Panay

Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and a total population of 4,669,037 as of 2024 census, similar to Sicily or Bali. Panay comprises 4.4 percent¹ of the entire population of the country. The City of Iloilo is its largest settlement, with a total population of 473,728 inhabitants¹ as of the 2024 census. Panay is a triangular island, located in the western part of the Visayas. It is about across. It is divided into four provinces: Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo, all in the Western Visayas Region. Just off the mid-southeastern coast lies the island-province of Guimaras. It is located southeast of the island of Mindoro and northwest of Negros across the Guimaras Strait. To the north and northeast is the Sibuyan Sea, Jintotolo Channel and the island-provinces of Romblon and Masbate; to the west and southwest is the Sulu Sea and the Palawan archipelago and to the south is Panay Gulf. Panay is the only main island in the Visayas whose provinces does not bear the name of their island. Panay is bisected by the Central Panay Mountain Range, its longest mountain chain. The island has many rivers, the longest being the Panay River at a length of , followed by the Jalaur, Aklan, Sibalom, Iloilo and Bugang rivers.…

Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and a total population of 4,669,037 as of 2024 census, similar to Sicily or Bali. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City of Iloilo is its largest settlement, with a total population of 473,728 inhabitants as of the 2024 census. Panay is a triangular island, located in the western part of the Visayas. It is about across. It is divided into four provinces: Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo, all in the Western Visayas Region. Just off the mid-southeastern coast lies the island-province of Guimaras. It is located southeast of the island of Mindoro and northwest of Negros across the Guimaras Strait. To the north and northeast is the Sibuyan Sea, Jintotolo Channel and the island-provinces of Romblon and Masbate; to the west and southwest is the Sulu Sea and the Palawan archipelago and to the south is Panay Gulf. Panay is the only main island in the Visayas whose provinces does not bear the name of their island. Panay is bisected by the Central Panay Mountain Range, its longest mountain chain. The island has many rivers, the longest being the Panay River at a length of , followed by the Jalaur, Aklan, Sibalom, Iloilo and Bugang rivers. Standing at about , the dormant Mount Madja-as (situated in Culasi, Antique) is the highest point of the island, with Mount Nangtud (located between Barbaza, Antique and Jamindan, Capiz) following next at . The island lent its name to several United States Navy vessels including , sunk in 1937 by the Japanese in the USS Panay incident.

