In the early years of the Spanish occupation of the Philippines, Negros Island was put under the jurisdiction of the colonial administration in Cebu. Later, in 1590, the governance of the island was transferred to Iloilo and the first recorded Spanish official assigned to administer the few settlements in it was Gonzalo Ronquillo. It must be pointed out that Ronquillo was the same guy who founded La Villa de Arevalo earlier, the first town that was officially recognized under Spanish sovereignty in Iloilo.
At that time, Negros was sparsely populated and its inhabitants, both of the Malay stock and the Atis, did not offer resistance to the colonizers. Although the Atis or Negritos were of a significant number themselves, the Spaniards did not pay attention to them because they were limited to their nomadic existence and their primitive way.
At first, Negros, undeveloped and almost covered with forest, did not merit the interest and preferential attention of the colonizers, except for the mission work. However, in the middle part of the 19th century, sugar cane cultivation began to flourish in the area. Sugar production was further given impetus with the opening of the port of Iloilo to world trade in 1855. Western Visayas began to develop as the hub of the sugar industry because of the high demand of sugar in the world market and the fertility of the land. Thus, all throughout the 1850s and the succeeding decades, Ilonggos in considerable numbers moved to Negros because of the reported availability of cultivable lands there.
Negros during that time was not yet divided into two provinces. Its capital was in Himamaylan, which was too far south. The capital was later transferred to Bacolod which was more strategically located between the northern and the southern sections.
While the migration to the western part of Negros from Iloilo was going on, there was also a corresponding movement of people from Cebu and Bohol to the eastern side. This exodus of people to Negros from both sides of the island led to its division following the line of her eastern-western coasts in 1890. Also, the influx of these migrants eventually dissolved the distinction of the original Malay inhabitants from the newcomers, except for those living in the hidden or isolated outskirts of towns already under the administration of the Spanish government.
The Ilonggo exodus to Negros in the 19th century did not consist solely of laborers or sacadas and small farmers but also of men of wealth and successful merchants who went there to invest their capital and financial experience. Most of them were prosperous fabric merchants, small and enterprising proprietors, and employees of firms in the progressive town of Iloilo who, in their homes or in their offices, heard tales from their relatives and friends of the bright prospects in a land so close to Panay. In addition, the visible presence of considerable agricultural produce in Negros of rice, corn, abaca, coffee, tobacco, and sugar transported to Iloilo for export and local consumption was an attraction that was difficult to resist. Thus, capital and labor crossed over to Negros that assured tempting yields.
Among the prominent families at the head of the Ilonggo migration to Negros in the 19th century were the Bellezas, Consings, Conlus, De la Ramas, Lacsons, Lazaros, Locsins, Magalonas, Mellizas and Montelibanos of Molo; the Benedictos, Gamboas, Hernaezes, Hilados, Hofilenas, Jaymes, Jisons, Ledesmas, Lopezes, and Severinos of Jaro; the Belmontes, Cuaycongs and Mondragons of Mandurriao; and the Navals and Vitos of Capiz (Varona 1938). These families generally settled in the central and northern sections of the western side of Negros.
Aside from those that originated from the town of Iloilo and its outskirts, there were others who came from Tigbauan, Guimbal and Miag-ao. Individuals and families from these southern towns of Iloilo usually found their way into the southern part of Negros Occidental such as Pontevedra, Binalbagan, Himamaylan, Hinigaran, Ilog, and Kabangkalan.
Today, it is not surprising that most of the prominent families in Negros Occidental, who are in farming, business and politics, can trace their origin and ancestry to Panay. This will also explain why the dominant language in that province is Hiligaynon.
-Taken from http://www.thenewstoday.info/2008/08/29/prominent.ilonggo.migrants.in.negros.html
THIS FOUR-lane major street which is part of Barangay Airport in Iloilo City runs eastward from Mandurriao district plaza passing in front of Mandurriao Elementary School, then cross Megaworld’s Iloilo Business Park to Barangay Tabucan where the road turns southward up to the 10-storey Filinvest Futura Homes development at right and the Iloilo River Esplanade to the left until Carpenter Bridge that connects to Molo district and downtown Iloilo City.
The major roadway was named after Roman Mapa from Negros Oriental, a Catholic priest who served at the parish of Mandurriao after Father Gervacio Gallofin who first established Mandurriao’s Spousal of Our Lady Church.
Celsa Mondragon, a relative of Father Mapa, had a daughter, Ysabel, who was married to Carlos Jones, a British consul. They had five children and one of them, Carlos Jones Jr., got married to a local girl, Dolores Villanueva.
