Ormoc

Ormoc (IPA: [ʔoɾˈmok]), officially the City of Ormoc (Dakbayan sa Ormoc; Syudad han Ormoc; Lungsod ng Ormoc), is a 1st class independent component city in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 230,998 inhabitants, making it the second most-populous city in the province of Leyte after the provincial capital of Tacloban. Ormoc is the economic, cultural, commercial and transportation hub of western Leyte. Ormoc is an independent component city, not subject to regulation from the Provincial Government of Leyte. However, the city is part of the 4th Congressional District of Leyte together with Albuera, Kananga, Merida, Palompon and Isabel, and statistically grouped under the province by the Philippine Statistics Authority. On November 8, 2013, the city was extensively damaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), having previously suffered severe destruction and loss of life in 1991 from torrential flooding during Tropical Storm Thelma (Uring). The city's name is derived from ogmok, an archaic Visayan term for "lowland" or "depressed plain". The city also celebrates an annual thanksgiving festival called the Piña Festival in honor of the saints Peter and Paul in thanks for the bountiful pineapple harvest. The place got its name from the word ogmok, an old Visayan term for lowland or depressed plain. This place was used during the Spanish occupation and the migration of the neighboring towns to settle in the more fertile plains of Ormoc. Much of the settler in the town were the Malayans. These people had a constant trading with the Chinese, Javans and Indonesians. Their living, however, was always threatened by the attack of the Moro pirates. It is said that the people in Ormoc developed a warning system communication through people manning watch towers to inform and warn the people of the coming of these pirates. July 16, 1595, Jesuit missionaries arrived in Leyte. On May 1597, a mission in Ormoc was established by these missionaries.