Cebu City, officially the City of Cebu, is a highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 965,332 people, making it the sixth-most populated city in the country and the most populous in the Central Visayas Region and in the whole Visayas.
It serves as the capital of the Cebu province wherein it is geographically situated and grouped under the province by the Philippine Statistics Authority, but is one of three cities (together with Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue) that are administratively independent of the provincial government and also the largest city within that province. It also serves as the regional center of Central Visayas, and its metropolitan area exerts influence on commerce, trade, industry, education, culture, tourism, and healthcare beyond the region, over Central and Eastern Visayas and partly over Mindanao. It is the Philippines' main domestic shipping port and is home to about 80% of the country's domestic shipping companies. Additionally, Cebu City is the prime trading center of the southern Philippines.
Cebu City is bounded on the north by the town of Balamban and the city of Danao, on the west by the city of Toledo, on the east by the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue and the towns of Liloan, Consolacion and Compostela and to the south by the city of Talisay. Located at the center of the eastern seaboard of Cebu Island, it is the core city of Metro Cebu, the second largest metropolitan area in the Philippines, which includes the cities of Carcar, Danao, Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue, Naga and Talisay and the municipalities (towns) of Compostela, Consolacion, Cordova, Liloan, Minglanilla and San Fernando. Metro Cebu had a total population of 3,207,256 as of the 2024 census.
The current political boundaries of the city are an amalgamation of the former municipalities of Cebu, San Nicolas, El Pardo, Mabolo, Talamban and Banilad in the Commonwealth period.
The city has experienced rapid economic growth since the 1990s, a phenomenon also known as "Ceboom". Owing to its economic importance and influence in modern times, Cebu City is also popularly referred to as the Queen City of the South.
Etymology
The modern name, Cebu, is a 16th–17th century Spanish pronunciation of the native name Sugbo and its early iterations are Zibu, Zebu, Zubu', Subuth', Çubu', and Sibu. and also in Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Aklanon, and Mansaka languages with more or less the same meaning. The name is derived from the Proto-Philippine word *sug(e)bu meaning "to wade into water". In Mateo Sanchéz's entry, he defines sugbu or sibu as "to put or place partially into the water" or "as someone stepping into water, but not totally".
History
Pre-Hispanic period
thumb|left|A picture of a Bronze Image of the Hindu god [[Shiva (lost during World War II), found in Mactan, demonstrating the area as having been Hindu and Indianized.]]
Very little is known about when the site was first settled prior to colonization, but artifacts have been discovered near the city, if not exactly at the site in what is now Cebu City dating back to at least the 14th to 15th centuries CE. Other geological and archaeological studies revealed that Cebu as a settlement began sometime during the 10th century. Though there are artifacts detailing the settlement of the island as early as 2000 BCE, the exact date of when the village was settled and named "Sugbu" is unknown, since prior to colonization most Visayans were illiterate up until the later half of the 16th century.
According to a new translation of ancient Chinese Annals: a kingdom called Suwu (束務) was mentioned in the 1225 work Zhu Fan Zhi (諸蕃志), and in the 17th century this was the same name used for Cebu among Chinese traders to the Philippines, thus, it is presumed to be the same location. show maritime shipping lanes plying from the kingdom of Manila (کراجاءن مانيلا) to the Rajahnate of Cebu
During the Ming Dynasty, Chinese records categorized the inhabitants of Cebu and adjacent islands—notably Butuan, Samar, Leyte, Negros, Panay, and Northern Mindanao the collective ethnonym "Visayans," transcribed in contemporary sources as Pisheye. Scholarly interpretations suggest that the Pisheye territories were an alliance group of primarily low-lying coastal port kingdoms characterized by limited agricultural development, a geographical profile consistent with the topography of pre-colonial Cebu. There are no existing documents predating Spanish chroniclers that made a reference to the island, and there was no mention of the so-called "Sri Lumay". Fr. Francisco Ignacio Alcina's History of the Bisayan Islands does not even mention the epic or any reference to that person. Also, in the compilation of Spanish accounts by esteemed American historian specializing in Philippine history, William Henry Scott, there is no mention of any scorched earth tactics in Visayan warfare. It is likely then that the "legend" is an invention by Jovito Abellana. The supposed capital city, "Singhapala" (ᜐᜒᜅ᜔ᜑᜉᜎ), a localization of the Tamil-Sanskrit Singapura (சிங்கப்பூர்), same root-word as the City-State of Singapore, was also not mentioned as a capital city. Instead, Antonio Pigafetta, the Italian chronicler in Magellan's expedition, records "Cingapola" as a town, whose chiefs are Cilaton, Ciguibucan, Cimaninga, Cimaticat, and Cicanbul This is also evident in the titles of native Cebuano nobility, as Chief Humabon (mistakenly identified as a "king" in Pigafetta's writings) was addressed by the Sanskrit title "Rajah". Rajah Tupas, who ruled Cebu in 1565, was descended from the brother of Rajah Humabon who was a "bendara" ("treasurer" or "vizier" in Malay), a clipping of the Sanskrit bendahara (भाण्डार, lit. "storage house").
