Capiz (), officially the Province of Capiz (Capiznon/Hiligaynon: Kapuoran sang Capiz; ), is a province in the central part of the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. Capiz is located at the northeastern portion of Panay Island, bordering three other provinces, Aklan to the north, Antique to the west, and Iloilo to the south. Capiz faces the Sibuyan Sea to the north. The capital city is Roxas, which is also the most populous city.
Capiz is known for the Placuna placenta oyster shell that has the same name locally and is used for decoration and making lampshades, trays, doors and capiz-shell windows. Likewise, the province is known as the "Seafood Capital of the Philippines" and was among the top 15 most frequently visited places in the Philippines. Capiz is the site of the famous coral-stone Santa Mónica Church in the town of Panay, home to the largest Catholic Church bell in Asia. The bell was made from 70 sacks of gold and silver coins donated by the townsfolk. Measuring seven feet in diameter, five feet in height and weighing 10,400 kilograms or just over 10 metric tons, the Panay bell is popular among tourists visiting Capiz.
History
Rival kingdoms period According to the epic of Maragtas, Capiz was settled by datus from Borneo who fled the oppression of Rajah or Sultan Makutanao of Sarawak. And, after the datus founded new towns in Panay island, Negros island, Taal lake, and the Bicol region, they organized a successful expedition to retake their conquered homeland and sacked the capital of Sultan Makatunao, Odtojonan, and they killed him, and afterwards enslaved his subjects and made them vassals in the new towns the datus established in the Philippines. After this brief war with Sultan Makatunao, the Kedatuan of Madja-as including the datus of Capiz, often raided Luzon and Mindoro in the north; the locations of the kingdoms of Tondo and Ma-i that there is an old Capiznon saying: “sa diin timo nangayaw nga mait” which translates as “did you raid (pangayaw) up north (mait)?” but actually means “where have you been?”, as a memory of Capiznon raids against the kingdoms of Luzon.Ian Christopher B. Alfonso, “Kapampangans Versus Visayans: The Pintados Regularly Pillaged Costal Towns in Pampanga and Western Luzon,” Singsing 6, no. 1 (c.2012), 27.
Spanish colonial era The account of early Spanish explorers about Capiz and its people was traced back in 1566 when the Spaniards set foot in the mouth of Banica river.
Early settlements were seen in the town of Panay. The town was originally called Bamban. The name was changed by the early Spaniards to Panay, a word which means "mouth of the river." This is also the location of a fortress built by Juan de la Isla in late 1570. The Paseo de Evangelización 1566 can be found in the town plaza and was erected through the efforts of Rev. Msgr. Benjamin F. Advíncula.
When the Spaniards led by Miguel López de Legazpi came to Panay from Cebu in 1569, after sailing from Mexico, they found people with tattoos, and so they called the island Isla de los Pintados.
How the island itself came to be called Panay is uncertain. The Aeta (Negritos) called it Aninipay, after a plant that abounded in the island. Legend has it that López de Legazpi and his men, in search of food, exclaimed upon the island, pan hay en esta isla! "There is bread in this island"! and the island of Panay closely resembles the shape of a heart and the heart of Jesus Christ is considered present in the Eucharistic Bread. The Spanish then came and established their first settlement on the island at the mouth of the Banica River and called it Panay. This was the second Spanish settlement in the Philippines, following San Miguel, Cebu. Unknown to many, Calle Revolución in Panay is the second oldest street in the Philippines after Calle Colón in Cebu City, Central Visayas. The town was founded by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi with 4 soldiers as settlers and encomienederos.Diccionario Geográfico, Estadístico, Histórico, de las Islas Filipinas By Fr. Manuel Buzeta and Fr. Felipe Bravo, Volume 1, Published Madrid :(Impr. de J.C. de la Peña) 1850-1851.(Quote: "Del mismo modo que en Cebú habia fundado una poblacion de 50 vecinos á la cabeza de los cuales dejó un religioso Agustino; en la de Masbate otro con seis soldados para custodiare ; en la que nos ocupa otro con otros 4 soldados , á fin de que cada uno de ihos religiosos cuidase de la conversion de sus naturales á la verdadera religion de Jesucristo, coronando los esfuerzos de aquellos primeros operarios evangélicos los mas brillantes resultados.")
Later in 1569, Captain Diego de Artieda, who was sent by López de Legazpi, landed in the town of Panay and proclaimed it the capital of the province. Later, the Spaniards moved the capital to its present site upon founding the town of Capiz (not the province, and now Roxas City) which was near the sea and provided docking facilities.
In 1716, the province was created a separate encomienda and was later organized into a politico-military unit. By the end of the 1700s, Capiz had 11,459 native families and 89 Spanish Filipino families.ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO PRIMERO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish)ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish)
The Panayanon's noble character and royal blood shone out in later centuries when fellow people from Panay island, at Iloilo City was given by the Queen of Spain, the Royal Title of "Most Loyal and Noble City" for being the most ardent and faithful city in the Spanish Empire and had remained loyal to Spain while the entire empire collapsed.
