Poro, officially the Municipality of Poro (; ), 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 ...

Cebu Cebu ( ; ), officially the Province of Cebu (; ), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 surrounding islands and islets. The coastal zone of Cebu is identified as a ...

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 26,232 people. The patronal

feast A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes inc ...

of Poro is celebrated on the third Friday of January, in honour of the

Santo Niño de Cebu Santo ('saint' in various languages) may refer to: People * Santo (given name) * Santo (surname) * El Santo, Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (1917–1984), Mexican wrestler and actor * Bob Santo or Santo, stage name of Ghanaian comedian John Evans Kwad ...

Geography

Poro is bordered to the north by the Province of

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has been ...

in the

Camotes Sea The Camotes Sea is a small sea within the Philippine archipelago, situated between the Central Visayan and the Eastern Visayan regions. It separates Cebu from Leyte hence is bordered by Cebu to the west, Leyte to the east and north, and Boho ...

, to the west is by the island of Pacijan Island With the town of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, to the east is the town of Tudela and to the south is the

. Poro, along with the municipality of Tudela, is located on

Poro Island Poro Island (Filipino: Pulo ng Poro) is an island in the province of Cebu, located east of Cebu Island and west of Leyte Island. Two municipalities, Poro and Tudela, are located on Poro Island. It is one of the four Camotes Islands along with ...

of the

Camotes Islands The Camotes Islands are a group of islands in the Camotes Sea, Philippines. Combined area is . The island group is located east of Cebu Island, southwest of Leyte Island, and north of Bohol Island. It is from Cebu City and is part of the Pr ...

Barangays

Poro is politically subdivided into 17 barangays. 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 and 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 ...

Climate

Demographics

Etymology and languages

The town's name is derived from the Waray-Waray word ''puro'' meaning "island". This how Camotes Island is called by Warays and Leyteños. Before the first municipality to be established in Camotes, ''puro'' meant the name of all the islands. Aside from Cebuano, Waray,

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...

, and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

, the townsfolk also speak the local

Porohanon language Porohanon is a regional Bisayan language spoken in the Camotes Islands in the province of Cebu in the Philippines. Its closest relatives are Hiligaynon, Capiznon and Masbateño; it is barely intelligible with Cebuano though it shares 87% of ...

. Also known as Camotes Visayan, the language is

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...

with other Visayan languages (e.g. Cebuano) spoken in the rest of the Camotes Islands, Cebu, other parts of the Visayas, and Northern Mindanao. The town is home to the ''Porohanon language'', one of the most endangered languages in the Visayas. The language is only used in the Poro islands. The language is classified as distinct from Cebuano by the

Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino The Commission on the Filipino Language (CFL), also referred to as the (KWF), is the official regulating body of the Filipino language and the official government institution tasked with developing, preserving, and promoting the various local ...

and is vital to the culture and arts of the

Porohanon people Poro Island (Filipino: Pulo ng Poro) is an island in the province of Cebu, located east of Cebu Island and west of Leyte Island. Two municipalities, Poro and Tudela, are located on Poro Island. It is one of the four Camotes Islands along with ...

. Porohanon is distinguished by the way the locals substitute // sounds with //, for instance Cebuano ''maayong buntag'' ("good morning") vocalised as ''maazong buntag'' in Porohanon. (Possibly occasions too a handover from the ''

yeísmo (; literally "Y-ism") is a distinctive feature of many dialects of the Spanish language, characterized by the loss of the traditional palatal lateral approximant phoneme (written ) and its merger into the phoneme (written ). It is an examp ...

'' phenomenon in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

.) Other dialectical variations include the Porohanon ''ara dira'' instead of the standard Cebuano ''na-a diha''.

Economy

References

External links

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 ...

{{Authority control Municipalities of Cebu