Topography

The locality that is endowed with extensive plain and vast irrigable tract of lands, uneven distribution of mountains and hills, long rivers, numerous streams and couple of swamps, characterized its topography.

Source: Municipal Agriculture Office

Climate

The municipality’s geographical location manifests that the area belongs to Type II of the climate classification based on the PAG-ASA guidelines characterized by no lengthy dry season and a very pronounced minimum rainfall. See figure 5.

Its average annual rainfall distribution is 320.54 millimeters. It rises as high as 408.98 millimeters during the months of November till March and decreases as low as 108.46 starting from the months of April until September.

The average annual temperature range of the area is 26”C. It rises up to 27 degrees C but not decreases below 26’C.

There are two (2) types of seasonal wind prevalent in the locality every year.  Local folks or Cateeleños identified these as “Amihan” a period that usually occurs during the months of November to March.  These are the winds that come from the north going south. “Batukan” or winds that usually strike during the dry season starting from the months of August to October are winds that come from the west and east.

Total Population

As to the population distribution by age group, both censal years 2010 and 2015 aging 5-9 has more population other than age group. Male population dominated the female population.

Population Distribution by Age Group and Sex, Year 2010 and 2015

Source: PSA

There were 40,704 people for the total population in 2015. About 8,673 or 21.30% of this figure live in the rural area (Table 2). Only Barangay Poblacion has been considered and classified by the PSA as the urban area where most of the economic activities, infrastructures utilities and facilities are found. Cateel is primarily an agricultural area, so that the rest of the barangays engage in agri-industrial activities.

Table 4. Household Population by Urban and Rural Barangay and Average Household Size, Year 2015

Source: PSA 2015

The municipality’s has a total population of 18,065 in both sexes under the school going population with the sex ratio of 105.4, working age 23,712 with the sex ratio of 111.8, labor force aging to 15 and over 25,504 with the sex ratio of 113.4 and dependent population has 16,992 population with the sex ratio of 104.7.

Mostly men dominated the female population only in the dependent population aging 65 and over female dominated the men population.

Table 5. Population Composition by School-Age, Working-Age, Dependent-Age Group and Sex, Year 2015

Source: Computed based on the latest NSO data on household population by Age-Group.

Population Density

Barangay Poblacion is considered urban area with a population density of 9.85 and having built-up density of 6.75.

For the rural barangays, Barangay San Rafael has the highest built-up density at 2.39 persons per hectare and most populous among the 15 rural barangays.

Table 6. Urbanization Density, Gross Density and Built-up Density, Year 2015

Source: To be computed using NSO data

Ethnicity

The Dabawenyo dialect dominates the different languages spoken in the municipality where there are 4,952 or 53 percent of the municipality’s total household. It is followed by Mandaya with 3,620 or 39 percent of the household. The remaining 755 or 9 percent of household represent the other dialect spoken within the municipality.

Table 7. Household Population by Ethnicity and Sex

Source: NSO/PSA 2015

Religion

The Roman Catholic ranks the highest in number with 34,923 or 85.80 percent of the municipality’s total population. Other religious sects with biggest affiliation next to Roman Catholic in the 2015 census were: Seventh Day Adventist – 3.25 percent, Evangelical (Phil. Council of Evangelical Churches) – 3.08 percent, Iglesia ni Cristo – 2.98 percent, International Oneway Outreach – 1.28 percent, and Church of Christ – .79 percent. The remaining 2.83 percent are other religious affiliation present within the municipality.

Table 8. Population by Religious Affiliation, Year 2015

 Source: NSO/PSA 2015

Languages/Dialect

The Dabawenyo dialect dominates the different languages spoken in the municipality where there are 4,952 or 53 percent of the municipality’s total household. It is followed by Mandaya with 3,620 or 39 percent of the household. The remaining 755 or 9 percent of household represent the other dialect spoken within the municipality.

Table 9. Population by Mother Tongue, Year 2015

    Source: NSO/PSA 2015

Poverty Incidence

 The poverty incidence increases after typhoon Pablo. The damages of properties and source of livelihood was affected that hinder the economic activity was paralyzed for several months. The recovery is also fast due to the help of the National Government and joint effort of the provincial and municipal LGUs in enforcing and implementing the rehabilitation plan. The presence of INGOs & NGOs is of great help in realizing the total recovery.

The survey conducted on Family Income and Expenditure in year 2000 covering 7,890 households in municipality of Cateel showed an average annual family income of Php 111,349 or an average monthly income of Php 9,279. The average monthly income of Cateel is lower than the national average monthly family income of Php 12,003; however, it is higher than Davao Region–11 average monthly income of Php 6,793.

Wages and salaries as well as entrepreneurial activities were the main sources of income of workers.   About 87.6% of wages and salaries came from non-agricultural sources.   On the part of entrepreneurial activities, much of its income sources (51.5%) also came from the non-agricultural actives.

 A high percentage of municipality’s residents are poor because they are not earning enough income to provide household members the necessities for a decent living. The current dynamics of the municipality’s economy simply doesn’t allow them to have an ample take.

