Surigao del Sur

In precolonial times, the region of Surigao was inhabited by the Visayan Surigaonon people in the coastal areas, as well as Lumad groups in the interiors like the Mandaya, Mansaka, Mamanwa and Manobo.[8]

During the Spanish Occupation in 1860, six military districts were created in Mindanao, with Surigao and Agusan forming the "East District". In 1870, the district was renamed to "Distrito de Surigao".

In 1901, Distrito de Surigao became chartered province. Agusan became an independent province in 1907 during the American era, when it was separated from Surigao.[8]

Surigao del Sur was created as the 56th Philippine province on June 19, 1960, through Republic Act 2786, separated from its mother province, Surigao, on September 18, 1960.[9]

At the time of its inception, it was classified as 4th Class province with an annual income of over ₱300,000.00. Seven years later, because of rapid increase of revenue collection particularly from the logging ventures, it has been reclassified as Ist Class B and in 1980 as Ist Class A with an estimated annual income of around ₱13,000,000. It has been reclassified as 2nd Class with a revenue adding up to ₱315,888,300.63.

Recaredo B. Castillo was the appointed first governor and subsequently elected governor while Vicente L. Pimentel was the first elected congressman.

The province was formed with 13 municipalities. Six more were added, raising the number to 19 with Tandag as the capital. Two of its municipalities have been elevated to cities; the first was Bislig City.

In 2007, Tandag was granted cityhood but it was nullified via a controversial decision by the Supreme Court a year later. In 2009, Tandag got back its city status after the court reversed its own ruling on December 22, 2009.

House Bill No. 2336 of the 19th Congress seeks to separate the southern part of the province to be formed as the new Province of Surigao Oriental.

Ricefield in Cantilan

The land area of the province is 4,932.70 square kilometres (1,904.53 sq mi)[11] representing 27.75 percent of the total land area of Caraga Administrative Region and about 5.14 percent and 1.74 percent of the total land area of Mindanao and Philippines, respectively. The province is elongated in shape, extending from the northeastern portion at Carrascal to the southernmost municipality of Lingig. It is approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi) in length and 50 kilometres (31 mi) at its widest point which runs from Cagwait to San Miguel.

Municipal-wise, San Miguel has the biggest land area accounting for 11.31% (558 square kilometers) of the total provincial land area while Bayabas has the smallest constituting only about 2.39% (117.84 square kilometers).[11]

Of the 5,230.50 square kilometres (2,019.51 sq mi) land, only 1,703.72 square kilometres (657.81 sq mi) or 32.22 percent are classified as alienable and disposable (A and D) while 3,583.523 square kilometres (1,383.606 sq mi) or 67.78 percent are forest land. Tagbina has the biggest share of alienable and disposable land with 234.21 square kilometres (90.43 sq mi) or about 56.51 percent of its land area followed by Hinatuan with 202.52 square kilometres (78.19 sq mi) or 63.56 percent of its land area.

The Britania Group of Islands

Of the 3,583.523 square kilometres (1,383.606 sq mi) of forest land, 636.076 square kilometres (245.590 sq mi) are protection forest, 2,582.43 square kilometres (997.08 sq mi) production forest, 12.68 square kilometres (4.90 sq mi) are non-forest agriculture and 352.337 square kilometres (136.038 sq mi) are for non-forest mining. As of today, the province still has vast areas of remaining old growth and mossy forest.

The province falls under Type II climate of the Philippines, characterized by rainfall distributed throughout the year, although there is a distinct rainy season which begins from the month of November and ends in March. However, the climatic behavior of the province for the past few years has shown variations wherein the onset of the rainy seasons no longer occurs on the usual time. Months with low rainfall are from July to October with September as the driest month. Wet months are from November to June with January as the wettest month.

Surigao del Sur is one of the top 20 most vulnerable provinces to climate change in the Philippines.[12]

Surigao del Sur comprises 17 municipalities and two cities, further subdivided into 309 barangays. There are two congressional districts encompassing all cities and towns.

Political divisions

The Surigaonon and Tandaganon languages are spoken in most parts of Surigao del Sur (except in Bislig and the towns of Barobo, Hinatuan, Lingig and Tagbina, where most of the inhabitants speak Cebuano and their native Kamayo, a different language but one distantly related to Surigaonon, is spoken by the rest of the population), with the Cantilangnon dialect, a northern variety of Surigaonon that is very much similar to the dialect of Surigaonon as spoken in Surigao del Norte, being spoken mostly in the five northern municipalities of the province, namely Carrascal, Cantilan, Madrid, Carmen and Lanuza (or the municipal cluster called Carcanmadcarlan); these municipalities were once under a single Municipality of Cantilan before December 10, 1918.

Tagalog and English are also widely spoken throughout the province and used as the primary languages of education, business, and administration.

Surigao del Sur is endowed with metallic minerals such as copper, gold, chromite, cobalt, nickel and lead zinc, as well as non-metallic (limestone, coal and feldspar, clay diatomite/bentomite and coarse/fine aggregates). There are small and large scale mining activities in the province. Corporations operating in a large scale are the Marc Ventures Mining Development Corporation at Carrascal and Cantilan, operating in an area of 4,799 hectares (47.99 km²) within the Diwata Mountain Range.[23][24] The [TP Construction and Mining Corporation, also in Carrascal, focuses on gold and nickel mining in an area of 35.64 square kilometres (13.76 sq mi) and 48.6916 square kilometres (18.80 sq mi), respectively. The Carac-an Development Corporation, also in Carrascal, has an area of 506.3764 square kilometres (195.51 sq mi). Small scale mining activities are found in the municipalities of Barobo, Carmen and San Miguel.