Naga City, Camarines Sur

Wikitravel:https://wikitravel.org/en/Naga

Naga City, Camarines Sur Part 2

Food and delicacies

Naga is known for some native foods and delicacies.

Kinalas and lug-lug are noodle soup dishes served Bicol style, similar to mami except for a topping of what looked like a pansit palabok sauce, and the meaty dark soup made from boiling a cow's or a pig's head until the flesh falls off. Kinalas is from the old Bicol word kalas, which refers to the "fall off the bone" meat that is placed on top of the noodles. The soup is the broth of beef bone and bone marrow (sometimes skull and brain included) or what Manileños call bulalo. The soup is topped with very tender meat slices that also came from the pig's head. It is usually served hot with an egg, and sprinkled with roasted garlic and spring onions. Kalamansi and patis may be added according to taste. Kinalas is usually paired with Baduya, or with Banana or camote cue.

Other delicacies, such as, buko juice, nata de coco, and pan de Naga are found in the city.

Sports

The Metro Naga Sports Complex, in Barangay Pacol, has Olympic-sized swimming pools, tennis courts, and a track oval. The Naga City Coliseum, renamed the Jesse M. Robredo Coliseum in honor of the late DILG secretary and former mayor of Naga, is the largest indoor arena in southern Luzon.

Transportation

Airport

The city is served by the Naga Airport (WNP) located in Barangay San Jose in the neighboring town of Pili. It has a runway of 1,402 meters (4,600 ft) and thus is capable of handling only small aircraft.

Railways

Naga is the regional head office and the center point of the Philippine National Railway's Bicol Line.

Naga—along with those of adjacent towns and cities, from Tagkawayan, Quezon Province, to Ligao, Albay—is served daily by the Bicol Express. There is a plan for extending the line to Legazpi in the near future.

Roads and bridges

As of December 2009, Naga's total road network is 185.02 kilometers (114.97 mi) in length, of which 147.67 kilometers (91.76 mi) are paved with concrete, 14.63 kilometers (9.09 mi) with asphalt overlay, 4.10 kilometers (2.55 mi) with asphalt, 11.87 kilometers (7.38 mi) are gravel, while 5.76 kilometers (3.58 mi) are dirt. This translates to an increase of 19.74 kilometers (12.27 mi) since 1998.

The city is connected to the capital Manila by the Quirino, Andaya, and Maharlika highways.

Land vehicles

The most common vehicles used for intra-city travel are public-utility jeepneys (PUJ), trimobiles, and padyaks.

Public utility jeepneys and multicabs, a total of 323 units, are a major mode of intra-city transport used by regular commuters.

Trimobiles are the most famous and most used land transport in the city. There are 1,500 units available for hire while 1,150 are for private use. There is now stiffer competition among drivers, which creates a wide range of problems, such as fare overcharging, refusal to convey passengers, an uneven distribution of trimobile service resulting in a shortage of transport service in some areas of the city, and rampant traffic violations.

Padyaks can be used in subdivision and barangay transportation. They provide a moderate amount of speed for those travelling to the city center.

Inter-town trips are served by 403 filcab vans and 708 jeepneys, while inter-provincial trips are served by an average of 300 airconditioned and non-airconditioned buses and 88 Filcab vans.

Recently, about 50 taxi units became available in the city. They use the new SM Naga City mall as a waiting area for passengers.

Public Services

Health care

Naga is the medical center of the Bicol Region. It has the largest hospitals in the region. The government-owned Bicol Medical Center and Camarines Sur Provincial Hospital, and the Universidad de Sta Isabel – Mother Seton Hospital, owned and operated by the Daughters of Charity, which are considered the largest hospitals in the region in size and accommodation. The Metropolitan Naga Medical District, in Naga, is the only medical district in Bicol.