History

Precolonial era

No pre-Hispanic written accounts of Iloilo and Panay island exist today. Oral traditions, in the form of recited epics like the Hinilawod, have survived to a small degree. A few recordings of these epic poems exist. The most notable are the works of noted Filipino anthropologist Felipe Jocano. While no current archaeological evidence exists describing pre-Hispanic Panay, an original work by Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro published in 1907¹ called Maragtas details the alleged accounts of the founding of the various pre-Hispanic polities on Panay Island. The book is based on oral and written accounts available to the author at the time. The author made no claim for the historical accuracy of the accounts. Noted anthropologist and historian William Henry Scott initially concluded in his dissertation that it was a myth, but in a revised version admitted its credibility is debatable and concluded it was most likely based on real folk legends. According to Maragtas, Madja-as was founded after ten datus fled Borneo and landed on Panay Island. The book then goes on to detail their subsequent purchase of the coastal lands in which they settled from the native Ati people. There were other datus who settled in Southern Luzon and Negros Island, but Madja-as was the center and other barangays within the Kedatuan took turns in being the capital. Then, the Kedatuan of Madja-as, recruiting natives from the Philippines; and the immigrants from Borneo, went back and waged a successful war against Rajah or Sultan Makatunao, whose oppression forced the ten Datus to flee. Afterwards, the treasures and loot from the conquest and sacking of Borneo, were carried back to the newly founded towns of the Datus in the various islands scattered in the archipelago. An old manuscript Margitas of uncertain date (discovered by the anthropologist H. Otley Beyer) gives interesting details about the laws, government, social customs, and religious beliefs of the early Visayans, who settled Panay within the first half of the thirteenth century. The term Visayan was first applied only to them and to their settlements eastward in the island of Negros, and northward in the smaller islands, which now compose the province of Romblon. In fact, even at the early part of Spanish colonialization of the Philippines, the Spaniards used the term Visayan only for these areas. While the people of Cebu, Bohol, and Leyte were for a long time known only as Pintados. The name Visayan was later extended to them because, as several of the early writers state, their languages are closely allied to the Visayan dialect of Panay. Gabriel Ribera, captain of the Spanish royal infantry in the Philippine Islands, also distinguished Panay from the rest of the Pintados Islands. In his report (dated 20 March 1579) regarding a campaign to pacify the natives living along the rivers of Mindanao (a mission he received from Dr. Francisco de Sande, Governor and Captain-General of the Archipelago), Ribera mentioned that his aim was to make the inhabitants of that island "vassals of King Don Felipe… as are all the natives of the island of Panay, the Pintados Islands, and those of the island of Luzon…" During the early part of the colonial period in the Archipelago, the Spaniards led by Miguel López de Legazpi transferred their camp from Cebu to Panay in 1569. On 5 June 1569, Guido de Lavezaris, the royal treasurer in the Archipelago, wrote to Philip II reporting about the Portuguese attack to Cebu in the preceding autumn. A letter from another official, Andres de Mirandaola (dated three days later, 8 June), also described briefly this encounter with the Portuguese. The danger of another attack led the Spaniards to remove their camp from Cebu to Panay, which they considered a safer place. Legazpi himself, in his report to the Viceroy in New Spain (dated 1 July 1569), mentioned the same reason for the relocation of Spaniards to Panay. It was in Panay that the conquest of Luzon was planned, and later launched on 8 May 1570.

The account of early Spanish explorers

During the early part of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, the Spanish Augustinian Friar Gaspar de San Agustín, O.S.A. described Panay as: "…very similar to that of Sicily in its triangular form, as well as in it fertility and abundance of provision. It is the most populated island after Manila and Mindanao, and one of the largest (with over a hundred leagues of coastline). In terms of fertility and abundance, it is the first. […] It is very beautiful, very pleasant, and full of coconut palms… Near the river Alaguer (Halaur), which empties into the sea two leagues from the town of Dumangas…, in the ancient times, there was a trading center and a court of the most illustrious nobility in the whole island." Padre Francisco Colin (1592–1660), an early Jesuit missionary and Provincial of his Order in the Philippines also records in the chronicles of the Society of Jesus (published later in 1663¹ as Labor euangelica) that Panay is the island which is most abundant and fertile. The first Spanish settlement in Panay island and the second oldest Spanish settlement in the Philippines was established by the Miguel López de Legazpi expedition in Panay, Capiz at the banks of the Panay River in northern Panay, the name of which was extended to the whole Panay island. López de Legazpi transferred the capital there from Cebu since it had abundant provisions and was better protected from Portuguese attacks before the capital was once again transferred to Manila. Of the conquistadors from Spanish-Mexico, the following were granted encomiendas in Panay: Gabriel de Ribera, Luis de la Haya, Pedro Sarmiento, and Francisco de Rivera. Miguel de Luarca, who was among the first Spanish settlers in the Island, made one of the earliest account about Panay and its people according to a Westerner's point of view. In June 1582, while he was in Arévalo (Iloilo), he wrote in his Relación de las Yslas Filipinas the following observations: The island is the most fertile and well-provisioned, except the island of Luzon: for it is exceedingly fertile, and abounds in rice, swine, fowls, wax, honey, cotton and abacá fiber. "The villages are very close together, and the people are peaceful and open to conversion. The land is healthful and well-provisioned, so that the Spaniards who are stricken in other islands go thither to recover their health." "The natives are healthy and clean, and although the island of Cebu is also healthful and had a good climate, most of its inhabitants are always afflicted with the itch and buboes. In the island of Panay, the natives declare that no one of them had ever been afflicted with buboes until the people from Bohol – who, as we said above, abandoned Bohol on account of the people of Maluco – came to settle in Panay, and gave the disease to some of the natives. For these reasons the governor, Don Gonzalo Ronquillo, founded the town of Arévalo, on the south side of this island; for the island runs north and south, and on that side live the majority of the people, and the villages are near this town, and the land here is more fertile." This probably explains why there are reference of presence of Pintados in the Island. "The island of Panay provides the city of Manila and other places with a large quantity of rice and meat…". .. "As the island contains great abundance of timber and provisions, it has almost continuously had a shipyard on it, as is the case of the town of Arévalo, for galleys and fragatas. Here the ship 'Visaya' was launched." Another Spanish chronicler in the early Spanish period, Dr. Antonio de Morga (1609) is also responsible for recording other Visayan customs. Customs such as Visayans' affinity for singing among their warrior-castes as well as the playing of gongs and bells in naval battles. Their customary method of trading was by bartering one thing for another, such as food, cloth, cattle, fowls, lands, houses, fields, slaves, fishing-grounds, and palm-trees (both nipa and wild). Sometimes a price intervened, which was paid in gold, as agreed upon, or in metal bells brought from China. These bells they regard as precious jewels; they resemble large pans and are very sonorous. They play upon these at their feasts, and carry them to the war in their boats instead of drums and other instruments. The early Dutch fleet commander Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge called at Panay in 1607. He mentions a town named "Oton" on the island where there were "18 Spanish soldiers with a number of other Spanish inhabitants so that there may be 40 whites in all". He explained that "a lot of rice and meat is produced there, with which they [i.e. the Spanish] supply Manila." According to Stephanie J. Mawson, using recruitment records found in Mexico, in addition to the 40 Caucasian Spaniards who then lived in Oton, there were an additional set of 66 Mexican soldiers of Mulatto, Mestizo or Native American descent sentried there during the year 1603. However, the Dutch visitor, Cornelis Matelieff de Jongedid, did not count them in since they were not pure whites like him. Iloilo City in Panay was awarded by the Queen of Spain the title: "La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad de Iloilo" (The Most Loyal and Noble City) for being the most loyal and noble city in the Spanish Empire since it clung on to Spain amidst the Philippine revolution the last nation to revolt against Spain in the Spanish Empire.

