By Manrico T. Lataquin
PREVENT the Japanese from going to the hills.
This was the explicit order of General Douglas MacArthur to General Macario Peralta when they met in Leyte from February 28 to March 4, 1945.
Peralta knew the price in lives would be great even if the 6th Military District would be aided by American airplanes. [...]

LEANDRO FULLON, the commanding general of all Filipino forces in the Visayas during the revolution against Spain, was born on 13 March 1877 in Hamtik, Antique.

SAN JOSE, Antique – She was born on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Concepcion and died on April 6, a Good Friday. Through most of her 78 years, Tomasa Dioso Salinog or “Lola Masing” suffered in silence, carrying a cross brought upon her by a war she would rather forget but could not. [...]

THE WAR BETWEEN the Filipinos and the Americans in Panay began on February 11, 1899 as a result of the outbreak of the conflict in Luzon in February 4. Iloilo City and the suburb towns of Molo, Lapaz, Jaro and Mandurriao were immediately occupied by the invading troops. This was done after Fort San Pedro, fronting [...]

BOMBS FELL. Bullets sprayed. Sirens peeled.  It was December 8, 1941.  In Baguio City, President Manuel L. Quezon has summoned Tomas Confesor to a vital conference. From, his quarters in Pines View Hotel, Tomas Confesor saw the Japanese bombers and Zeros attack their chosen targets: Camp John Hay and the Philippine Military Academy.
This was it!  [...]

IN JANUARY 1943, Gov. Fermin Caram of the puppet provincial government of Iloilo wrote Gov. Tomas Confesor (March 2, 1891-June 6, 1951) of the Free Panay and Romblon Civil Government a vital letter asking him to surrender to the Japanese Imperial Army because there is no ignominy in surrender and that the people were suffering [...]

IN 1942, TOMAS CONFESOR (March 2, 1891-June 6, 1951), the governor of the Free Panay and Romblon Resistance Government, circulated a letter to boost the morale of guerillas in the two islands who were fighting the Japanese invaders. But somehow, copies have reached as far north as the Ilocos areas and as far south as [...]

TOMAS CONFESOR had always been a fighter – in time of war and in time of peace – always for the good of the people. His heroic defiance of the Japanese Imperial Army earned for him the commendation of the American people, as voiced by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On the other hand, his [...]

ON OCTOBER 28, 1898, the general uprising against the Spaniards in Iloilo Province began. Two months after, on December 25, the Ilonggo revolutionary troops marched in military formation and in full regalia from Jaro, a suburb of Iloilo City, and converged in Plaza Alfonzo (now Plaza Libertad) in the downtown area. There they received the formal [...]

 
TODAY IS THURSDAY and it’s market day in Jaro. In an alleged ancient Ilonggo-Bisayan calendar*, Thursday is called Baylobaylo (barter) because it’s the usual trading day. Perhaps, the age-old tradition of trading during Thursdays has been carried down in time until the Jaro Thursday Market was established.