Bicol Medical Center (BMC), the largest hospital in the region, is located in Concepcion Pequeña. It offers specialty training in internal medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, obstetric and gynecology, anesthesiology, radiology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, orthopedics, and traumatology. It is also a base hospital of the Helen Keller Foundation, where eye specialists from all over the country are trained and later assigned to different parts of the Philippines.

Universidad de Santa Isabel - Mother Seton Hospital (USI – MSH), is the largest private hospital in the region by number of admissions, medical equipment facilities, number of beds available, physical structure, and number of board-certified medical consultants. It is the only private hospital in Bicol offering specialty training programs, accredited by the Philippine Medical Association's component society, in major fields of medicine, such as internal medicine, pediatrics, and general surgery.

Camarines Sur Provincial Hospital is another government-owned hospital in the region. It was founded in 1989, by Republic Act 9963, and is one of the first-class hospitals in the Philippines.

The Plaza Medica houses the Naga Endocrine Laboratory (also called the Endolab), a modern hormone laboratory and facility.

Bicol Access Health Centrum is another large hospital located in the city. It houses the Regional Disease Research Center, the first and only in the region.

Several secondary and tertiary hospitals can be found in the city.

Waste management and disposal

Solid waste

The main pollutants in the city come in the form of solid waste generated daily. Generally, these wastes come from various sources: residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional.

Naga generates approximately 85.8 tons of waste per year, based on the latest 2009 estimates, where agricultural waste makes up a little more than one-fourth (26%) of the total volume. Food waste makes up a slightly smaller share, at 23%. Paper-based materials compose 12%, while other categories contribute smaller percentages.

Solid wastes are disposed of and collected via the city's garbage trucks, which traverse ten routes on a daily basis. Collected wastes are then dumped at the dump site in Barangay Balatas, where they are segregated according to type of waste, and whether biodegradable or non-biodegradable.

Liquid waste

A study of wastewater treatment facilities is incorporated in the proposed septage management ordinance, where the city will be very strict in forcing compliance with proper waste treatment by housing and establishment owners. The local water-utility agency has made the Metro Naga Water District its local partner in providing septage services, in exchange for adding environmental fees to water bills.

The new wastewater treatment facility of SM City Naga, operational since April 20, 2009, has a capacity of 500 cubic meters per day; but at present, it is treating only around 200.

Environmental awards

The Naga City government's concern for the environment has been nationally and internationally recognized. In 1998, it received the Dubai International Award as one of the Top-10 World Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment, for Naga's Participatory Planning Initiatives. It received the 1995, 1998, and 1999 Cleanest "AA" Slaughterhouse Awards given by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC). In 1994, Naga was a regional winner as the Cleanest and Greenest in Bicol. While in June 2001, LGU Naga City received the Saringgaya Award from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for Distinguished Contributions in the Development of Environmental Programs in Region V.

Fire safety

The Naga City Fire Station is one of the most well equipped fire stations in the country. Other fire stations include Naga Chin Po Tong Fire Brigade, and the Naga White Volunteers.

Police and law enforcement

The city is the location of two of the largest police stations in the Bicol Region. The historic Naga City Police Station, which had been the military base of operations of the Guardia Civil in the region, during the time of Spanish rule.[67][68] Another police office, located in Barangay Concepcion Grande, is the provincial office of the Philippine National Police for Camarines Sur.

Education

Naga is the home of the six largest universities in the Bicol Region. The city is also the home of several colleges.

Tertiary education

Ateneo de Naga University is a Jesuit university and the largest Catholic university in the Bicol Region. The school has been accredited by PAASCU since 1979 and is the first university in the Philippines to achieve PAASCU Institutional Accreditation, on top of its Autonomous and Level III status. It is a "center of excellence" in teacher education, and a center of development in business administration, entrepreneurship, and information technology. It has produced animators for the country since it launched its bachelor's degree in animation.

