PROVINCIAL PROFILE

Eastern Samar, one of the six provinces in Region VIII (Eastern Visayas), is in the eastern part of the island of Samar. The entire east coast of the province faces the Philippine Sea that forms part of the Pacific Ocean. Eastern Samar other boundaries are: Northern Samar on the North; Samar on the West; and on the south is Leyte Gulf that merges farther south with Surigao Strait.Borongan City, the provincial capital, is approximately 550 air-kilometers southeast of Manila and around 65 air kilometers northeast of Tacloban City, the regional capital.Eastern Samar has a total land area of 4,617.2 square kilometers (51.5%) of which are classified as agricultural land subdivided into 22 municipalities and one (1) city. Twenty  (20) of these are located along the coasts while two (2) are inland municipalities.The interior part of the province is rough, hilly covered with dense tropical vegetation. The predominance of land with more than 18% slope indicates the mountainous and hilly terrain of the province. These types of lands make up 61.35% of the entire area of the province. Eastern Samar falls under Type II climate that is, no dry season with a very pronounced maximum rainfall from November to January. Between 200 and 2011 there was an increase in the average monthly rainfall from 461.1 mm to 580.1 mm making the province more susceptible to flood and land slide.The total population of the province is 467,160  persons in about 97,325 households with an annual population growth of 1.64 percent and with a male-female ratio of 108 in 2010.  The gross population density of the province is 101 persons per sq. km. of land area, the lowest in Region VIII that has a population density of 191.The population of Eastern Samar is very young with a median age of 21.2 years and around 4 in every 10 persons are under 15 years of age. This relatively young population could be directly attributed to a high birthrate. While more than half (56.7%) of the province’s population were on the productive age group(15-64 years of age), the proportion of the dependent age groups consisting of 0-14 years old and over was high at 43.3 percent. In 2010, every 100 persons in the productive ages had about 76 dependents indicating a strain on the limited resources of households.The 2010 census showed that 97.28% of the total population had resided in the same municipality for the last 5 years and presumably even longer. This is 1.68% higher than the 2000 figure of 95.6%. This indicates an increased movement of population coming in to the province. Inter-province movement accounted for 6.43%.The average household size is 4.8 persons. Then annual per capita poverty threshold level was estimated at P22,886.00 in 2015 which means that a family of five members in the province should have a monthly income of P9,536 to meet its food and non-food requirements. This figure is higher than the regional  (P21,304) figure. Eastern Samar registered a poverty incidence of 37.4% which is higher than the regional figure of 30.7%.The province economy is dominated by agriculture and fishing, which by themselves are low-income generating activities. Croplands cover about 95% of the total agricultural land. Crops planted are mostly commercial crops such as coconut, abaca, banana and pineapple. Agricultural land used for food crops which are mostly rootcrops and palay accounted for 25% of the total agricultural land. While there has been an upward trend in the production of crops, low productivity of agricultural lands especially palay and coconut farms continues to hamper the province’s economy.Eastern Samar contributed a mere 6.52% of the regional palay production in 2015 earning for the province the distinction of being the smallest palay producer in the entire Eastern Visayas. Average yield of palay of 2.91 metric ton per hectare in 2015 is much lower than the regional average of 3.56 metric ton per hectare in the same year. The same could be said of coconut/copra which registered decrease volume of production from 274,596 metric tons in 2010 to 158,235 metric tons in 2015 or 42.37%. This can be partially attributed to the ravage and devastation to coconut trees brought about by the super typhoon Yolanda in 2014 and Typhoon Ruby that subsequently followed. This situation has serious implication on the earning capacities of farmers who comprise the bigger proportion of the population.Underutilization of agricultural lands and lack of support infrastructure like irrigation aggravated by the lack of appropriate and adequate production inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, feeds and technology which are beyond the reach of marginal farmers, erosion and despoliation of the environment, are the major causes of low crop and livestock productivity.Likewise, fishery value production output decreased by 30.7%  from 3,715,561million pesos in 2010 to 2,574,312 million pesos in 2014. Aquaculture and inland municipal fishing registered remarkable decrease of 95.9% and 88.0% respectively for the same year. This downward tick is attributed to the continued depletion and degradation of marine and fishery resources.The forest in the province cover an area of approximately 178,366 hectares. The forests serve as the primary source of various products and raw materials such as logs and rattan. Eastern Samar used to be the largest producer in Eastern Visayas contributing 72% to the total regional log production in 1988. As a result of the flash floods that the province experienced in 1989, the national government imposed a ban on logging operations in 1990 up to the present.Eastern Samar’s basic literacy rate of 97.2% is the highest in Eastern Visayas. Educational attainment of population, however, is relatively low as 44.2%  of the population five years old and over attended or completed elementary education only, while 30.6% of the population of the same age group completed high school. Those who are academic degree holders accounted for 7.9%.Access of families to potable water is estimated at 94% in 2014, a significant improvement from the 76.5% reported in 2000.Toilet access in 2014 is estimated at 72% as against the 60.4% reported in 2000.The above accomplishments notwithstanding, water-borne diseases like diarrhea continue to be of the leading causes of morbidity. This implies that the sizable number of water sources are still unsafe and poor sanitation and hygiene remains a problem in the province.Source: https://easternsamar.gov.ph/about-eastern-samar/

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