It is the capital of the province of Zamboanga del Sur and the regional center of Zamboanga Peninsula. Pagadian City is the second largest city in the region, after the independent city of Zamboanga.With its beginnings as a stop-over for traders who ply the road between the old Spanish fort-town of Zamboanga on the southwestern tip of the Zamboanga peninsula and other bigger towns to the north of
the old Zamboanga Province and apart from its sheltered bay and good fishing grounds, it was not a place where anyone imagined that a city would be founded on it as it is situated on steeply rolling terrain. In the course of its local history, waves of different kinds of people came to stay and eventually called among themselves "Pagadianons."The iconic symbol of Pagadian is its uniquely designed tricycle built to adopt to the city's hilly terrain. It is the only place in the Philippines with a public transport inclined at about 25-40° angle. The city proper and surrounding areas of Muricay, Tawagan Sur and White Beach was originally named "Talpokan," an indigenous word that means "a place of numerous springs.The officially accepted origin of its name are words taken from the Iranun dialect, "pagad" (wait) and "padian" (market) which shows that Pagadian had been a trading area in the past. Other theories suggest that it was named after a bird that the native inhabitants call "Gagadian or that the city's name came from the word "Pangadyi" (Prayer), later to be known as "Pangadyian" (A place to pray or The Land of Prayers).
