Astonishing Iloilo

Iloilo Business Park (Marx de Silva)

Iloilo is an astonishing city. The beauty of its glorious past replicates the vision of the future – sustainable, progressive and culturally-passionate. Since its destined elevation from a simple town into a royal city under the royal decree of Spain’s Queen Maria Cristina in 1889, Iloilo started to chase the tides of time and made a remarkable mark as the most important city right next to Manila with its economic and cultural supremacy.

Iloilo Dinagyang Festival (osmiva.com)

La Paz Batchoy (kusinamaster.asia)

Sinamay weaving in Villa de Arevalo (Ronelo Ladiao)

Calle Real, Iloilo City (Bert Andone)

Astonishing Mark

Iloilo is a city with multi-facetted legacy that transcends inspiration and pride to its people. It is known as the “weaving capital of the Philippines” during the 18th and 19th centuries with the boom of local fabrics and hand-woven works of weavers like hablon, sinamay and piňa cloth. Fashion and tailoring heightened the dynamic business along the famous Calle Real, one of the oldest business districts in the country. If the Province of Iloilo is known as the “food basket of Western Visayas,” Iloilo City tickled the taste buds of visitors with its world-famous La Paz Batchoy, Biscocho, Roberto’s Queen Siopao, Barquillos, mouth-watering seafood from Villa and many other must-have, must-taste luscious keepsakes or “pasalubongs.” Iloilo City redefined and properly-elevated the standard of Philippine festivals with the innovations introduced by its world-famous Dinagyang Festival, a fusion of spectacular choreography, intricate multi-colored costumes embedded with deep Catholic devotion to the Child Jesus celebrated every third week of January. The Paraw Regatta Festival relieves the oldest boat sailing competition in the Southeast Asia and attract crowds with its “Samba de Regatta” spectacle every February. Jaro District Fiesta and “Nuestra Senora dela Candelaria” feast are the most grandiose religious and traditional fiestas in the Philippines every first week of February.

Iloilo Business Park (Iloilo Travel Guide)

Iloilo River Esplanade (Felipe Uygongco)

Iloilo City at night (Litratistang Agustino Studio)

Astonishing Developments

Iloilo is swiftly becoming the face of progress, steadfast developments and expansion that turned this once shy and reserved royal city into a bustling economic melting pot in the Philippines, claiming good governance recognitions, infrastructures projects and investment potentials. Iloilo is creating a synergy of balance between uprising modernization, manageable ecology and inspiring slogan as one of the most livable cities in the world. To preserve not only the bio-diversity of Iloilo River, a multi-billion peso, long-stretching Iloilo River Esplanade was made possible through the cooperation of national and local government. The site is giving an inspiring face to Iloilo River as its cultural and ecological treasure. Another advocacy of preserving the past is the preservation and rebuilding of heritage buildings in Calle Real. Along the Diversion Road, the city’s promising district where businesses are propping up, shopping centers are expanding and nightlife spots elevate, wide roads with walkable red-brick bike lanes and green stripes create a promising perspective for Iloilo’s future. In Mandurriao district where the old Iloilo Airport property was once located, is the very site where one of the country’s leading real estate visionary, Megaworld Corporation established their P35-billion investment master-planned commercial and lifestyle complex called Iloilo Business Park. It is a 72 hectare modern township conceptualized through the company’s “live-work-play” success-driven vision that’s creates a massive buzz and fame for Iloilo, claiming a new title as the next epicenter of virtually almost all kinds of investments. Megaworld integrates an economic-uplifting township where the most exclusive and high-end destinations can be found such as Festive Walk Mall, 1 kilometer shopping-and-dining avenue Street of Festive Walk, the most modern convention venue – Iloilo Convention Center, the biggest McDonald’s branch in Panay, several BPO Buildings used as office-operation site of multinational call center companies, and first-class international hotels with recognizable names such as Richmonde Hotel and Courtyard by Marriot. A foretaste of high-life living can be experienced with the township’s elegant residential towers sporting names such as the 3-tower One Madison Place, 16-level Lafayette Park Square and 22-storey The Palladium. It is expected that the township’s BPO buildings will provide more than 30,000 quality jobs in the next 10 years. Almost 30% of the old airport highway was retained by Iloilo Business Park to become its major vein of transportation. And of course, the green-inspired walkable lane for those looking for a perfect destination as venue of healthy lifestyle activities is open to its residents and passersby. The township presents more than just a stunning addition to the modern and expansive physical-facelift for Iloilo City, it is a sustainable community that opens wider and bigger doorway for global investments, tourism and job opportunities.

From the promising progress that swiftly re-writing Iloilo City’s modern history and legacy, the country’s real estate industry is truly destined to find a “pot of gold” in the shores of this pulsating metropolis called by many people as the “city of love.” But for its people, the Ilonggos whose tireless resilient voice, hardworking nature and passionate sentiments for their cultural heritage, somehow believes that their city, their home is an astonishing destination for all the world to see.

For visitors and strangers who happen to laid eyes in Iloilo, what’s truly astonishing in this city does not entirely depend on its newfound face of progress or its well-preserved past, but the warmth of its people that starts with heartfelt “welcome” greetings. Such passion makes Ilonggos capable of showing it effortlessly to the world. Wouldn’t you like to call Iloilo your new home, too?