Dumaguete

Dumaguete, officially the City of Dumaguete (; ; ), is a component city and capital of the province of Negros Oriental, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 142,171 people. It is the most populous city and the smallest city by land area in Negros Oriental, as well as one of the two regional centers in Negros Island Region (the other one is Bacolod).

Dumaguete is a university city with four large universities and several colleges, attracting students from the province and across the country, mostly from the Visayas and Mindanao. The city is best known for Silliman University, the first Protestant and American university in the country and in Asia."Heritage Diary of Negros Oriental" . Inquirer.net. By: Dexter Matilla. Posted July 14, 2008. Accessed October 15, 2009. Schools in Dumaguete include 18 public elementary schools and 10 public high schools.

In 2025, Dumaguete City has been designated as the country's first UNESCO Creative City of Literature.UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Retrieved 11-01-2025.

Dumaguete is bounded by the towns of Bacong, Sibulan, and Valencia. The power source of the city comes from the geothermal power plant in Valencia.

Etymology "Dumaguete" was coined from the Cebuano word , which means 'to snatch'. The word , meaning 'to swoop', was coined because of the area's frequent raids by Moro pirates and its power to attract and keep visitors, both local and foreign. In 1572, Diego López Povedano indicated the place as Dananguet, but cartographer Pedro Murillo Velarde in 1734 already used the present name of Dumaguete for the settlement.

History Early history and the Spanish colonial era Dumaguete, according Laura L. Junker, was already the site of a Chiefly Polity practicing intense commerce and industry by the 1100s AD. Dumaguete City was then once settled by datus from Borneo who exiled themselves into the newly established Kedatuan of Madja-as.Maragtas: The story of the life experienced by the datus of Borneo ... and their purchase of the island from King Marikudo, who was king of the Negritos, in the year 1520 (Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro; Translated to English by Esther Abiera) Albeit they also intermixed with the culturally Indianized Cebuano speakers of the nearby Rajahnate of Cebu. It became a prosperous province during Spanish times as during the year 1818, Dumaguete had 4,095 and 1/2 Tributes amounting to 18,261 people.Diccionario Geográfico, Estadístico, Histórico, de las Islas Filipinas By Fr. Manuel Buzeta and Fr. Felipe Bravo, Volume 1, Published Madrid :(Impr. de J.C. de la Peña) 1850-1851. Of which, there were 25 Spanish-Filipino tributes amounting to the same number of Spanish-Filipino families.Diccionario Geográfico, Estadístico, Histórico, de las Islas Filipinas By Fr. Manuel Buzeta and Fr. Felipe Bravo, Volume 1, Published Madrid :(Impr. de J.C. de la Peña) 1850-1851. However, after the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, the island of Negros was divided into the provinces of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental by a royal decree executed by Governor General Valeriano Weyler on January 1, 1890. Dumaguete was also made the capital of the new Negros Oriental Province.

In 1898, months after the arrival of Emilio Aguinaldo from exile, the Negros Revolution suddenly broke out. Negros Occidental Province, which was still ruled by the Spanish authorities, eventually surrendered to the Negrense Revolutionary Forces after a battle on November 6. They then began a week-long march which captured Dumaguete on November 24. By this time, the Spanish forces had left the entirety of Negros. The "Negros Republic" was then proclaimed on November 27.

American era

The American era saw the allegiance of the Republic of Negros grow towards a collaborationist stance as a Pro-American Protectorate amidst the Philippine-American War. The Americans saw the people of Negros as more dependable allies compared to other Filipinos. Therefore, Dumaguete observed the establishment of Silliman University, the first American-founded university in Asia."NHI Resolution No.7, Series 2002". National Historical Commission of the Philippines. Retrieved June 8, 2012.

Japanese occupation era Imperial Japanese forces landed at Dumaguete on May 26, 1942, after the fall of the Philippines, and all of Negros Oriental Province surrendered shortly thereafter. Resistance against the Japanese occupation continued by guerilla groups in the inner mountains, where many native residents had fled to. The local Negrense guerillas attacked the remaining Japanese officials and troops on August 6, 1945, and after their victory, they welcomed combined American and Filipino forces that formally liberated Negros Oriental.

Cityhood The City of Dumaguete was formally created on July 15, 1948, under Philippine Congressional Republic Act No. 327, also known as the "Charter of the City of Dumaguete". This was later amended on June 21, 1969, by Republic Act No. 5797, which clarified and refined the powers and functions of the local government unit in the earlier act.

Martial law

According to journalist Crispin Maslog who was teaching at Silliman University at the time, Dumaguete was one of the first cities in the country to learn about Marcos' declaration of martial law on September 23, 1972. Local news station DYSR was able to pick up the news from an Australian broadcast. Elsewhere in the country, media outlets such as newspapers and broadcast stations had already been shut down, but DSYR was able to make the announcement before Information Secretary Francisco Tatad did at around noon. DYSR itself would be shut down later that day.

