General Santos

General Santos, officially the City of General Santos, and abbreviated as GenSan, is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the region of Soccsksargen, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 697,315 people. It is located on the island of Mindanao, it is the southernmost and 15th-most populous city in the Philippines. It is the regional center for commerce and industry of the Soccsksargen region, and is geographically located within the province of South Cotabato but administered independently of it. Etymology The city was named after Gen. Paulino Santos, a former Commanding General of the Philippine Army and the settlement's leading pioneer. History The nomadic B'laan people are the original inhabitants of present-day General Santos, and traces of their early settlements of the area are found in the city's place names, which are derived from their vocabulary. Their name for the city, Dadiangas, is from the Ziziphus spina-christi tree that was once abundant in the area and is now a protected species under Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Right Act of 2007. The B'laan now lives alongside the city's new generation of settlers and other immigrants.