Samar (/ˈsɑːmɑːr/SAH-mar) is the third largest island in thePhilippines, with a total population of 1,924,651 as of the 2024 census. It is located in the easternVisayas and its main language and ethnicity isWaray while its main religion isRoman Catholic. Since 1965, the island is divided into threeprovinces:Western Samar,Northern Samar, andEastern Samar. The capitals of these provinces are, respectively,Catarman,Catbalogan, andBorongan., all part of theEastern Visayas region. In commemoration of the establishment of these provinces, June 19 is celebrated as an annual holiday. The island was first sighted byFerdinand Magellan on March 16, 1521. Although he did not land, other expeditions were made. Many names, such asSamal,Ibabao, andTandaya, were given to the island prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1596. During the early days ofSpanish occupation, Samar was under the jurisdiction ofCebu. In thePhilippine–American War,Eugenio Daza led a successful attack against the United States Army, later called theBalangiga massacre. This attack led to thePacification of Samar and deaths of 2,000 people.
The island has a major copra industry and participates in agriculture, producing rice, corn, vegetables, and abaca. The isle also has fisheries and shopping centers scattered across. The island also has a major tourism industry. In transportation, the island has numerous major highways and has a portion of thePan-Philippine Highway. The island has four major ports and three airports servicing flights to eitherCebu City andMetro Manila. Eastern Samar's electric distribution utility is the Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative (ESAMELCO). Two electric cooperatives serve Western Samar, namely: the Samar I and Samar II Electric Cooperative (SAMELCO). Northern Samar's electric cooperative is the Northern Samar Electric Cooperative (NORSAMELCO). The island has sixDepartment of Education divisions and numerous universities with satellite campuses.
Samar was the first island of the Philippines sighted by the Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan (transcribed asZamal in the diary ofAntonio Pigafetta). He sighted it on March 16, 1521, having sailed there from theMariana Islands.[4][5] Realizing he had arrived at anarchipelago, he charted the islands and called themSan Lazaro (transl.Saint Lazarus) because they were sighted onLazarus Saturday. The Spaniards later called the islandFilipinas. Although Samar was the first island of the Philippines sighted by Magellan, he did not land there. He continued south, weighed anchor atSuluan Island, and then finally, on March 17, 1521, he landed onHomonhon Island.[6] Later in the 1700s, Samar was recorded to have about 103Spanish Filipino families and 3,042 native families.[7]
Years later, other Spanish expeditions arrived. The historian William Henry Scott wrote that a "Samar datu by the name of Iberein was rowed out to a Spanish vessel anchored in his harbor in 1543 by oarsmen collared in gold; while wearing on his own person earrings and chains." Scott recounted a Samarnon saga, which was calledsiday, about Bingi of Lawan, a prosperous settlement in Samar.[8] Samar had names which are recorded in early Spanish sources, includingIbabao (orCibabao),Achan,Camlaya, andTaridola. The Spanish captainMiguel Lopez de Legaspi also called the islandTandaya, after mistaking the name of a lord with the name of the island. This was spelled byMiguel de Loarca asCandaya.[5]
During the early years of the Spanish colonialization, the province was placed in the jurisdiction ofCebu but was eventually separated into its own province. A rebellion was sparked in 1649 which was centered inPalapag, causing an uprising in Visayas and parts ofMindanao. The uprising was not suppressed until the next year. This caused rebels to migrate to the mountains and create a new settlement. In 1735, the province and Leyte merged into a singular province;Carigara was declared as the capital. In 1768, Samar was separated from Leyte. In 1860, the government structure was reorganized and was maintained until the end of the regime.[4]
An editorial cartoon depicting deaths caused by Jacob Smith's command
On September 28, 1901, Eugenio Daza–Area Commander of Southeastern Samar–and Valeriano Abanador, the town's police chief,[9] launched an attack on U.S. Army Company9th Infantry Regiment who were occupying Balangiga. This action, commonly known as the Balangiga massacre, brought one of the only Filipino victories of the war and the worst American defeat in decades.[10] In 1989, "Balangiga Encounter Day" was established as a provincial holiday in Eastern Samar to celebrate the victory.[11][12] In retaliation for the massacre, GeneralJacob H. Smith ordered his men to "kill and burn", further stating that "the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me".[13][14] This command led to the deaths of 2,000 Filipino insurgents and civilians while sparking outrage in the United States.[13][15] In his historical account of the war,Brian McAllister Linn asserts "Samar cast a pall on the army's achievement and, for generations, has been associated in the public mind as typifying the Philippine War."[16]
