Iloilo ( ; ), officially the Province of Iloilo (; ; ; ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital and largest city is Iloilo City, the regional center of Western Visayas and politically independent from the province. Iloilo occupies the southeast portion of the Visayan island of Panay and is bordered by the province of Antique to the west, Capiz to the north, the Jintotolo Channel to the northeast, the Guimaras Strait to the east, and the Iloilo Strait and Panay Gulf to the southwest. Iloilo City is the center of the Iloilo–Guimaras metropolitan area or Metro Iloilo–Guimaras, and is geographically located in the province and grouped under it by the Philippine Statistics Authority, but remains politically independent from the provincial government. According to the 2024 census, the population of the province (excluding Iloilo City) is 2,082,616. If Iloilo City is included, the population is 2,556,344 in total.
Iloilo is known for its rich history and cultural heritage. The southern part of the province is home to many Spanish-era historic sites, including the Miag-ao Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Philippines. It also boasts several other prominent structures, such as the San Joaquin Campo Santo, San Joaquin Church, and Santa Barbara Church, all recognized as National Cultural Treasures by the National Museum of the Philippines. In the northern part, it is known for beaches and islands, including the Bantigue Sandbar, Tangke Lagoon, Cabugao Island, and Antonia Island, all part of the Islas de Gigantes. Additionally, Sicogon Island, situated south of the group of islands, has gained popularity as a luxury tourist destination.
Etymology The name of the province is derived from Iloilo City, which in turn is derived from the older name "Irong-irong" (archaic Hiligaynon writing: Irong̃-írong̃) meaning "nose-like", referring to the promontory between two rivers (Iloilo and Batiano) where the Fort San Pedro and the 17th-century Spanish port were located.
History Early history
No pre-Hispanic written accounts of Iloilo and Panay island exist today. Oral tradition, in the form of recited epics like the Hinilawod, has survived to a small degree. A few recordings of these epic poems exist. The most notable are the works of noted Filipino Anthropologist Felipe Jocano.
While no current archaeological evidence exist describing pre-Hispanic Iloilo, an original work by Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro published in 1907 called Maragtas details the alleged accounts of the founding of the various pre-Hispanic polities on Panay Island. The book is based on oral and written accounts available to the author at the time. The author made no claim on the historical accuracy of the accounts.Originally titled Maragtás kon (historia) sg pulô nga Panay kutub sg iya una nga pamuluyö tubtub sg pag-abut sg mga taga Borneo nga amó ang ginhalinan sg mga bisayâ kag sg pag-abut sg mga Katsilâ,
According to Maragtas, Madja-as was founded after ten datus fled Borneo and landed on Panay Island. The book then goes on to detail their subsequent purchase of the coastal lands in which they settled from the native Ati people.
Datu Paiburong, one of the ten fleeing datus, established a settlement and named it Irong-Irong after an islet of the same name on the Batiano River. Afterwards, the warriors Labaodungon and Paybare, upon advice of datu Paiboring then recruited local fighters from the Philippines and fellow immigrants from Borneo and they returned to Borneo at Odtojan where the enemy of the ten datus, Makatunaw, ruled, Rajah or Sultan Makatunao, and they killed him and sacked the city he ruled and returned to the newly founded towns of the ten datus.Mga Maragtas ng Panay Comparative Analysis of Documents about the Bornean Settlement Tradition By Talaguit Christian Jeo N.
Spanish colonial era Spain eventually succeeded on conquering of the island of Panay when Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi moved his headquarters from the island of Cebu and creating the first Spanish settlement in the island in Ogtong in 1566. This is mainly due in part to the rivalries between the Bisaya and the Moro, of which the former found an ally in Spanish against the latter. The Bisayas accepted alliances with Spain, to defend themselves against the enslaving Moros. To this end, Iloilo contributed troops in the Castille War against the Sultanate of Brunei.
In 1581, the encomienda in Ogtong the second Spanish city in Panay island after Roxas City and founded by 80 colonists direct from Spain,"A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows" Page 147. The few years of Ronquillo's reign were in other ways important. A colony of Spaniards was established at Oton, on the island of Panay, which was given the name of Arévalo (Iloilo). the encomienda was soon moved to La Villa Rica de Arevalo, because of frequent coastal raids by the Dutch privateers. In 1586, it welcomed another 20 European Spanish Households and the garrison was reinforced by 30 Spanish and Mexican soldiers."Jesuits In The Philippines (1581-1768)" Page 143
However, an attack in the year 1600 (Part of the Spanish–Moro conflict) where there was a large Muslim armada to destroy Iloilo City, led by two Moros named Sirungan and Salikala who lead the Muslim force of 70 ships and 4,000 warriors that had raided and attacked several Visayan islands in order to abduct slaves to sell to their allies in the Sultanate of Demak and the Sultanate of Malacca, eventually caused the move of the city center further on to the mouth of the Irong-Irong river founding what is now Iloilo City and constructing Fort San Pedro to defend it in 1616.
