Borongan

The city is subdivided into 61 Barangays:

Borongan's main product is copra. It has lively commercial activity throughout the year not only catering to the needs of the local city populace but serving as well as the central business hub of the entire province of Eastern Samar. Many families rely on coastal and deep-sea fishing as well as lowland and upland farming as means of livelihood. Others have spouses, children, parents or other relatives working in Manila or in other places within the Philippines or abroad either as professionals, contract workers or domestic helpers who regularly remit part of their earnings to their families back home. The single biggest employer of its local populace is the government.

Borongan City has a wet market located a little upstream and beside the northern bank of the Lo-om River in the Puray district of Barangay H (Tarusan) selling the usual foodstuffs like rice & corn grains, dried & fresh fish (either caught locally or brought in frozen from Catbalogan City or Guiuan as well as other nearby towns), pork, beef, chicken, carabeef, preserved meats, vegetables, fruits, condiments & spices, rootcrops, native cakes and the like. The place also sells locally-made and beautiful native basketware.

In 2005, the municipality (then) saw the opening of the largest and only Mall in Eastern Samar, the Uptown Mall which opened in 2005 for business operations and is located along the national highway in Barangay Songco at the northern fringe of the city. Appliance stores, mini-groceries and 'sari-sari' stores also abound throughout the length and breadth of the city selling items ranging from basic necessities to supplies for recreational and entertainment activities.

There are several hardware stores that also operate catering to the needs of the city's construction industry. The city has numerous restaurants and eateries offering local cuisine randomly located throughout the city limits while nightspots can be found mostly along the length of Baybay Boulevard at the eastern edge of the city immediately abutting the shoreline of Borongan Bay. Major and new oil companies have their own oil refueling stations within the city limits selling engine lubricants, kerosene as well as regular, unleaded and premium gasoline and diesel fuels.

Now, Borongan City boasts several large establishments that opened throughout the years. These includes several department stores and another Mall that opened in 2017. Most of these establishments are located within the city proper such as GrandMart, Novo Shirts and Jeans, and the recently opened 576 Emporium. The second mall that opened in the city is the J&F Mall, which houses a Puregold Franchise. A Jollibee Franchise also opened in 2016, located in the city proper.

The City celebrates its annual Fiesta celebration in honor of its Patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Albeit the actual Feast day is on September 8, the celebration is usually a month long as each Barangay will hold its own "Barangay Night" where barangays would have a barangay-wide party through programs held in their respective Barangay Plazas. At the same time, schools would also have their annual reunions and respective "School Night". The series of celebrations is in anticipation of the actual Feast day.

The Festival illustrates the legend of a mysterious “Lady in White” who allegedly visits the Hamorawon Spring, behind the Hamorawon Park, regularly. According to the legend, the Lady in White has been blessing the spring waters with miraculous healing powers. On September 7, Borongan City offers mass in the wee hours of the morning, in the chapel of Barangay Punta Maria, signifying that the Padul-ong Festival has officially started. From the chapel, a small figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary will be transferred to Rawis Port through a fluvial procession where boat owners can join along with the official boat carrier of the small image across Rawis Bay.:The figure would then be paraded through the town going to Borongan Cathedral. At the Borongan City plaza, different schools would reenact the town’s old legend on how the figure was brought to the Philippines. This is done as a contest, where several schools from the different municipalities, and schools within the City would compete among themselves through their performances. The festival commemorates the day the town received the figure of the Patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary, all the way from Portugal.[16]

The city government took the initiative to hold a lechon festival to coincide with the city fiesta after the verbal endorsement of Kris Aquino during her visit to the City, after having tasted the City's own version of the Lechon. The festival coincides with the Fiesta celebration, where participants would showcase their own styles of cooking the famous filipino dish. The festival is celebrated by parading the participants' dishes dressed in elaborate costumes or floats, and thereafter will be shared in the main competition held in the city plaza. The festival is concluded by a competition among the local lechon butchers to showcase their own recipes, the dishes they paraded, and whoever will win will be awarded by monetary prizes and recognition. When the festival was first held, Kris Aquino was said to have been one of the principal sponsors.[17]

Being part of Eastern Samar, the surfing capital of the Visayas, Borongan is blessed with several surfing spots. More often than not, these spots are uncrowded, easily making it a surfer's paradise. The city's waves are at their best during the Amihan season which runs from November to April.

