We are at the end of the rainy season.
The plane flies over the island of Panay, between layers of cloud. Without warning, the diffuse white appears above us. A verdant surface is revealed.
Agricultural fields, mostly soggy rice paddies, cut through the rainforest. We descend further.
The scenery becomes so clear that we can see the hedges of areca palms on the edges of the smallholdings. A few small villages dot the greenery, lined up along the roads.
Houses in a village in Panay
When the towns overlap the plantations, in what seems to us to be the imminence of Iloilo, we land.
Lyn Ay, the local guide, quickly sets priorities.
Casa Mariquit: Highlighted in Iloilo’s Hispanic Colonial Legacy
We headed straight to a house called Casa Mariquit, an impressive example of the mansions bequeathed and inspired by Spanish colonists.
There were quite a few in Iloilo and throughout Panay. Mariquit stood out from the rest.
Built in 1803, it remained preserved as the oldest colonial house in the city.
We found it on Santa Isabel Street in the Jaro neighborhood.
Visitors on the veranda of Casa Mariquit, Iloilo
An architectural complex with brick facades, even the frame of the gate that gives access to the fenced courtyard that extends in front of and below a full balcony, partly in the shade of a portentous prickly pear tree.
We entered.
O silong – the ground floor – leads to a dark wooden staircase, with cast iron sides and handrails.
From there on up, as was already the case with the stairs, a floor made of solid mahogany competes for dominance over the brick.
Figure on the lower floor of Casa Mariquit
Also known as Javellana-López, the mansion is full of original and centuries-old furniture and decorative elements, including old photographs of those who lived there. And not only that.
It was Ramon Javellana, a wealthy banker, who ordered the construction of Casa Mariquit.
Fernando "Nanding” Hofileña López, the Diplomat Who Recovered Mariquit
Years later, it became the home of his granddaughter Maria Salvación Javellana-López, known in the family and community as Mariquit (beautiful, in the Tagalog dialect) and her husband Fernando “Nanding” Hofileña Lopez, a ilonggo renowned, involved in Philippine state affairs from an early age.
So much so that, between 1949 and 1953, he served as vice president under Elpídio Quirino and, later, between 1965 and 1972, under President Ferdinand Marcos.
Unsurprisingly, in addition to family photos, we also find incredible diplomatic records.
From meetings and encounters with great world leaders: with the 36th President of the United States Lyndon Johnson, Emperor Hirohito, General Franco and the former President of China, later, Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek.
Former Mariquit House Office
In the final years of Fernando López's life (he died in 1993) the house fell into disrepair. His great-grandson took charge of restoring it.
As a result, Casa Mariquit was declared a historical and cultural heritage site of Iloilo.
It began to function as a kind of private museum, welcoming visits from outsiders.
An Unexpected Matchmaking Photoshoot
From a few, like us, mere curious admirers of the Filipino nation. From others, infinitely more popular, such as Pope John Paul II who blessed it during a brief visit, part of a Philippine tour.
We reached the top of the stairs. We expected to find one or two visitors. Not what we witnessed. A Filipino woman was getting married.
Others surround her, in traditional checkered and colorful dresses: bridesmaids, friends, family.
They comprised stagings of a photographic production led by a Sri Lankan photographer.
One of the scenes centered on a white garter that one of the attendants pulled up and down one of the bride's legs.
Moment of a wedding photography production at Casa Mariquit
In another, women held bouquets of flowers.
The pre-matchmaking session ends.
The bride and the other models engage in a lively chat. We wander around the upper floor. We take a breather on the balcony, overlooking the daily life of Iloilo.
Mothers brought their children home from school.
Drivers of pedal and motorized tricycles, omnipresent in the Philippines, circulated, a few already with passengers, the majority, looking for theirs.
Tricycle loaded with passengers on the outskirts of Iloilo
Lyn Ay is running out of time. “I would like to take you to another part of our heritage.
It’s outside of Iloilo, but it has always been part of the city’s history.”
Iloilo to Miagao: In Search of the Church of Santo Tomas de Villanueva de Miagao
We drove about 40km in one hour along a semi-marginal road, Iloilo Antique Rd. We crossed the Tumagbok River. Shortly after, we entered Miagao.
A detour to a street called Noble leaves us in front of one of the ancient religious monuments of Panay and the Philippines, the parish church of Santo Tomás de Villanueva de Miagao, better known as the church of Miagao.
