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Panay
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Panay
 

Information About

Panay Island





Islands Information

  name Panay
  locator Map Panay blanksvg
  location South East Asia
  archipelago Visayas
  area 12,011 km&2
  highest Mount Madiac
  elevation 2117 m
  country Philippines
  country Admin Divisions Title Province
  country Admin Divisions Aklan , Antique , Capiz , Iloilo
  country Largest City Iloilo
  country Largest City Population 365,820
  population 3,500,000
  population As Of 2000
  density 2914
  ethnic Groups Ati , Visayan ( Aklanon , Capiznon , Caluyanon , Hiligaynon , Karay-a )


Panay is an , Antique , Capiz , and Iloilo , all in the Western Visayas Region . It is located southeast of the island of Mindoro and northwest of Negros , separated by the Guimaras Strait . Between Negros and Panay lies the island-province of Guimaras . To the north is the Sibuyan Sea and the islands of Romblon ; to the southwest is the Sulu Sea and the Panay Gulf .

The island has many rivers including Akean , Banica , Iloilo , and Panay .

Panay is the setting of the famous legend of Maragtas , which chronicled the arrival of the Malay Race to the Philippine islands.

The island lent its name to several United States Navy vessels named USS ''Panay'' , mostly famously the one sunk in 1937 by the Japanese in the ''Panay'' Incident .


HISTORY AND LEGEND

Inconclusive folk history recorded in the , Akean (which includes the Capiz area), and Hamtik .

Capiz, which was part of Aklan in pre-Spanish times, was one of the early settlements of the Malay as, centuries before the coming of the Spaniards to the Philippines. It was part of the Confederation of Madjaas , formed after the purchase of Panay by the Bornean datus from the Negrito king named Marikudo .

When the Spaniards led by Miguel López De Legazpi came to Panay from Cebu in 1569 , they found people with tattoos, and so they called it Isla de los Pintados. How the island itself came to be called Panay is uncertain. The Aeta called it Aninipay , after a plant that abounded in the island. Legend has it that Legazpi and his men, in search of food, exclaimed upon the island, ''Pan hay en esta isla''!. So they established their first settlement in the island at the mouth of the Banica River in Capiz and called it Pan-ay . This was the second Spanish settlement in the Philippines, after San Miguel , Cebu.

Panay received its present name from Spanish officials who named the island after one of its earliest settlements, the town of Pan-ay in the province of Capiz. It was, however, once referred as ''Aninipay'' by the indigenous aeatas and later ''Madia-as'' by the Malay settlers who first arrived in the island in the 12th Century .

Site Links: Panay Island Community {Link without Title}