Nevertheless, when the 4,000 Moros led by Sirungan and Salikala tried to attack Iloilo City they were repulsed with heavy losses in the town of Arevalo by a force of 1,000 Hiligaynon warriors and 70 Mexican arquebusiers under the command of Juan García de Sierra, the Spanish officer who died in the battle.Philippines: A Unique Nation By Dr. Sonia M. Zaide (2015) p. 150. [All Nations Publishing Co., Inc.] The Spanish Christianized the area. And starting 1603, as a reaction against Islamic raids, Iloilo province was reinforced by a consecutive number of 66, 50, 169, and then another 169 Mexican soldiers from Latin America during the years 1603, 1636, 1670, and 1672.Convicts or Conquistadores? Spanish Soldiers in the Seventeenth-Century Pacific By Stephanie J. Mawson AGI, México, leg. 25, núm. 62; AGI, Filipinas, leg. 8, ramo 3, núm. 50; leg. 10, ramo 1, núm. 6; leg. 22, ramo 1, núm. 1, fos. 408 r –428 v; núm. 21; leg. 32, núm. 30; leg. 285, núm. 1, fos. 30 r –41 v .
Soon, the area itself began to prosper, due to its successful textile and sugar industry. As a result, it received Chinese immigrants from the west (that worked for its trades) and Latinos from the ports of Mexico in the east (to man its military installations). The Jesuits soon built a school for Spanish and Visayan boys in Tigbauan, Iloilo."Jesuits In The Philippines (1581-1768)" Page 145. Later in the 1700s, Iloilo was home to 166 Spanish Filipino families and 29,723 native families.ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish) Specifically, the capital at downtown Iloilo had 103 Spanish-Filipino families while the nearby Chinatown of Molo had 23 Spanish-Filipino families. Asides from these Spanish-Filipino families, there were also 470 Spanish-Filipino mestizo families; as well as 11 Chinese-Filipino families and 665 Chinese-Filipino Mestizo families that were scattered all across the province of Iloilo.(110)
American colonial era During the American colonial period, Iloilo became a home to many firsts: including the first department stores and cinema theaters in the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
Japanese occupation
Iloilo experienced severe devastation during the events of World War II. The Japanese built "comfort stations" in Iloilo in 1942, where they imprisoned Filipino "comfort women" who they routinely gang-raped, brutalized, and murdered for entertainment. Nevertheless, during the Japanese occupation, Macario Peralta Jr., freed most of Panay (with little exceptions) from Japanese Imperialism, thus other allied guerillas in other provinces from Romblon, Palawan, Marinduque and portions of Masbate and Mindoro, considered majority liberated Panay Island, the "Primus inter pares" in their alliance network.Lapham, R., and Norling, B., 1996, Lapham's Raiders, Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky,
Philippine independence
Iloilo became a province of the newly fledged Republic of the Philippines when the archipelago gained independence from the United States on July 4, 1946. The province used to be the home of the gigantic-megalithic Old Oton Church, the grandest of all churches in the Visayas. The church was damaged by an earthquake in 1948. Instead of being restored, it was later demolished and replaced with an inferior structure. This has led to generations of public calls for the full authentic restoration of the old church.
Martial law era
The beginning months of the 1970s had marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines, as well as in Iloilo. During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of foreign debt-funded public works projects. This caused the Philippine economy to take a sudden downwards turn known as the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, which led to a period of economic difficulty and a significant rise of social unrest. With only a year left in his last constitutionally allowed term as president, Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law in September 1972 and thus retained the position for fourteen more years. This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. In Iloilo, a major holding area for the many Political detainees under the Marcos dictatorship was Camp Martin Delgado in the Fort San Pedro area of Iloilo City where Luing Posa-Dominado was detained alongside Judy Taguiwalo and tortured, manhandled, and sexually assaulted Local World War II heroine Coronacion "Walingwaling" Chiva was also detained there for opposing Marcos, although her status as a legendary World War II heroine meant she was mostly not harmed during detention. Labor lawyer Rodolfo Lagoc was also detained there for six months. In yet another military camp, this time in Santa Barbara, Iloilo, 2Lt Pablo G. Fernandez, who objected to martial law, was detained and summarily executed.
Geography
The province covers a total area of occupying the central and eastern section of Panay island in the Western Visayas region. If Iloilo City is included for geographical purposes, Iloilo has an area of . The province is bordered by the province of Antique to the west, Capiz to the north, the Jintotolo Channel to the northeast, the Visayan Sea and Guimaras Strait to the east, and the Iloilo Strait and Panay Gulf to the southwest.