Discover Tacloban City Philippines

Tacloban is spearheaded by a mayor and under supervised by the vice mayor. The city councillors have the ability to create or make city ordinances.

Tacloban City Hall

2007 City Government of Tacloban
Mayor: Hon. Alfred S. Romualdez
Vice Mayor: Hon. Arvin Antoni
City Councilors:
Hon. Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez
Hon. Ranulfo Abellanosa
Hon. Robert Andrade
Hon. Bianco Mate
Hon. Nofredo Lagonoy
Hon. Wilson Uy
Hon. Rufino Pacanan
Hon. Eden Pineda
Hon. Rachelle Erica Pineda
Hon. Robert Hernandez
Hon. Jerry Yaokasin
Hon. Cristeta Pedrosa

Visiting Tacloban City is never complete without tasting their distinct side of the plate. Their type of food is a mix of native and the modern Leyte taste, greatly influenced by other parts of the country like Cebu, Manila, Mindanao, not to mention the Western, Spanish and Asian influences.

Binagol

This is also called sweetened nutty Taro pudding. The town of Dagami in Tacloban City is the dominant producer of the best and original Binagol in the whole eastern region.
The Binagol is a made of Talyan, a Taro root, coconut milk, brown or organic sugar, egg yolks, full cream condensed milk, You also need banana leaves that are wilted, coconut shells and native strings for packaging.

Moron

 

This famous delicacy from Tacloban is another delicious treat to enjoy with family and friends, especially in special occasions. These are made of rice flour mix with chocolate paste or locally called as Tableya, peanuts and brown or organic sugar. These are very famous during fiestas, Christmas, and New Year.

Pastillas

This creamy pure cow milk delicacy of Tacloban should be in your pasalubong carts and bags. This treat is for those with sweet-tooth only,

Lechon  Manok

 

Who would leave this city without tasting their own flavour in Lechon baboy or manok? Aside from being famous of street barbecues, Tacloban has its own delicious taste of lechon. Paired with hanging rice or puso, this meal is such a wonderful lunch or dinner by the sea or else where with the family or friends.

Lechon Baboy Parade

Arts andCrafts

Tacloban City is best known for weaving just anything. They have the best weaving patterns and style. Good choices of colour combinations are seen in their novelty products. Other crafts include pottery and brick making.
Also, outstanding photographers, djs, local artists and celebrities like Boy Abunda, Imelda Marcos and more came from this city.

As the leading city in the Eastern region, Tacloban City’s real estate industry has always been successful.

The City

Tacloban as a provincial city of Leyte has its largest part covered in green. It has many mountains, ranges, hills and rolling plains. Hidden and unexplored caves are to be found in the Tacloban City.

green mountains view

The place is surrounded by water of the Panalaron Bay and Cancabato Bay. Fishing and other water sports activities are ideally done and played here in Tacloban City. The city’s bay and beaches are not of white sand but of crystal shine black sandy beaches.
Most of the establishments and commercial businesses happen in the down town area. Social events and other public occasions happen and celebrated in the down town. Support facilities and other tourist services are conveniently located in the down town.

The Residents

Most of its residents live in the down town area and the rest are scattered all over the city. Most of the residents speak Waray but could understand Tagalog, English and Cebuano Bisaya. All in all, the residents are warm friendly people and very hospitable.

The Climate

In terms of climate, it is relatively between hot to warm. It has two seasons- rainy and dry. In times of the rainy seasons, below warm temperature is felt and that this season gives the city a relaxing mood to communicate with nature and self. In the time of the dry season however, is hot and makes you want to dip in the waters.

city’s establishments and properties

Properties Available

All the properties are titles and has other necessary papers legally documented and approved by the city government. Properties available are at beach front, down town area and mountain viewing lots.

Beach properties are usually of higher price rates. Some beach front properties include houses and other water equipment like boats and small ports.
Mountain viewing lots are landscaped hills and plains. Most of which are fenced and secured. Economically, planting crops and other agricultural products has positive and good harvest in the area, having fertile and healthy lands.
Check the Internet for real estate websites having extensive database on property information at Tacloban City, Leyte, Samar and other parts of the region.

Tacloban City heartily welcomes the athletes, sports enthusiasts, wellness gurus, spa addicts, or to anyone who merely wants pure and genuine fun all day, staying fit and fab at the same time.
Tacloban City highlights its fit and wellness side to the public with a number of sports bars, clubs and hubs scattered all over the city. Some spas, gyms and wellness centres are to be found in the down town areas.