Geography

Panay island is the sixth largest island in the Philippines by area, with a total land area of , similar to Jamaica or Samar. Mount Madja-as is the highest point in Panay with an elevation of above sea level, located in town of Culasi in the northern province of Antique. Central Panay Mountain Range is the longest and largest mountain range in the island with a total length of north-south. Panay River is the longest river in the island with a total length of located in the province of Capiz. Boracay Island, a popular tourist destination known for its long white sand shore, is located off the northwest tip of Panay Island. It is part of Aklan province under the jurisdiction of the municipality of Malay.

Rivers

in Roxas City Major rivers in Panay include: Jalaur River Iloilo River Batiano River Panay River Aklan River Sibalom River Tipulu-an River Mao-it River Bugang River

Demographics

Panay is the most ethnically and linguistically diverse major island in the Visayas, being native to four vibrant non-indigenous ethnolinguistic groups (Hiligaynon/Ilonggo, Karay-a, Capiznon, Aklanon), and two indigenous groups (Suludnon, Ati) or minorities. However, the ethnic and linguistic boundaries within the island do not correspond to its administrative divisions. Only the province of Antique is monolingual, which only speaks Kinaray-a as its primary language. The lingua franca of the island is Hiligaynon, native to Iloilo City and the northeastern coastal strip lining the province of Iloilo. For local administrative, educational, and commercial purposes, English and Tagalog are also widely used.

Administrative divisions

The island is covered by 4 provinces, 1 highly urbanized city, 2 component cities, 92 municipalities (93 municipalities if the associated islands of Caluya are included), and 3,291 barangays, all under the jurisdiction of the Western Visayas region.

See also

Sultanate of Panay Macario Peralta, Jr. Panay Railways Church of Panay

References

External links

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1374461534 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.