Since then Capiz (still unseparated from Aklan) had prospered and by the 1818 Spanish census, Capiz' number of Spanish-Filipino families expanded to 285. Of which; Mambusao had 18, Batan had 56, Banga had 8, Malinao had 11, Kalibo had 167, and Ibajay 30. Romblon which was then under Capiz also had 15 Spanish-Filipino families.
Although Capiz joined the Tagalog-led Philippine Revolution, the Spaniards didn't surrender to the Tagalogs but they did surrender to the people of Iloilo and eventually Iloilo and Capiz were part of the same Federal Republic of the Visayas a substate which was formed within the First Philippine Republic, the first capital of which was in Cavite while the United States of America had betrayed the Philippine Revolution which they initially supported and influential American officers swore allegiance to. These American officers betrayed their oaths and occupied Manila.
American colonial era The American takeover of the Philippines resulted in the establishment of a civil government in Capiz on April 15, 1901, by virtue of Act 115.
Japanese occupation On April 16, 1942, Imperial Japanese forces landed on Capiz City and occupied the rest of the province. However, on December 20, 1944, Capizanon guerrillas, whose forces had already occupied most of the province, liberated the capital from Japanese hands, leading to the full liberation of the province."Events occurring on Thursday, April 16, 1942", WW2Timelines.com, March 11, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
Philippine independence Capiz and Aklan were united under one province until 25 April 1956, when President Ramon Magsaysay signed into law Republic Act 1414 separating the two entities.
Martial law era
The beginning months of the 1970s had marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines, as well as in Capiz. During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of foreign debt-funded public works projects. This caused the Philippine economy to take a sudden downwards turn known as the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, which led to a period of economic difficulty and a significant rise of social unrest. With only a year left in his last constitutionally allowed term as president, Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law in September 1972 and thus retained the position for fourteen more years. This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship.
One of the significant incidents of the era took place as the dictatorship began to fall, when Rodrigo Ponce - a farmer who monitored proceedings as a volunteer for the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) in Capiz during the 1986 snap elections - was murdered. Four persons came in the room and seized ballot boxes. Because he recognized one of the men, Ponce was brought outside and shot dead. Ponce was later honored by having his name inscribed on the wall of remembrance at the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which honors the martyrs and heroes that resisted the authoritarian regime.
Geography
Capiz covers a total area of occupying the northeastern portion of Panay Island, and is one of the five provinces that compose the Western Visayas region. Mount Nangtud, is the highest mountain in Capiz with an elevation of 6,804 ft (2,074 m) located on the Capiz-Antique border. Other peaks are Mount Tigas 4,760 ft (1,451 m), Mount Agudo 2,736 ft (834 m). The province comprises 473 barangays, 16 municipalities and a city. Roxas City, the provincial capital, is only 45 minutes away by plane from Manila and is within the routes of major shipping lines. The Panay River used to be famous for the great number of crocodiles thriving there. Capiz is bounded by the Sibuyan Sea and the Panay, Loctugan and Ivisan rivers.
Administrative divisions Capiz comprises 1 city (Roxas) and 16 municipalities, further subdivided into 473 barangays, with 2 congressional districts.
City municipality District Population Area Density Coordinates km2 /km2 Cuartero 2nd 27,408 22 Dao 2nd 32,496 20 Dumalag 2nd 29,466 19 Dumarao 2nd 46,157 33 Ivisan 2nd 29,055 15 Jamindan 2nd 36,677 30 Maayon 1st 38,416 32 Mambusao 2nd 39,644 26 Panay 1st 46,114 42 Panitan 1st 40,289 26 Pilar 1st 45,287 24 Pontevedra 1st 46,428 26 President Roxas 1st 29,676 22 Roxas City † 1st 167,003 47 Sapian 2nd 25,821 10 Sigma 2nd 30,134 21 Tapaz 2nd 51,313 58 Total 804,952 761,384 2,594.64 473
Demographics
The population of Capiz in the 2024 census was 835,098 people, with a density of .
Inhabitants Historians and ethnologists narrowed it down to three types of people known to have inhabited Capiz: Atis/Aetas, popularly known as Negritos; Indonesian descendants of the Mundo tribe in central Panay; and the Malays.
Sulod tribe Located in Tapaz, Suludnon also known as the Tumandok, Panay-Bukidnon, or Panayanon Sulud, are culturally indigenous Visayan group of people who reside in the Capiz-Lambunao mountainous area and the Antique-Iloilo mountain area of Panay in the Visayan islands of the Philippines. They speak the Igbok language (also known as Ligbok or Sulod language), a member of the West Bisayan subdivision of the Bisayan languages within the Austronesian language family.
Religion Roman Catholicism remains influential in the lives of most people living in Capiz especially in the fields of politics, education and even in their daily personal decisions. Roman Catholics are predominant with 70 percent adherence, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente has a strong minority with 20 percent.
Other groups include Members Church of God International (MCGI), Born Again Christians, Iglesia ni Cristo, Methodists, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists among others.
Languages