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Airial View of One Side of the City
ILOILO is a province of the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Located on the southeast portion of Panay Island, it is bordered by Antique to the west and Capiz to the north. Just off Iloilo’s southeast coast is the island of Guimaras, which used to be part of Iloilo but is now its own province. Across the Panay Gulf and Guimaras Strait is Negros Occidental.
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The City of Iloilo is the capital city of the province of Iloilo in the Philippines. It is the regional center and the main economic hub of the Western Visayas region.
Iloilo is historically one of the major agricultural centers of the country, and began exporting sugar, copra, bananas, mangoes, and other natural resources during the Spanish and American colonial periods.
In the 2007 census, Iloilo City had a population of 418,710 households with a 2.0% annual growth rate. It is the ninth most populous city in the Philippines. Average population density is 5981 people per square kilometer, one of the most dense in the country.
Even before the Spanish colonizers came, Iloilo had a flourishing economy. In the 13th century, ten Bornean datus came to the island of Panay and bartered a gold hat (salakot) for the plains and valleys of the island from a local Ati chieftain. One datu, named Paiburong, was given the territory of Irong-Irong.
The waning textile industry was replaced however by the opening of Iloilo’s port to world market in 1855. Because of this, Iloilo’s industry and agriculture was put on direct access to foreign markets. But what triggered the economic boom of Iloilo in the 19th century was the development of sugar industry in Iloilo and its neighboring island of Negros. Sugar during the 19th century was of high demand. Nicholas Loney, the British vice-consul in Iloilo developed the industry by giving loans, constructing warehouses in the port and introduced new technologies in sugar farming. The rich families of Iloilo developed large areas of Negros, which later called haciendas because of the sugar’s high demand in the world market. Because of the increase in commercial activity, infrastructures, recreational facilities, educational institutions, banks, foreign consulates, commercial firms and much more sprouted in Iloilo. Due to the economic development that was happening in Iloilo, the Queen Regent of Spain raised the status of the town into a city, honored it with the title La muy leal y noble ciudad de Iloilo, and in 1890, the city government was established.
By the 1960s towards 1990s, Iloilo’s economy progressed in a moderate pace. The construction of the fish port, international seaport and other commercial firms that invested in Iloilo marked the movement of the city making it as the regional center of Western Visayas.
