THE FIRST branch of the Hongkong-Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) outside Manila was opened in Iloilo City on 2 April 1883 to serve the growing sugar industry. HSBC is the oldest foreign bank in the Philippines, opening its doors in Binondo in November 1875.

ON 1 APRIL 1889, Graciano Lopez Jaena of Jaro, Iloilo founded the freemason Lodge Revolucion in Barcelona, Spain which counts among its members Jose Rizal, Mariano Ponce, Marcelo H. Del Pilar, Jose Alejandrino, Antonio and Juan Luna and Pedro Serrano Laktaw. Later renamed Lodge Solidaridad, it is composed of intellectuals who petitioned the Spanish Parliament […]

GABRIEL M. REYES, the first Filipino archbishop of Manila, was born in Kalibo, Aklan on 24 March 1892. He died on 10 October 1952 in the US.

THE 19 MARTYRS of Aklan were executed on 23 March 1897 in Kalibo. They were all Katipunan members who joined the forces of Francisco Castillo in attacking the Spanish garrison on 17 March 1897.

EDUCATION PIONEER and Ramon Magsaysay awardee for Government Service in 1959, Jose Vasquez Aguilar was born on 23 March 1900 in barrio Caduhaan, Cadiz, Negros Occidental. Upon completing his secondary education in 1920, he left for the United States, where he worked his way through college. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy […]

ON 19 MARCH 1835, Doña Francisca Cabañas was born in Cabatuan, Iloilo. She was a philanthropist and heroine of the revolution against Spain, and of the Philippine-American War. She was tortured by the Americans to reveal the whereabouts of General Martin Delgado and other information about the revolutionaries. But no amount of torture can force […]

MARCH 18 of every year is a non-working special holiday in the islands of Panay and Romblon, including the cities of Iloilo and Roxas, to commemorate the said islands’ liberation from Japanese forces.
The patriotism and gallantry of Filipino soldiers who teamed up with the Allied Forces during World War II liberated Panay and Romblon islands from the Japanese Imperial Army on March […]

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.

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!  […]