MIMAROPA

MIMAROPA is one of the two regions of the Philippines having no land border with another region, Eastern Visayas being the other, and is designated as Region IV-B. The name is an acronym that stands for its provinces, which are: Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan. Palawan was subsequently moved by executive order from MIMAROPA to the more logical Western Visayas. Removing Palawan from MIMAROPA would have turned the region into MIMARO. Because of problems with implementation of the executive order, however, an administrative order was later issued holding implementation in abeyance. Presently, Palawan and the newly-declared highly urbanized city of Puerto Princesa still remain a part of this region.

History

Executive Order No. 103, dated May 17 2002, divided Region IV (Southern Tagalog) into MIMAROPA and Region IV-A (CALABARZON). Executive Order 429 moved Palawan to Region VI on May 23, 2005. After this move, Region IV-B began to be called MIMARO instead of MIMAROPA.

However, Palaweños criticized the move, citing a lack of consultation, with most residents in Puerto Princesa City and all municipalities but one preferring to stay with Region IV-B. Consequently, Administrative Order No. 129 was issued on August 19 2005 to address this backlash. This order directed the abeyance of Executive Order 429 pending the approval of an implementation plan for the orderly transfer of Palawan from MIMAROPA to Region VI. Thus, it is not yet clear if the transfer of Palawan to Region VI is already done and final creating confusion on whether to address the region as MIMARO or MIMAROPA.

The MIMAROPA Region experienced a big slow down in 2006 posting a decelerated growth of 2.3 percent from a 6.4 percent increase in 2005. This resulted mainly from the slump in the industry sector, which posted a negative growth of 5.4 percent in 2006 from its 10.8 percent increase in 2005.

The AFF, which contributed 42.1 percent to the total regional economy, managed an accelerated growth of 9.1 percent in 2006, leaping from its 3.2 percent growth the previous year. The higher production of palay, corn, other crops, livestock and fishery resulted in the accelerated growth in the total agriculture and fishery sector.

The industry sector, which contributed 38.3 percent to the region’s total economy, was the second largest contributor next to agriculture. Its negative growth of 5.4 percent was largely attributed to the decrease in the mining and quarrying subsector, which posted a decline of 15.4 percent mainly due to the reduced production of natural gas in Palawan. Mining and quarrying contributed 16.6 percent to the total regional economy. The positive growth in the electricity and water, construction and manufacturing subsectors were not able to compensate to the drop in the mining and quarrying subsector.

The service sector, on the other hand, posted an accelerated growth of 5.1 percent, which was attributed to the increase in the TCS, finance, private services, government services and trade subsectors, which managed to post accelerated growths of 6.0 percent, 5.5 percent, 5.1 percent, 5.1 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively. The ODRE subsector, however, had a decelerated growth due to the slow down in the ownership of dwelling.

Scenic Spots

There are many scenic spots in the MIMAROPA. Some of them are the Bathala Cave, Balanacan Bay and Tres Reyes Islands in the province of Marinduque; the White Island in Mindoro; Bonbon Beach in Romblon; and, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park and El Nido Marine Reserve Park in Palawan.

Political divisions

Province	Capital	Population (2000)	Area (km²)	Pop. density (per km²)
Marinduque	Boac	217,392	959.3	226.6
Occidental Mindoro	Mamburao	380,250	5,879.9	64.7
Oriental Mindoro	Calapan City	681,818	4,364.7	156.2
Romblon	Romblon	264,357	1,355.9	195.0

Palawan	Puerto Princessa	—	2,813,159	161,912	2,400	67

¹ Puerto Princesa City is now a highly urbanized city; figures are excluded from Palawan.

Component city

Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro

Languages

Tagalog is widely spoken in the region. In Marinduque, Tagalog is spoken with a unique blend of Bicolano and Visayan languages. Aside from Tagalog, there are also other major languages being used by the people in different provinces and localities. In the interior of Mindoro, various languages are spoken by Mangyans, and they include Iraya, Alangan, Tawbuid, Hanunoo, Tadyawan, Buhid, and Ratagnon. The latter is a Visayan language with less than three speakers. Romblon, being near the Visayas, has three main languagues that belong to Visayan language family namely, Romblomanon, Asi, and Onhan. Palawan, on the other hand, has its own set of native languages such as Cuyonon, Tagbanwa and Palawano that are still spoken by significant numbers of people.