The Philippine Army's 8th Infantry Division (Stormtroopers) is based at Camp General Vicente Lukban, Barangay Maulong, Catbalogan City.

The camp is named in honor of Gen. Vicente Lukbán, a Filipino officer in Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo's staff during the Philippine Revolution and the politico-military chief of Samar and Leyte during the Philippine–American War.

Pedro Estrada actively evangelized the area and Calbiga where he took whiterocks or grey limestone to use as building blocks for its church.

The church has some arc-like stone roof that was pasted together to dry on each block, giving an arching force to the side.

During the early days of Spanish colonization of the Philippines in the 16th century, Samar was under the jurisdiction of Cebu but later was declared a separate province.

On December 31, 1898, during the Philippine Revolution, Gen. Vicente Lukban arrived in Catbalogan and put Samar under his jurisdiction.

On May 24, 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces landed in Barrio Pangdan on early morning and occupied the capital.

The April 1, 1957 conflagration, considered as the most destructive one, caused damage to properties in the amount of thirty million pesos.

The next was on May 19, 1969, where damage was estimated at twenty million pesos and the more than century-old Saint Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church was razed to the ground.

Paradoxically, like the proverbial Phoenix, each time Catbalogan suffered under the throes of these calamities, better buildings and infrastructures emerged from the ashes.

Finally, on February 15, 2011, Catbalogan became a city again including the 15 municipalities declaring that the conversion to cityhood met all legal requirements.

Today, Catbalogan City is a major landport terminal and stopover for interisland bus lines coming and going between Luzon and Mindanao passing through the bridged island of Leyte and Samar.