14.CARAGA

Caraga is an administrative region of the Philippines, on the northeastern portion of the island of Mindanao. It was created through Republic Act No. 7901 on February 25, 1995. Butuan City is the regional center. The region is composed of five provinces: Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Dinagat Islands

Information:

Topography

    The region is characterized by mountainous areas, flat and rolling lands. Mountain ranges divide Agusan and Surigao provinces and sub-ranges separate most of the lowlands along the Pacific Coast. The most productive agricultural area of the region lies along the Agusan River Basin. The famous Agusan Marsh sits in the middle of Agusan del Sur. Among the lakes in the region, Lake Mainit is the widest. It traverses eight municipalities: Alegria, Tubod, Mainit and Sison in the Province of Surigao del Norte and Tubay, Santiago, Jabango and Kitcharao in Agusan del Norte.

  Agusan Marsh 

 Lake Mainit

Location and size

Caraga Region, situated in the northeast section of Mindanao, is between 8 00’ to 10 30’ N. latitude and 125 15’ to 126 30’ E. longitude. It is bounded on the north by the Bohol Sea; on the south by the provinces of Davao, Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental of Region XI; on the west by Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental of Region X; and on the east by the Philippine Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

The region has a total land area of 18,846.97 km². This represents 6.3% of the country’s total land area and 18.5% of the island of Mindanao. 47.6% of the total land area of the region belongs to the province of Agusan del Sur.

Demography

Population

Based on the final results of the 2000 census, the total population of the region was 2,095,367 which was 7.86% higher than the 1995 population of 1,942,687. The annual population growth rate over the last five years was pegged at a manageable 1.63%, one of the lowest in the country.

Among the four provinces, Agusan del Sur registered the largest population at 559,294, and Surigao del Norte was the smallest at 481,416. Surigao del Norte was the fastest growing province with an annual average growth rate of 1.84% over the last five years, while Surigao del Sur was the slowest at 1.35% over the same period.

Butuan and Surigao cities were included in the census tabulation in 2007 with total populations of 267,279 and 132,151, respectively. Butuan City registered an annual growth rate of 1.70% in the last five years, while Surigao City posted 2.65%.

Language

Surigaonon is the primary language that is inherent to the region, is spoken by 33.21% of the households, followed by Butuanon by 15%; Kamayo, by 7.06%, and Manobo, by 4.73%. Cebuano is widely spoken by 33.79% of the households in the region. The rest speak Boholanon, by 5.87%; Hiligayon, by 2.87%; and other dialects by 7.20%.

Surigaonon is a local Philippine language spoken in the provinces of Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur and some portion of Agusan del Norte especially in towns near Mainit Lake.

Religion

The 1995 census revealed that the dominant religion in the region was Roman Catholic, with the population of 1,397,343 or 79% of the total household population in Caraga.

Cultural Groups

The majority of the inhabitants of the region are of Visayan heritage. The province is home to several minority groups, totaling 675,722 in 1995, representing 34.7% of the region's population. Most numerous were the Manobos with 294,284 or 43.55% of the total population of ethnic minorities. Other cultural groups in the region with significant population were the Kamayo, Higa-onon, Banwaon, Umayamnon, and Mamanwa.

Most members of these cultural groups reside in the province of Agusan del Sur.