Maslog recounts that Silliman University in Dumaguete was one of the last four universities in the Philippines to be allowed to reopen for classes, with Marcos himself complaining about instances where members of the political opposition such as Senators Jovito Salonga and Juan Liwag were invited to speak at the university.

In the mid-1980s, the crony capitalism which characterized the Marcos administration had a major effect on the island of Negros in which Dumaguete is located. A sugar hoarding scheme by National Sugar Trading Corporation (NASUTRA) of Roberto Benedicto backfired, resulting in the mass-firing of sugar workers in Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental. Worsened by the economic nosedive which had begun in 1983, it eventually became known as the 1985 Negros famine.

Geography and environment Dumaguete has a land area of , situated on the plains of the southeastern coast of the large island of Negros, near the mouth of the Banica River. Of the province's 19 municipalities and 6 cities, Dumaguete is the smallest in terms of land area. It is bounded on the north by Sibulan, south by Bacong, and west by Valencia.

As a coastal city, it is bounded on the east by the Bohol Sea and the Tañon Strait, serving as a natural border of the southeastern border of Negros Oriental. The city's topography is generally flat from two to six kilometers from the shoreline. It slopes gently upwards to the adjoining municipality of Valencia. The highest ground elevation is located at the boundary of the municipality of Valencia, about one hundred meters above mean sea level. About 93% of the land have slopes of less than 3%. The remaining areas have a 3% to 5% slope.

Climate Dumaguete has a tropical monsoon climate according to the Köppen Climate classification with two distinct seasons: wet and dry. The wet season covers the period from June to November, and the dry season starts from December to May, the hottest being April and May. The average maximum temperature is 30.9 °C and the average minimum temperature is 24.8 °C for the 1991-2020 normals. The relative humidity of the locality for the past years was 81% with January registering the highest.

Northeast monsoon winds (amihan) bring cooler temperatures with little sometimes moderate rain to the city during late October until early March. Trade winds from the Pacific help moderate the sultry conditions of the dry season during April and May, and usually record less hot daytime conditions than the rest of the country; yet nearby warm seas also cause warm and humid nights during this time. When no major wind system is in power, trade winds can occur all year round, providing similar conditions. Southwest monsoon winds (habagat) usually bring overcast and rainy conditions from June to early October, but can also bring the hottest temperatures of the year due to the foehn effect; nevertheless, skies are usually clear that nights feel cool, having the widest temperature variation in a day at this time.

Environment Dumaguete has a rich and unique marine ecosystem that provides livelihoods to fishers and supports tourism. The coastal environment, which includes seagrass meadows, acts as efficient carbon sinks that mitigate the effects of climate change. This ecosystem includes 36.15 hectares of seagrasses and 36.20 hectares of coral reef. Dumaguete has four marine protected areas covering 104 hectares that host over 200 species of fish.

In 2021, the fragile marine ecosystem was under threat from a proposed reclamation project that was met with opposition from youth organizations, church groups, residents, and environmental scientists, including Philippine national scientist Angel Alcala. Later that year, the city government halted the project.

Barangays

Dumaguete is politically subdivided into 30 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

Most of the barangays are classified as urban. The eight poblacions comprise the city's downtown area and are assigned by numbers. The smallest barangay is Poblacion 4 with an area of only 5.11 hectares, while the largest is Banilad with 362.71 hectares.

Demographics

As of the census in 2024, there are 142,171 people. According to the National Statistical Coordination Board, Dumaguete has the lowest poverty incidence among urban centers in the Visayas. It has an average daylight population of 400,000 people. Dumaguete is the most populous city in Negros Oriental, comprising 9.05% of the province's total population. During the 2019 election, its total voting population was 89,193 voters.

The Philippine Retirement Authority, a government agency under the Department of Tourism, has named the city as the "Best Place to Retire in the Philippines for 2018". Dumaguete is also listed fifth in Forbes Magazine's "7 Best Places to Retire Around the World".

Economy

The major sources of income in Dumaguete are tourism, the academe, retail, BPO, technology, and IT firms. There are a significant number of banking institutions include a branch of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in Dumaguete. Shopping centers in Dumaguete include CityMall Dumaguete (Brgy. Daro), Unitop Mall (Brgy. Poblacion 8), WeShop Center (Brgy. Poblacion 8 & Daro), Cang's Inc. Shopping Complex (Brgy. Daro), Lee Super Plaza (Brgy. Poblacion 3), Filinvest Malls Dumaguete (Brgy. Piapi) and Robinsons Dumaguete (Brgy. Calindagan). Business activities are mostly concentrated in the downtown area.

With the completion of four lanes, the Metro Dumaguete Diversion Road helps decongest the traffic in the main thoroughfares of the central business district from the town of Sibulan down to Bacong. The new highway is expected to economically benefit the city's barangays as the new centers for economic growth.

These growing industries have made Dumaguete the hub for shopping, education, finance, IT, commerce, lifestyle, and sports in the province of Negros Oriental.

Real estate and infrastructure