Iloilo’s full-circle growth: The city’s heart won’t stop beating
DESPITE Iloilo City’s rise as an economic powerhouse, the city mayor still goes about his business running it with utmost zeal and passion—convinced that it has barely scratched the surface of its growth potential in the Western Visayas region.
“It’s not over yet ,” remarked Mayor Jerry Treñas as he quickly glanced at a piece of paper, which turned out to be the latest report on the city’s power situation. e latest data from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market or WESM showed that the average demand for the city has increased by 16 percent at the end of February.
Treñas was hardly surprised and proudly showed the report, noting that total investments in Iloilo City alone grew by 64 percent the past year.
e gross sales of registered rms also increased by 5.6 percent.
Today, with a strong economy and high-income level, Iloilo City has the highest per capita Gross Development Product (GDP) in Western Visayas. e Philippine
Statistics Authority reported that each person creates a value-added through the production of goods and services totaling P306,000 for the entire year, higher than the P118,00
per capita GDP of Region 6.
e mayor, however, admitted that the power situation in the city is really a concern. It in fact used to be a major problem at the turn of the century when the entire province was trying to diversify its economic base after the collapse of the sugar industry in the sixties.
Historically, the economy of Iloilo, then known as the “Queen City of the South,” relied heavily on sugar production, along with its neighboring cities and provinces in the Western Visayas region.
Beyond sugar
Despite the “very chaotic” situation in sugar production, the mayor said the city continued to recover and sustain its growth, until eventually becoming a major destination of the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) services that now thrive in the region.
Treñas conceded that the electricity problem in Iloilo was the reason Bacolod City was the rst to thrive from the BPOS. During his
rst term as mayor in 2002, he recalled how they were already trying to entice the BPOS to take advantage of the city’s potential as their major hub.
“We were really trying to get them here. Unfortunately, we had problems with power,” he said.
ey then asked Metrobank and its affiliate Global Business Power Corp. to build the first coal-fired power plant in La Paz to stabilize the electricity demand in the city.
Now, with the surge in power demand, he said they are optimistic that the 245 additional megawatts
they can generate with the completion of the Cebu-negrospanay Grid is more than enough for Iloilo to sustain its growth. Iloilo City’s economy is fueled by accommodation and food services activities at 52.4 percent , other services at 41.2 percent, and construction at 39.6 percent.
After painstakingly encouraging BPO investments, the city now boasts 47,000 full-time employees in this fast-growing service industry, with the in ux of 141 BPO companies within a span of two decades. e mayor traced the surge in BPO expansion to the city’s ef
cient supply of employees, with
its 26 colleges and universities that produce 15,000 graduates annually.
When Iloilo Business Park started in 2010, he was already a member of the House of Representatives, an elected post he held until the end of his third term in 2019. His being a lawmaker proved to be an advantage, giving him the opportunity to work closely with then Sen. Franklin Drilon, a native of Iloilo City, whom he credits for being instrumental in the muchneeded government interventions to boost the city’s private-sector driven economy.
“During that time, I was
collaborating closely with Senator Frank for new roads, the cleaning up of the Iloilo River and the widening of the roads for the esplanade,” he said.
e Iloilo River Esplanade, which was opened to public in 2012, is a 9-kilometer urban esplanade and park which stretches along both sides of the Iloilo River from Carpenter’s Bridge in Mandurria and Molo districts to Muelle Loney Bridge in the city proper and Lapuz district. e iconic landmark, which helps protect the historic river, also continues to promote emerging active lifestyles among the Ilonggo, as the
people living in the provinces of Iloilo, Guimaras and Panay are known.
e Iloilo Business Park, on the other hand, was Megaworld’s award-winning 72-hectare township which houses the 4 1.7-hectare Iloilo Convention Center -- considered the biggest convention center in Western Visayas -- along with residential condominiums, o ce towers and world-class hotels Richmonde Hotel Iloilo and Courtyard by Marriot Iloilo. It also hosts the Festive Walk Mall, the 1.1-kilometer Festive Wal Parade and Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art.
Megaworld was one of the pioneering industry leaders in the
Iloilo Economic Triangle, which also includes the Atria Park District by Ayala Land, the Iloilo City Center by Gaisano Group and recently, the SM Development Corp. and its community mid-rise condominiums.
‘Gateway to Western Visayas’
Iloilo City has also turned out to be the new “gateway” to the region.
“It’s the gateway since you don’t have to go Manila if you don’t need it. It’s all here without the traf
c,” Mayor Treñas said. “What we really did was to make it easy for business to come in.”
In early April, the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) formally took over the operation and development of the Iloilo Commercial Port Complex (IOCPC), a move meant to transform Iloilo’s main port as a premier gateway.
Initially, Mayor Treñas said they already got information that
ve new international shippers just came in under the new port operations.
e ICPC has been renamed Visayas Container Terminal following the notice of award based on the unsolicited proposal of the Enrique Razon-led ICTSI, with the Philippine Ports Authority awarding a 25-year lease contract.