Palompon

In 1737, Jesuit missionaries arrived and built the first chapel which was later burned during a Moro raid. It was rebuilt and as a refuge from attack the chapel was enclosed with piled stones, with a " cota" along the frontage. When the people saw Moro vintas coming, the big church bell would ring the alarm and people rushed inside the church, fighting back with bows and arrows and spears.

At the time Palompon was under the parish of Hilongos. The parish priest visited the place occasionally for marriage, baptism and masses.

The Jesuit, later succeded by the Agustinians, built the present church with 300 natives. It was a forced labor without pay. If one or some of the laborers were unable to work, they were substituted by others just to maintain the quota every day for the next thirty years. The structure soon became a great landmark towering over the settlement of Palompon, reputed to be the oldest church in Leyte. On november 12, 1784 Palompon obtained its parochial independence from Hilongos.

Palompon is 124 Kilometer (road distance) from Tacloban City, the provincial capital of Leyte, 66 Kilometers from Ormoc City, the commercial growth center of the western coast of Leyte province and 72 nautical miles from Cebu City.
Palompon lies approximately at north latitude between 10 degress 55 minutes and 11 degrees 07 minutes and east longtitude between 124 degrees 22 minutes and 123 degrees 29 minutes. It is bounded in the north by municipality of Villaba and Matag-ob, in the east by Ormoc City and Merida, in the south by Isabel and in the west by the Camotes Sea.
The land area of Palompon is 128.46 Kilometers, or 12,845.58 hectares. The municipality has fifty (50) barangays, ten (10) of which, are poblacion barangays of an area of approximately two square kilometers. The other (40) barangays are distributed along the coastline and the interior rural and mountainous areas.
Palompon, a 3rd class municipality now is situated in the north western part of Leyte has a population of 50,775 and an area of 128 sq. m. It is run by iron -willed leaders inclined to improve and develop the infrastructure program of the municipality.

The newly constructed port terminal with an area of 14, 170 sq. m. capable to shoulder more than 47, 474.724 gross tonnage of cargoes annually, the recently completed 21 km. Concrete national road linking Palompon and Villaba and the 21 km. Concrete national road connecting Palompon to Isabel shows the continuing effort of the LGU to provide appropriate transportation accessibility, The town owns 3 dump trucks, 1 pay loader, 1 bulldozer, 1 road grader and 1 backhoe to work on farm to market roads to connect all barangays to the poblacion. thus Providing more comforting accessibility to barangays folks in going to town proper. The Caduhaan-Masaba roads is almost completed.

Rehabilitation and improvement of the Lliberty-Santiago and Liberty-Mabini phase I farm to market road is already completed. The project cost a little more than P 11 million grant with a 10% counterpart from the municipality. It is under the ARCDP World Bank project.
The municipality is situated in the northwest part of the province,
bounded in the north by the municipality of Villaba which is 21 km., by
Ormoc City 65 km. And Isabel 21 km. It is 124 km. Road distance
from Tacloban City, the provincial capital with a travel time of
approximately 3 hours via the municipality of Villaba. From Tacloban
City, one can come to Palompon by bus and from Ormoc City by PUJ
or shuttle service via the municipality of Matag-ob and Villaba.

The recent concreting of the highway from Villaba to Palompon to
Isabel greatly lessened the travel time of vehicles in traveling from one
point to another thereby boosting trade and commerce and economic
activity in the municipality.

Palompon has a beautiful sea port area with a natural breakwater, an islet that prevents the entrance of big waves and strong winds. It was because of this port that Palompon was considered the premier trading area of western Leyte in the pre-2nd post-war era before it was supplanted by Ormoc. Even today, Palompon remains as the center of commerce and trade for the northwestern municipalities of Isabel, Kananga, Matag-ob, Villaba, Tabango, and San Isidro.

The municipality is openly accessible to other ports of the country such as the province of Cebu, Masbate, Iloilo, Aklan, Romblon, the northern part of Samar and western and northern provinces of Mindanao and southern provinces of Luzon. At present, there are daily trips for Cebu. With the data collected from Palompon Ports Authority (PPA) the volume of cargoes is steadily increasing. The volume of passenger traffic is also increasing. This excludes the daily land trip by PHILTRANCO from Palompon to Manila and from Manila to Palompon.
The municipality of Palompon is served by Electric Cooperative V (LEYECO V) for its power needs. The source of electric power is the 112 megawatts Tongonan geothermal plant. Only 80 megawatts is currently used in Leyte Samar route including PASAR and there is an excess of 32 unutilized.

The Palompon has a circular electrical connection from the geothermal plant, one that goes southward to Isabel and one that goes northward to Villaba, all at 69 kv, one line that is out can easily be connected to the other line.

To date, the Tongonan geothermal plant energized the municipality's 50 barangay's, serving more than 8,500 out of 10, 000 potential household connection.