Naga, Camarines Sur

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Naga City is a first class city in the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. Located in the Bicol Region, a peninsula on the southeastern tip of the island of Luzon, it is 377 kilometers southeast of Manila, the nation's capital, and about 380 kilometers north of Cebu City. Although relatively small in area and population with its population of 137,810 people in 26,317 households according to the 2000 census, Naga City is the region's most progressive city. It is the only chartered city and the commercial, educational, religious, and cultural center of the Bicol region. Residents of Naga City are called Nagueños.

The city is at the core of Metro Naga, a fast-growing area composed of 14 municipalities and Naga City belonging to the Metro Naga Development Council. The MNDC covers the entire 2nd district of the province of Camarines Sur, excluding Canaman, and part of the 1st, 3rd and 4th districts.

Education

Naga City is the center of education in Bicol due to the presence of numerous higher institutions of learning, including three universities: Jesuit-run Ateneo de Naga University; non-sectarian University of Nueva Caceres, the biggest university in Bicol region in terms of enrollment; and Universidad de Santa Isabel operated by the religious order of Daughters of Charity sisters and which is also the oldest normal school for girls in the country.

A probable fourth university in the city is Naga College Foundation, one of the region's leading schools in Criminology. The Philippine Women's University has established its Career Development and Continuing Education Center in the city, while the University of the Philippines Open University in Naga caters to distance education students.

The biggest secondary school in the region is also located in the city, the government-run Camarines Sur National High School. Registered number of high school students has always topped the 10,000 mark every school year.

One of the best maritime schools in the country, Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation, has 2 campuses in Metro Naga, one along Panganiban Drive and another in Canaman, a suburban town.

All existing schools in the city, including those already named above, offer computer courses. However, specialized computer schools have been mushrooming due to popularity of computer courses, both degree and short-term. AMA Computer Learning Center (www.amaes.edu.ph) and STI College are among the more competitive and well-known computer school chains in the country that have established campuses in the city. AMA Computer Learning College has two campuses which are located along Barlin St. and Magsaysay Avenue. Other specialized computer schools include World Resources Institute (WRI), Philippine Computer Foundation College (PCFC) and CCDI.

Transportation and Communication

Naga City is easily accessible using air and land transport. A 45- to 60-minute trip through the Naga Domestic Airport to and from the international airports of Manila and Cebu is available. Philippine Airlines fly directly from NAIA and Mactan Airport. By land, the city is a 7 to 8-hour ride from Manila; and approximately 22 hours from Cebu with ferry transfers in Sorsogon, the southernmost province of Bicol. Daily rail services to and from Manila are provided by the Philippine National Railways.

Communicating with Nagueños is a breeze because of several telephone and mobile phone companies present in the city. BayanTel and Digitel are the main telephone operators in the city. Other companies which continue to compete keenly for the city's telecommunications market have put up calling stations scattered all over the city. These are PLDT, PT&T, among others. Major mobile phone operators Globe, Smart, and Sun Cellular enjoy wide patronage.

ABS-CBN Broadcasting Network had expanded its regional network in Bicol by putting up ABS-CBN Naga. Local shows such as TV Patrol Bicol and Bicol Espesyal are aired in the whole region via ABS-CBN Naga. ABC5 also airs shows in the city thru its affiliate station People's Broadcasting Network (PBN TV 5 Naga). Global Media Arts Broadcasting Network (GMA Broadcasting Network) has also shown interest in putting up an originating station in the city for its nationwide expansion.

Naga City has the most number of radio stations of any locality in the region, some of which operate 24 hours daily. These include RMN DWNX-FM, acknowledged as the most popular local radio in the FM band heard regionwide and even abroad through its interactive website. Other leading stations include ABS-CBN's My Only Radio 93.5 Naga and GMA's Campus Radio 101.5 Naga. Both stations have 10-kilowatt transmitters capable of regionwide broadcast.

The city is host to two local cable TV companies. These are Naga Cable TV and Caceres Cable TV serving almost the whole of the region. SkyCable is also available.

