Iloilo, Philippines

At the time of the Spanish conquest, writing was a new import and the use of organic medium such as leaf and bamboo, and no pre-Hispanic written accounts of Iloilo exist today. Oral history, in the form of recited epics, has survived to a small degree, with a few recordings made from the last known surviving binukots. But from these oral history and from writings from other sources, one can still glean Iloilo’s prehispanic past.

The controversial origins of the people of Iloilo is said[by whom?] to be from the state of Pannai, a country occupying Sumatra. Pannai was a militant nation allied under the Sri-Vijaya Mandala that defended the conflict-ridden Strait of Malacca. The small kingdom repulsed any unlicensed Chinese, Indian or Arab navies that often warred in or pirated the straights of Malacca and for a small country, they were adept at taking down armadas larger than itself. They were successful in policing and defending the straights of Malacca for the Mandala of Sri-Vijaya until the Chola invasion of Srivijaya occurred, wherein a surprise attack from behind, originating from the occupied capital, rendered the militant-state of Pannai vulnerable from an unprotected assault from the back flank. The Chola invaders eventually destroyed the state of Pannai and its surviving soldiers, royals and scholars were said to have been secreted-out eastwards. In their 450 years of occupying Sumatra, they refused to be enslaved to Islam, Taoism or Hinduism but after the state’s dissolution, the people who stayed behind in Pannai, themselves, have a legend wherein the high-borne scholars, soldiers and nobles of Pannai, “fled to other islands.” [3]

At this juncture, Iloilo came into prominence, when the local settlement called Irong-Irong and was founded by Datu Paiburong [who presumably fled the fallen Sri Vijaya Mandala] after he and his fellows within the new Mandala of Confederation of Madja-as, bought the island of Panay (Which they presumably named after the state of Pannai or the shortening of the Ati word, Ananipay) from the Negrito Chieftain, Marikudo. The Confederation of Madya-as eventually grew a powerful and strong naval presence that it rivaled the nearby states of the Rajahnate of Cebu, The Kingdom of Tondo and the Sultanate of Sulu when it came to wealth and prestige.
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