Among the numerous surf sites in the City, the following are considered to be the top pick for surfers and tourists:

Baybay Boulevard (Borongan Bay)

Known as the birthplace of surfing in the Visayas, this is the nearest surf spot from Borongan town proper. This surf spot has a sandy bottom, right hand rivermouth beach break. Perfect for both beginners and advance surfers.

Pirates Cove Beach and Surf Resort

A 5-minute drive from Borongan town proper brings you to this 2-hectare private reef, marine sanctuary and water sports recreation area. This is an exposed reef break facing the Pacific Ocean filled with rocks and corals.

Sulangan Beach

A left and right hand steady beach break that is ideal for beginners. A good place to learn how to surf.

Lalawigan Beach

Still part of Borongan, this barangay is rarely visited. Only advanced surfers frequent the area due to its rough waves and strong current.

Guintagican Beach

A beautiful 2 km beach with white sand. It has a left and right hand beach break with inconsistent surf. During the summer season, it tends to be flat. Also ideal for beginners.

Sunrise viewed from Borongan City's Baybay Boulevard.

Borongan City has many beaches, the most notable of which can be found in Divinubo Island and in Ando Island, both of which boast of white sand beaches, vibrant coral formations alive with teeming marine life in sparkling clear blue waters, incidentally ideal also for diving and snorkeling. Cabong gray-sand beach is a favorite destination of the locals, with excursionists, bathers and picnic-goers spilling over from one end of the beach to the other especially during special occasions, weekends and holidays. The strip of white-sand beach in Guintagican or Punta Maria is also a good bet, although it takes some effort to get there as it is several kilometers away from the town proper and accessible only through a feeder road, the final stretch of which can be reach on foot only because of the narrow width of the footpath.

• Ando Island White Sand Beach
• Butay island (located at the middle of Lo-om River between the upstream concrete bridge connecting the city proper to and from Barangay Taboc and the downstream steel-and-concrete bridge connecting the city proper to and from Barangay Alang-alang)
• Divinubo Island White Sand Beach
• Monbon Island White Sand Beach
• Pamuloton Island Beach (Tabunan)

The Hamorawon park is located at the center of the city proper itself and can easily be located by the presence of the giant acacia tree beside it. It contains the stylized rendition of a concrete giant clamshell the upper half of which being held up by two mermaids while at its base are two crocodiles with their mouths agape. This giant clamshell served as the then town's cultural stage where social presentations were held while the fenced grounds fronting it served as the venue for social gatherings. This was the brainchild of then Mayor Pablo "Buaya" Rosales. On its left side but still within the park grounds is the city tourism building.

From underneath this giant clamshell bubbles and flows the Hamorawon natural spring, the only one place in the entire province of Eastern Samar which has a naturally occurring fresh-water spring, flowing from the very center of the city itself towards the Lo-om River a short distance downstream. The waters of this spring has been said to be miraculous the site itself having allegedly been the place where appearances of a lady in white (supposed to be the patroness saint of the city) have reportedly been seen. Unfortunately, access to this natural water source has of late been impeded and virtually blocked, its previous access road having been long fenced off leaving the spring almost unnoticeable already to busy passersby.

The local inhabitants are generally peace-loving and law-abiding citizens who follow all the laws, ordinances, rules and regulations promulgated by the duly-constituted authorities, be they national or local. Except for the lingering insurgency problem, which however is restricted to the hinterland barangays, does not affect the normal course of political and business activities of the city. The place has no major peace and order nor internal security problems.

