Albay (Philippines)
Published by SuperAdminMICRODIS
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Location: Albay, Philippines |
| Partner: Citizens’ Disaster Response Centre/Xavier University |
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| The Philippines is an archipelagic country located in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. The Philippine archipelago comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, sharing maritime borders with Indonesia, Malaysia, Palau, Taiwan and Vietnam. The Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country, with a population approaching 90 million people. There are more than 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide (about 11 percent of the total population), making it the largest diaspora network in the world. Ecologically, Philippines is considered to be among 17 of the most diverse countries in the world. The Philippines became a Spanish colony in the 16th century and an American territory at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1896, it won independence from Spain. American occupation of the Philippines during the Spanish-American War led to the outbreak of the Philippine-American War. A Commonwealth-style government was established in 1935, which allowed self-governance as well as the first national elections. The country gained its independence from the United States on July 4, 1946. Martial law was declared in 1972 by Ferdinand Marcos, which led to the insurgencies of the New People's Army and the Moro National Liberation Front. Ninoy Aquino's assassination would soon inspire his widow, Corazon Aquino, as well as the country's then-spiritual leader Jaime Cardinal Sin to lead the People Power Revolution of 1986, which would bring the country back to democracy. Catholicism is the country's predominant religion, although pre-Hispanic indigenous religious practices still exist. There are also followers of Islam. |
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| Albay, Philippines: | ||||||||||||
| The second survey site in the Philippines is the province of Albay, located in the Bicol Region in Luzon (one of the three island groups in the country). Its capital is Legazpi City. The Mayon Volcano is the symbol most associated with this province. This nearly perfect cone-shaped active volcano forms a scenic backdrop to the capital city of Legazpi, which is located 15 kilometers to the south. |
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| Demography: | ||||||||||||
| Albay is the second most populated province in the Bicol Region with 1,090,907 people (2000 census, marking a 21 percent increase from the 1990 population of the province). High concentration of the population is found in Legazpi City, Tabaco City and Daraga. They comprise one-third of the provincial population, with Legazpi City comprising much of the bulk. The population density in Albay is 427 persons per square kilometer. It has a household population of 1,089,752; and 208,640 number of households. |
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| Geography: | ||||||||||||
| Albay province is located in the southern part of Luzon. The province is bounded by the Lagonoy Gulf and Camarines Sur on the north-northwest; the Pacific Ocean on the east; the province of Sorsogon on the south; and the Burias Pass on the southeast. Albay has a total land area of 2,552.6 square kilometers or 255,257 hectares, which is 14.5 percent of the Bicol Region’s total land area. It is the 26th smallest province in the country. Most of Albay is located on mainland Bicol Peninsula and has four major islands to the east: Rapu-Rapu, Batan (part of Rapu-Rapu), Cagraray (part of Bacacay) and San Miguel (part of Tabaco City). The province is generally mountainous with scattered fertile plains and valleys. Approximately 40 percent of the land area is flat, surrounded by the mountains of Masaraga (1,337 m high), Malinao (1,629 m high), Pantao (527 m high) and Mayon Volcano (2,496 m high), which is the most famous landform. Basically an agricultural province, 61 percent of the land area is considered as agricultural crop zone. Total forest land covers 19 percent of the provincial land area. The province’s soils are suitable for diversified upland crops, paddy rice, forage production and tree farming. The dominant soil types are those fit for tree farms. About 42 percent of the province’s land area exhibits slight erosion. Slight erosion is characterized by the formation of tiny incisions, mainly sheet and rills along trails and creeks. Moderate erosion is found in 32 percent of the land area. This type of erosion features the occurrence of well-defined rills and gullies along waterways or slope breaks on cultivated land. Severe erosion affects 7 percent of the land. Severe erosion usually occurs on steep, hilly or mountainous areas with slopes above 30 percent. Specifically, affected are areas where logging and excessive slash and burn farming are practiced. Albay has a total of 121 million cubic meters of surface water, well drained through five major rivers (Yawa, Quinale, Talisay, Calibogan and Nasisi Rivers) and several minor creeks and springs utilized for irrigation and drainage. In addition, about one-third of Lake Bato is under the administrative jurisdiction of Albay. Albay has 15 municipalities, 3 cities and 720 barangays (villages). |
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| Economy: | ||||||||||||