American and Japanese colonization; World War II (1902–1946)
After the war, the archipelago was peaceful except the island of Samar, which was a "dark and bloody" isle according toJames Henderson Blount.[17] In 1904, thePulajans in Samar caused powerful massacres to the extent of Governor-GeneralLuke Edward Wright's concern.[18] Numerous civilians joined the uprising due to the feeling of "unprotection".[19] The rebellion was discussed by many American politicians and military officers and caused court cases just before the1904 United States presidential election.[20] Four days after the election, Wright visited Samar, where troops increased to 2,000 from 700.[21] After battles and negotiations, the uprising eventually ended in 1906.[22] When the rebellion ended, the island, according to Blount, started becoming "peaceful".[23] More revolts were made by religious associations in the 1920s to 1930s.[24]
The beginning months of the 1970s[27] marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines as well as in Samar, as unprecedented number of foreign debt-funded public works projects duringFerdinand Marcos’ 1969 reelection campaign led to the1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis[28][29] and resulting inflation triggered theFirst Quarter Storm protests.[30][31][32][33]: "43" Three years later and with only a year left in his last constitutionally allowed term as president, Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines underMartial Law in September 1972 and thus retained the Presidency for fourteen more years.[34] This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record ofhuman rights abuses,[35][36] particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship.[37]
Deforestation during Martial Law and the Sag-od Massacre
The Marcos era wasa time of significant deforestation in Samar and throughout the Philippines, with the forest cover of the Philippines shrinking until only 8% remained.[38][39][40] On the island of Samar, whose forest cover had been at 86% of the island in 1972, forest cover went down to 45% in 1978, and then a mere 10% by 1987. Twelve companies were given Timber License Agreements (TLAs) on the island, including Dolores Timber in the Province of Samar and San Jose Timber in the province of Northern Samar, which were both owned byJuan Ponce Enrile,[40][41] the government official Ferdinand Marcos had put in place to approve Timber License Agreements during Martial Law.[40]
One of the infamous incidents of the Marcos dictatorship era was the Sag-od massacre inLas Navas, Northern Samar, which took place on September 15, 1981.[42] Numerous security personnel ofJuan Ponce Enrile's San Jose Timber Corporation allied with a paramilitary group called "the Lost Command" and ordered residents of Barrio Sag-od out of their homes, then opened fire on them. Forty-five people were killed, leaving only 13 inhabitants of Barrio Sag-od alive.[42]
This era also saw the construction of theSan Juanico Bridge between Samar and Leyte, which began as one of the high-visibility foreign-loan funded projects ofFerdinand Marcos’ 1969 reelection campaign, and finished four years later in time to be inaugurated on then-First LadyImelda Marcos' birthday on July 2, 1973.[43] The project was initially criticised as awhite elephant by officials at theNational Economic and Development Authority, noting that it was "useless and expensive to maintain",[44] because its average daily traffic was too low to justify the cost of its construction.[44] As a result, its construction has been associated with what has been called the Marcoses' "edifice complex"[45][46] although economic activity in Samar and Leyte has since finally caught up with the bridge's intended function.[46] At the time, its name was used as a slang term for one of thetorture methods used by the Marcos dictatorship, in which a person is being beaten while the victim's head and feet lay on separate beds and the body is suspended as though to form a bridge.[47][48]
Although the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's Army, was newly-formed and relatively still very small throughout Marcos' second term, the Marcos administration hyped up its formation,[49]: "43" supposedly because this would help build up political and monetary support from the US,[49]: "43" [50] which was caught up inred scare paranoia at the time.[51] When Marcos declared Martial Law, however, the CPP grew rapidly.[49]
On the island of Samar, Marcos' military forces were assigned to protect the logging concessions, and there were frequent encounters between the military and the New People's Army. As a result the towns ofTaft,Dolores,Can-avid, andOras in Eastern Samar were declared by the Military as "no-man's-land" areas from 1978 to 1982.[41]
Since then, the island had numerous human rights cases due to the New People's Army rebellion.[52][failed verification]
In May 2024, the Department of the Interior and Local Government announced that the three provinces on the island of Samar were "free of NPA influence" with no single village in three Samar provinces is under the influence of NPA [that] year.[53]
