Since early times, the Ilonggo-Bisaya have been noted to be pre-occupied with merry-making and in eating festive foods. They celebrated practically every family and community occasion. Every celebration was an excuse for gathering, feasting, singing and drinking.
Early Ilonggo food consisted of rice, boiled bananas and tubers, roasted meat and fish, and vegetables usually mixed with […]

ONCE AGAIN, on February 2, thousands of pilgrims from all over the land will troop to Jaro Cathedral for the feast of Our Lady of the Candles, the Patroness of West Visayas.
The Cathedral which is undergoing restoration at present was constructed starting 1869 almost immediately after the erection of the Diocese of Jaro on May […]

BOOM! is a story that echoes the weeping of the seas subjected to dynamite fishing. Using sound as anchor, 5thgrader Jared Pedroso of Tina Elementary School in Iloilo Province moved on to tell his story of how a father learned from his son in conserving the bounty of the seas. It is written in Hiligaynon.
Mimas […]

THIS COLUMN would like to yield this space to a petition to save Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) amidst the corruption scandal within the agency. Under the leadership (or the absence of it) of Boboy Syjuco, this department has deteriorated and became a milking cow of some people.
It is sad that an agency that […]

IT IS BACK to normal (and reality) for most of us Ilonggos after days of Dinagyang merriment and celebration. From the local warriors and visiting ones as in the case of a personal favorite – Tribu Ivatan of Batanes, to the thousands of student and medical volunteers, to the hundreds of kiosk-renters, – yes, it […]

TEXTILE WEAVING is a traditional industry that still exists today in Miag-ao, Iloilo. It has survived throughout the years and is being kept alive by the Indag-an Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative which has become a key player in the weaving industry in the municipality.
Barangay Indag-an is an inland community that is almost four kilometer distance from the […]

AFTER A LONG hibernation, I’m back and will touch on certain issues that plague the medical community.
Take for example the insertion of some provisions in the Generics Act of 1988 under R.A. 6675 and the shortage of doctors in the country.

IN THE PREVIOUS article, it was pointed out that two of the traits of the early Ilonggo-Bisaya written about by the early Spanish and other foreign writers were their being “maisog” (brave or courageous) and their being “mapisan” (industrious or hardworking). Other prominent traits of the Ilonggos that caught the attention of the colonizers were their […]

AMONG THE traits of the Ilonggo-Bisaya that the Spaniards had high regards was their being “mapisan” or industrious. Casimiro Diaz, for example, in a detailed account on ecclesiastical and Augustinian affairs, 1630-1640, described the people of Panay as “naturally docile than any other of the pintados, very industrious in their rice farms” (Diaz 1890). A French […]