Butuan

The City of Butuan is the regional center of Caraga, serving as an administrative region of the Philippines; it is a highly urbanized city. It is located at the northeastern part of Agusan Valley, Mindanao, sprawling across theAgusan River. It is bounded to the north, west and south by Agusan del Norte, to the east by Agusan del Sur and to the northwest by Butuan Bay. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 309,709 people.
The name "Butuan" is believed to have originated from the sour fruit, batuan. Other etymology sources say that it comes from a certain "Datu Buntuan", a chieftain who once ruled over Butuan.
Butuan was the capital of Agusan del Norte until 2000 when Republic Act 8811 transferred the capital to Cabadbaran City. However many of the provincial government offices are still located there, including the provincial capitol, as are many the Caraga regional offices of the national government agencies.

Butuan City is the center of education in the Caraga region. There are now two universities in the city. The first home grown university of the region is the Father Saturnino Urios University. The second is the Caraga State University (CSU), which was formerly known as the Northern Mindanao Institute of Science and Technology (NORMISIST). There is also the Timber City Academy, the oldest Chinese school in the region. Other than the privately run academic institutions that address the collegiate-level needs of the locals, most basic-level schools are publicly run, notably the Butuan City SPED Center, the Butuan Central Elementary School, and the Agusan National High School (ANHS) which are adjacent to each other and found at the old center of the city. Teachers from these two schools have significant exposure to complimentary seminars and workshops with partnership programs such as the Philippine-Australia Project on Basic Education (PROBE), enabling these schools and others to maintain high rating National Achievement Test results. There are also religious schools in the city, like the Liberty Foundational Christian Academy (LFCA), that are armed at producing "God-loving, smart and trust-worthy students."


The Kahimunan Festival is celebrated every third Sunday of January in celebration of the city patron Sr. Sto. Niño. This celebration is a Butuanon version of the Sinulog festival of Cebu City. Kahimunan is a Lumad term which means "gathering".

The Cultural festival/tourism consciousness week is a week long celebration that lasts from the last week of July up to August 2 in celebration of the Charter Day of Butuan.

The Abayan Festival, a part of the Cultural Festival, is held in celebration of St. Anne, patroness of Agusan River, which is celebrated every last Sunday of July.

Adlaw Hong Butuan is the charter day celebration of Butuan, which includes a thanksgiving mass, motorcade, palagsing festival, street party recognitions of outstanding Butuanons and city government employees night.

Butuan celebrates its annual fiesta, the Balangay Festival, for the celebration of the city patron St. Joseph every whole month of May, with the the exact feast day of St. Joseph on May 19. The city holds many events such as summer league basketball championship games, thanksgiving mass, and more.

“Palagsing” is a local delicacy popularly made in Banza, one of the old poblacion of Butuan City. The popularity of making Palagsing in Banza is attributed to the abundance of Lumbiya (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) where Unaw or lumbiya starch is harvested from the Palm Tree. Another popular ingredient is young coconut meat taken from coconut trees. The mixture of unaw, young coconut and brown sugar make palagsing moist and chewy. They are delicately wrapped by banana leaves and are boiled for 30 minutes to create the soft consistency of palagsing.