Philippine Travelblog: The Religious Sadsad @ Iloilo City's San Jose de Placér Parish Church

(The San Jose de Placér Parish Church

 in Iloilo City, Philippines)

There are many ways on how we express our devotion to Jesus, and there’s one such expression where the celebration is more than just praying. It’s also dancing and singing!

On the feast day of the Santo Niño, the Child Jesus, who is at the center of the most popular festivals of Cebu (Sinulog), Kalibo (Ati-Atihan), and Iloilo City (Dinagyang), all in the Philippines, the Catholic church and devotees organize and hold extravagant parades in His honor, and I was lucky to have attended one in Iloilo City. And I was happy I did!

Every January, on the eve of the last day of the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City, Ilonggos gather in front of the San Jose de Placer Parish Church next to the Plaza Libertad to sing and dance with their Sto. Niños. This is called religious sadsad.

(Inside the church is brightly lit for 

the special occasion)

At around 7 PM, right after the holy mass at the San Jose de Placer Parish Church the day before the Dinagyang Festival’s main competition, I join the hundreds of devotees right in front of the church where adults and kids alike carry all sizes of Sto. Niños – from baby Sto. Niño to child-sized ones – all dressed in fancy costumes and colors. 

‘Sadsad’ is a Visayan word that means dancing, and a religious ‘sadsad’ is an activity where devotees dance and sing to express their gratitude and devotion to the Sto. Niño, an activity that is both religious and cultural, and participated in by Ilonggo devotees of all ages in front of the San Jose de Placér Parish Church, a church that has seen history for more than 400 years as its site was founded in 1607 and its belfries were built in the 1890s by Ilonggo laborers. Its bells have been summoning Ilonggos to church for more than a century with its sound heard all the way to the neighboring Guimaras Island depending on the direction of the Panay breezes.

(Devotees dance and chant during 

the religious sadsad)

With rhythmic music blasting from a loudspeaker installed at the entrance of the church, a commentator leads the chanting while the devotees dance, moving their feet from left to right, and sway while raising their Sto. Niño. In front of the church where a small stage was set up, a huge Sto. Niño stands and is being wiped non-stop with handkerchiefs brought by devotees.

The devotion to the Sto. Niño dates back to the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines, almost 500 years ago, when only a handful of natives were converted to Christianity. And I stand among the thousands of devotees dancing, I was fascinated by the most expressive celebration of faith I have ever witnessed, and I, too, joined in their prayers of gratitude, continued blessings, and peace and safety while everyone cheers the Child Jesus with “Viva! Señor Sto. Niño!”

     Watch the video and dance with the devotees!😄

Iloilo City's La Paz Public Market: Netong's Batchoy & Madge Café

The Philippines has a lot of popular merienda dishes and one of them is 'batchoy', a hot broth with noodles and a lot of other flavorful ingredients which I will enumerate later while salivating.😋

While I was growing up, I was never a fan of this dish because nobody at home seemed interested in dragging me to a 'batchoyan', the common name of a restaurant that serves this dish.  That's why batchoy never became a comfort food.😆

But over the years, whenever I got caught in a food arcade in Bacolod City where I didn't have any option but 'batchoy', I ended up slurping a bowl.

(Netong's is full)

In the menus and names of restaurants serving this dish, the words 'La Paz' always precede 'batchoy' because that's where this dish originated and these restaurants always claimed that their recipe followed the original one invented at La Paz, a district in Iloilo City, an old charming city in the middle part of the Philippines.

(Instagrammable Netong carrying 

a bowl of hot batchoy)

So, when my sister and I were in Iloilo City during the Dinagyang Festival, we made sure we got to slurp the real batchoy at the place where it was invented: the La Paz public market!😀

Right in the middle of the La Paz public market is Netong's, a batchoyan whose owner's great grandfather was said to have invented it by putting innards, noodles and flavorings into a hot broth from beef stock. Actually, it's more complicated than that.

                        (My batchoy and soda)

The real batchoy we were served at Netong's (the nickname of Leonito, the founder) was made of beef broth with bones (just like bulalo🐂) that has been cooked over low fire for hours, extracting the beef flavor, and added with fermented shrimp paste (bago-ong), with strands of egg noodles (locally known as miki) and slices of liver, pork, innards and cholesterol-high bone marrow, and topped with fried garlic, scallions and, my favorite topping, crushed chicharon!☝You can sprinkle black pepper or soy sauce, depending on your taste, and you can also have raw egg cracked into it for added taste and nutrition. 🐓

The feel of bits of crushed chicharon (deep-fried pig skin) in my mouth dancing in a spoonful of hot, flavorful broth mixed with innards was a lot different from the ones I tasted outside Iloilo City. This one was the real - the authentic - Batchoy!

