southeastern Luzon: Camotes sea and Visayas sea on the west: Bohol sea on the south with Surigao Strait separating Leyte island from northwestern Mindanao. It has a total land area of 2,156,285 hectares or 7.2% of the countrys total land area.[4]

Climate
There are two types of climate prevailing in the region under the Corona system of classification: Type II and Type IV. Type II climate is characterizes by having no dry season but a pronounced maximum rainfall from November to January. Samar Island and the eastern part of Leyte Island fall under this type of climate. Type IV on the other hand has an even distribution of rainfall the year round and a short period of dry season that can be observed starting February up to May. This type of climate is well exhibited the western half of Leyte island and some portion of Samar which covers the municipality of Motiong up to San Isidro of Northern Samar.

Land
Eastern Visayas is primarily an agricultural region with rice, corn, coconut, sugarcane and banana as its major crops. Its total land area is 21,431.7 km. 52% of its total land area are classified as forestland and 48% as alienable and disposable land.

Natural Resources
The region's sea and inland waters are rich sources of salt and fresh water fish and other marine products. It is one of the fish exporting regions of the country. There are substantial forest reserves in the interiors of the islands. Its mineral deposits include chromite, uranium(in Samar), gold,silver, manganese, magnesium, bronze, nickel, clay, coal, limestone, pyrite and san d and gravel. It has abundant geothermal energy and water resources to support the needs of medium and heavy industries.

Culture
Languages
Waray-Waray is spoken on the island of Samar, Biliran and north-eastern Leyte. A Sama language, distantly related to the languages of the region, called Abaknon is spoken in the island of Capul in Northern Samar. Cebuano is spoken in western, central, and southern parts of Leyte and in Southern Leyte.

Dances
Tinikling, the Philippines' national dance is folkdance that originated from the region. But the most popular cultural dance among Warays is theCuracha, danced during feast celebrations and special gatherings. The Leyte Kalipayan Dance Company, a local cultural group, held highly successful performances around the world.

Music
Waray people are music lovers whose folkloric music are mostly ballads in form, famous of which is "Dandansoy" while "Iroy nga Tuna" (Motherland) is a patriotic song.

Economy
Primary sources of revenue are manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade and services. Mining, farming, fishing and tourism contribute significantly to the economy Manufacturing firms include mining companies, fertilizer plants, sugar central, rice and corn mills and other food processing plants. Tacloban is the hub of investment, trade and development in the region. Other industries include mining, rice, corn and sugar milling, coconut oil extraction, alcohol distilling, beverage manufacture and forest products. Home industries include hat and basket weaving, metal craft, needlecraft, pottery, ceramics, woodcraft, shell craft and bamboo craft.

Education
Eastern Visayas is home to several state universities, including the prominent University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV Tacloban College). The region is also home to the University of Eastern Philippines (UEP), located in Catarman, Northern Samar, which holds the most number of baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate courses among universities in the region. The Zonal Agricultural University for the Visayas under the National Agriculture Education System concept, Visayas State University (VSU) is also in the region, located in Baybay City. Also, the region is home to Palompon Institute of Technology, a maritime school in the Philippines providing deck and engine cadet. Its main campus is located in the municipality of Palompon, Leyte province. The Eastern Visayas State University is Leyte's state university with five extension campuses. Southern Leyte State University with five extension campuses, is the only state university in the province of Southern Leyte. In Biliran, Naval State University is the province state university. For Eastern Samar, the Eastern Samar State University is the only state university of the province with a single extension campus while Samar State University is Western Samar's state

university with two extension campuses. For normal education, the Leyte Normal University specializes in education courses.

Transportation
The region's Leyte and Samar islands serve as main link between Luzon and Mindanao by land transport. A total of nine airports, are strategically located in different parts of the six provinces that comprise the region. Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban City is the main gateway by air to the region. There are seaports in Tacloban, Catbalogan, Calbayog, Borongan, Ormoc, Bato,Maasin, Sogod and Naval.

Power and Energy

The region is the top producer of geothermal energy supply in the country. The province of Leyte hosts the biggest geothermal plant in the Philippines. Still, geothermal exploration is ongoing in the nearby province of Biliran. With abundance of river system, the region has potential in hydroelectric production. Being coastal facing Pacific Ocean, the region have location being eyed for wind power generation. The strait of San Juanico between Leyte and Samar islands has been declared as potential source for water current and tidal energy sources.