Maiden Panaad Festival highlights Leganes Patronal Fiesta

The town of Leganes is famous for “Guiham ”or wild boars during the Spanish time. This explains why the municipality started as a small settlement in what is now known as Barangay Guihaman. Even back then, its trade and commercial activities already flourished. Now, Leganes is a leading industrial center in the province. Its proximity from the city (11 kilometers) makes it an ideal area in accommodating the city's development spillover, from residential to commercial to industrial.

The municipality of Leganes is one of the 19 coastal municipalities of the Province of Iloilo . It is the second smallest municipality (San Miguel as the smallest) in the province with a total land area of 3,220 hectares. It has a total population count of 23,475 (2000 census, NSO).

With coastal and agricultural barangays, Leganes is a potential area for tourism.

There are two beach resorts that the people of the municipality are proud of and are promoted as an alternative to Iloilo City 's Villa Beach . The municipality boasts of its Inayan Beach Resort and the Jaen Beach Resort with stretches of quiet and lovely sandy beaches and picturesque villages await those willing to swap luxuries for a more traditional Leganes experience. Don't expect seclusion on the weekend--these resorts get very crowded.

Because brackish water fishponds are so plentiful, Leganes is also home to the famous game-fishing restaurant called Tipong's . It has a hectare of fishpond where people can actually fish and have their catch cooked in the restaurant. Kayaking and boating are other alternative activities in the area. Huervana's Farm Resort is another must when visiting the municipality.

The Jamora's Orchard offers a reasonable area ideal for retreats and live-in trainings.

The San Vicente Ferrer Parish Church is home to the famed St. Vincent Ferrer, a winged saint who is highly known for his miraculous power to heal. Thousands of pilgrims, as far as Manila , travel to Leganes every year on April 5 to pay their respect. Its devotees claim that praying to the statue through “ palapak ” (the act of placing the statue of a saint to ones head) and accompanied by a prayer, can produce miracles. It is unusual to see supplicants crawling on their knees from the entrance to the altar.

This coming April 1-5, 2005 , the municipality of Leganes will hold its Patronal Fiesta in honor of St. Vincent Ferrer through the Panaad Festival . “ Panaad ” a local term for “ devotion ” is an offering of one's self to God. The festival highlight would be the tribe or “ hubon ” competition from the elementary and secondary levels. The contest is a dance drama depicting the life and the miraculous works of their patron saint. This year, three hubons from the secondary level and six from the elementary level will compete on April 4, 2005 at 8:00 a.m. with designated performance areas in front of the Parish Church .

Indeed, despite the complexities of rapid population growth and environmental changes, the municipality of Leganes continues to live to its name as the “ Pilgrim Town ” of Western Visayas . (Bombette G. Marin)