Discover. Experience. Enjoy STA. BARBARA, ILOILO

On display until the weekend at the Victory Plaza is a diorama depicting the Via Crucis. Located at the bandstand, these miniature 14 Stations of The Cross opens in the afternoon for devotees and visitors experiencing Semana Santa in Santa Barbara.

Good Friday Procession With Santa Barbaranhons predominantly Roman Catholics, the whole town commemorates Semana Santa with rituals, traditions and gastronomy that has shaped this celebration for centuries now. One of the Kapiyas dotting the town's poblacion  Kapiya and Pasyon-singing century-old traditions observed by Santa Barbaranhons every Holy Week, wherein, the life story of Jesus Christ is foretold through singing with strings as accompaniment. This activity is participated by the different barangays in the town.  Singing the Pasyon Palm leaf Creation is another activity wherein old folks compete for the most intricately-designed palm-leaf. This is staged every Palm Sunday to celebrate Christ’s triumphal entry intro Jerusalem. He was welcomed with a crowd waving palm branches. All these activities are celebrated annually.  Domingo de Ramos procession PASYON The Pasyón is normally heard during Holy Week in the Philippines, where its recit...

 PALM SUNDAY commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. It commences the start of the Holy Week with rituals and traditions that include a procession of the assembled worshippers carrying palms, representing the palm branches the crowd scattered in front of "Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem". The origins of the Palm Sunday palaspas can be traced as far back as the pre-Hispanic Philippines. In his 1589 account, Fray Juan de Plasencia describes how early Filipinos would use “leaves of the white palm, wrought into many designs” to decorate lamps during festivities.  Here are some photos of the 2016 Domingo de Ramos celebration coming from the Santa Barbara Ugyon Facebook Page .

The giant Philippine flag in the municipal plaza of Santa Barbara, Iloilo where Philippine independence in the Visayas was proclaimed in 1898, will now be permanently hoisted as declared by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP). Santa Barbara plaza in Iloilo now joins a short list of places in the country where the national color is permanently hoisted 24/7 and illuminated during the night, according to NCHP Executive Director Ludovico Badoy. Badoy, Gov. Arthur Defensor, Santa Barbara Mayor Dennis Superficial and Army Col. Eric Ochida unveiled this morning a marker at the base of the flag during the occasion of the 117th anniversary of the first raising of the Philippine flag in the Visayas and Mindanao. The marker reads, " As mandated by Republic Act 8491, the Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines, the Philippine flag shall be permanently hoisted on this site 24/7 throughout the year and shall be illuminated at night. " Badoy said ...

On its third year, the National Competitive Council revealed the results of its annual Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index recognizing the most competitive cities, municipalities and provinces across the Philippines. It is an annual ranking of Philippine cities and municipalities developed by the National Competitiveness Council through the Regional Competitiveness Committees (RCCs) with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development. Cities and municipalities are ranked on their competitiveness based on an overall competitiveness score. The overall competitiveness score is the sum of scores on three main pillars which pool data from several sub-indicators. The three main pillars are: economic dynamism, government efficiency and infrastructure . Scores are determined by the values of the actual data, as well as the completeness of the submitted data. The higher the score of a city or municipality, the more competitive it is. For the fi...

Global-Estate Resorts, Inc. (GERI), a subsidiary of property giant Megaworld, is gearing up for another integrated urban township development in Western Visayas. The 173-hectare Sta. Barbara Heights in the historic municipality of Sta. Barbara in Iloilo is set to become the 18th township of Megaworld, which will lend its expertise to GERI to develop the vast property into a mixed-use urban community. “We are allocating P10-billion to develop Sta. Barbara Heights for 10 years. Part of which has already been spent for land development and construction of the village, which started four years ago. We have seen the potential of Sta. Barbara Heights of becoming a full-blown township because of its strategic location near the Iloilo International Airport. In the next five to 10 years, this master-planned community will help spur economic activities in this town, and we will be able to provide transient passengers and tourists with facilities that are truly welcoming and world-class,” says...

PNOY leads the 117th Independence Day Celebration in Santa Barbara, Iloilo Photo from the  Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines President Benigno PNOY Aquino III led the National Celebration of the 117th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Philippine Independence in Santa Barbara last June 12, 2015. It started with the Arrival Honors for the President followed by the Flag Raising and Wreath-laying Ceremonies. After the short program that followed, the President inspected the newly restored Santa Barbara Church and Convent then proceeded to the Vin D'Honneur at Casa Real in Iloilo City.   Watch the whole program