(Outside the restaurant, they were 

cooking these innards for another dish)

At Netong's, you can pair the batchoy with puto, the kind that tastes creamier because it is made with coconut milk, although, for me, I'd rather have my batchoy with my favorite soda.

After batchoy, we wanted to neutralize the beefy flavor left in our mouths with coffee and dessert, and since we were already at La Paz public market, we headed to Madge Café, the market's famous and unique coffee shop.

As I ordered my go-to coffee drink of iced cafe mocha, the Madge Café waitress recommended cake to pair with it, and what do you know, she offered chocolate cake from Calea! Calea is a popular cake shop in Bacolod City and its popularity (and obviously chocolate cake) has crossed the Iloilo Strait! So we got a slice! 

But when she served us the chocolate cake, I had to tell her that we were from Bacolod City and that the best chocolate cake wasn't Calea's nor Felicia's chocolate cakes. It was Bar 21's! Yes, if you're in Bacolod City, make sure you visit Bar 21 and have a taste of their moist, chocolate cake with custard filling. 

Calea's chocolate cake and 

Madge Café's iced cafe mocha)

Madge Café, named after Magdalena, the wife of the original owner, has been there since 1951, and decades of serving good coffee inside an unassuming place right in the middle of a public market have turned it into an institution, attracting locals as well as tourists.

Well, after tasting Netong's, reputedly the best batchoy, not only in Iloilo City but everywhere else, my palate can now measure other people's batchoy version. 😄

So, if you're visiting Iloilo City soon, I highly recommend you drop by the La Paz public market to discover a real batchoyan🍲 and hang out at the city's most famous coffee shop☕. 

'Lin-ay Sang Iloilo' & The Real Treasures of Iloilo Province

Since last year, on my visits to Iloilo City in the Philippines, I already spied on him sitting on top of the city hall. 

At first, I thought it was a statue of a saint because I have never seen any photos of a statue of some dead Filipino standing on top of a city hall in the Philippines. 

That honor is usually reserved for a saint, though I'd always see Jose Rizal, the country's premiere national hero, standing in the middle of a town plaza on a pedestal. But his pedestal is usually the only elevated structure you'd see him on. 

You'd never see him on top of a building where he probably would prefer as his view would cover most of a town's geography and that no politicians or city official would be able to climb that high to bother him with overpriced dead flowers every December 30th.

(Whose statue is that standing 

on top of the city hall?)

So, I asked around about that statue. Last month, when we were in Iloilo City, the hotel where we stayed had a view of the city hall and the statue. Pointing at the mysterious statue, I asked the hotel staff about his identity; they didn't know, although I now realized I could just have googled!

But there was a more reliable way to find out because as they say when you want your question answered, 'seek and ye shall find'. And seek I did. 😀

During our walk from the riverside to our hotel, we decided to drop by the Iloilo City Hall. Although it was past 5PM when offices were closing, I walked up to the guards of the building to ask. And one accommodated my snooping! He brought us to a room in the building which held the answer!

Although it was already closed for the day, he opened the museum on the ground floor of the city hall that showcases the city's heritage, culture, and...the statue!

(Plaza Libertad with the San Jose

de Placer church on top)

(Her statue stands inside the museum 

inside the Iloilo City Hall)

It was not a he; it's a she!

'Lin-ay' is a Hiligaynon word that refers to a young, unmarried lady that embodies the admirable virtues of a Filipina. 

Hiligaynon is the language spoken in Iloilo Province and the neighboring Guimaras and Negros Island, while Ilonggo refers to the people, language, and culture of the Iloilo Province. So, Hiligaynon can be referred to as Ilonggo if you're referring to Hiligaynon spoken in the Iloilo Province.

Therefore, 'lin-ay' is an Ilonggo lass. An Ilongga lady.

And I finally knew that that statue is 'Lin-ay sang Iloilo', the Lass of Iloilo, made of bronze. She is seen wearing a 'patadyong' and carrying plants on her right arm and a gardening tool on the right, which made me think she's left-handed. While working, you'd always use your dominant hand to hold your implements, right?