Spanish period
left|thumb|[[Magellan's Cross, which is said to be the cross planted by Ferdinand Magellan's expedition in 1521]]
left|thumb|Legazpi Monument, colorized photo, c. early 1900s
On April 7, 1521, Portuguese explorer at the service of the Spanish Crown and leader of the first expedition to circumnavigate the world, Ferdinand Magellan, landed in Cebu. He was welcomed by Rajah Humabon. Magellan, however, was killed in the Battle of Mactan, and the remaining members of his expedition left Cebu soon after several of them were poisoned by Humabon, who was fearful of foreign occupation. The last ruler of Sugbo, prior to Spanish colonization, was Rajah Humabon's nephew, Rajah Tupas (d. 1565). The growing colony was then fortified by Fort San Pedro, and aside from Mexican soldiers, the city was founded by 80 colonists from Spain. Asides from these Mexican Mestizos and pure Spanish Europeans, around 400 Native American Tlaxcalans were also part of the conquest of Cebu and were given pensions. The Philippines hosts the only architectural and cultural styles in Asia that were founded by Latin Americans and Anglo Americans. Yet despite being a most unique tourism destination among Asians for the American and Latino influences not available anywhere else in the continent, as the other Asian nations were colonized by Europeans instead, the number of tourists going to the Philippines from their Asian neighbors are negligible. Whereas in contrast, the Philippines is a top source of tourists going to its' Asian neighbors.
thumb|291x291px|[[File:San Juan Bautista Parish church Parian, Cebu.jpg|frameless|283x283pxMiniature replica of old Parian, Cebu. Museo de Parian.]]
By 1569, the Spanish settlement in Cebu had become important as a safe port for ships from Mexico and as a jumping-off point for further exploration of the archipelago. Small expeditions led by Juan de Salcedo went to Mindoro and Luzon, where he and Martín de Goiti played a leading role in the subjugation of the Kingdoms of Tundun and Seludong in 1570. One year later, López de Legazpi departed Cebu to discuss a peace pact with the defeated Rajahs. An agreement between the conquistadors and the Rajahs to form a city council paved the way for the establishment of a new settlement and the construction of the Christian walled city of Intramuros on the razed remains of Islamic Manila, then a vassal state of the Sultanate of Brunei.
