Iloilo City Charter Day in the Philippines Date in the current year: August 25, 2024

Iloilo is a first-class highly urbanized city in the Western Visayas region. It is the largest city and the provincial capital of the eponymous province, but due to its status the City of Iloilo is governed and administered independently from the province. Historically referred to as the Most Loyal and Noble City and the Queen City of South, Iloilo is currently known as the City of Love.

Little is known about the pre-colonial history of the area except for the fact that it was originally inhabited by the Hiligaynon people. The Spaniards arrived in the region in the mid-16th century and settled the area near the present-day town of Oton in 1566. This settlement became the second official Spanish colonial outpost in the Philippines after Cebu.

In 1581, the Spaniards moved the outpost farther from Oton to protect the settlement from recurrent raids of Moro pirates and European privateers, and renamed it La Villa Rica de Arevalo. Today, Villa de Arevalo is one of Iloilo’s districts. In 1700, it was again moved eastward to the village of Irong-Irong (or Ilong-Ilong), which was later shortened to Iloilo.

In the late 18th century, the development of weaving industry transformed Iloilo into a thriving municipality that came to be known as the Textile Capital of the Philippines. However, the city’s economy began to change in 1855, when its port was opened to foreign trade. The influx of cheap textiles from Britain led to the decline of its textile industry, but Iloilo continued to thrive because it shifted to sugar production.

The British vice consul Nicholas Laley made a significant contribution to the city’s sugar industry by introducing new sugar farming technologies, building warehouses, and offering loans. The increase in commercial activity in and around Iloilo led to the emergence of banks, commercial firms, foreign consulates, new educational institutions and recreational facilities in the municipality.

To recognize Iloilo’s growth and development, it was converted from a municipality to a city by a royal decree issued in 1899, joining Manila, Cebu and Vigan as the first officially declared cities in the Philippines. At the end of the Spanish colonial era, Iloilo was the second most important city in the Philippines after Manila.

During the first two years of the Philippine Revolution, Iloilo stayed loyal to Spain. This loyalty earned the city the official title of the Most Loyal and Noble City (La Muy Leal y Noble Ciudad), officially granted by Queen Regent Maria Christina of Spain in 1898. However, once Spain was defeated in the Spanish-American War, Iloilo became the capital of the Federal State of the Visayas under the Philippine revolutionary government.

Shortly after, the region was invaded by the Americans due to the outbreak of the Philippine-American War. In 1900, the American administration reverted the status of Iloilo back into a municipality. Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon reestablished Iloilo as a chartered city on August 25, 1937. The anniversary of this event is now celebrated as Iloilo City Charter Day.