Poro Point, also known historically as San Fernando Point ( es, Punta San Fernando), is a

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Joh ...

and peninsula located in the city of

San Fernando, La Union San Fernando City, officially the City of San Fernando ( ilo, Siudad ti San Fernando; fil, Lungsod ng San Fernando), is a 3rd class component city and capital of the province of La Union, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a pop ...

, on the island of

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, ...

in the Philippines. It projects northwesterly about into the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

. It was named after its location within

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolit ...

Poro and is the site of Poro Point Freeport Zone, a

special economic zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...

established since 1993.

Geography

Poro Point forms the western boundary of San Fernando Bay where the city's downtown core and international seaport are located. To the south, it overlooks

Lingayen Gulf The Lingayen Gulf is a large gulf on northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central. The Agno River and the Bali ...

which spreads all the way into the northern coast of

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan ( pag, Luyag/Probinsia na Pangasinan, ; ilo, Probinsia ti Pangasinan; tl, Lalawigan ng Pangasinan), is a coastal province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its c ...

up to

Santiago Island Santiago Island may refer to: *Isla Santiago (Baja California Sur) * Santiago Island (Cape Verde) *Santiago Island (Galápagos) *Santiago Island (Philippines) Santiago Island is an island located off the northeast coast of Bolinao, Pangasinan, Phi ...

in Bolinao. The headland is about wide rising gently to the northwest to an elevation of . White cliffs are prominent features along its western coastline. The southern side of the peninsula contains the 65.5-hectare

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-inspired Thunderbird Resort with white-sand beaches, a nine-hole golf course and an artificial lake completed in 2008. The entire peninsula covers an area of composed of coralline limestone possibly dating back to the Pleistocene age. It is a habitat of several migrating bird species such as

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania ...

grey heron The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern ...

starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus ''Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...

, and pied triller. The point is located about from the San Fernando Airport and some north-northwest of

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital city, capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is Cities of the Philippines#Independent cities, highly urbanize ...

. It is part of barangay Poro but administered by the

Bases Conversion and Development Authority The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA; fil, Pangasiwaan sa Pangkaunlarang Kumbersiyon ng mga Base) is a government-owned and controlled corporation under the Office of the President of the Philippines. It is a governme ...

as a tourism and industrial estate.

History

Poro Point has been the site of a

navigational aid Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

since 1885. The first Poro Point Lighthouse built during the Spanish colonial period is a cylindrical steel tower that was prefabricated in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

and was completed on November 28, 1885. It measures approximately in height and was one of the seventeen ''luces locales'' (local lights) built by the Spanish in the Philippines. On July 28, 1903, after the U.S. gained control of the Philippines from Spain, 200 meters of land surrounding the lighthouse was converted into a US reservation through Executive Order No. 06 signed by Civil Governor

William H. Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

. By November 1903 through an executive order by U.S. President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

, the site became Camp Wallace and eventually, the Wallace Air Station. In 1979, a concrete tower was built to replace the Spanish lighthouse. This structure that now towers over the area is tall. With the transfer of the U.S. facility to the Philippine government in September 1991, it became the headquarters of the Naval Forces Northern Luzon (NAVFORNOL) of the

Philippine Navy The Philippine Navy (PN) ( tgl, Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas, , Sea Army of the Philippines) ( es, Armada de Filipinas, , Ejército del Mar de las Filipinas) is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an es ...

called Poro Point Naval Station. It was later renamed to Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar after the former Navy chief. The former Wallace Air Station has also been converted into a freeport and investment zone.

Gallery

References

{{reflist Landforms of La Union Headlands of the Philippines Peninsulas of the Philippines