Mayorga, Leyte

Mayorga (IPA: [mɐ'jɔɾgɐ]), officially the Municipality of Mayorga (Bungto han Mayorga; Bayan ng Mayorga), is a 5th class municipality in the province of Leyte, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 18,071 people.

The town was created in 1954 from the barrios of Mayorga, Andres Bonifacio, Talisay, San Roque, Burgos, Liberty, Union, Ormocay, Wilson, and the southern portion of barrio of Cogon Bingcay which were then a part of Dulag.

History
Mayorga at first was a barrio under the municipality of Dulag. The name first appeared in the record of localities in 1865 when Capitan Lorenzo de Paz, gobernadorcillo of Dulag, created the barrio. The name was suggested by Fr. Victoriano Sela, a Franciscan Friar and the parish priest of Dulag at the time.

Originally the name was Mallorca, the name of the hometown of Fr. Sela. The name presumably suggests the presence of palm trees in the locality, as the island of Mallorca (IPA: [ma'ʝorka]) in Spain was famous for its luxurious growth of palms. However, the natives found some difficulty in pronouncing the name. Whether the natural evolution and popular usage corrupted the name "Mallorca" into the present "Mayorga," or whether the transformation was sanctioned by official decree motivated by phonetic convenience is not known. Nevertheless, the original "Mallorca" has evolved into its present name.

Barangays
Mayorga is politically subdivided into 16 barangays. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

In 1957, the sitios of Picas, Guintulayan, and Bañgag were converted into barrios and renamed Santa Cruz, General Antonio Luna, and Calipayan, respectively.


 * A. Bonifacio
 * A. Mabini
 * Burgos
 * Calipayan
 * Camansi
 * General Antonio Luna
 * Liberty
 * Ormocay
 * Poblacion Zone 1
 * Poblacion Zone 2
 * Poblacion Zone 3
 * San Roque
 * Santa Cruz
 * Talisay
 * Union
 * Wilson

Demographics
In the 2020 census, the population of Mayorga, Leyte, was 18,071 people, with a density of undefined PD/km2.