TUGUEGARAO CITY Tuguegarao, officially Tuguegarao City and referred to by locals as Tugue , is a 3rd class component city in the Philippines. It is the capital of the province of Cagayan and the regional and institutional center of Cagayan Valley (Region II). Dubbed as the “Gateway to the Ilocandia and the Cordilleras,” it is the main entry to the Province of Cagayan. It has a total area of 144.80 km2 and lies in the south central tip of the province. It is approximately 483 kilometers north of Manila, about 65 minutes by air travel and about 10 hours by land, through the Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway, also known as the Maharlika Highway, which is the region’s trunk line road and which runs parallel to the Cagayan River. Tuguegarao City is bounded by Iguig , Cagayan on the north; by Peñablanca , Cagayan on the east; by the Province of Isabela on the south; and by the Cagayan River on the southwest and west. Across the river, the towns of Enrile and Solana are located to the southwest and west, respectively of Tuguegarao City. The city is almost encapsulated by the Cagayan River in the western and southern side, which explains for its northward expansion, and the Pinacanauan River, a tributary of Cagayan River, in the eastern part. The highest temperature ever recorded in the Philippines—42.2 °C (108.0 °F)—hit Tuguegarao on August 19, 1912 and May 11, 1969. The In the 2015 census, the population of Tuguegarao was 153,502 people with a density of 1,100 inhabitants per square kilometre or 2,800 inhabitants per square mile. It is the most populous and densest city in the Cagayan Valley region. Most of the inhabitants are Ilocanos, Ibanags and Itawes . Some are of Chinese and Indian descent. It is a major urban center in the Northeastern Luzon, a primary growth center and one of the fastest growing cities in the Philippines. The city of Tuguegarao is the center of excellence in education, commerce, trade and culture in Northern Luzon and as the economic center of the region, the city continuously aims for outstanding performance and competence in administration, citizen participation, community and economic development, cultural arts, education, fiscal management, infrastructure, intergovernmental cooperation, planning, public safety, recreation and leisure services, social services, and technology. In early 2016, Tuguegarao City was named as one of the ten emerging cities in the 2015 Next Wave Cities report, conducted by Department of Science and Technology - Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO).[29]