Typhoon Haiyan striking the island; the typhoon devastated a large part of the Philippines.[56]
Samar is the third-largest island in the Philippines by area, after the islands ofLuzon andMindanao.[56] Mount Huraw is Samar's highest point, with an elevation of 2,920 ft (890 m).[57] Samar is the easternmost island in the Visayas. It lies to the northeast of Leyte, separated from it only by theSan Juanico Strait. The island lies to the southeast of theBicol Peninsula onLuzon, separated from it only by theSan Bernardino Strait. To the west is the Samar Sea, and to the north and east of Samar lies the Philippine Sea. The island is hilly yet has lower altitude than the mountainous terrain in the rest of the Visayas.Lowlands are mostly found near the coast and along rivers; the rivers themselves are small and flow in a radial pattern.[56] The island, along with the region of Eastern Visayas, is rainy most of the year, ranging from seven to ten.[58] Numerous typhoons are formed in the area. Eastern Samar, specifically, has a Type II climate without a dry season with an increase in rainfall.[56]
The Panhulugan Cliff at the Sohoton Natural Bridge Park, a part of the Samar Island Natural Park
TheSamar Island Natural Park is a 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) forest within the island, encompassing all three provinces. It contains the largest tract of intact lowland forest in the Philippines. The park has a population ofDipterocarpaceae species, six of them are endangered, and contains the rarePhilippine eagle. The park contains six ecological forest types and has numerous waterfalls. Species in the island itself include thePhilippine sailfin lizard, theDraco mindanensis, thePhilippine hawk-eagle, theGiant golden-crowned flying fox, theRed-vented cockatoo, and thePhilippine crocodile.[59] The municipality ofBasey containsKarst forests with a total of 67 vascular plant species. In these forests, Dipterocarpaceae is the most prominent plant family.[60] Out of 2,400 flower species throughout the Philippines, 40 are only found in the island. In 2018, three new species ofBegonia were found in the isle.[61] The province of Northern Samar was described by Tiffany Neri ofSunStar as one of the Philippines' "best-kept secrets" with numerous rock formations and wildlife sanctuaries.[62] On June 9, 2025, the Biri Rock Formations in Northern Samar were declared to be a National Geological Monument according to theDepartment of Environment and Natural Resources.[63]
As of the 2024 census, the population of the island was 1,924,651 merged from the three provinces in the isle.[64] The main language in all three provinces of Samar Island isWaray. The second most popular language in Samar province is Bisaya, while the second most popular in Eastern Samar and Northern Samar isCebuano. Samar province and Northern Samar both have a scale of 0.13 in theLinguistic diversity index while Eastern Samar has a scale of 0.02.[65] Many people in the island are part of the Waray people: in Eastern Samar, 97.78 percent of people were Waray while in Samar, 91.45 classified themselves as Waray. Other ethnic groups includeBisaya,Cebuano, andTagalog. Males were more populated in both provinces than women.[66][67] As of the 2020 census, 1790014 people in the island are Roman Catholic, 1573 areIslam, and 14643 are part of theIglesia ni Cristo church. In all three provinces, more than 90% of the population are followers of the Roman Catholic Church.[68][69]
The island originally used to be a sole province. On June 19, 1965, a law passed splitting the province into three: Western Samar, Eastern Samar, and Northern Samar.[70] Since there are three provinces, there are three provincial governments with a governor each.[71] For theHouse of Representatives, Eastern Samar has one congressional district while Western and Northern Samar has two each, causing the island to have five districts.[72] ThePhilippines's 9th senatorial district encompassed Samar and Leyte which had two senators representing in theSenate of the Philippines with 24 representatives. The system was abolished in the early 1940s when the country was theCommonwealth of the Philippines.[73][74]
The island has a major copra industry: of the six provinces in Eastern Visayas, all three of the Samar provinces were placed in the top four based on copra production, just behind Leyte.[76] Western Samar's industry recorded a 6.1 percent increase from 2018 to 2023. The top three industries in the province are food service activities, transportation, and electricity, steam, water, and waste management. As of 2023, thegross domestic product of the province isPHP 61.35 billion.[77] The island has rice and root crops, includingsweet potatoes andcassava.Abacá and dairy from nativecarabaos is found in the island.[56][78] In Eastern Samar, two house bills were filed to establish two separate coconut oil refineries.[79]Palay and banana crops are also made in the province; agro-industries are actively promoted. Fishery is a major livelihood in Eastern Samar's coastal communities, but it is experiencing a decline.[80] Northern Samar, meanwhile, has rice, corn, vegetables, and abaca. Municipal fisheries and tuna operations are also present in the province.[81] A commercial complex owned byMetro Retail Stores Group was planned to be created in 2019 in Catbalogan from a contract and was opened on August 30, 2024.[82][83] Samar is separated from the main island shipping routes.Iron ore, made from the southeast portion of the isle, is shipped fromGeneral MacArthur. There are alsocoal,phosphate, andchromite industries. Since Samar has many forests, logging and sawmill operations are also done in the eastern coastal towns. Catbalogan is a major commercial center in the island, serving as an important coastal port with fishing centers.[56]
