Philippine Geography

PHILIPPINE GEOGRAPHY
The Philippines is an archipelago comprising 7,107 islands with a total land area of 300,000 km2. The 11 largest islands contain 94% of the total land area. The largest of these islands is Luzon at about 105,000 km2. The next largest island is Mindanao at about 95,000 km2. The archipelago is around 800 km from the Asian mainland and is located between Taiwan and Borneo.
  * 79   provinces (excludes the now-defunct provinces of Shariff Kabunsuan and Dinagat Islands)
  * 122 cities (includes: 33 highly-urbanized, 5 independent component and 84 component cities which includes the 16 municipalities whose cityhood statuses were reversed in August 2010)
  * 1,512 municipalities
  * 42,800 officially declared as Barangay

The islands are divided into three groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Luzon islands include Luzon Island itself, Palawan, Mindoro, Marinduque, Masbate and Batanes Islands. The Visayas is the group of islands in the central Philippines, the largest of which are: Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Samar. The Mindanao islands include Mindanao itself, plus the Sulu Archipelago, composed primarily of Basilan, Sulu Island, and Tawi-Tawi.
The Philippines is divided into a hierarchy of local government units (LGUs) with the 81 provinces as the primary unit. Provinces are further subdivided into cities and municipalities, which are in turn composed of barangays. The barangay is the smallest local government unit.
The Philippines is divided into 17 regions with all provinces grouped into one of 16 regions for administrative convenience. The National Capital Region however, is divided into four special districts.
Most government offices establish regional offices to serve the constituent provinces. The regions themselves do not possess a separate local government, with the exception of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Regions
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  * Ilocos Region (Region I)
  * Cagayan Valley (Region II)
  * Central...