The Universidad de Santa Isabel was inaugurated on April 12, 1869, as a private Catholic university owned and run by the Daughters of Charity and is the "first normal school for women in the Philippines and Southeast Asia and the Heritage and Historical University of Bicol". It was established by six sisters of the order who arrived in the Bicol Region on April 4, 1868, with the Bishop of Caceres, Francisco Gainza, O.P., the founder of Colegio de Santa Isabel.

University of Nueva Caceres was the very first university in southern Luzon, and is considered to be largest in the region, due to its attendance and size, that offers courses from kindergarten to graduate school. Founded by Dr. Jaime Hernandez [bcl] in 1948, it has grown to become one of the leading institutions of higher learning in the Philippines. All course offerings are recognized by the government, and the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education, and Commerce are accredited by the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACU-COA). Its College of Engineering and Architecture is now one of the few regional centers for technological education in the Philippines.

Technical colleges in the city include the Bicol State College of Applied Sciences and Technology, Naga College Foundation, AMA Computer University, and STI College. Specialized computer schools include Worldtech Resources Institute (WRI), Philippine Computer Foundation College (PCFC), and Computer Communication Development Institute (CCDI).

The country's oldest live-in Christian higher educational institute for the clergy was established in the city in the early part of the 18th century. The Holy Rosary Seminary (El Seminario del Santissimo Rosario), a Roman Catholic seminary run by the Archdiocese of Caceres, has produced 22 bishops, including the first Filipino bishop, Jorge Barlin, and the first Filipino cardinal to work in the Roman Curia, Jose Tomas Sanchez. The seminary has contributed, as well, to the national heritage, through José María Panganiban, Tomás Arejola, and seven of the Fifteen Martyrs of Bicol. On January 29, 1988, the National Historical Institute declared the Holy Rosary Seminary a National Historical Landmark.

Secondary and primary education

The government-run Camarines Sur National High School registers over 15,000 enrollees every school year, and it is the biggest secondary school in the region. Among other secondary schools in the city is the Tinago National High School.

Naga City Science High School was established in Naga in 1994. It has pilot curricula, including the Spanish curriculum, which is the third one in the Philippines, and the journalism curriculum, which allows students to receive training and exposure to college-level situations. The school is consistently a champion at the Doon Po Sa Amin national documentary contest.

Two schools in the city, Saint Joseph School (SJS) and Naga Hope Christian School (NHCS), cater to Filipino-Chinese students.

Naga Parochial School (NPS) is the largest parochial school in the region; it receives 850 enrollees yearly. It is run by priests of the Archdiocese of Caceres. It is the first PAASCU-accredited parochial school in the Philippines. Some members of the clergy (63 as of 2007 with 3 bishops) assigned to the city are alumni of the school. Well-known personalities—such as the late Raul Roco, Jesse Robredo, Francis Garchitorena, Luis R. Villafuerte, Jaime Fabregas, Jonathan Dela Paz Zaens, Archbishop Tito Yllana, and Bishop Jose Rojas—are graduates of NPS.

Private schools—such as Arborvitae Plains Montessori, Inc.; Naga City Montessori School; and the Village Montessori School—can be found in the city. Tutorial and review centers for higher education are also found in the city.

Media

Television networks

All of the major television broadcasting channels' regional offices are located in the city. ABS-CBN Corporation expanded its network in Bicol by establishing ABS-CBN Naga, which operates ABS-CBN channel 11 Naga, ABS-CBN Sports and Action Naga and MOR! Local shows such as TV Patrol Bicol, Marhay na Aga Kapamilya are broadcast throughout the region via ABS-CBN Regional, which is also stationed in the city. TV5 Network Inc.'s TV5 airs shows via channel 22, GMA Network's channel 7 and GMA News TV channel 28 are also available.

Cable and satellite TV

The city's cable and satellite TV companies include South Luzon Cable and DCTV Cable Network Naga (Formerly SkyCable Naga).

Radio stations

Naga has a number of FM and AM radio stations, some of which operate 24 hours daily.