Dumaguete

The island of Negros was divided into the provinces of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental by a royal decree executed by Governor General Valeriano Weyler on January 1, 1890. Dumaguete was made the first and only capital of the new Negros Oriental Province.

During 1898, months after the arrival of Emilio Aguinaldo from exile, the Negros Revolution suddenly broke-out. Negros Occidental Province, which was still ruled by the Spanish authorities, eventually surrendered to the Negrense Revolutionary Forces after a battle on November 6. They then began a week-long march which captured Dumaguete on the 24th. By this time, the Spanish forces had left the entirety of Negros. The "Negros Republic" was then proclaimed on November 27.

Imperial Japanese forces landed at Dumaguete on May 26, 1942, after the fall of the Philippines, and all of Negros Oriental Province surrendered shortly thereafter. Resistance against the Japanese occupation continued by guerilla groups in the inner mountains, where many native residents had fled to. The local Negrense guerillas attacked the remaining Japanese officials and troops on August 6, 1945, and after their victory they welcomed combined American and Filipino forces that formally liberated Negros Oriental.

The City of Dumaguete was formally created on July 15, 1948, under Philippine Congressional Republic Act No. 327, also known as the "Charter of the City of Dumaguete". This was later amended on June 21, 1969, by Republic Act No. 5797, which clarified and refined the powers and functions of the local government unit in the earlier act.

Journalist Crispin Maslog who was teaching at Silliman University at the time,[10] he notes that Dumaguete learned about Marcos' declaration of Martial Law earlier than other parts of the country did on September 23, 1972, because local news station DYSR was able to pick up the news from an Australian broadcast. Elsewhere in the country, media outlets such as newspapers and broadcast stations had already been shut down, but DSYR was able to make the announcement before Information Secretary Francisco Tatad did at around noon. DYSR itself would be shut down later that day.[10]

Maslog recounts that Silliman University in Dumaguete was one of the last four universities in the Philippines to be allowed to reopen for classes, with Marcos himself complaining about instances where members of the political opposition such as Senators Jovito Salonga, Juan Liwag were invited to speak at the University.[10]

In the mid 1980s, the crony capitalism which characterized the Martial Law administration had a major effect on the island of Negros in which Dumaguete is located.[11][12] A sugar hoarding scheme by National Sugar Trading Corporation (NASUTRA) of Roberto Benedicto backfired,[12] resulting in the mass-firing of sugar workers in Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental. Worsened by the economic nosedive which had begun in 1983, it eventually became known as the 1985 Negros famine.[12]

Aerial view of Dumaguete, date unknown

Dumaguete has a tropical savannah climate, bordering a tropical monsoon climate according to the Köppen Climate classification with two distinct seasons: wet and dry. The wet season covers the period from June to November, and the dry season starts from December to May, the hottest being April and May. The average maximum temperature is 30.9 °C and the average minimum temperature is 24.8 °C for the 1991-2020 normals. The relative humidity of the locality for the past years was 81% with the month of January registering the highest.

Dumaguete has a rich and unique marine ecosystem that provides livelihoods to fishers[15] and supports tourism.[16] The coastal environment, which includes seagrass meadows, acts as efficient carbon sinks that mitigate the effects of climate change.[17] This ecosystem includes 36.15 hectares of seagrasses and 36.20 hectares of coral reef.[15] Dumaguete has four marine protected areas covering 104 hectares that host over 200 species of fish.[18][17]

The fragile marine ecosystem is under threat from a proposed 174 hectares (430 acres) reclamation project that is facing opposition from youth organizations, church groups, residents, and environmental scientists, including Philippine national scientist and former environmental secretary Angel Alcala.[19][18]

Dumaguete's barangay partitions

Dumaguete is politically subdivided into 30 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

All barangays are classified as urban. The eight barangays in the city's downtown area are known primarily by number. The smallest barangay is Barangay 4 with an area of only 5.11 hectares, while the biggest barangay is Barangay Banilad with 362.71 hectares.

A Jollibee branch in Dumaguete

Tourism, the academe, the retail industries, BPO and technology-related activities are the major sources of income of the city. BPOs and IT firms, as well as retailing, are the fastest rising industries. There are significant number of banking institutions and a branch of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas within its territory.

Business activities are mostly concentrated in the downtown area and bayside Rizal Boulevard with some prominent shopping centers such as Lee Super Plaza and Robinsons Townville Perdices but with the completion of 4 lanes circumferential highway known as Metro Dumaguete Diversion Road helps decongest the traffic in the main thoroughfares of Central Business District traversing from the town of Sibulan down to Bacong. The new highway is expected to economically benefit the outskirt barangays of the city as new growth centers with the opening of satellite market, South Bus Terminal, city satellite provincial hospital to name a few. These growing industries made Dumaguete the hub for shopping, education, financial, IT, commerce, lifestyle and sports in the province of Negros Oriental and region.