Television Networks:

Radio Stations:

AM Stations

FM Stations

Banking and Finance

Naga City is the acknowledged financial center of Bicol. With more than 50 banks locating their branches in the city, the number is still increasing. The city hosts the regional business centers of Philippine National Bank (PNB), Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (MetroBank), and Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC). A number of banks have several branches in the city, like MetroBank, RCBC, Equitable PCI Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, and Banco de Oro Universal Bank (BDO UniBank). A leading thrift bank, RCBC Savings Bank, enjoys wide patronage of both Filipino and Chinese businessmen. Robinsons Bank of the Gokongwei group has also set up its branch in the city. Two of the biggest rural banks in the country, Bank of Makati and the Golden 7 Bank (G7Bank), a consistent Most Outstanding Rural Bank awardee, are also found in the city.

Commerce

With its burgeoning local economy that has outpaced other local economies in Bicol, Naga City is undeniably the center of business and industry in the entire region. It has several commercial business districts (CBD's). It now has a lifestyle center, three shopping malls plus a number of strip malls scattered at the heart of the CBD-I popularly known as Centro.

Spankingly new Avenue Square along Magsaysay Avenue is Bicol's premiere lifestyle center. It has an ultramodern convention center (Avenue Convention Plaza), a bar (Lolo's Music Bar), restaurants (Max's Restaurant, Naga Oriental Wok), a specialty coffee shop (The Coffee Beanery), a salon (David's Salon), a signature flip-flops shop (Havaianas) and a nationwide franchising drugstore (Mercury Drug) among other important stores. LCC Central Mall Naga, Robertson Mall and Nagaland eMall housing Robinson's Supermart are the city's other major shopping malls. Bichara Theater Mall, Emily Arcade and Paseo de Caceres (which has a Chinese-themed Roman Catholic chapel- the Navidad de Naga Chapel- with a Zen meditation garden at its roofdeck) are just some of the city's strip malls.

The SM Prime Holdings and Landco Pacific Corp. have both expressed interest in the city's capability of hosting bigger shopping complexes. Manila-based Shoemart has started to lease its first mall site ever in Bicol located at Naga's CBD-II while preparing construction plans, while Landco is expected to start construction of its Pacific Mall Naga this early 2007.

A number of restobars and bistros are found along Magsaysay Avenue, making it Naga City's "Malate District". Chili Peppers, Bob Marlin, Grilling Point, Molino Grill, Juno's, ClubM8, and CocoLeaf are just some of the few found along busy Magsaysay. Aside from these restobars that seem to sprout all over, Naga has numerous popular fastfood chain outlets like Jollibee, McDonald's, Chowking, Pizza Hut, Max's Restaurant, Greenwich, KFC, Shakey's, among other popular fastfood outlets. It is also the first city in the Bicol region to host specialty food restaurants like Naga Oriental Wok (fine dining Chinese), Hokkien (casual Chinese), Bombay Blues (Indian), Makiyaki (Japanese), and Green Earth Cafe (health food). For coffee enthusiasts, specialty coffee shops have also sprung up in strategic places around the city like Mudbugs, Starmark, Bean Bag Coffee, and Coffee Beanery.

Quite interestingly, Naga's investor-friendly economy has encouraged growth and development of homegrown business chains like New South Star Drugstore, Graceland Foods Industries (Graceland/ Geewan/ Baker's Plaza) and Bigg's who are competing nationwide with market leaders Mercury Drug, Goldilock's and Jollibee/McDonald's, respectively.

Culture

The city celebrates the Feast of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia Our Lady of Peñafrancia, acknowledged as Patroness of the Bicol Region, every second Friday of September each year. The start of the feast, which is the largest Marian devotion in the country, is signalled by a procession (called Traslacion) which transfers the centuries-old image of the Blessed Virgin Mary from its shrine at the Peñafrancia Basilica Minore to the 400-year old Naga Metropolitan Cathedral. Coinciding with nine days of novena prayer at the cathedral, the city celebrates with parades, pageants, street parties, singing contests, exhibits, concerts, and other activities. Finally, on the third Saturday of September, the image is returned shoulder-borne by so-called voyadores to the Basilica Minore via a fluvial procession on the Naga River.

Religion

The city is the center of Roman Catholicism in the region because it is the ecclesiastical seat of the Archdiocese of Caceres whose jurisdiction covers five suffragan dioceses -- Legaspi, Daet, Masbate, Sorsogon, and Virac and one prelature -- Libmanan . This dominant faith is supported by presence of several old and influential Catholic institutions, from universities to churches, notably the Ateneo de Naga University; Universidad de Sta. Isabel; Naga Metropolitan Cathedral; the Basilica Minore de Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia, home to Our Lady of Peñafrancia, Patroness of Bicolandia; the Peñafrancia Shrine; and the Our Lady of Peñafrancia Museum.

