Pagadian City Geography
Pagadian City is located in the northeastern side of the province of Zamboanga del Sur in Mindanao, one of the Philippines’ three major island archipelagos. Its geographical coordinates are 07 degrees 49’43” latitude and 123 degrees 20’4.61″ longitude. All in all, Pagadian City has a total land area of 33,380 hectares (or 378.80 square kilometers). It is bounded by the municipalities of Midsalip on the north, Lakewood on the west, Labangan on the northwest and east, and in the southwest, Dumalinao and Tigbao. Illana Bay completes its land boundary on the southeast.
Topographically, the city is what can be considered as a mixed relief. It has a steeply sloping terrain, especially in the northwestern portion where the steep hills and mountains cover an estimated area of about 15,090 hectares. This makes up about 45% of the whole city area. The areas in the direct north as well as the central area, on the other hand, have gentle to moderate slopes; it makes up 47% of the total land area. Finally, the remaining eight percent are level or nearly level, and they make up most of the eastern and the southern parts of the city. The urban area of the city takes about 845.48 hectares of land. The elevation of this urban area of the city ranges from 1 MSL (mean sea level) near Pagadian Bay to about 100 MSL which is in the area of Barangay San Jose.
Due to its topography, particularly the elevation, the majority of the 54 barangays (or rural towns) of Pagadian do not experience that much flooding. The southern and eastern part of the city, though, do sometimes experience flooding, especially if the rain is particularly heavy, since these are the parts of the city that are level areas. This especially happens when the street canals overflow. Most of the time, though, the rains and water drain to the rivers and tributaries which make up most of the natural drainage system of the area. The 13 urban barangays have four major rivers: the Balangasan River, the Bulatoc River, the Gatas River, and the Tiguma River. All these exit to Pagadian Bay. The rural barangays, on the other hand, only have the Labagangan River as a major river although it does have three major tributaries that pass through the all the barangays. The water load is exited to Illana Bay in the Labangan municipality.
Pagadian City is also rich with geographical land and sea formations and most of them have become tourist attractions. For beaches, it has the White Sand beach, Muricay beach, Poloyagan beach, and Bomba beach. Most of them are relatively undeveloped. As for mountains and hill formations, Mt. Palpalan, Mt. Susong Dalaga, and Mt. Pinokis are the main ones and are also natural attractions, especially for mountaineers, while Dumagoc Hill, Bulatoc Hill, and Bogo Hill make up the lesser elevations. Mt. Palpalan Falls, Ditoray Falls, Lourdes Falls, Pulacan Falls, and Lison Valley Falls constitute the major waterfalls in the area. Kendis Cave and Manga Cave, on the other hand, are Pagadian’s very own natural crevices, both of which are under study.