| By July 2000, 70 percent of the provincial population has been accounted to be members of the labor force. Of this, about 61 percent are said to be actively looking for work, 11 percent are unemployed, and only 28 percent are working. Majority of the potential labor force is in the rural areas. The service sector absorbs 49 percent of the labor force. On the other hand, agriculture and the industrial sector account for 27 percent and 24 percent, respectively. As of 1997, the average annual family income in the province is P89,386, while the average annual family expenditure is P78,305; both of which are the highest annual averages in the region. Of the total number of families, 72 percent earn below the provincial average annual family income. By source of income, 122,682 families source their income from wages and salaries, most of which are non-agricultural related. Those families who source their income from entrepreneurial activities reach 62,743. The rest of the 13.8 percent have other sources of income such as cash receipts from domestic sources as well as from abroad. Agriculture is the main industry in Albay, which produces such crops as coconut, rice, sugar and abaca. Handicrafts are also a major source of rural income. The total agricultural area in the province is about 135,000 hectares. Coconut-based farms cover 50 percent of the agricultural crop zone, mostly located in hilly areas and foot slopes. Of the coconut-based agricultural area, about 40,000 hectares are solely planted with coconuts; 33,000 hectares are coconut areas under multiple cropping systems; and 20,000 hectares have multi-storey cropping. Rice-based agriculture covers 35,000 hectares or 26.3 percent of the total agricultural crop zone. Most of these are irrigated and planted solely with rice; more than 1,400 hectares are irrigated and adopt multi-cropping system; and 5,700 hectares are non-irrigated or rainfed with multi-cropping system. Fifteen percent of the total agricultural crop zone is considered corn-based agricultural area. A little over 2,800 hectares, or 2 percent, of the total agricultural crop zone are planted to root crops. Industrial crops cover around 15,000 hectares, of which 12,300 hectares are considered abaca-based agriculture and 1,400 hectares planted sugarcane. Nearly 48 percent of the total agricultural production of Albay is rice production, which is tilled from 53,000 hectares of agricultural land. The second major crop produced is coconut with 15 percent share. Other major crops are corn, camote and cassava. The province also has its fair share of livestock and poultry with about 3.5 million heads, majority of which are chickens. Economic Statistics
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| Health: | ||||||||||||
| There are nine government hospitals and 27 privately owned hospitals in the province as of 2006. The number of rural health units is 15, and the village health stations are 194. Health professionals in ratio to the population are 1 doctor for every 31,200, 1 dentist for every 72,700, 1 nurse for every 22,700, and 1 midwife for every 6,300. There are 87.9 percent of households with access to potable water and 54 percent with access to sanitary toilet facilities. Health Statistics
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| Education: | ||||||||||||
| As of the school year 1999-2000, there are 550 elementary schools and 62 secondary schools in the province. All these are government education institutions. They are being provided with 7,565 public school teachers. |
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| Religion: | ||||||||||||
| The majority of people living in Albay practice Catholicism. |
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| Language: | ||||||||||||
| Bicol is the local dialect. Surprisingly, it constitutes a strange variety in words and in diction among the seventeen municipalities compromising the province. In some towns, there are clear distinctions of variable terminologies in their use of words to convey their messages as compared with the nearest neighboring towns. What puzzles visitors and tourists is the amazing variation of many words of the same meaning for one object or concept among the people in every town. |
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| Disaster experience: | ||||||||||||
| Albay has three types of climate. The eastern areas experiences no dry season with a very pronounced maximum rain period from December to January, the western areas have more or less heavily distributed rainfall throughout the year and the central areas have no pronounced maximum rain period with a short dry season from November to January. The province has a yearly average of 20 typhoons ranging from 60-180 kph. Average rainfall is 233 millimeters with a lowest at 130 millimeters in April and the highest at 389 millimeters during December. Average temperature is 33.15 Celsius high and 22.60 Celsius low. Albay is one of the most typhoon-prone provinces in the Philippines. The area is located on the typhoon belt and experiences this hazard at the average of two major destructive typhoons per year. In November 2006, Albay was one of the areas hardest-hit by Typhoon Reming (International name: Durian). Reming was one of the most deadly and destructive tropical cyclones to ravage the Philippines in recent years. The typhoon brought 466 millimeters of rainfall, the highest in 40 years. A number of communities in Albay were immediately buried under tons of rocks and mud that rushed down from the Mayon Volcano’s slopes during the typhoon. Aside from Reming, three other major typhoons hit Daraga in 2006: Tropical Storm Caloy (Chanchu), Typhoon Milenyo (Xangsane), and Typhoon Seniang (Utor). Recently, back-to-back super typhoons battered the Bicol Region once again. Typhoons Lando (Hagibis) and Mina (Mitag) affected 69,465 families in Region V last year (November 2007). Both typhoons caused flashfloods and landslides. |
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| Reference: | ||||||||||||
| - Albay Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council Official Website,
http://www.albay.gov.ph - Center for Environmental Geomatics - Manila Observatory, 2005, http://www.observatory.ph/vm/cw_maps.html - Department of Health, Bicol Health Profile, 2006. - Department of Social Welfare and Development, Data on Disasters, 2005-2007. - IBON Foundation, IBON Philippines Profile: Region V, 2002. - National Statistics Office 2007 Census - Wikipedia |
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Affected area in Albay Enumerators look for households in Albay Data collectors manage the questionnaires
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