Zamboanga Del Sur Hotels

There are a number of hotels, inns and lodging houses to stay at, particularly in Pagadian City.
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Megayon Festival

One of the most popular forms of entertainment in the Philippines is the festival, more popularly known locally as fiestas. It is almost always acknowledged by those who have visited the country that by nature, Filipinos are a celebratory lot, and every province in the country has at least three different fiestas being celebrated every year. Usually, these are dedicated to a town’s patron saint, or its founding, or even seasonal changes. Festivals are often designated as major or minor, with the former being much more well-known and extravagant, and is usually attended by people of neighboring towns or provinces. The Megayon Festival in Zamboanga del Sur is one of them, and unlike other festivals which have been celebrated for decades, the Megayon Festival is relatively new.
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Zamboanga del Sur Culture

The two predominant cultures present in Zamboanga del Sur are the Subanons (or Subanens) and the Muslims. Although there are inter-marriages between the settlers across the decades, the distinction of each of their cultures have been well-documented, both in their arts and dance, as well as in the artifacts that have been preserved and passed down to their descendants today. The same thing can be said for the other settlers that have made Zamboanga del Sur their home in the beginning. In short, Zamboanga’s culture pot manages to avoid becoming a complete mix of all the settlers, instead becoming a distinct collection of cultural heritages.
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Zamboanga del Sur Facts

Zamboanga del Sur is a province that’s located in the Zamboanga peninsula region, northwest of the great island of Mindanao. Its capital, Pagadian City, also happens to be the regional capital. People living in Zamboanga call themselves Zamboangeños, although most of them come from different ethnicities. There is no official dialect for the province but the majority speaks Cebuano or Visayan. Chavacano though, a form of Creole Spanish spoken only in the Philippines (and is, in fact, the only Spanish-based Creole language in Asia), is immediately associated with the province and anyone who hails from Zamboanga del Sur is immediately assumed to speak or at least understand the dialect.
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Zamboanga del Sur Cuisine

When one goes to visit a foreign place, one of the things that he or she must experience before leaving is the local cuisine: the foods and delicacies that make that place special. Almost every place has their own local dish they are proud of, and if this place is a melting pot of several cultures and ethnicities, then one is almost assured that their selection will be grand. Foods and cuisines that are indigenous to that one place are very much like the physical tourist attractions people go to see, only this time, it satiates a different sense: taste.
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Zamboanga del Sur Religion, Ethnic Groups, and Languages

Zamboanga del Sur is a province that is shaped by the migration patterns of different groups of people, making Zamboanga a province of total ethnic diversity. The Subanon or Subanen people are the longest established ethnic group to have settled in Zamboanga, long before the province itself came into being. The Muslims followed suit, who are then followed by other ethnic groups, notably, the Visayans. The development of the place into the province it is now was then accelerated by the migration and arrival of other ethnic groups. These were the Chavacanos, the Muslims from other provinces, and the Tagalogs. Most of these ethnic groups brought with them their own set of traditions and culture, including their dialects. In 1995, the official census attempted to classify the population of Zamboanga del Sur based on their mother tongues. From the results, the ethnic groups in the province came down to Cebuanos, which made up 77.6%, Subanens which are about 9.01%, Muslims which are 6.6%, Chavacanos which comprise 1.33%, Ilocanos which make up 1.02%, and Tagalogs which are .32%. The Chinese are also represented, making .03%, while the rest make up 4.05%.
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Zamboanga del Sur Economy

Zamboanga del Sur, like almost all of the rural provinces in the Philippines, is mostly reliant on agriculture for the bulk of its economy. It is not to say that industrialization has not reached the province — like most places in the southern Philippines, it can be an untapped resource — but due to geographical, political, and socio-economic reasons, Zamboanga del Sur excels more in the fields of agriculture produce, mining, and fishing. These has always been the means by which the Zamboangeños (as those living in Zamboanga are often called) have lived across the centuries.
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Zamboanga del Sur History

Like some of the places and cities found in the Philippines (and in Southeast Asia), Zamboanga del Sur was, for the most part, built slowly upon the foundations of various migrants and settlers; it wasn’t a settlement built by one tribe which later expanded. The name Zamboanga itself came from the Malayan word “Jambangan”, meaning a place of flowers. The very first settlers of the area which would ultimately be known as Zamboanga del Sur were known as the Subanons or Subanens, whose name literally means “river folks”. They settled on the riverbanks and almost all were farmers who practiced the “slash and burn” method of agriculture. It wasn’t long afterwards, though, that they were joined by the Muslim immigrants who came in from neighboring towns, with some coming from as far away as Malaysia. The Muslims were broken down into groups depending from where they came, and their professions were also different: the Maguindanaoans and Kalibugans were mostly farmers by trade; the Tausugs, Badjaos, and Samals were fishermen, and finally, the Maranaos were traders and artisans. A major occupation for the Muslims, however, was mat weaving, which is still very much practiced today. During the following years, more and more people from nearby provinces migrated to the area. Most came from Visayas, namely, Cebu, Negros, and Bohol. Together, these people helped form Zamboanga del Sur into the vibrant province it is known today.
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