San Isidro, officially the Municipality of San Isidro (; ), is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Davao Oriental Davao Oriental (; ), officially the Province of Davao Oriental (; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Davao Region in Mindanao. Its capital is the city of Mati, Davao Oriental, Mati which is the most ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 33,664 people. San Isidro is one of the "gulf towns" of Davao Oriental whose shorelines stretch along

Davao Gulf Davao Gulf is a gulf situated in the southeastern portion of Mindanao in the Philippines. It has an area of or about 520,000 hectares. Davao Gulf cuts into the island of Mindanao from the Philippine Sea. It is surrounded by all five provinces ...

. Other gulf towns are Banaybanay, Lupon and Governor Generoso.

History

The town of San Isidro was created by virtue of

Republic Act This article contains a partial list of Philippine laws. Sources of Philippine laws ;Notes : *Customs may be considered as supplementary source of law, however, customs which are contrary to law, public order or public policy shall not ...

No. 4744 enacted by the Philippine Congress on June 18, 1966. It started operating as a local government unit in January 1968. Its founder and the first mayor was Vicente Yu, Sr.

Geography

Climate

Barangays

San Isidro is politically subdivided into 16

barangay The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...

s. Each barangay consists of

purok A ''purok'' () is an informal division within a barangay in the Philippines. While not officially considered a local government unit (LGU), a ''purok'' often serves as a unit for delivering services and administration within a barangay. ''Pur ...

s while some have

sitios A ''sitio'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own bar ...

. Seven barangays are along the coastlines while the other nine are in the interior areas.

Demographics

Around 30% of the population belong to the indigenous

Mandaya The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous peoples in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (Literally: "indigenous people"), the autonym officially ado ...

and Kalagan communities.

Economy

San Isidro is largely planted with

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

, with much of its agricultural industry focuses on the production of

copra Copra (from ; ; ; ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted ...

. There are currently efforts to further diversify the output of the municipality's coconut-based industry from copra to other value-added coconut products such as coco-oil (which can be used as a fuel additive) and coco-coir. In 1992, a Crop Diversification Program of the local government unit (LGU) was implemented with

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

as "export winner". In 1998, the town commenced its first Mango Festival as an indicator of the prominence of this high yielding fruit. Farmers are also engaged in growing the popular

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

(cardava). Despite this, farmers still experience difficulties in increasing their income due to lack of agricultural technology specially those farming in the upland areas. The aggressive anti-illegal

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

efforts of the LGU decreased dynamite fishing and able to establish fish sanctuaries in San Isidro waters. Most of the fishermen in this town used paddle-boat than motorized boat in fishing.

Tourism

The municipality's seascape offers potential marine-based recreational industries on the as yet virtually undisturbed Tinaytay and Burias

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

s a few kilometers offshore. In addition, its scenic nature spots include beaches untouched by urban development; the cascading Cawa-cawa Stepped Falls, and the 12 km² Pygmy or Bonsai forests in the thickly forested highlands of the municipality. Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary One of the tourist spots easily accessible from San Isidro is the Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as it currently serves as the habitat of different endangered species of flora and fauna. What makes it an even more critical habitat for these plants and animals is that eight of those threatened species are only found at Mount Hamiguitan. Endangered species in the site include the Philippine eagle and Philippine cockatoo.

References

External links

San Isidro Profile at the DTI Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index
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Philippine Standard Geographic Code The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) is a systematic classification and coding for geographic areas in the Philippines. It classifies areas based on the country's four levels of administrative divisions: regions, provinces, municipalities ...

Philippine Census Information

Local Governance Performance Management System
{{Authority control Municipalities of Davao Oriental