Mandaue-The Daily Ledger

Mandaue (), officially the City of Mandaue (; ), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 364,116 people.

Mandaue City is located on the central-eastern coastal region of Cebu. Its southeast coast borders Mactan Island where Lapu-Lapu City is located and is connected to the island via two bridges: the Mactan-Mandaue Bridge and Marcelo Fernan Bridge. Mandaue City is bounded on the north by the town of Consolacion, to the east by the Camotes Sea, and to the west and south by Cebu City.

Mandaue

It is one of three highly urbanized cities on Cebu island and forms a part of the Cebu Metropolitan area and was part of the sixth district of Cebu joined with the municipalities of Consolacion and Cordova - it was qualified for a lone district since 1991. In April 5, 2019, the city became a lone legislative district. As of June 30, 2022, Mandaue City had its first representation in the 19th Congress of the Philippines.

Mandaue

History

A community was established in Mandaue by a flourishing group of Austronesian people. The Venetian chronicler Antonio Pigafetta wrote of a settlement called Mandaui which existed in the area with a chieftain named Apanoaan some called him Lambuzzan in other accounts.

Mandaue

Mandaue natives were forced into a town as decreed by the Spanish authorities. This may have started off as a mission village (which included present day Consolacion, Liloan and Poro) serving as a bulwark for the church in the northern Cebu and was managed by the Jesuit in 1638 then a century later by the Recollects.

The Philippine Revolution of 1898 gave the town a new form of administration in accordance with the organic decree of the Central Revolutionary Government. The short-lived revolution was overthrown by the American troops and a battle nearly destroyed the town in 1901, killing Presidente Benito Ceniza.

Mandaue was a semi-autonomous functioning town. Semi-autonomous as it was still under the jurisdiction of Cebu. Despite having been developed and organized by the Spaniards throughout the ages and its population increasing as the years gone by, the Spaniards did not make an initiative to elevate the town into an independent municipality. It was only after the death of Presidente Ceniza and the establishment of American Rule in Mandaue that the dream of becoming an independent municipality came true. In 1901, Mandaue became an independent municipality.

Mandaue became independent from being an American Commonwealth and a Japanese garrison on July 4, 1946, along with the entire nation.

Cityhood

On August 30, 1969, Mandaue became a chartered city and decades later it was recognized as a highly urbanized city on February 15, 1991. In early-April 2019, Mandaue City became a lone legislative district, which means that it will be separated from the sixth district, and will have its own representative of the lone district.

Geography

The city has a total area of . According to the 2020 census, the population density is .

The city is the 6th smallest government unit in terms of land area; among the Metro Cebu local government units the city is the second smallest next to the municipality of Cordova in the island of Mactan. The city's land area is only 4.5% of the total land area of Metro Cebu and less than 1% of the total land of the province of Cebu.

The North Reclamation Project, now known as the North Special Administrative Zone, currently has about reclaimed land. Of the 180 hectares, about belong to the city.

It is one of the two (the other one being the municipality of Consolacion) local government units located within the mainland Metro Cebu where the elevation of land is less than .

Many of the areas of the city are extremely flat. About 77.37% is within the 0-8% slope category. Barangays belonging to this region are Centro, Looc, South Special Administrative Zone, Cambaro, Opao, Umapad, Paknaan, Alang-alang, Tipolo, Ibabao, Guizo, Subangdaku, Mantuyong, Maguikay and Tabok. The greater portion of the city, comprising about 70%, is dominated by the Mandaue Clay Loam soil series. This is found in the 0-2% and 2-5% slope ranges. Faraon clay loam characterizes the rest of the land with slope range from 5-8% and up to 25-40%.