Wall Climbing in Bukid Outdoor ShopThese places are so called to be the Tambayan or hang out places of friends, families, company outings in the city, having one common interest– to have fun.For Golf enthusiasts:The San Gerardo Golf Driving Range is one of the largest golf course areas in the region having nine (9) holes scattered all throughout for a better game play.
For Bowling addicts:
At Singzon Bowling Lane, you can’t get enough trying to strike bowling pins with one effortless try. Besides, bowling can be a fun way to have quality time with the family every weekend. The place is nice, highly maintained, and child friendly, not to mention affordable prices on all services.For wall climbers:

There is a man made wall of 20 feet built to give wall climbers out and in the region a taste of challenge as you climb rock by rock and extreme satisfaction once at the top. At a very affordable price, enjoy unlimited climb! Visit Bukid Outdoor Shop. Other things that you can see there are mountain climbing gears, back packing and surfing equipment of top quality and name brand.

For Kayaking lovers:

best place for lovers …
Tacloban City has kayak for rent for only a thousand pesos. You can go kayaking all over the San Juanico Strait. This recreation is best for those who want scenic view of the island while doing a light exercise for the day,
There are other recreational and sports activities at Leyte Park Resort like table tennis, Taekwondo, tennis, and swimming.

Tacloban City being the vast developing city in the country has proven how impressive and successful the business and corporate industry is, given the fact of having the lowest incident rate of poverty and water scarcity. Just in the Eastern Visayas Region, Tacloban City owns the largest number of work force that are skilled and educated, which is a large factor influencing a business or large corporation’s success.

the business industries…

Leyte Industrial Development Estate in Isabel, Leyte. This special economic zone, comprising the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp and the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp, is by the way is an advantage for the city of Tacloban because of their convenient locations and knowing that LIDE is the largest copper processing plant in the Philippines.

Having a business in the city is also a good investment. There is not much of competitions as of for the moment when it comes to following business sectors/services:

• shopping malls
• call centres
• spas
• cinemas
• fast food chains
• hotels
• beach resorts
• restaurants
• gyms
• and many more to mention.

What is coming up in Tacloban City?

let’s go shopping…

By the end of 2008 and early 2009, Robinson’s Shopping Mall by the Gokongwei group of companies, is to be seen standing at largely more than an hectare, giving wonderful services to the city by then. Investors and entrepreneurs are invited to see open slots and boutique spaces available for lease.
Other establishments soon to be expected in the city are the 150 room hotel, as large as a four hectare lot in Marasbas District also from Gokongwei group of companies.

As mentioned earlier, Tacloban City has established high standard in its educational system, given the fact that it has more than 6 established schools, colleges and universities. Mostly in the Eastern Visayas, they migrated to Tacloban City during school months from June to March to get a bachelor’s degree, or a better education that somehow is not available in their cities or provinces.

No class, blackboard is wet!

Although schools in Cebu are much preferred by most Visayans like University of San Carlos, University of Cebu, University of San Jose Recolletos, University of the Philippines, Cebu Institute of Technology University of the Visayas or Cebu Normal University. However, here are schools as impressive as those in Cebu.

Lists of Schools in Tacloban City:

• AMA Computer College. This school concentrates more on Information Technology and other computer related courses.
• Asian Development Foundation College. They are expert in Computer Engineering education.
• Divine Word University of Tacloban. The largest Catholic university in Region VIII.
• Don Vicente Orestes Romualdez Educational. This college is known for their Agricultural and law educational program.
• Je Mondejar Computer College. The school offers computer courses.
• Leyte Institute of Technology. This educational institution is best known for its architectural, engineering and industrial technology degree program.
• Leyte Normal University. This university specializes degree program on general education and has produced outstanding teachers all over the country and abroad.
• Quezon Technical School. It Offers vocational courses.
• RTR Medical Foundation, College of Nursing and Department of Physical Therapy. They are more on medicine and nursing education, and also physical therapy and the largest medical institution in the region.
• Remedios T. Romualdez Medical Foundation. It is best known for nursing and other medical courses.
• Department of Medical Technology. The school offers courses in Medical technology.
• STI College, Tacloban. The college concentrates on computer technology and everything associated with it.
• St. Paul’s Business School of Tacloban. The school which has the largest student population and the largest business school outside Manila.
• Tacloban Institution of Electronics. The most popular vocational schools for low income families in the region.

