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BY HERBERT VEGO
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THANK God it was Friday morning and a holiday in Iloilo City when we drove through light traffic and walked to Freedom Grandstand to join the celebration of the city’s 80th Charter Day.
“For 80 years,” Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog stressed, “we have seen the significant, meaningful, beautiful, peaceful and progressive changes in the City of Iloilo.”
That day commemorated the historical event of Aug. 25, 1937 when then President Manuel Luis Quezon signed Commonwealth Act 158 declaring Iloilo as charter city. The law also merged the towns of Molo, Arevalo, Jaro, Mandurriao and La Paz with the old city.
By then, the old “city proper” had been known as “La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad de Iloilo” (The Most Loyal and Noble City of Iloilo) – a title bestowed by the Queen Regent of Spain in 1897.
Iloilo City has since then evolved from incoherent groupings of fishermen’s hamlets along the Iloilo River.
The opening of Iloilo City’s Muelle Loney port in 1855 triggered the boom of the sugar export industry under the leadership of Nicholas Loney, the British vice-consul who constructed warehouses in the port and introduced new technologies in sugar cane farming.
No less than the late historian Rex Salvilla told this writer that Iloilo was already enjoying a flourishing economy when the Spaniards colonized the Philippines in the 16th century. There were already three Malay ports catering to visiting Chinese merchants in Ogtong (now Oton), Tabucan (Molo) and Salog (Jaro).
The surviving porcelain jars, plates, cups and saucers brought by those Chinese merchants are among the exhibits still viewable at Museo Iloilo today.
Our identity as part of the Malay race is traceable to the lore that in the 13th century, 10 Bornean datus came to the island of Panay and made a deal with the ruling chieftain, Marikudo: a gold salakot, a gold batya and a gold necklace in exchange for the lowlands of the island. One of the datus, Paiburong, took over the territory of Irong-Irong – original name of Iloilo.
While the Spanish conquest of the Philippines was underway in the 16th century, Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi came to Iloilo to establish a settlement in Ogtong.
Because of the economic boom, Moro pirates, Dutch and English invaders raided the city, prompting Spanish authorities to set up defense fortresses. One of them was Fort San Pedro at the mouth of Iloilo River, ruins of which remain walkable today.
In the late 18th century, the development of large-scale weaving industry started the movement of Iloilo’s surge in trade in the Visayas. Sinamay, piña and jusi were among the products shipped to Manila and foreign cities.
On December 25, Christmas day of 1898, the Spanish government surrendered to the Ilonggo revolutionaries at Plaza Alfonso XII (now Plaza Libertad). The celebration of the revolutionaries was short-lived, however, because of the arrival of the American forces in the same week.
The American occupation led to the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth, with Manuel Luis Quezon as President.
During World War II in 1942, the Japanese invaded Panay, holding the economy to a standstill.
By the end of the war, Iloilo’s economy and infrastructure had crumbled. The ensuing conflict between labor unions and industrialists, the declining sugar trade, and deteriorating peace and order triggered the exodus of Ilonggos to other cities and islands that offered better opportunities.
We have gone full circle, what with big businessmen from Manila and other cities relocating in Iloilo City. The on-going rise of plush commercial buildings in the metropolis proves that. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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