Baybay

Baybay is a component city on the central west coast of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, officially the City of Baybay, in the Eastern Visayas region. With an area of 45,934 hectares, about 460 square kilometres, it is the second largest city in the province after Ormoc, and it was once the biggest town of Leyte by population. The 2024 census counted 114,708 residents. Baybay is a major port from which ferries leave for Cebu and other islands, and its public terminal serves bus routes to Tacloban, Ormoc, Maasin, Manila and Davao City. The city is generally agricultural, with farming and fishing as the common livelihoods and rice, corn, abaca, root crops and fruit as the main crops, along with cottage industries such as bamboo and rattan craft, mat weaving and furniture making. It is the home of Visayas State University and has its own Baybay language, a Visayan language distinct from Waray and Cebuano.