Also known as: Lalawigan ng Sinirangan Samar
Eastern Samar is a province in Region VIII (Eastern Visayas). Population 473K (PSA 2024 census), 1 city + 22 municipalities, 597 barangays total, land area 4,617.16 km². Provincial capital: Borongan City.
Eastern Samar is a province in Region VIII (Eastern Visayas). Its capital is Borongan City.
Eastern Samar had 472,683 residents in the 2024 census (PSA 2024 Census of Population (POPCEN 2024), reference date July 1, 2024). That is the most recent official count. There is no 2026 census result, so any 2026 population figure is an estimate.
Eastern Samar covers 4,617.16 km², per the PSA Philippine Statistical Yearbook figure used on this page.
Eastern Samar has 1 component city and 22 municipalities (23 LGUs under the province), per PSA's Philippine Standard Geographic Code (2Q 2026), and 597 barangays.
Eastern Samar's 1 component city is Borongan City. Its 22 municipalities are Arteche, Balangiga, Balangkayan, Can-avid, Dolores, General Macarthur, Giporlos, Guiuan, Hernani, Jipapad, Lawaan, Llorente, Maslog, Maydolong, Mercedes, Oras, Quinapondan, Salcedo, San Julian, San Policarpo, Sulat and Taft.
Eastern Samar carries two of the most significant events in Philippine history. On September 28, 1901, residents of Balangiga staged a surprise attack on the American garrison stationed there — the U.S. Army's worst single defeat of the Philippine-American War to that point, with roughly 48 to 54 American soldiers killed. The retaliation was a scorched-earth campaign that killed an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 Filipino civilians. American forces took the church bells as war trophies; after over a century of Philippine diplomatic requests, they were returned and rung again at a homecoming ceremony in Balangiga on December 15, 2018.
Key industries: Agriculture (coconut/copra, rice, abaca), Fishing (Guiuan's flying-fish fishery), Tourism (Calicoan Island surfing, Guiuan), Handicrafts
Separately, Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan made its first Philippine landfall directly at Guiuan on the morning of November 8, 2013, among the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded at landfall — Eastern Samar bore the extreme wind event, though the storm's overwhelming death toll fell on Leyte and Tacloban later that same morning via storm surge. Homonhon Island, part of Guiuan, is where Ferdinand Magellan's expedition first made landfall in the Philippines on March 16-17, 1521 — about two weeks before the more commonly cited 'first Mass' at Limasawa.
Key industries: Agriculture (coconut/copra, rice, abaca), Fishing (Guiuan's flying-fish fishery), Tourism (Calicoan Island surfing, Guiuan), Handicrafts
More on the regulatory framework: CLUP explainer · RA 7160 explainer · SGLG explainer · full glossary. Working a CLUP review cycle? Run the CLUP readiness self-check or see CLUP compliance monitoring.
A province carrying both a defining 1901 historical event and the direct landfall point of one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded is exactly the kind of disaster-resilience and heritage-preservation planning load a live cross-LGU dashboard is built to help a PPDO manage.
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