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. 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.
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.|left In 1581, the encomienda in Ogtong the second Spanish city in Panay island after
Roxas City and founded by 80 colonists direct from Spain, 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. 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. 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. 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. Later in the 1700s, Iloilo was home to 166
Spanish Filipino families and 29,723 native families. 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. File:Calle Real iloilo Philippines.png|
Bahay na bato houses along
Calle Real File:Iloilo city Philippines late 1800's to early 1900's.png|
Iloilo City in the 1900s
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.
Philippine independence in Oton, the largest of all churches in the Visayas: consecrated 1891, destroyed by earthquake January 24, 1948. There have been generations of calls in Western Visayas for the full restoration of their mother church. 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.
Marcos dictatorship 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==