The real estate industry in the city is also booming with a number of constructions such as condominiums, town centers and massive horizontal housing projects. New shopping centers such as Marina Town Mall by Filinvest Group, Bayshores Dumaguete and popular restaurants, bars and dining strips along Flores Avenue (North Boulevard) in the Piapi District have excellent views of Dumaguete Bay. Filinvest is on track to develop the beach area for another residential complex in the coastal barangay of Mangnao. CityMall Dumaguete, a community mall owned by DoubleDragon Properties and homegrown Cang's Shopping Complex positioned along the national highway serving shoppers in the north. A Public Transport Terminal with multi-level parking spaces is being built at the back of Robinsons Place Dumaguete located within the Dumaguete Business Park enclave. Joining the existing Dumaguete Business Park and Marina Town Center are the Lifestyle 8880 Commercial Complex at Daro, the E.C. Ouano Sr. Complex for the new location of government offices extending to the Camella Homes development site (township, condominium and commercial projects) in between Bajumpandan-Cantil-e areas and the proposed Brgy. Talay development center where chosen as the site of the new state-of-the-art City Hospital among the new growth centers of this city.

Delonix, a business process outsourcing company in Dumaguete

Dumaguete's outsourcing industry has a range of businesses, such as call centers, publishing, medical transcription, animation, editing, and architectural outsourcing. Dumaguete is listed among Next Wave Cities in the country with over 20 IT and BPO locators, and has been described as a hub for Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technology.[33][34]

DCCCO (Dumaguete Cathedral Credit Cooperative) and PHCCI (Perpetual Help Community Cooperative) are among the prominent cooperatives in the country which are both rooted in Dumaguete.

Sibulan Airport

The Port of Dumaguete

A tricycle in Dumaguete, one of the primary modes of public transport in the city.

Sibulan Airport (IATA: DGT, ICAO: RPVD), also known as Dumaguete Airport or Dumaguete-Sibulan Airport, is the city's domestic airport located in neighboring Sibulan town in the north. It provides daily flights to and from Manila and Cebu City through Cebu Pacific, Cebgo and PAL Express while Cebgo is servicing both Mindanao important urban centers, thrice weekly flights to Davao City and Cagayan de Oro.[37] However, a new airport is being planned to be built in Bacong, a town bordering Dumaguete in the south.[38] The proposal for the transfer and upgrading of this airport to international standards has already been initially approved and should be completed before 2025. An initial PHP 500 million budget has already been released for initial study and procurement of free lands.[39] In March 2021, while awaiting for final approval of the construction of the new airport in Bacong, upgrade works were made to the current Sibulan Airport which include pavement reconstruction, expansion of the terminal building from 1,152sqm. to 1,842sqm., and expansion of CAAP administrative buildings.[40]

Dumaguete, as a major port city, is a jump-off point for passengers/tourists who are going to other Visayas and Mindanao areas. Currently, the port is equipped with two modern port operations and passenger terminal facilities. It is also the headquarters site of Coast Guard Station Negros Oriental under Philippine Coast Guard Central Visayas District.

As major point of Philippine Western Nautical Highway System, there are daily ferry connections to the islands of Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Mindanao operated by Archipelago Philippine Ferries Corporation (FastCat), Montenegro Lines, Medallion Transport, Ocean Jet Shipping, Lite Shipping, Cokaliong and other companies. Dumaguete is an access city for passengers/tourists going to Cebu City. Alternatively, there are smaller ports north of the city where short and frequent ferry connections mostly to Cebu Island are available. Dumaguete is a port of call for travelers to Manila, Dapitan and Zamboanga City by ship serviced by 2GO Travel.

The main form of public transport in Dumaguete is the motorized tricycle. The Dumaguete version of the motorized tricycle can fit up to 6-8 passengers. For transport to destinations outside the city limit, there are jeepney and buses travelling set routes. Meanwhile, Vallacar Transit Corporation, the company that operates Ceres buses, recently constructed a 2-storey terminal building in Barangay Calindagan just beside the newly erected commercial center, the Marketplace. Buses from Dumaguete have routes going to Bacolod City/Negros Occidental, Cebu City/Cebu Province, Zamboanga City via Dipolog/Dapitan of Zamboanga Peninsula, Tagbilaran City/Bohol via Cebu and Cubao/Metro Manila using Western Nautical Highway. Dumaguete is 215 kilometres (134 mi) from Bacolod City via Kabankalan-Mabinay-Bais Road.

• Bacolod, Negros Occidental
• Mandaue, Cebu
• Butuan, Agusan del Norte
• Makati, Metro Manila

• Yeongdong County of North Chungcheong, Republic of Korea
• Alameda of California, United States