The City of Borongan can be reached from Manila or Tacloban primarily by means of land or sea transport. The Borongan Airport is already minimally serviceable.

The Port of Borongan is classified as a national port and can accommodate medium-draft sea vessels, linking the town with the other coastal and riverine towns of the province as well as major coastal cities of Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas and Bicol regions. Access to and from the outlying inhabited offshore islands of Borongan Bay is either through motorized as well as sail- or oar-driven outrigger bancas.

Bus transport, airconditioned and ordinary, is the dominant means of public land conveyance to Borongan City from Manila (and vice versa) passing overland through the Pan-Philippine Highway (Maharlika Highway) through southern Luzon, a short roll on, roll off 1-hour boat ride across the San Bernardino Strait from Matnog, Sorsogon to Allen, Northern Samar, then southwards to Catbalogan City, Western Samar, east across the mountainous and forested geographical spine of the island, then southwards again from the town of Taft until finally entry into the city on the eastern coast of Samar. There are also ordinary mini-buses and air-conditioned shuttle vans from Tacloban City going to Borongan City (and vice versa).

Another route from Tacloban City is through the Pan-Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway on a west-to-east-to-north course that traverses the southern coastal fringe of the island of Samar crossing the San Juanico Bridge from Tacloban City turning right at the junction southwards to Basey and then Marabut, Samar then eastward across the provincial boundary to Lawa-an in Eastern Samar passing by the famous municipality of Balangiga, turning left at the junction past Quinapondan town northward to the municipality of Gen. MacArthur and onwards to Borongan City itself. The main forms of public mass transport in and around the city are motorized tricycles, motorcycles, passenger jeepneys, multicabs and bicycles. There is no taxicab service available within the city.

The Borongan City Airport is located at Barangay Punta Maria. The Airport has undergone several improvements through the years since its construction during the Second World War, where it was constructed as an emergency air strip for the military. The Air strip is serviceable to smaller aircraft, such as turbo-propelled Airplanes, which was seen when the airport had chartered flights on different occasions. Currently there is once a week commercial flight Borongan-Cebu-Borongan and Borongan-Clark-Borongan by Leading Edge Air Services Corporation (LEASCOR). Booking is done through Budgetmate Travel and Tours, Pashada Travel and Tours and King Aces Travel and Tours.

Landline telephone, cellular phone as well as internet (both landline and wireless) connections are available within the city limits and up to a certain limited distance from the city proper. Cable television is also available to city subscribers as well as to inhabitants up to a certain limited distance from the city proper. The city has a government-run FM radio station although it operates only on limited broadcast time at certain hours of the day.

Main electric power supply to the city is through an interconnection with the Leyte electric power grid that comes from the electricity generated by the Tongonan geothermal power plant located in the adjacent island of Leyte. The distribution of the power supply within the city and the entire province of Eastern Samar is operated and managed by the Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative (ESAMELCO)

The Eastern Samar National Comprehensive High School (ESNCHS) Administration Building. ESNCHS is the largest high school in the entire Eastern Samar province.

• Benowangan National High School
• Calingatngan National High School
• Eastern Visayas International Montessori School
• Eastern Samar National Comprehensive High School
• Lalawigan National High School
• Maypangdan National High School
• Saint Mary's College of Borongan (formerly Saint Joseph's College), High School Department
• Seminario de Jesus Nazareno (exclusive high school for Boys )
• MSH Sisters High School
• Santa Fe National High School
• Supt. Fidel E. Anacta Sr. Memorial High School

• Nativity of Our Lady College Seminary
• Saint Mary's College (formerly Saint Joseph's College)
• Our Lady of Mercy College

• Eastern Samar State University

The University offers undergraduate and graduate course in sciences, technology, literature, humanities, philosophy, agriculture, education, forestry, arts and science, and other degrees/courses within it areas of specialization and according to its capabilities as the Board of Regents may deem necessary to carry out its objectives, particularly to meet the needs of the Province of Eastern Samar and the Region. Its main campus is located in Borongan City.[18]