In the Philippines, regions (Filpino: rehiyon, ISO 3166-2:PH) are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the 80 provinces (lalawigan) for administrative convenience. Most government offices establish regional offices instead of individual provincial offices, usually (but not necessarily always) in the city designated as the regional center.

The regions themselves do not possess a separate local government, with the exception of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which has an elected regional assembly and governor. The Cordillera Administrative Region was originally intended to be autonomous (Cordillera Autonomous Region), but the failure of two plebiscites for its establishment reduced it to a regular administrative region.

History

Regions first came to existence in on September 24, 1972 when the provinces of the Philippines were organized into 11 regions by Presidential Decree No. 1 as part of the Integrated Reorganization Plan of President Ferdinand Marcos.

Since that time, other regions have been created and some provinces have been transferred from one region to another.

• July 7, 1975: Region XII created and minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions.
• August 21, 1975: Region IX divided into Sub-Region IX-A' and Sub-Region IX-B. Minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions.
• November 7, 1975: National Capital Region created.
• August 1, 1989: Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao created.
• October 23, 1989: Cordillera Administrative Region created.
• October 12, 1990: Executive Order issued to reorganize the Mindanao regions but the reorganization never happened (possibly due to lack of government funds).
• February 23, 1995: Region XIII (Caraga) created and minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions.
• 1997: Minor reorganization of some Mindanao regions.
• September 19, 2001: Most Mindanao regions reorganized and some renamed.
• May 17, 2002: Region IV-A (CALABARZON) and Region IV-B (MIMAROPA) created from the former Region IV (Southern Tagalog) region.
• May 23, 2005: Palawan transferred from MIMAROPA to Western Visayas; MIMAROPA renamed to MIMARO.
• August 19, 2005: The E.O. 429 of May 23, 2005 transferring Palawan from MIMAROPA to Western Visayas was later held in abeyance by Administrative Order #129.

List of regions

The Philippines consists of 17 regions. The regions are geographically combined into the three island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Following is a list of the regions in their island groupings. To get overviews of the regions, see the respective articles on the island groups. The regions CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and SOCCSKSARGEN are capitalized because they are acronyms that stand for their component provinces or cities.

Luzon

Map	Region (short name)	Regional center	Component local government units
	National Capital Region (NCR; Metro Manila)	Manila	Caloocan City Las Piñas City Makati City Malabon City Mandaluyong City Manila Marikina City Muntinlupa City Navotas City Parañaque City Pasay City Pasig City Pateros Quezon City San Juan City Taguig City Valenzuela City
	Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)	Baguio City	Abra Apayao Baguio City Benguet Ifugao Kalinga Mountain Province
	Ilocos Region (Region I)	San Fernando City, La Union	Dagupan City Ilocos Norte Ilocos Sur La Union Pangasinan
	Cagayan Valley (Region II)	Tuguegarao City	Batanes Cagayan Isabela Nueva Vizcaya Quirino Santiago City
	Central Luzon (Region III)	San Fernando City, Pampanga	Angeles City Aurora Bataan Bulacan Nueva Ecija Olongapo City Pampanga Tarlac Zambales
	CALABARZON (Region IV-A)	Calamba City	Batangas Cavite Laguna Lucena City Quezon Rizal
	MIMAROPA (Region IV-B)	Calapan City	Marinduque Occidental Mindoro Oriental Mindoro Palawan Puerto Princesa City Romblon
	Bicol Region (Region V)	Legazpi City	Albay Camarines Norte Camarines Sur Catanduanes Masbate Naga City Sorsogon

Visayas

Map	Region (short name)	Regional center	Component local government units
	Western Visayas (Region VI)	Iloilo City	Aklan Antique Bacolod City Capiz Guimaras Iloilo Iloilo City Negros Occidental
	Central Visayas (Region VII)	Cebu City	Bohol Cebu Cebu City Lapu-Lapu City Mandaue City Negros Oriental Siquijor
	Eastern Visayas (Region VIII)	Tacloban City	Biliran Eastern Samar Leyte Northern Samar Ormoc City Samar Southern Leyte Tacloban City

Mindanao

Map	Region (short name)	Regional center	Component local government units
	Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX)	Pagadian City	Isabela City Zamboanga City Zamboanga del Norte Zamboanga del Sur Zamboanga Sibugay
	Northern Mindanao (Region X)	Cagayan de Oro City	Bukidnon Cagayan de Oro City Camiguin Iligan City Lanao del Norte Misamis Occidental Misamis Oriental
	Davao Region (Region XI)	Davao City	Compostela Valley Davao City Davao del Norte Davao del Sur Davao Oriental
	SOCCSKSARGEN (Region XII)	Koronadal City	Cotabato Cotabato City General Santos City Sarangani South Cotabato Sultan Kudarat
	Caraga (Region XIII)	Butuan City	Agusan del Norte Agusan del Sur Butuan City Dinagat Islands Surigao del Norte Surigao del Sur
	Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)	Cotabato City	Basilan (excluding Isabela City) Lanao del Sur Maguindanao Sulu Tawi-Tawi

Defunct regions

The following are regions that do not exist, explanations about their current status follow each region's name.

• Southern Tagalog (divided into CALABARZON or Region IV-a and MIMAROPA or Region IV-B)
• Western Mindanao (now Zamboanga Peninsula, still designated as Region IX)
• Central Mindanao (now SOCCSKSARGEN, still designated as Region XII)
• Southern Mindanao (now Davao, still designated as Region XI)

Notes

1. Some regions use acroyms in their names, examples include CALABARZON, which is derived from CAvite, LAguna, BAtangas, Rizal, and QueZON; MIMAROPA, which is derived from MIndoro (for Mindoro Occidental and Mindoro Oriental), MArinduque, ROmblon, and PAlawan; and SOCCSKSARGEN, which is derived from SOuth Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, SARangani, and GENeral Santos City.
2. A highly urbanized city, independent from any province.
3. An independent municipality, not governed by any province.
4. An independent component city, not under the jurisdiction of any provincial government.
5. A component city, part of the province of Basilan, but whose regional services are provided by the offices of Region IX.

See also

• Super regions of the Philippines
• ISO 3166-2:PH

References

• National Statistical Coordination Board
• Philippines-Archipelago (Political Map)
• National Statistics Office