In 1571, the Spanish carried over infantry from Mexico, to raise an army of Christian Visayan warriors from Cebu and Iloilo as well as mercenaries from the Tagalog region and assaulted the Sultanate of Brunei in what is known as the Castilian War. The war also started the Spanish–Moro Wars waged between the Christian Visayans and Muslim Mindanao, wherein Moros burned towns and conducted slave raids in the Visayas islands and selling the slaves to the Sultanates of the Malay Archipelago and the Visayans fought back by establishing Christian fort cities in Mindanao, cities such as Zamboanga City.thumb|280x280px|Calle Magallanes, CebuOn August 14, 1595, Pope Clement VIII created the diocese of Cebu as a suffragan to the Archdiocese of Manila. There were 5 Conquistadors from Latin America that were given encomiendas in the region of Cebu. First was Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, leader of the expedition from Mexico, he was given a large encomienda of an unknown number of Filipino tributaries. Next, is Jerónimo de Monzón, whose number of tributes was also not specifically cited. Cristóbal Sánchez, was mentioned next, with 3000 native Cebuano tributes, Followed by, Francisco Carreño with about 2000 Cebuano tributes, Afterwards, Andrés de Mirandaola with 1,000 tributes which are also in Cebu, and finally Pedro Arana, whose precise number of tributes are not specifically quantified. All of these Mexican conquistadors were given lands and encomiendas in and around the region of Cebu. The years 1603, 1636, 1670, and 1672 saw the deployment of 86, 50, 135, and 135 Latin American soldiers from Mexico to Cebu. In 1608, Maguindanaoans raided Carigara on the island of Leyte to the east, so Cebu under Commander Salgado led an expedition of 70 Spanish and 60 Kapampangan marines that had intercepted and destroyed them. On January 6, 1635, Juan de Alcarazo, the alcalde mayor of Cebu, ordered a force of 50 Spanish and 1,000 Visayan troops, to battle rebels who caused unrest in Bohol. On April 5, 1635, Cebu sent a force of 300 Spanish and 1,000 Visayan troops to settle and colonize Zamboanga City under the command of Captain Juan de Chávez. In the 1700s, Cebu province housed 625 Spanish Filipino families and 28,112 native families And in 1818, the new census showed that downtown Cebu (Cebu city, alone, centered in Fort San Pedro, excluding other cities in Cebu Province) had 233 Spanish-Filipino families
On April 3, 1898, local revolutionaries led by the Negrense León Kilat rose up against the Spanish colonial authorities and took control of the urban center after three days of fighting. The uprising ended with the treacherous murder of Kilat and the arrival of soldiers from Iloilo and Manila. On December 26, 1898, the Spanish Governor, General Montero, evacuated his troops to Zamboanga, turning over government property to Pablo Mejía. The next day, a provincial government was formed under Luis Flores as president, General Juan Clímaco as military chief of staff, and Julio Llorente as mayor.
American occupation and World War II
thumb|233x233px|[[Celestino Rodriguez|Celestino Rodríguez, the 2nd Municipal President of Cebu in 1905–1907]]
The signing of the Treaty of Paris at the end of the Spanish–American War provided for the cession of Cebu along with the rest of the Philippines to the United States until the formation of the Commonwealth. On February 21, 1899, the USS Petrel (PG-2) deployed a landing party of 40 marines on the shores of Cebu. Cebu's transfer to the American government was signed by Flores although others, most notably General Arcadio Maxilom and Clímaco, who offered resistance until 1901. Governor-General William H. Taft visited Cebu on April 17, 1901, and appointed Llorente as the first provincial governor. Clímaco was elected to that office in January 1904.thumb|Aduana (customs) building in 1910, now known as the [[National Museum of the Philippines – Cebu ]]
Cityhood
thumb|Aerial view of Cebu, 1936
With its city status granted by the King of Spain in 1594 invalidated by the change of colonial administration, in 1934 the neighboring municipalities of El Pardo, Mabolo, Talamban, Banilad, and San Nicolás were dissolved and merged to become the revived City of Cebu, which received its renewed official Charter on February 24, 1937. These former towns were broken up into several barangays, including their town centers which assumed their names (in contrast, Manila and Iloilo preserved their incorporated towns as geopolitical districts) resulting this in expansion of its territory. It was finally liberated with the Battle for Cebu City in March and April 1945. The military general headquarters of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and 8th Constabulary Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary, active from January 3, 1942, to June 30, 1946, were stationed in Cebu City during World War II.
Post-war years
The war virtually razed Cebu City to the ground, but reconstruction was rapid. The city's central business district, which had been confined largely to the coast and the area around the port before the war, had expanded inland. Colon Street, the oldest national road in the Philippines, which was once a residential area in the pre-war years, became the center of a dense and compact area in downtown Cebu City, becoming home to many shopping and business activities, including the city's most fashionable shops, restaurants, and movie houses. In 1962, construction of the Cebu City North Reclamation Area commenced, finishing eventually in 1969, which expanded the port of Cebu and provided the city with more developable land close to the city center. During this time, Cebu also became a prominent educational center for the Visayas and Mindanao regions, and new schools were established in Cebu's uptown areas, such as the Talamban campus of the University of San Carlos.
During the Marcos dictatorship
Cebu became a key center of resistance against the Marcos dictatorship, first becoming apparent when the hastily put-together lineup of Pusyon Bisaya defeated the entire slate of Marcos' Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) in Region VII.
