Cateel (), officially the Municipality of Cateel ( ceb, Lungsod sa Cateel; tl, Bayan ng Cateel), is a 2nd class

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 almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

Davao Oriental Davao Oriental ( Cebuano: ''Sidlakang Dabaw''; tl, Silangang Davao), officially the Province of Davao Oriental, is a province in the Philippines located in the Davao Region in Mindanao. Its capital is city of Mati, and it borders the province of ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 44,207 people. Cateel is the home of the Aliwagwag Falls, located at barangay Aliwagwag within the

Aliwagwag Protected Landscape The Aliwagwag Protected Landscape is a protected area that preserves a major drainage catchment in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in the Davao Region. It contains the headwaters of the Cateel River in the southern Diuata Mountain Rang ...

. It is a towering stream of waterfalls considered by hydraulic engineers as the highest in the country and regarded as one of the most beautiful falls in the Philippines. It is a series of 84 falls appearing like a stairway to heaven with various heights among the steps ranging from . One step is measured and another is . Overall Aliwagwag Falls has a height of and a width of . All these in the midst of a virgin forest, a river settles at the foot of the falls with 13 rapids to cross.

History

Homes destroyed by Typhoon Bopha in Cateel, Davao Oriental

Cateel is the first municipality in Mindanao. It was the place where Spaniards first docked in Mindanao which reflects how majority of its primary inhabitants converted to Catholicism. In 1959, Mainit and Alegria were converted into barrios. The municipality was one of the hardest-hit towns of

Typhoon Bopha Typhoon Bopha, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Pablo, was the strongest tropical cyclone on record to ever affect the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, making landfall as a Category 5 super typhoon with winds of 175 mph (28 ...

when it hit the town on December 3, 2012.

Geography

Climate

Cateel has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southea ...

(Af) with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round with extremely heavy rainfall in December and January.

Barangays

Cateel is politically subdivided into 16

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolit ...

Demographics

Economy

References

External links

Cateel Profile at the DTI Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index
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Philippine Standard Geographic Code The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

br>Philippine Census InformationLocal Governance Performance Management System
{{Authority control Municipalities of Davao Oriental