Considered as the country’s largest municipality comprised by 119 baranggays (at least according to Wikipedia), Miag-ao is popular mainly because of its church which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list of Baroque Churches in the Philippines. The main campus of the University of the Philippines - Visayas could also be found here, with the entrance around ten minutes walking distance from the church and the plaza.
I placed Miag-ao
on top of my Iloilo
list because of its location. I was set to arrive late in the afternoon and I
only had a day and a half in Iloilo.
I was even planning on including Jordan, Guimaras on that list. Silly me. Miag-ao
is an hour away by bus from the city proper. In contrast, Jordan in Guimaras is
only 15 minutes away by pump boat. Obviously, Miag-ao would take a lot more time for
me to reach. So coming directly from the airport, I had the van drop me off at
the Molo Bus Terminal. I hopped on a bus going to Miag-ao and arrived there an
hour later.
The church is hard
to miss since it is situated along the main road. Its baroque architecture
accentuates its dominion of the area. Every other building just disappears once
you set your sight at this church. What immediately caught my attention was the
unique facade with its coconut tree engraving along with the saint carrying the
child Jesus. Most of the churches I have seen in this lifetime have boring features,
with their front walls totally devoid of any design. This one is different.
Whoever designed it was totally thinking out of the box. A wedding just ended
when I came to visit so I was able to freely roam inside. The interior of the
church is not as grandiose as that of St. Anne at Molo. The architects seem
to have exhausted all the splendor on the outside walls of the church that
nothing was left for the interior once they ended the construction. However, it
is the simplicity itself that truly gives an air of serenity inside.
There was nothing
much to see except for the church and the UPV campus. Now if you decide to tour
the whole UPV campus, there would be A LOT to see. I forgot how many hectares
the total land area of the said campus is. I only reached the entrance where
the Oblation stood, snapped a picture, and went back to the plaza to wait for a
bus back to Iloilo
City. One hour to get
there, another one to see the common tourist sights, and another to get back to
the city proper. It was a bit tiring, yes, but not bad at all. If you have more
time to spare, try touring the whole UPV campus.
MIAGAO: 01 - How Baroque is
Your Church?
ILOILO CITY: 01 - Iloilo Doesn’t Love Churches 
2 creature/s gave a damn:
Hi!
Just wanted to ask how you got back from Miag-ao to the city proper?
Thanks!
@Anonymous - you mean back to Iloilo? Bus. There's always one passing by the main road. UPV to Miag-Ao church and back is walking distance, sort of.
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