Carlos Jr. and Dolores had three children born in Mandurriao all surnamed Jones; namely, Milagros, Roman and the youngest, Purita, was married to Manuel Solinap Sr. who set up residence in Barangay Airport near the present barangay chapel beside the road. They had nine children, all now with families of their own, but one of them, Kapitan Manuel J. Solinap Jr., is the present punong barangay of Barangay Airport who remained in the family compound.
Father Roman, his relatives and their descendants who chose to have their home in Mandurriao were generous and philanthropic to the community. They donated, for example, the site of the local Catholic cemetery and also contributed five hectares of their property to build the former Iloilo Airport (now Megaword’s Iloilo Business District). This street named Roman Mapa in Mandurriao is therefore well deserved.
Undertaking a job like Writing History in our Streets to put up historical markers or signage in our street corners or other conspicuous locations on the road will not be interesting if not for the exciting challenge to research and discover knowledge or information about our street names. But with the cooperation of our incumbent barangay officials, we see good encouragement.
Like at Quirico Abeto and R. Mapa streets in Mandurriao district, we will be seeing in due time the barangay kapitanes of other areas. We are just waiting to have a marker finished along the specifications we have recommended to provide us a model for other streets and proceed with the project smoothly.
We wish that other barangays that have jurisdiction over streets will take up this matter in their barangay councils and adopt the project.
Soon we will visit you to offer this service of Writing History in our Streets, if you wish to avail yourselves of it.
-Taken from: https://www.panaynews.net/rural-update-roman-mapa-street/
Henry F. Funtecha, Ph.D.
The Ilonggo migration from Iloilo to Negros in the late 19th century, in the wake of the boom in the sugar industry, was not only observable in the central and southern parts of Negros Occidental but also in the northern section. These places inhabited by the Iloilo migrants were Silay, Saravia, Victorias, Manapla and Cadiz. At the head of the IIonggo geographic movement were the Conlus, Consings, Lazaros, Magalonas and Mellizas of Molo; the Belmontes, Cuaycongs and the Mondragons of Mandurriao; the Gamboas, Hilados, Hofilenas, Jaymes, Jisons andLopezes of Jaro;the Navals and Vitos of Capiz; and others (Varona 1938).
Prior to the advent of the steamship, the travel from Iloilo to Negros and vice-versa took one day, with favorable wind. Otherwise, the travelers had to contend themselves to floating around aimlessly at sea for a while. Later on, motor-powered small boats were utilized to cross the body of water between Panay and Negros that took from six to eight hours each trip.
The influx of the Ilonggo migrants to northern Negros and the development of sugar cultivation in an extensive manner led to the rise of towns. The scattered inhabitants of the island began to congregate together in communities under the employ of the Ilonggo-turned hacienderos and under the protection of the Spanish colonial government that, in one way or the other, encouraged such development. The formation of the towns, in a sense, was closely associated with the rise of haciendas. The haciendero,in his desire for progress and, above all, driven by his enterprising spirit, bought, sold, extended his lands, or dispose of them in one stroke, if convenient for his entrepreneurial interest.
With the exception of the original towns which the Spaniards did nothing more than formalize since they were already recognized as centers of population before the conquest, other towns founded later on owe much of their existence to the nuclei of haciendas. Because of the hacienderos' activities, these haciendas progressed by length and breadth in the island, opening pathways between the lowlands and mountains, and drawing closer the inhabitants to the fold of colonial administration.
Although there is no available specific number on record of how many towns got established in northern Negros in a given period of time, the figure for the whole island is very revealing. In 1850,on the eveof the sugar boom, there were only 17 towns in Negros with an estimated population of 30,000. In 1893, 43 years, the number had reached42 and the inhabitants were counted at 320,000 (Varona 1938).
There is no doubt at all that the fertilityof the landin northern Negros that wasexcellent in the productionof sugarcane, rice, abaca, cacao, coffee, indigo, mongo, tobacco, and all kinds of tubers made the inhabitants of the neighboring island of Panay considered the area as their promised land.
sIt must be mentioned that Negros at first was a single province with the towns of Bacon, Dawin, Dumaguete, Siaton, Sibulan and Tanhay in the eastern coast, and with Bacolod, Bago, Himamaylan, Hinigaran, Ilog, Kabangkalan and Silay in the western side. Some of the towns changed their names with the passing of years while others disappeared, giving way to new ones.