Among the Cebuanos immediately arrested by the Marcos dictatorship with the declaration of martial law on September 23, 1972, were columnist and future National Artist Resil Mojares and human rights lawyer and Carcar Vice Mayor Demócrito Barcenas, who were both detained at Camp Sergio Osmeña.
Among the Marcos regime desaparecidos from Cebu was Redemptorist priest Fr. Rudy Romano, a prominent Marcos critic and executive secretary of Cebu's Coalition against People's Persecution, who was accosted by armed men in Tisa, Labangon on June 11, 1985, and never seen again. Levi Ybáñez, Romano's colleague in the Coalition against People's Persecution, was abducted on the same day as Fr. Romano, and remains missing.
Later, Cebu would play a key role in the days leading up to the 1986 People Power Revolution and the ouster of Marcos. It was from Fuente Osmeña Circle in Cebu City that the opposition forces relaunched a civil disobedience campaign against the Marcos regime and its cronies on February 22, 1986. After that, the Carmelite Monastery in Barangay Mabolo served as a refuge for opposition candidates Corazon Aquino and Salvador Laurel on the first day of the revolution, as it was not yet safe for them to return to Manila.
Economic boom and contemporary history
thumb|Panoramic view of the Cebu skyline|330x330px
thumb|The [[Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), the longest sea-crossing bridge in the Philippines as of 2022, connects Cebu City to the municipality of Cordova in Mactan Island.]]
In 1990, Typhoon Ruping (international name: Mike) hit Visayas and Cebu in particular, causing considerable damage to the infrastructure of the city and province. The typhoon cut the city's communication lines, leaving it isolated and causing delays in aid from the national government in Manila. This forced local authorities to rethink priorities, and enforced radical measures such as rationing food, water, and fuel. The city quickly recovered, and by the end of the decade, was experiencing rapid economic growth dubbed "Ceboom." This also spread economic growth to its neighboring cities and municipalities, which spreads from Danao from the north all the way to Carcar to the south.
Within the city, economic growth was observed in other areas as well, and much of the business activity shifted from the old and derelict downtown area to the more modern and more diverse business districts located in other areas of the city, including areas around Fuente Osmeña (colloquially known as "Uptown Cebu"), the Cebu Business Park, and the Cebu IT Park, among other areas. The opening of the aforementioned Ayala Mall and SM City Cebu had also shifted significant retail activities away from Colon, though it remained to serve as an important transit point for public utility jeepneys (PUJ) covering arterial routes within the city.
In 2002, the South Road Properties (SRP) was completed, initially with the intention of being a hub for light industries but gradually shifted to be a hub for mixed-use developments. The Cebu South Coastal Road, which traverses through SRP, has helped alleviate the city's traffic by serving as an alternative to the Natalio Bacalso Avenue. SM Seaside City Cebu opened in 2015, and was one of the largest shopping malls in the Philippines upon opening. The opening of the Cebu–Cordova Link Expressway in 2022, which links the city to Cordova in Mactan, is poised to unlock the SRP's potential as the city's next economic hub. Other infrastructure projects, such as the Metro Cebu Expressway and the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit System, are also in place to help facilitate the city's future growth.
Geography
Cebu City has a land area of . To the northeast is Mandaue City and the town of Consolacion; to the west is Toledo City and the towns of Balamban and Asturias; to the south is Talisay City and the town of Minglanilla.
Across the Mactan Channel to the east is Mactan Island, where Lapu-Lapu City is located. Further east across the Cebu Strait is the island of Bohol.
Barangays
thumb|upright|Political map of Cebu City
Cebu City is politically subdivided into 80 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.
These barangays are grouped into two congressional districts, with 46 barangays in the northern district and 34 in the southern district.
As of the 2020 census, 58 barangays are classified as urban barangays where 888,481 (92.15%) of Cebu City's population lives, while the remaining 22 rural barangays are home to 75,668 residents, representing 7.85% of the total population.
The most populous barangays in the city, as of the 2020 census, are Guadalupe (70,039), Tisa (47,364), and Lahug (45,853), while Kalubihan is the least populous barangay with only 663 residents.
Climate
Cebu City has a tropical monsoon climate under the Köppen climate classification. The city has a lengthy wet season and a short dry season, with only the months of March and April falling into the latter season. Average temperatures show little variance during the year with average daily temps ranging from to . The city on averages experiences roughly of precipitation annually.