Cavite City

Cavite City is a city in Cavite province in the Philippines. The city is home to the Annual Cavite City Water Festival or Regada, held every 17th and 24th day of June. It is a festive and religious celebration of the feast of St. John the Baptist. Regada started in 1996 and features the "Paulan" or "Basayawan", which is a street party where celebrators dance under water sprinklers.

Understand
This article covers only Cavite City proper; Corregidor Island, administratively part of Cavite City is practically covered in a separate page.

Cavite City lies at the hook-shaped peninsula that lends Cavite province its name. Until the Spaniards constructed a causeway as a permanent link to the rest of Cavite, most of the peninsula was a sandbar, which became flooded during high tide and also posed a risk for ships, and Cavite City, then a town, virtually turned into an island.

The population is around 101,000, as of 2020.

History
Cavite City has its share of historical charms, and was the capital of Cavite until it was transferred to Trece Martires. It is established as a town since its discovery by Miguel López de Legazpi, and at the midst of Spanish colonial rule, Cavite, then called Cavite La Punta, served as an important point for the Manila-Acapulco galleons, and serves as the de facto Port of Manila because of the sandbank that prevents ships from entering the mouth of the Pasig River. As the town grew, Cavite since ceded four independent towns, like San Roque, La Caridad, San Antonio, Santa Cruz, and Dalahican, which remain as barangays. The Spaniards built a causeway over the sandbank to connect the town with mainland Cavite, but erosion reduced this to an isthmus; the causeway remains today as part of Manila-Cavite Road.

During American occupation, Corregidor Island and other smaller islands were added to the city, and the Port of Cavite was converted into a US Navy station, Naval Station Sangley Point. Cavite gained city status in 1940, one year before World War II broke out in the Pacific. Cavite City is devastated by the 1945 Allied bombings; Sangley Point, the walls of Porta Vaga, and the old town were badly destroyed by bombs. Most damaged structures are required to be demolished, and only a few remains of the old Port of Cavite.

Orientation
Cavite City is small, and its street layout has hardly changed since the Spanish colonial era. It is divided into 17 barangays; the most important being San Roque, which houses the city hall, plaza and Fort San Felipe.

Talk
Cavite City is one of the few places where the Spanish creole language Chavacano is still spoken by most of the population. The variety of Chavacano spoken here is different from what you may encounter at Zamboanga City, with a different way of indicating verb tense and a distinct set of pronouns. Some local businesses have been promoting Chavacano through signs.

Tagalog is either spoken as a first or second language, and is the lingua franca. English is spoken and understood by many locals, and most signs are in English.

Get in
Cavite City lies at the western end of Manila-Cavite Road (Route 62); it is 30 minutes from Manila by car.

By plane


As of February 2020, the only passenger services on Sangley Point Airport are charter flights to Balesin Island on Alphaland Aviation. There are no scheduled passenger flights yet, but low-cost carriers serving Ninoy Aquino International Airport are planning to move some flight to Cavite City as part of NAIA's long-term decongestion plan.

Ground transportation: Saulog operates an express bus from NAIA with a stop at the Parañaque Intermodal Terminal Exchange (PITX).

By bus
Saint Anthony of Padua Transport and Saulog provide service from Manila (Park N' Ride) or Parañaque (PITX) to their terminals in Cavite City. You can also hop onto the colorful but cramped minibuses ("baby buses") from Baclaran in Parañaque or Bacoor.