Iloilo, In My Mind

The colors of an Ilonggo sunrise.

Iloilo never fails to amaze me. Despite its dragging lifestyle, which always tests my patience, I still find small things to love in this sluggish yet quaint city in the Visayas.

What's amazing about this city is that it looks very structured from the streets--there's the neverending array of taxis and jeepneys plying main routes, of streets huddled between rows of centuries-old and slightly new buildings. (It is just like Manila, except the streets are wider.)

But beyond the and the decay, there are hidden places for the curious. Like the Central Market for instance. From the main highway (Rizal, I think), a quick turn would have you ending up in a row of dried fish and seafood. What some sellers in other provinces flaunt out in the streets, Ilonggos "hide" like a box of treasures.

Dried squid at the Iloilo Central Market.

Iloilo seemed to be like that: very private. A city to be discovered by foot, one at at time, following a trail of curiosities.

I've also grown a fixation for the churches here. In my last visit (also for a documentary shoot), I discovered the breathtakingly beautiful Miag-ao Church. This time, its the picturesque Jaro Church that piqued my attention.

I'm no religious. But I am a fan of architecture, of old-fashioned Baroque-style ones typical in the facade of colonial churches. The sight of one always makes me want to cry, especially when it looms beside grubby buildings and cogon houses, standing like the only magnificent relic of a long-ago world.

If you visit a church for the first time, make a wish. They say its a charm; the heavens will grant your wish.

Slowly, Iloilo City is becoming my mecca. I feel like flying here just so I can sit and watch light hit these structures. In my solitary cosmopolitan life in Manila, I hear it sometimes, beckoning; the way the seas of Sulu called for Tarhata.

Iloilo now goes down in my memory as the city of beautiful churches, of duwendes watching over restaurants, of oysters and crabs, and where my mother and I had our first trip together when I was six. This place still makes me happy. - 10/8/2013