In 2015, the Samar Tourism Council encouraged tourists to visit attractions inCatbalogan as GovernorSharee Ann Tan held meetings with agency partners and the private sector to further boost tourism in Western Samar.[84] AOne Town One Product (OTOP) center from theDepartment of Trade and Industry (DTI) was launched in Calbayog on June 12, 2024.[85] During the "Benchmarking Tour" held by Eastern Samar officials in Cebu on February 9, 2023, the two provincial governments made a deal to organize a "tourism circuit" to increase tourism in the two provinces.[86] A DTI "Heritage Month Trade Fair" was held by the DTI provincial office of Northern Samar inRobinsons North Tacloban.[87]
Intersection between the Wright-Taft Highway and the Pan-Philippine Highway in Paranas
A segment of the Pan-Philippine Highway is present in Samar, stretching from Northern Samar to Leyte in the western coast of the isle.[88][89] TheN670 highway traverses through the northern and eastern coasts in the island, stretching through all three provinces, starting and ending from the Pan-Philippine Highway. Two other highways connect from the Pan-Philippine Highway to the N670 highway: the Catarman-Calbayog Road, which originates in Catarman and ends in Calbayog, and theWright–Taft Road, stretching fromParanas toTaft. Another highway extends from the N670 highway toGuiuan.[89] Four major ports are in the island, namely the Port of Calbayog, the Port of Borongan, the Port of Guiuan, and the Port ofSan Isidro.[90] A flight route from Cebu toCatarman National Airport was launched on March 4, 2025, serviced by thePhilippine Airlines.[91] Two weekly flight routes from Cebu toBorongan Airport were also launched in December 2022, also serviced by the Philippine Airlines.[92] Two airlines service at theCalbayog Airport, namely Philippine Airlines andCebu Pacific; the former flies to Manila three times a week while the latter flies to Cebu two times a week.[93]
Eastern Samar's electric distribution utility is the Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative (ESAMELCO).[94] Two electric cooperatives serve Western Samar, namely: the Samar I and Samar II Electric Cooperative (SAMELCO).[95] Northern Samar's electric cooperative is the Northern Samar Electric Cooperative (NORSAMELCO).[96] The Philippines' first tidal plant is planned to be built in Catarman, Northern Samar by a private electricity firm, harnessing currents from the San Benardino Strait.[97] A Singaporean firm invested in a planned wind farm in the borders of the Western and Northern Samar provinces.[98] Solar power projects were planned in two towns in Western Samar.[99] In Taft, Eastern Samar, a hydropower plant is operated, with possibilities of it being a tourist site.[100] The main telecommunication companies serviced in the island areSmart Communications andGlobe Telecom. New cell sites from both of the telecommunication operations were planned to be built in Northern Samar.[101][102] Over 100 cell sites were planned to be built in Northern Samar following a deal with GovernorEdwin Ongchuan and PhilTower Consortium, an infrastructure provider.[103]
Six Department of Education divisions are present in the island: three for each of the provinces, and one each for Borongan, Calbayog, and Catbalogan.[104] Major universities in Eastern Samar include theEastern Samar State University and four other satellite campuses. In Northern Samar, theUniversity of Eastern Philippines and two other satellite campuses are in the province. For Western Samar, two major universities are placed: theSamar State University with three satellite campuses, and theNorthwest Samar State University with one satellite campus. Other local colleges are also in the three provinces.[105] For theTechnical Education and Skills Development Authority, three provincial training centers and five schools are placed in the island.[106]
^"Islands of Philippines".Island Directory. United Nations Environment Programme. Archived fromthe original on April 28, 2019. RetrievedSeptember 18, 2015.
^Magno, Alexander R., ed. (1998). "Democracy at the Crossroads".Kasaysayan, The Story of the Filipino People Volume 9:A Nation Reborn. Hong Kong: Asia Publishing Company Limited.
^Abinales, P.N.; Amoroso, Donna J. (2005).State and society in the Philippines. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.ISBN978-0742510234.OCLC57452454.
.png)
