Iloilo City is poised to claim the title “Philippines’ first green MICE destination,” as it embarks on an aggressive Green Meets Great campaign as outlined in the city government’s 2025 outlook and presented by a team led by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas, at a gathering on October 22.
As one of the few local government units in the Philippines to establish a thriving Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) Office, Iloilo City meets the conditions to be a top MICE tourism hub for Southeast Asia.
The Green Meets Great campaign signals a liveable, sustainable, highly urbanized Iloilo City, offering a wide array of green MICE options for traveling groups eager to experience. Records from the Department of Tourism showed that Iloilo City clocked a total of 752,301 tourists in 2022, and 886,283 in 2023.
Moreover, Iloilo City was declared a Clean Tourist City by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), making the city a good ground to promote sustainable energy practices in the country.
As bestowed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Iloilo City has also been named in Creative City of Gastronomy in 2023.
Initiatives under the Green Meets Great program include accreditation of solar panel and energy saver establishments, government buildings, and accommodations as well as renewable energy adoption incentives, and waste management protocols especially for streets and parks.
The Green Meets Great program also aims to improve sustainable tourism mobility with its bikeable city plan, having won the Gold Award for Most Bicycle-Friendly City last year.
Programs are geared towards a sustainable environment including paperless registrations and bookkeeping, cashless transactions down to the markets, an emphasis on the city’s no smoking city ordinance, and no styrofoam and no plastic directives in events, pivoting toward 100 percent compostable materials.
Encouraging stakeholder participation in renewable energy adoption, in May, 2024, the Department of Energy (DOE) lauded the success of its Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) campaign on the Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) and other voluntary renewable energy programs in Iloilo City.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recognized Iloilo City at the 2024 Lunsod Lunsad Awards for innovative local growth projects in August, 2024, becoming a recipient of a PHP2-million grant under the Lunsod Lunsad Project. This gave rise to the Iloilo City Lunsod Lunsad Creative Gastronomy Mapping, Strategy Development, Showcase, comprehensive mapping of the gastronomic landscape of Iloilo City.
Luna, Hidalgo, Arellano and Amorsolo : Masters of Philippine art at the UP Visayas Museum of Cultural Heritage
The Lopez Group Foundation, Inc unveils to the public “The Patrimony of All – Ang Panublion sang Tanan – Paintings from the Lopez Museum and Library Collection, ” an exhibit showcasing the works of Juan Luna, Felix Hidalgo, Juan Arellano, and Fernando Amorsolo from the Lopez Museum and Library (LML) Collection on 25 November 2024. The exhibition is part of the celebration of the 77th Year of the UP Presence in Iloilo.
“The Patrimony of All” will allow audiences in the Visayas to encounter the works of Filipino masters, while also shining the spotlight on the rich architectural heritage and legacy of Iloilo. The paintings in the exhibit will range from the dramatic and monumental “La Barca de Aqueronte” by Hidalgo and the tragic “Christ down from the Cross” by Arellano to the romantic “Ensueños de Amor” by Luna and the famous bucolic scenes of Amorsolo’s “Native Fruits’.
The title given by exhibition curator Dr. Patrick Flores encapsulates the spirit of the endeavor. It is recognition that the creativity embodied by Amorsolo, Arellano, Hidalgo and Luna belongs to all Filipinos. It also foregrounds the ethos of legacy and stewardship that drives the Lopez Group Foundation and this project. The artworks, artifacts and written material in LML were collected with a vision of providing Filipinos with the resources to learn about their history and culture.
The Lopez family, its foundations and corporations, while based in Metro Manila remains deeply rooted in Iloilo, the province of its origins. For more than a century, members of the Lopez family have been a involved in the community through their entrpreneurial, civic and philanthropic activites. From1878, when Iloilo was struck with a province wide famine, Kapitan Eugenio Lopez and his brother Claudio took it upon themselves to organize a relief operation using their own funds to 2006 when a disastrous oil spill affected Guimaras, the family donated 15 hectares of land to affected families, providing them with a place to live and livelihood programs.
Ingrained in the family and its institutions is a deep sense of responsibility for the Filipino people and culture. It is the spirit that drove Oscar Lopez to personally fund the restoration of the frescoes of the Jaro cathedral and LGFI to bring masterpieces from the Lopez Museum and Library collection to Iloilo.
This project is joint initiative of the Iloilo City Government, University of the Philippines Visayas and the Lopez Group Foundation, was conceived by former Senator Franklin Drilon in 2019 and is made possible through the support of Senator Loren Legarda.
The Patrimony of All runs from 25 November to 25 April 2025.