The municipality’s poor now stands at 26.70%, a little better than the national rate of 27.6 but too high if ranged against the benchmark of within 7-10 percent for municipality.   It is also behind the target supported by the United Nations to reduce the poverty incidence to within 15% by 2015. That poverty incidence is equivalent to 2,704 of the municipality’s 9,045 households not earning the monthly poverty threshold income of Php7,821 per month or Php 93,852 a year.

Such high poverty incidence level prevails despite the reported low unemployment rate of 4.3%, a great improvement from 14% in 2007 and 11% in 2010.   The underemployment rate of 21% has pulled the employment situation down.   This means an effective unemployment rate of 25.3%.

Social Services

Number of Schools

Education services are provided in all levels, from the daycare, preschool, elementary, high school, to the tertiary level. There are 24 elementary, 4 secondary and 1 tertiary levels operating in the municipality. These education services are extended by the government and except 1 secondary managed by the private sector.

Table 10. Inventories of Schools by Level, Location and Type, 2018

Source: DepEd Cateel

Number of Hospitals

Public and private health services are provided in the municipality, with government delivering most the primary health care services through the Municipal Health Office. The municipality has an existing 15 Baraangay Health Stations, 3 Sub-health Stations and 1 Rural Health Stations.

The municipality has 1 birthing facility and 1 district hospital both located in barangay Poblacion.

Table 11. Summary of Health Facilities, by Category of Ownership, 2015

Source: MHO

Number of Daycare Centers

Daycare services are provided in 16 barangays of the municipality. On the average, each of the served barabgay has about 3 daycare facilities. There is 1 residential center maintained by the municipality that provide services for abused female children, women and children who are victims of violence, male children needing special protection, mentally challenged male children and youth, male children in conflict with the law and male and female adult drug dependents.

Table 12. Social Welfare Facilities, Services and Clientele, 2015

 Source: MSWDO

Economy

Major Economic Activities

Agriculture is one of the primary economic drivers of the municipality of Cateel with farming, fishing, livestock and poultry raising as its main economic activities. Cateel is considered as the rice bowl of the province and a potential rice granary of Davao Oriental. The agricultural area of municipality is 12,491.06 hectares or 22.90 percent of its total land area.

Revenue sources of the municipality are from establishments managed by the Municipal Economic Enterprise Office and other establishments and activities covering agriculture, commerce and trade, industry and tourism.

Employment by Type/Classification/Type of Business/Trade, 2017

  Source: Municipal Treasurer’s Office/MEEO

Number of Business Establishments by Industry Sector

The total number of employees recorded by the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) were 387 in 2015 for all categories of establishments. It was noted that the establishments and employees were increasing.

 Inventory of Commercial Establishment by Economic Activities, 2017

Source: Municipal Treasurer’s Office/MEEO

Infrastructure

Transport and Utilities

The LGU Officials built a passenger/overland transport terminal, known as the Cateel Overland Transport Terminal, that conforms the rational standard, which is located at Sitio Tinimbo, Barangay Poblacion. It has an area of 1,570.8 square meters and served all bound routes. It caters more or less 9 units of Public Utility Buses (PUBs) and about 12 units of Public Utility Vans (PUVs) in 20 hour daily operation.

The Surigao-Davao Coastal Road highway traverse the municipality from north to south bound; and from the west bound is the Cateel-Compostela Road, making the municipality accessible to all municipalities and provinces.

Administrative Infrastructure

 All government buildings used by the executive and legislative department and other offices were all repaired after the devastation of typhoon Pablo five (5) years ago. The municipal hall is occupied by thirteen (13) offices, three (3) from national agencies and 10 from local offices including the Office of the Municipal Mayor. For the legislative building it is occupied by seven (7) offices including the Office of the Municipal Vice Mayor. Other government buildings constructed includes public market, land transport terminal, food court, slaughter house, disaster building and evacuation center.

The current total office floor space is 584 square meters that accommodates 208 employees. As per computation the floor space per employee is only 2.80 sq. meters which is higher the standard space requirement of 2.50 sq.m. per employee in accordance with the National Building Code of the Philippines (PD 1096) .

Environment 

Solid Waste Management

Solid waste management reduces/eliminates adverse impacts on the environment and human health and supports economic development and improved quality of life. A number of processes are involved in effectively managing waste for the municipality of Cateel. These include source reduction; collection; segregation; recycling and composting; transfer; availing of alternative technologies for residual waste; disposal; shared responsibility on special waste and IEC.

General Air Quality

At present, there was no air quality assessment conducted for the municipality of Cateel. But as to the present condition based on the situation the municipality has a good quality of air since the issue of air pollution is not quite a problem.

General Water Quality

Water samples are taken from available water resources of the study area to initially evaluate water quality conditions. Most of the water resources were tested on-site using a Handheld Multi Parameter – Cyber Scan PC10 and parameters includes temperature, pH, conductivity, and NaCl. The total dissolved solids (TDS) values are derived from the conductivity value of the water sample and factored by 0.70. Detailed water laboratory results are needed for other parameters of drinking water standard parameters.

Water samples were collected and tested during the month of October 2013 – February 2014. Results of the range of tests results in pH is from 6.53 to 8.38 which is within the recommended range of 6.5 -8.5 from the national drinking water standards. The total dissolved solids (TDS) values are from 54.6 mg/l to 462 mg/l with some samples exceeding the 500mg/l maximum limit.

Areas with acceptable standard for drinking water are available in all barangays.