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Iloilo province is primarily
the commercial and trade center of Western Visayas, with
commercial, industrial development and rural banks, financial
and investment houses, insurance companies, and real-estate
agencies and developers. Nevertheless, agriculture is the
province's main source of livelihood. In fact, Iloilo's
production of rice, sugar and mango has made it one of the
country's top agricultural producers.
Fishing is the second biggest industry, for Iloilo has rich
fishing grounds. This is the site of the Southeast Asian
Fisheries Development Center which conducts researches on the
spawning of milkfish and prawns; and the University of
Philippines (Miag-ao) which is the center of marine and aquatic
studies in the Philippines. The multi-million peso Iloilo Fish
Port also helps maximize the production of inland and deep-sea
fisheries in Western Visayas.
Iloilo is the cradle of early Philippine
civilization. The telltale marks of such cultural influences
live on in the century-old houses, the period churches, the
colorful festivals, and in the enterprising bloodline of its
people. Iloilo has a glorious past as the land's great sugar
bowl
and the locale of the haciendas of the old rich - whose scions
and daughters turned down the centuries into the dons and donas
of powerful economic dynasties. |
