Tacloban Pre-Colonial

TACLOBAN


Tacloban was known as Kankabatok, a name alluded to the first inhabitants of the place – Kabatok. They established their dwelling in the vicinity of the present day Sto. Niño church. Others who came later were Gumoda, Haraging and Huraw who erected their own settlements in nearby sites. Huraw’s domain is the hill where the city hall now sits. As a whole the combined settlements acquired the name Kankabatok, meaning Kabatok’s property.
By the end of the 16^th century, Kankabatok was under the political administration of Palo and part of the parish of Basey, Samar. In 1770, the Augustinian Mission discovered the place, they were superceded by the Franciscans in 1813. During this period, Kankabatok was changed to Tacloban. The change of the name came about in this manner: Kankabatok was a favorite haunt of fishermen. They would use a bamboo contraption called "Taklub" to catch crabs, shrimps or fish. When asked where they were going, the fishermen would answer, "(to) Tarakluban,"which meant the place where they used the devise to catch these marine resources. Eventually, the name Tarakluban or Tacloban took prominence.

Tacloban’s upcoming Eastern Visayas Regional Agro-Industrial Growth Centerlocated at Barangays New Kawayan, Old Kawayan, Sto. Niño and Tagpuro will host light and medium manufacturing industries, mostly joint ventures with Korean, Taiwanese, and Japanese capitalists. The industries that will rise on this estate are relatively labor-intensive and are projected to directly employing more than 5,000 factory workers. Additional jobs are expected by the ancillary service industries. Tacloban has generous natural endowments, existing market potentials and readily available indigenous raw materials. It has adequate support system of financial resources, aggressive City Government policies, stable and ample supply of water and power, efficient communication and transportation systems, improved infrastructure facilities, and a liberal package of investment incentives. All these will make Tacloban City an attractive venue for local and foreign investors and definitely transforming Tacloban’s dream, as a major tourist destination in the Philippines, into reality!

Funeral practices and burial customs- encompass a wide range of personal, cultural, and traditional beliefs and practices which Filipinosobserve in relation to bereavement, dying, honoring, respecting, interring, andremembering their departed loved ones, relatives, and friends. Sources of the various practices include religious teachings, vestiges of colonialism, and regional variations on these.

Culture / Festival

Sangyaw is a festival in the Philippines. It was revived in 2008 by the city government of Tacloban, Leyte, Eastern Visayas. Sangyaw means "to herald news" in Waray language. Various festival-participants from different parts of the country participate in this tribal procession.It was held a day before the city fiesta. The festival was first held in 1974 but was cancelled in 1987.

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.

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.

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.

Tacloban City's Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival

This festival lasts an entire month beginning in the last few days of June. The celebrations used to begin in May but that date was moved to its present date of June 29 beginning in 1999. Highlights of the festival include the ritual dances and parades. Incidental to this festivity is the Pintados Festival, which recollects events from the city's pre-Spanish history.

Pintados Festival

The Pintados festival of Tacloban City is a Filipino festival with its own unique flavor. This Pintados festival recalls Pre-Spanish history of the native Leytenos from wars, epics and folk religions. The most expected aspect of the Pintados festival are the festive dancers, painted from head to toe with designs that look like armor to resemble the tattooed warriors of old. During the course of the Pintados festival, dancers whose bodies are painted in an amazing array of colors fill the streets of Tacloban city. At first sight, they may seem outrageous as grown men pour into the streets decorated in such dazzling colors as luminous blue or neon green. But as one gets used to this and sees the dances depicted, one gets a glimpse of the history of the people that once lived on the islands of Leyte so long ago.

San Juanico Bridge-formerly the Marcos Bridge, is a Compression arch bridge in the Philippinesstretching from Samar to Leyte crossing the San Juanico Strait. It is part of the Pan-Philippine Highway. It is the longest bridge in the Philippines spanning a body of water with a length of 2.16 kilometers (1.34 mi It is considered one of the most beautifully-designed bridges in Philippines.The bridge is supported by 43 spans rising 41 meters above the sea.

Mc-Arthur Memorial Park