History

For hundreds of years, Naga City has been a center of trade, education and culture, and the seat of governmental and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Before the coming of the Spanish colonial government, Naga was already flourishing village off the riverbanks of the Naga River. It was a premier village with a comparatively sophisticated weaponry and surprisingly advanced technology.

In 1573, on his second expedition to this region, the conquistador Juan de Salcedo landed in a village and named "Naga" because of an abundance of Narra trees ("Naga" in Bikol) about the place. In 1575, Captain Pedro de Chavez, the commander of the garrison left behind by Salcedo, founded on the site of the present business center (across the river from the original Naga) a Spanish city which he named Ciudad de Caceres, in honor of Francisco de Sande, the governor general and a native of the city of Caceres in Spain. It was still by this name that it was identified in the papal bull of August 14, 1595 that erected the See of Caceres (together with those of Cebu and Nueva Segovia) and made it the seat of the new bishopric.

In time, Spanish city and native village merged into one community and became popularly known as Nueva Caceres, to distinguish it from its namesake in Spain. It had a city government as prescribed by Spanish law, with an ayuntamiento and cabildo of its own. At the beginning of the 17th century, there were only five other ciudades in the Philippines. Nueva Caceres remained the capital of Ambos Camarines provinces and later of the Camarines Sur province until the formal creation of the independent chartered city of Naga under the Philippine Republic.

The bishops of Caceres occupied a unique place in the Philippine Catholic hierarchy during most of the Spanish regime. By virtue of the papal bull of Gregory XIII, ecclesiastical cases originating in the Spanish Indies, which ordinarily were appealable to the Pope, were ordered to be terminated there and no longer elevated to Rome. Decisions of bishops were made appealable to the archbishop and those of the latter to the bishop of the nearest see. Thus, in the Philippines, the decisions of the archbishop of Manila were subject to review by the bishop of Caceres whose jurisdiction then extended to the province of Tayabas (present-day Quezon). In this sense, bishops of Bikol were delegates of the Pope and could be considered primates of the Church of the Philippines.

This was the reason why bishops of Caceres and archbishop of Manila were sometimes engaged in interesting controversies in the sensational Naga case and in such issues as canonical visitation and the secularization of the parishes. As papal delegate, Bishop Francisco Gainza, then concurrently bishop of Caceres, sat in the special ecclesiastical tribunal which passed upon the civil authorities' petition to divert Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora of their priestly dignity. Gainza did not only refuse the petition but also urged their pardon.

With the advent of the American rule, it was reduced to a municipality. In 1919, it lost its Spanish name and became officially known as Naga. It acquired its present city charter in 1948, and its city government was inaugurated on December 15 of the same year by virtue of Republic Act No. 305. Rep. Juan Q. Miranda sponsored this legislative act which put flesh into the city's bid to become among the only few independent component cities in the country.

Situated at the center of the Bikol peninsula and surrounded on all sides by rich agricultural, forest and fishing areas, Naga is also at the confluence of the Naga and Bikol Rivers. Thus, it has always been an ideal place for trade, and as center for schools and church and government offices.

Barangays

Naga is politically subdivided into 27 barangays.

  • Abella (CBD I)
  • Bagumbayan Norte
  • Bagumbayan Sur
  • Balatas (CBD III)
  • Calauag
  • Cararayan
  • Carolina
  • Concepcion Grande (CBD III)
  • Concepcion Pequeña (CBD III)
  • Dayangdang
  • Del Rosario
  • Dinaga (CBD I)
  • Igualdad Interior (CBD I)
  • Lerma (CBD II)
  • Liboton
  • Mabolo
  • Pacol
  • Panicuason
  • Peñafrancia
  • Sabang (CBD I)
  • San Felipe
  • San Francisco (CBD I)
  • San Isidro
  • Santa Cruz (CBD I)
  • Tabuco (CBD I)
  • Tinago
  • Triangulo (CBD II)

See also

External links

Template:Indy Philippine cities

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