A garden that had been soaked by recent rain precedes it. We approach it. Immediately, the temple built between 1787 and 1797 surprises us with its unusual Baroque-Romanesque architecture.
One of the niches of the Church of Miagao with a statue of Saint Thomas of Villanueva
The façade is made of a mixture of limestone, coral, adobe and even egg. It has a lighter surface than the towers. It includes three niches sanctified by Thomas of Villanueva, Henry of Bavaria and Pope Pius VI.
Featured in the center of the pediment is a coconut tree, interpreted as a “tropical tree of life”.
Detail of the top of the pediment of the church of Miagao.
In traditional Filipino attire, Saint Christopher clings to a coconut tree, with a baby Jesus on his back.
On the sides and below, there are reliefs with other crucial trees, papaya trees, palm trees.
And scenes from the rural daily life of the island’s people.
The Defensive Functions of the Miagao Church
The two towers that flank the nave appear tilted backwards, as if one of the frequent earthquakes in the Philippines had selectively swayed them.
Furthermore, commissioned by different priests, they are distinct. The one on the left is the oldest and the highest, with four levels.
The opposite one has three, the last level being added in 1830 by the priest assigned to the parish, Francisco Pérez, who was probably concerned about the insufficient views it provided. If so, his concern was justified.
Spain decided to conquer and colonize the Philippine archipelago, starting in 1565. Forty years had passed since the tribal chief Lapu-Lapu and his warriors They massacred Fernão Magalhães in a mangrove swamp on Mactan Island.
The leader of the expedition, the Basque navigator Miguel de Legazpi, set sail from Mexico, with instructions validated by Philip II of Spain, I of Portugal, monarch who inspired the baptism of the archipelago.
As had happened in the Americas, the Spanish quickly expanded. In the central and southern Philippines, they confronted Muslim forces, seen as moros orientals. Miagao became a frequent target.
The church of Santo Tomás de Villanueva was thus fortified, equipped with towers that allowed the vessels to be distinguished in the Gulf of Panay to the south.
Worshippers inside Miagao Church, 40km from Iloilo
We explore the interior. A newly arrived Christian congregation occupies the front of the altar. They devote themselves to prayer.
We, continue.
Through the Interior of Panay, Back to Iloilo
We went into the island, into the vastness of rice fields that we had seen from the plane and, here and there, coconut groves that the rainy season had kept lush.
Rainbow above a coconut grove in Panay
New whip generates a rainbow.
We followed him for some time, heading towards a workshop lost in the countryside, where a few weavers were producing fabrics identical to those we saw the women wearing at Casa Mariquit.
A weaver works at a loom in the interior of Panay Island
We returned to Iloilo with two hours to go before sunset.
We use them to explore other unmissable places in the capital. Lyn Ay takes us to the offices of the tourism department where she works, at the top of a tall building.
The church of San José Plácido, and the Plaza Libertad, next to it
Iloilo, the Hispanic and Christian Capital of Panay Island
From the terrace, we admire the Plaza de la Libertad where the flag of the Republic of the Philippines was hoisted after the surrender of the Spanish forces to the revolutionaries of Iloilo.
We can see the Guimaras Strait that borders the city to the southeast.
Just below, young people play a game of basketball.
Basketball game at Iloilo's Libertad Plaza, Panay Island
The church of San José Placer, built by the Jesuits in 1607, and as such, the first in Iloilo, blesses them.
A short distance away, the Santa Ana church, from 1831, is the only one built in the Gothic-Renaissance style on the island and in the Visayas sub-archipelago.
Residents of Iloilo in front of one of its many churches
It overlooks its own square, Molo, bordered by a shady garden. Within a radius of a few kilometres, we come across six other churches, not counting Miagao.
This concentration makes Iloilo one of the most Christian capitals in the Philippines. No disrespect to the “one of the most Hispanic” that we continue to confirm, with parallels in Vigan and in Manila.
We went down to the downtown area of the capital. One Jeepney fleet torments it with its noisy engines. In colonial times, the old Calle Real was the hub of commercial activity.
Today, another of the most striking colonial buildings still stands there, the A. Javellana, built on long double arcades that have provided refuge from the worst tropical weather for many decades. We could explore Iloilo for as long as we had.
Its Hispanicness would continue to reveal itself at the core of the city's Filipino soul.
The time had come for us to pass on to the neighbouring islands of Guimaras and black.
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