Cebu Ocean Park

Cebu Ocean Park & Events Center is a marine theme park in Cebu City — the largest ocean park in the Philippines, roughly three times the footprint of Manila Ocean Park.

SM Supermalls announced its partnership with Cebu Sealife Park Inc. — the company affiliated with Manila Ocean Park’s operators — in late 2015, with plans to build a marine theme park on a South Road Properties lot leased from the SM Group, near the San Pedro Calungsod Chapel and SM Seaside City Cebu. South Road Properties is Cebu City’s largest reclaimed-land development, and the park sits inside that same reclamation footprint alongside SM Seaside.

Groundbreaking began in March 2016, targeting completion by late 2017 — a deadline the project missed. Environmental groups raised concerns over animal captivity before it opened; the park had its soft opening on August 24, 2019.

The park closed temporarily in April 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening that November.

Facilities

The park is split into sections covering marine and terrestrial wildlife: Seven Seas holds aquariums of fish and garden eels, Jungle Trek covers river and freshwater wildlife, and Creepy Critters holds reptiles and insects. The centerpiece is the Deep Tank Lagoon oceanarium — 3,500 cubic meters, 7.2 meters deep — viewed through the park’s signature Underwater Viewing Tunnel, a 360-degree walkthrough that puts visitors below the waterline as rays and reef fish circle overhead.

Economic Context

Cebu Ocean Park sits inside South Road Properties, the roughly 300-hectare reclaimed-land strip that is Cebu City’s largest land-banking project and now home to SM Seaside City Cebu, government offices relocated from the old downtown, and a growing residential and hospitality corridor. The park represented a substantial private investment by SM Group and Cebu Sealife Park Inc. at a moment when SM was betting on SRP as the city’s next commercial center rather than an isolated mall annex, and its presence there has helped anchor foot traffic to that stretch of reclaimed coastline alongside the mall itself. For a still-young district built entirely on filled land rather than an organically grown neighborhood, a large-footprint attraction like this one does real work drawing repeat visits rather than one-off shopping trips.

ESG: Captivity Concerns and Facility Standards

The park’s opening was contested before it happened: environmental and animal-welfare groups raised objections during construction over housing marine species — particularly larger or migratory animals — in tank environments, a criticism that dogs marine parks generally rather than this one specifically. Operators of parks in this mold typically respond by pointing to accreditation standards, water-quality management, and breeding or education programs as mitigating factors; how convincing that framing is remains a matter of ongoing debate between conservation groups and the marine-park industry rather than a settled question. Visitors who weigh animal-welfare considerations in travel choices should treat that debate as unresolved rather than assume either side has the final word.

Local Taste

The park sits close enough to SM Seaside City Cebu that a visit pairs naturally with a meal at the mall’s food court or one of its sit-down restaurants — there’s little in the way of dedicated food service inside the park itself beyond snack kiosks. SRP more broadly is still building out its restaurant scene compared to IT Park or Ayala Center, so most visitors treat SM Seaside as the default stop before or after Ocean Park rather than seeking out a separate dining destination in the district.

References

External links

• Cebu Ocean Park official website
• Cebu Ocean Park on Facebook

Explore More in Cebu City

• Fuente Osmeña Circle
• Cebu Business Park
• Castle Peak Mabolo