Panay

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This article is about the major island in the Visayas, Philippines. For the small island in Bicol
Region, Philippines, see Panay Island (Catanduanes). For other uses, see Panay
(disambiguation).

"Po-ni" redirects here. For the former state in Borneo, see History of Brunei.

Panay

Miag-ao Church, UNESCO World Heritage Site

 Location within the Philippines

Geography

Location South East Asia

11°09′N 122°29′ECoordinates:  11°09′N 12
Coordinates
2°29′E

Archipelago Visayas

Adjacent bodies of Cuyo East Pass

water Guimaras Strait

Iloilo Strait

Jintotolo Channel

Panay Gulf

Sibuyan Sea

Sulu Sea

Visayan Sea

Area 12,011 km2 (4,637 sq mi)

Area rank 65th

Coastline 764 km (474.7 mi)

Highest elevation 6,946 ft (2117.1 m)

Highest point Mount Madja-as

Administration

Philippines

Region Western Visayas

Provinces Aklan

Antique
 Capiz

Iloilo

Largest settlement Iloilo City (pop. 447,992)

Demographics

Population 4,477,247 (2015)

Pop. density 349.0/km2 (903.9/sq mi)

Ethnic groups Visayans (Hiligaynon, Karay-a, Capizn

on, Aklanon, Caluyanon)

Ati

Suludnon

Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth most-populous island in the Philippines, with a

total land area of 12,011 km2 (4,637 sq mi) and with a total population of 4,477,247 as of
2015. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. [1] The City of
Iloilo is its largest settlement with a total population of 447,992 inhabitants. It is a
triangular island, located in the western part of the Visayas. It is about 160 km (99 mi)
across. It is divided into four provinces: Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Iloilo, all in
the Western Visayas Region. Just closely 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[2] and to the south is Panay
Gulf. Panay is the only main island in the Visayas whose provinces don't 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 168
kilometres (104 mi), followed by the Jalaur, Aklan, Sibalom, Iloilo and Bugang rivers.
Standing at about 2,117 m (6,946 ft), 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 2,073 m (6,801 ft).

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Etymology
o 1.2Before the arrival of the Europeans
o 1.3The account of early Spanish explorers
 o 1.4World War II
 2Geography
o 2.1Topography
o 2.2River System
o 2.3Waterfalls
o 2.4Lakes
 3Administrative divisions
 4See also
 5References

History[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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Before 1212, Panay was called Simsiman. The community is located at the shores of
the Ulian River and was linked by a creek. The creek provided salt to the Ati people as
well as animals which lick the salt out of the salty water. Coming from the root word
"simsim", "simsimin" means "to lick something to eat or to drink", thus the place was
called Simsiman.
The native Ati called the island Aninipay from words "ani" to harvest and "nipay", a hairy
grass abundant in the whole Panay.
Before the arrival of the Europeans[edit]
No pre-Hispanic written accounts of Iloilo and Panay island exist today. Oral traditions,
in the form of recited epics like the Hinilawod, has 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.[3]
While no current archaeological evidence exist describing pre-Hispanic Panay, an
original work by Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro published in 1907 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.[4] The author made no claim on the historical accuracy of the accounts. [5]
According to Maragtas, the Kedatuan of 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.
Left to right: Images from the Boxer Codex illustrating members of the
ancient Visayan kadatuan or tumao class from Panay: [1] couple from the nobility, [2] a royal couple, and [3] a
native binukot.

An old manuscript Margitas of uncertain date (discovered by the anthropologist H. Otley

Beyer)[6] give 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.[7] 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. [8]
Grabiel 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…"[9]
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. [10] It was in Panay
that the conquest of Luzon was planned, and later launched on 8 May 1570. [11]
The account of early Spanish explorers[edit]

A 1734 map of Panay

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." [12] 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 1663 as Labor euangelica) that
Panay is the island which is most abundant and fertile. [13]
The first Spanish settlement in Panay island and the second oldest Spanish settlement
in the Philippines was established by the Miguel Lopez de Legazpi expedition in Panay,
Capiz at the banks of the Panay River[14] in northern Panay, the name of which was
extended to the whole Panay island. 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. [15]
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 Arevalo (Iloilo), he wrote in his Relacion de las
Yslas Filipinas the following observations:
The island is the most fertile and well-provisioned of all the islands discovered, except
the island of Luzon: for it is exceedingly fertile, and abounds in rice, swine, fowls, wax,
and honey; it produces also a great quantity of cotton and abacá fiber.[16]
"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." [16]
"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 Arevalo, 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." [16] 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…".[17].. "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
Arevalo, for galleys and fragatas. Here the ship 'Visaya' was launched."[18]
Another Spanish chronicler in the early Spanish period, Dr. Antonio de Morga (Year
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. [19]
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."[20]