About Iloilo

Iloilo is a province of the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is Iloilo City and is located at the southeast portion of Panay Island, bordering Antique to the west and Capiz to the north. Just off Iloilo's southeast coast is the island-province of Guimaras and across Panay Gulf and Guimaras Strait is Negros Occidental.

People from Iloilo are called Ilonggos. There are two local languages spoken in the province: Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a. Hiligaynon and variants of it are spoken in Iloilo city and a few towns of the province. Outside the city, the majority of the people speak Kinaray-a. Each town has its own distinct variation of Kinaray-a. Most Ilonggos are bilingual in English and Hiligaynon; English is taught from grade school to college. The Ilonggos are mostly Malayo-Polynesian people although there are small pockets of populations with Negrito, Chinese, and European ancestry.

Spanish architecture can be seen in old buildings in downtown Iloilo. Merchants from China and India were trading with the Ilonggos even before the Spaniards came. The ruling Spanish government encouraged these foreign merchants to trade in Iloilo but they were not given privileges like ownership of land. The mestizo class eventually was born from the marriages of the Spaniards and merchants with the local Malayo-Polynesian people. They later emerged as the ruling class of the Ilonggos (see Principal?a).

The town Fiesta is one of the most important events for Ilonggos. Almost every town (municipality) in Iloilo has a fiesta celebrated annually. You can eat "free" in any house in any town that is celebrating its fiesta in that week if you go with somebody who knows somebody in that house.

The Province of Iloilo is the third-largest province in Western Visayas after Palawan and Negros Occidental. The province is divided into two distinct geographic regions; the highlands of the Madia-as on the western border and the lowland plains which account for a larger portion of the province. Small islands east of its northernmost tip also dot the Visayan Sea - of these, Pan de Azucar and Sicogon are well-known.

The province is home to one national park, the Bulabog-Putian National Park located in the municipality of Dingle.

Fishing and aquaculture dominate the northern iloilo industry, while the central lowland plains derive their livelihood from agriculture.