BRIDGING THE GAP
The origin of the names 'Iloilo' and 'Jaro'
One's knowledge of local history tells him that, since early times, the town of Iloilo played a prominent role in regional and national development. It served as the administrative and ecclesiastical capital of Western Visayas during the early part of the Spanish period. By the 1880s, the Spanish colonialists already referred to it as "the most important commercial port in the Philippines, after Manila." In the 1890s, it was already known as the commercial center of the whole of the Visayas (Funtecha, 1997). Later, in 1900, it was also mentioned in the report of the Philippine Commission (1901) as "next to Manila, the most important commercial town in the Philippines" (Brown 1903). By the 1920s and the 1930s, Iloilo was already widely known by its sobriquet, "Queen City of Southern Philippines".
But, why the name "Iloilo"? The popularly accepted version is that the name came from the Hiligaynon word "Ilong-Ilong" or the Kinaray-a "Irong-Irong", meaning nose-like, which the Spaniards shortened to "Iloilo". The word was the name applied to the islet formed by the Iloilo River, which was supposed to be nose-like in shape. But, the question is, how in the world did these people in early times know such a geographical configuration is shaped like a nose?
It must be borne in mind that the area occupied by the City of Iloilo is vast and if one confined himself on the surface of the land, there is no way that he could get an idea about its shape. Of course, it could be done if one rode on an airplane and hovered over the area but then there were no planes yet at that time. There is also no nearby mountain top that one can stand on and have a vantage view of it. Well, one could argue that there is the nearby island of Guimaras, but there is no peak high enough for one to really confirm the claim. Nevertheless, if one confined himself to that small section of Iloilo City where the Parola and Fort San Pedro are situated, maybe it is possible for him to picture out the nose-like shape of the land. One other thing to consider is that, maybe through time, there have been changes in the shape and topography of the land that hinder a contemporary being from making out the nose-like configuration of the city.
Another place-name worth rethinking is the name "Jaro". What has been accepted as an explanation of the name Jaro is that it is the Hispanized version of the old name "Salog". But, it seems difficult to accept that Jaro is the Spanish equivalent of Salog because they have entirely different phonetic sounds.
Interestingly, there is also a place called "Jaro" in Leyte, which one passes by as he travels from Ormoc City in the west to Tacloban City in the northeast. A preliminary inquiry by the writer failed to confirm its origin as Salog. The possibilities are that the name "Jaro" is derived from the name of a Spaniard or a place-name in Spain. Is it possible therefore that the early local Ilonggo writers made a gross mistake in explaining the origin of the name "Jaro" and that, indeed, it has nothing to do with "Salog"?