ILOILO: HEART of the PHILIPPINES

San Enrique, Iloilo is a truly tranquil and peaceful town guaranteed to help you relax, slow down, and connect with nature. Visit small scale farms— sugar cane and rice fields, corn, water buffalo, and more. Meet happy, smiling people and enjoy their local cuisine. Amidst the bustling and progressive city pulsating with modern life, Pallon Farm is a unique haven for those who long for the solitude and enjoyment while communing with nature. Where the ambiance will surely soothe the senses and calm your nerves, allowing you to achieve one of the best farm holidays of your life. PallonFarm, a privately-owned farm in Barangay Bantayan is one of the unique places in Iloilo where you can come to recharge in beautiful scenery with peaceful silence in the farm fields. Only four (4) kilometers from the town center, Pallon Farm will remind you of a simple yet happy life. This 1.5 hectares developed area of the farm has a fishpond framed by fruit-bearing trees such as r...

The Lopez Heritage House or otherwise known as the Nelly's Gardens is a national heritage house built in 1928 located at Jaro, Iloilo by an Ilonggo statesman Don Vicente Lopez and his wife, Doña Elena Hofileña. The mansion was named after the couple's eldest daughter, Lilia Lopez y Hofileña. The house is a classic example of Beaux-Arts mansion with its decorative enhancement largely influenced by Western aesthetics evident on its facade. It is designed to portray the extravagant lifestyle of Iloilo's most affluent families during the American period.  Profusely adorned with ornately-carved columns and pilasters, the house is constructed to look imposing outside just as it does inside.  Two set of wooden stairs lead to the family cavernous common room where most of the furniture and paintings are placed. Even the poster beds in its rooms at the second floor are carefully preserved for public viewing. High up in the ceiling are crystal chandeli...

Mpox is a viral infection that is currently on everyone’s radar. Should we be concerned? Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control project (EpiC) Philippines, a project  funded by  USAID and PEPFAR and led by FHI360, presents everything the public, especially people living with HIV (PLHIV), needs to know about this disease. What is  mpox ?   Mpox is  a  disease caused by the monkeypox virus. According to the World Health Organization, mpox causes symptoms that are  similar to  smallpox.  The  key difference between the two infections is that mpox causes swelling of the lymph nodes. The most common symptoms of mpox include a rash with blisters on the face, hands, feet, or even the genitals, fever, headaches, muscle pain, back aches, and fatigue. How  is  it spread?   Mpox is primarily spread through close physical contact with someone who has the monkeypox virus, especially direct contact with the rash. This includes...

Cebu Pacific (PSE: CEB), the Philippines’ leading carrier, further strengthens its Visayas and Mindanao network by operating a total of 18 additional routes, expanding its inter-island connectivity and providing passengers with more accessible and affordable air travel across the airline’s domestic and international destinations. By December, CEB will operate a total of 73 routes serving Visayas and Mindanao as it opens new routes from its Iloilo, Davao, Cebu, and Clark hubs. This expansion will bring the airline’s capacity on Visayas and Mindanao flights to 2.1 million seats from 1.4 million in January 2024 and increase the number of flights operating across the same network to an average of 12,000. To support this growth, CEB is set to accept a total of 18 aircraft this year, of which 11  have already arrived. On top of this, the airline has also placed an order for up to 152 aircraft from Airbus -the largest aircraft order in Philippine aviation history - deliveries of which wil...

The first church constructed in Iloilo City in the early 1600s to serve the needs of the Spanish military. What one sees today is the San Jose Church built in the 1870s completed with two towers built with a clock and a barometer.  Pillars dominate the church interiors with tasteful renovations made throughout the years making it a grand "medium size church" inside out. Religious art is everywhere but most striking at the altar and at the transcepts (sides of a church esp those shaped like a cross). Plaza Libertad just across the church