Overlooked Laguna Lake Fun Facts

Laguna Lake, or officially as Laguna de Bay, is a very important body of water in the Philippines, particularly in the island of Luzon, the country's largest. Even during the pre-colonial era, it served as a major thoroughfare for traders.

There are many things to share about Laguna Lake and here are the often overlooked fun facts, or trivia.

1. The official and legal name is "Laguna de Bay".
   • Based on this, the misnomer "Laguna Bay" was born, which is incorrect.
   • "Laguna de Bay" means "Lagoon/Lake of Bay". Bay (/bai/) is the name of the town the Spaniards observed utilizing the lake.
2. The unofficial name "Laguna Lake" is a tautological hydronym. It means it is a redundant name, in this case, "laguna" is lagoon or lake in Spanish thus it translates to "Lake Lake" in English.
   • Bonus: A common assumption is that "Laguna Lake" was named after the nearby province of Laguna. This is incorrect because the name of the lake came first before the province of Laguna was called "Laguna".

3. If this is not clear yet, Laguna de Bay is a lake, not a bay.
4. It is the largest freshwater body in the Philippines.
5. It looks like a giant dinosaur footprint, or officially described as W-shaped.
6. It used to be connected to Manila Bay.
7. It is a caldera.
8. The underwater "Laguna Caldera", as it is officially named, is dormant by PHIVOLCS classification, or potentially active under other global systems.

I am not sure that last bit qualifies as a "fun fact", it is not fun to live near a volcano regardless of its status. But it is what it is for us.

Did you know that Metro Manila is actually sandwiched by two massive volcanic calderas? The Laguna Caldera is one, and the other is the Corregidor Caldera right at the mouth of Manila Bay (potentially active)! But that is a post for another day.

(Quietly whispers: There are also Pinatubo to the North-West (active), Arayat Volcano to the North (inactive), Mount Mariveles to the West (potentially active), Taal Volcano to the South which is the second most active volcano in the Philippines, and Mount Banahaw to the South-East which most are not aware is classified as an active volcano.)

Cover image: 〈Paete, Laguna and Laguna Lake 17Apr2025〉 by RFNirmala, dedicated to the Public Domain under CC0 1.0 Universal.

〈Laguna Lake Fun Facts〉 © 2026 Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta.
License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA-4.0), except where noted.