Eastern Visayas or
Region VIII is one of the two regions of the Philippines having no land border
with another region, MIMAROPA being the other. It is composed of two main
islands, Leyte and Samar, connected by the famous San Juanico Bridge. It
consists of six provinces and seven cities, namely, Biliran, Eastern Samar,
Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, Southern Leyte, the cities of Ormoc City, Baybay
City, Maasin City,Calbayog City, Catbalogan City, Borongan City and the
highly-urbanized city of Tacloban, the regional center. These provinces and
cities occupy the easternmost islands of Visayas: Samar, Leyte and Biliran.
Eastern Visayas
lies on the east central part of the Philippines archipelago. It is composed of
two main islands, Leyte and Samar, which formed the eastern most coast of the
archipelago. It is bounded by Philippine sea on the east and north with San
Bernardo Strait separating Samar island from southeastern Luzon: Camotes sea
and Visayas sea on the west: Bohol sea on the south with Surigao Strait
separating Leyte island from northwestern Mindanao. It has a total land area of
2,156,285 hectares or 7.2% of the country’s total land area.