Miag-ao, commonly written "Miagao", is a 1st class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 60,498 people. It is located in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines.
Miag-ao the largest municipality in the country with a total of 119 barangays. It is approximately 40 km southwest of Iloilo City.
Every Easter Sunday, the Church conducts mass and there is a town fiesta every September 22 that lasts several days.
Contents |
Miag-ao is politically subdivided into 119 barangays.
|
|
|
This remote location of Miag-ao helped the town defend itself from the frequent raids by Moro pirates in the 16th to 19th century that plagued many neighboring towns and caused whole town-centers to relocate towards Iloilo City. Thus, Miag-ao and its surrounding area grew without hindrance and with little outside influence.
The Miag-ao Church was built in 1786 by Spanish Augustinian missionaries and was declared as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Baroque Churches of the Philippines" in 1993. On the front facade, which is flanked by two watchtower belfries, one can see the unique blending of Spanish and native influences.
The central feature of the bas-relief facade is a large coconut tree which reaches almost to the apex. While an integral part of the Philippine landscape, the coconut tree is also the subject of lore. According to an old Philippine legend, the coconut tree was the only bequest from a loving mother to her two children, a tree which sustained them for life. On the church's facade the coconut tree appears as the "tree of life" to which St. Christopher carrying the Child Jesus on his shoulder is clinging to. The lesser facades feature the daily life of Miagaowanons during the time. Also depicted are other native flora and fauna, as well as native dress.
The church and its watchtowers were also built to defend the town and its people against raids by the Moros. It therefore has thick walls and, reportedly, secret passages. Indeed stretching along the Iloilo coast are defensive towers, but none that equal the size of the Miag-ao. It is because of this defensive purpose that it is sometimes referred to as the Miag-ao Fortress Church.
The Miag-ao campus of the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) spreads out over 12 km² on the outskirts of the town proper. This is the main campus of UPV and includes the UP College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences which focuses on aquaculture, fish processing, natural products development, and post-harvest/food science. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Thailand and Cambodia sent exchange students to the school to study fish and rice production, and after graduating returned home where they began out-producing and out-exporting the Philippines in these commodities.
|
|||||||||||