Antique is one of the provinces comprising the island of Panay in Western Visayas. It has a total land area of approximately 2,522 sq. km. It is bounded on the north and northeast by Aklan, on the east by Capiz, and on the southwest by Iloilo. On the west is the Cuyo East Pass of the Sulu Sea, part of the vast China Sea. Eighteen municipalities make up the province: fourteen along the coast, three inland, and one on six islets. Coastal towns are Anini-y, Tobias Fornier, Hamtic, San Jose de Buenavista, Belison, Patnongon, Bugasong, Laua-an, Barbaza, Tibiao, Culasi, Sebaste, Pandan, and Libertad. The inland towns are Sibalom, San Remigio, and Valderrama.
Geography
Profiled like a seahorse, Antique is an oversized serrated hemline on the western border of the three-cornered scarf-like land mass that is Panay. It lies between the China Sea to the west and a tall mountain range, 155 kilometers long and 33 kilometers at its widest, to the east, separating it from the rest of Panay.
Profiled like a seahorse, Antique is an oversized serrated hemline on the western border of the three-cornered scarf-like land mass that is Panay. It lies between the China Sea to the west and a tall mountain range, 155 kilometers long and 33 kilometers at its widest, to the east, separating it from the rest of Panay.
Political Subdivision
The province is composed of 18 municipalities, 3 of which are inland, 14 coastal and 1 island municipality. Antique was classified as a 2nd class province as of January, 2002.
The province is composed of 18 municipalities, 3 of which are inland, 14 coastal and 1 island municipality. Antique was classified as a 2nd class province as of January, 2002.
Climate
Antique has a pleasant tropical climate.
Antique has a pleasant tropical climate.
Population
Per 2000 NCSO Survey, population is placed at 472,822 of which 50.57% are males and 49.43% females.
spacer spacerLanguage / Dialect
Antiqueños speak Hiniray-a with Indo-Malayan origin. English is widely spoken and understood.
Per 2000 NCSO Survey, population is placed at 472,822 of which 50.57% are males and 49.43% females.
spacer spacerLanguage / Dialect
Antiqueños speak Hiniray-a with Indo-Malayan origin. English is widely spoken and understood.
Major Industries
Major products shipped out of the province are palay, rice, copra, muscovado sugar, legumes, fruits and vegetables, livestock, fish and fish preparations, and seaweeds. Manufactured items like native gifts, toys, and housewares have found their way in major cities of the country and abroad. Principal mined products exported include coal, marble, silica, copper, and gemstone.
Major products shipped out of the province are palay, rice, copra, muscovado sugar, legumes, fruits and vegetables, livestock, fish and fish preparations, and seaweeds. Manufactured items like native gifts, toys, and housewares have found their way in major cities of the country and abroad. Principal mined products exported include coal, marble, silica, copper, and gemstone.
MARARISON ISLAND
Based on local folklore, the islands of Mararison along with Maniguin and Batbatan are siblings separated from their parents – Mount Madjaas and Mount Kanlaon – by their envious neighbor Mount Baloy. Seen from above, the three islands seem to be reaching out to their grieving mother, Mararison is the closest and just within reach.
Just fifteen minutes boat ride from mainland Antique, Mararison Island (also called Malalison Island) is a small fishing village off the coast of the town of Culasi. But the tourism boom is quickly changing the way the island lives as locals turn to guides and households into homestays. Mararison Island agreeably embraced its new found fate.
With a land area of 55 hectares, the island is characterized by grassy rolling hills and white sandy beach on the eastern coast paving the way for the island to become a new tourism hotspot. During rainy season, the grassy hills resemble the rolling hills of Batanes. On dry months however, the place exudes a grassy summit of Mount Pulag feels. The grassy rolling hills are decorated with pitcher plants, quite amazing as this rare insect-eating plant is usually found in the forest but the rolling hills of Mararison Island seems like a farm!
A trek along the rolling hills takes around an hour and requires a local guide. The journey will take you to the western coast overlooking Nablag Islet, one of the best spots to see the sunset. Local guides are readily available P200 per guide for a group of one to ten persons.
More than the rolling hills, the white sand beach and its attached sandbar are the prime features of Mararison Island. The sandbar on its eastern tip emerges substantially during low tide and present only during summer and amihan or southeast monsoon season. This spot offers a panoramic view of sunrise on the backdrop of Mount Madjaas and mainland Antique.
The water surrounding the island was once devastated by illegal fishing but now slowly recovering. With the protection of the locals, give it five years or so and it will be teeming with marine life for scuba divers and snorkelers to enjoy.
But if there’s one thing that you will want to remember about the place, it is the Mararison Island Children’s Choir. Lovely kids with lovely voices singing songs from the island and for the island. These kids, aged four to eight years are under the supervision of Joeryl Amora, some of them were able to learn how to sing notes first than to write their names. They are faces of hope, of dreams… of the island.
Mararison… a small island full of wonders and surprises. Trek to Lantawan Peak, walk the grassy rolling hills, be amazed with its rich biodiversity, bask on its beaches, swim on its turquoise water, catch the sunrise and the sunset, be serenaded by the voices of its children. Oh, the simple pleasures of Mararison Island!
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