Socorro, officially the Municipality of Socorro ( Surigaonon: Lungsod nan Socorro; ), is an island

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Surigao del Norte Surigao del Norte ( Surigaonon: ''Probinsya nan Surigao del Norte''; ; Tagalog: ''Hilagang Surigao''), officially the Province of Surigao del Norte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Caraga region of Mindanao. The province was fo ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 25,942 people. The municipal territory is contiguous with the island of

Bucas Grande Bucas Grande is an island in the province of Surigao del Norte in the Philippines. The island is contiguous with the municipality of Socorro, Surigao del Norte. Its area is . Its name means "large mouth" or "large opening" in Philippine Spanish ...

. Formerly a sitio and later a barrio in Dapa known as Bunga, it was established as a municipality on February 22, 1961, by virtue of Executive Order No. 219.

Etymology

The municipality's name is derived from

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

for "help." A popular folklore suggested that the name originated from a Spanish priest's plea for help when his sailboat nearly capsized amid a storm while he was en route to officiate

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

in 1920. Brave local men of the then-sitio rushed to assist, saving the priest and his companions. In gratitude, the priest named the place “Socorro” to honor their courage and willingness to help others in danger. It was previously named Bunga, which translates to "fruit."

Geography

Barangays

Socorro is politically subdivided into 14

barangay The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...

s. Each barangay consists of

purok A ''purok'' () is an informal division within a barangay in the Philippines. While not officially considered a local government unit (LGU), a ''purok'' often serves as a unit for delivering services and administration within a barangay. ''Pur ...

s while some have

sitios A ''sitio'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own bar ...

. * Don Albino Taruc (

Poblacion ''Poblacion'' (from Spanish '' población'', meaning "population"), sometimes abbreviated as Pob., is a term used in the Philippines to refer to the administrative center, downtown, old town, or commercial area of a city or municipality. It ...

) * Del Pilar * Doña Helene * Honrado * Navarro (

) * Nueva Estrella * Pamosaingan (formerly Gardeña and part of Del Carmen) * Rizal (

) * Salog * San Roque * Santa Cruz * Sering * Songkoy * Sudlon

Climate

Demographics

Socorro is noted for having 75 people's organization in 2023.

Economy

Socorro is a tourist destination and agricultural town, featuring the Sohoton Lagoons, Rock Islands, and the Atoyay Farmstead. The area also includes white sand beaches, limestone forests with high biodiversity, and communal agricultural areas like the Atoyay Farmstead. Notable wildlife species in the limestone forests include the

tarsier Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was prehistorically more globally widespread, all of the existing species are restricted to M ...

hornbill Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

, and civet cat. Other attractions include several accessible lakes, Magkahuyog Falls, and extensive mangrove areas. Historical sites, such as the Colorum Uprising landmark, commemorating a 1924 revolt by a religious sect against government forces, while the Socorro Swimming Pool, originating from local springs, is a popular recreational site. Socorro also has abundant yet undeveloped mineral resources, such as

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

covering ,

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

, and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

covering .

References

External links

Socorro Profile at PhilAtlas.com Socorro Profile at the DTI Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index
*

Philippine Standard Geographic Code The Philippine Standard Geographic Code (PSGC) is a systematic classification and coding for geographic areas in the Philippines. It classifies areas based on the country's four levels of administrative divisions: regions, provinces, municipalities ...

br>Philippine Census InformationLocal Governance Performance Management System
Municipalities of Surigao del Norte Island municipalities in the Philippines 1961 establishments in the Philippines Political divisions established by Philippine executive order Long stubs with short prose {{Caraga-geo-stub