Tagbilaran City Wharf in Bohol

Tagbilaran City is Bohol Island’s capital which is the Philippine’s 10th largest island that is centrally located in the archipelago of the Philippines. The Tagbilaran City is 40 nautical miles south of Mactan Island in Cebu City and 556 nautical miles southeast from Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

Tagbilaran City is highly accessible from key cities of the Philippines by air and sea transports. Because Bohol is a major tourist spot in the Philippines, about thousands of tourists are expected to set foot on the Island monthly.

Tagbilaran City Wharf serves as the major insular port of entry in the Province of Bohol. It mainly connects Bohol Island to Cebu City. Travelers from Cebu City can reach Tagbilaran City Wharf through fast crafts within an hour and a half only.

The Tagbilaran City Wharf also connects Bohol Island to Dumaguete City, Dapitan, Siquijor, Manila and Cagayan de Oro City. The Tagbilaran City Wharf serves as the commercial port of the Island but another municipal wharf is maintained by Tagbilaran City government located at Barangay Manga. Another fishing wharf is also located at Sitio Ubos.

Both Tagbilaran City municipal wharfs are mostly used for the municipalities’ fishing boats. The Tagbilaran City wharf on the other hand is bustling with more than daily 20 commercial ship calls majority of which are from the route of Cebu, Plaridel City, Cagayan De Oro and Dumaguete City.

There are about approximately 51,000 disembarking monthly passengers and 67,000 passengers aboard the ships from Tagbilaran City Wharf going to various key cities of the Philippines.

After the Philippine Revolution in 1898, Tagbilaran City Wharf was already located at Sitio Ubos. The Wharf used to be inaccessible from large ships owing to the shallow Strait and Tagbilaran Bay. Many rocks were protruding from the seawater surface thereby posing risks to ship to dock at Tagbilaran Wharf.

It is interesting to note that Tagbilaran City was chosen to be Bohol’s capital town since Moro pirates will be unable to attack the port. Most large ships will need to anchor about 2 kilometer away with the necessity for the passengers to ride a boat in order to reach the dock of Tagbilaran City Wharf.

But Americans in 1921 find the need to improve and construct a bigger wharf. The big rocks were eliminated and were used to become filling materials for the construction of causeway of the wharf and they dug a channel in order to accommodate ships to reach the Tagbilaran Wharf.

The local government was inclined to develop the Tagbilaran City Wharf being the gateway Port of Bohol Island to different key cities of the Philippines. It is the main commercial entry point to the Island of Bohol thereby playing a major role in the economic and industrial commerce of Tagbilaran City and the entire Bohol Island of the Philippines.