• Sacred Heart College. This is run by priests and nuns and has renowned for having a complete school apparatus in the region.

Some cultural practices that you should be knowledgeable of is that the Waray particularly in their social and occassional gatherings of the old natives, the Ambahan is widely practised. The Ambahan, as part of the Waray literature, is a two-line verse characterised to festive and usually sung or chanted.
Other traditions are obviously seen in Tacloban festival and native occassional holidays.

Speak Waray

Waray, being counted as one of the largest spoken dialects in the Philippines is yet another dialect of great ethnology and origin. The word Waray literally means “nothing”, which for most linguist could not explain why and how. Some people even say Waray-Waray meaning “double nothing” or “nothing nothing” which the meaning is highly confusing. It is unfair to note Waray as a difficult dialect to learn, However unlike Tagalog that is taught nationwide, Waray can become confusing but challenging especially when you get to listen to the native speakers who speak fast and fluent.

Hey, be careful wavy sea @ the back!

Once you get here in Tacloban City, you should know a few useful Waray phrases that will aid you along the way without being misinterpreted as someone crazy speaking the Martian language, Come on! Speaking basic Waray-Waray can be a lot of fun. Besides, the natives in the area much more appreciate it foreign people try the hardest to speak their tongues.

• Good Morning- Maupay nga Aga
• Good Afternoon- Maupay nga Kulop
• Good Evening- Maupay nga Gab-i
• Take care- Pag hinay ikaw, pag upay ikaw
• Goodbye- Malakat na ako
• See you next time, later- Pagkita nala kita sunod, niyan
• What is this? – ano iton?
• Welcome To Tacloban – Dayon Ha Tacloban
• Where are you from? – Taga diin ka?
• Thank you – Salamat
• You are welcome – Waray Sapayan
• I love you- Hinihigugma ko ikaw.
• Did you have your dinner/lunch already? Kumaun ka na hin pani hapon/pani udto?
• How much is this? – Tag pira ini?
• Is this for sale? – Ginbabaligya ini? Tinda ini?
• Where can you find (name of the place)? – Hain mo makikit-an it (name of the place)?, Hain mo mabibilngan it (name of the place)?
• I need a telephone booth? – kinahanglan ko hin telepono publiko na pwede ko matawagan.
• I am lost – Nawawara ako.
• Beautiful – mahusay
• Ugly – maraksot
• No money in my pocket– waray na salapi hit akon bulsa/bursa.
• Im sleepy- Gin pipiraw ak.

As you may have already known, the Waray, native residents of Leyte, Samar, Sorsogon and some part in Mindanao is the largest Philippine Ethnic-linguistic Group in terms of population. The Warays are known for being fierce, brave and courageous as seen in tribunal battles and wars before.

@ the public market

Because of such notion, the warays are most often mistakenly judged as troublesome and blood thirsty. People from other parts of the country when being met by a Waray is often careful and very sensitive to the words said and being meant. People visiting home towns of the Warays are also as careful not to hurt feelings or break into properties.
However, we should not take this against the Warays and other people residing the region for this is of course, a case to case to basis and only very evident long time ago.

…but we’re friendly too.

In the modern days, Tacloban City in particular has the reputation of having the lowest crime rate in the city. It held a media forum in celebration of the National Crime Prevention Week last September 1 to 7.
Getting around the place during night up until dawn is safe for safety measures are maintained 24/7. Police and tanod patrols secure Tacloban premises for criminal emergencies and others.
On the other side of it, Waray are known to be someone of great wit and perseverance. There are many poetry and folk literatures proved these in every persona and character. This is also very evident in the region’s political elections.

In the city, different types of vehicles, public or private are seen in the streets. However traffic wise, never yet in Tacloban can you see experience being stuck in heavy traffic that you likely experience in Manila or in Cebu City. The street names and rules are so easy to remember. The downtown area being the city centre can be quite crowded during rush hours and fiestas.

Getting around in Tacloban is not much of a problem if you have your own private car. Same goes true when you do not have. Public transportation is so affordable. Hotels and lodges offer car and van rentals with reliable drivers that serve as instant tourist guides at the same time.

somewhere down the road

Public Utility Jeepneys are dominant in highways and tricycles and the Pedicabs on between streets. For a fact, there are no taxis available in the city these days.

just a simple ride