The last time I saw exquisite samples of 'patadyong' was when I visited the beautiful Camiña Balay nga Bato in the Arevalo District of Iloilo City (read blog here).

Lin-ay's head is covered by piece of cloth to shield her from the sun, probably because she wasn't carrying any sunblock, and her wrap-around patadyong-slash-long skirt seemed too thick for the Iloilo weather, which made me think she might be hiding something (or someone) down there. Her boyfriend, perhaps?😝

Her neck is unusually long for a native Filipina, which emphasizes the big necklace hanging around it. 

Although I would infer that the presence of the big necklace hints of the 'manangyad', the long gold necklace that, along with the golden salakot, was presented by the ten migrant datu of Borneo in 1200's led by Datu Puti to the local aetas of Panay so that they could live on the lowlands of Panay Island. 

And I'm thinking she is wearing a huge necklace as she went farming to show off to other Ilongga friends her latest acquisition. Or maybe, she just wanted to remain glamorous as she dirtied her manicure and pedicure while tilling the rice fields.

A creation of an Ilonggo sculpture named Edward Defensor, the statue weighs 1.7 tons and stands at 18 feet.  According to the description about Lin-ay Sang Iloilo written next to the replica at the museum, the four sides of the pedestal represented the four major assets of Iloilo, namely, "rice farming, sugarcane farming, fishing, and education".

Hmm.😕

With all due respect to the sculptor, I disagree with
the 'major assets' he wrote down. In my opinion, Iloilo's major assets are really the following:

1. The Ilonggos!

Yes, it's always the people!👪 

Major assets are not the plants nor the fresh fish that end up at the Iloilo Central Market, where I bought my local snacks when I was there, by the way. 

Since I trace my ancestry to this province, I proudly count myself in. Ha-ha-ha! If not, at least my distant great-great grandfather General Martin Teofilo Delgado definitely could (read blog here). He was, after all, Iloilo's revolutionary leader during the Spanish period and the provincial governor during the American years.

Since the pre-hispanic period, it has been the Ilonggos that toiled, cultivated, developed, and enriched the land! 

Iloilo's main treasures are all its citizens and inhabitants. From teachers and students to merchants, professionals, religious organizations, transport workers, artists and historians, agricultural workers and fishermen, senior citizens, moms and pops, and not to forget, those who bake my favorite Balasan bingka by the Jaro Cathedral (read blog here), those who prepare batchoy at La Paz public market, and those who create the yummy barquillos and biscochos!

Again, it's the people who make up Iloilo!😊  

2. Iloilo's rich heritage and culture! 


Even before the Barter of Panay in 1200s, Marikudo and Maniwangtiwang lorded over Panay Island and the lands that are now part of Iloilo Province. And from Datu Paiburong, who governed Irong-irong, to the time of Spanish governors and American colonizers, and through the Japanese occcupation and up to the present-day Iloilo, we all should celebrate the very rich history, heritage, culture. 

Thankfully, Iloilo holds the very popular and fun Dinagyang Festival every January (read blog here) to celebrate and remind us of this rich history.

We shouldn't forget that part of it all is Iloilo's culinary heritage that includes batchoy, biscocho, and pancit molo! I don't think 'butterscotch' counts. 😛

(Lin-ay sang Iloilo standing next to the lyrics of Iloilo City Hymn. I wonder how it goes?)

3. Iloilo's fertile agricultural lands and rich seas

Now, this is where you throw the plants and fish in. 

It might have been politically nice to hear that there's an economic symbolism added to the sculpture because, well, this was commissioned by the sitting mayor then. But the agriculture and marine aspects of the province take a backseat to its people and their history. I also wondered whether, regardless of its height, its base should have four sides and that the sculptor just squeezed in four things he could think of as 'major assets'. 

4. Geographical location

Ever since I was a kid, I have admired Iloilo City's seaside port. It was so convenient! When your ferry boat docks, you're actually already in the city center! 

Iloilo has mountains, plains, beaches, and seas, and is situated right in the middle of the Philippines. This might have been the main reason why Spanish and American colonizers were keen on developing it ahead of the other settlements in the Visayan area. It was just accessible and rich in natural resources!

(Looking at the statue's photo presumably 

taken when it was atop the building, 

I thought the garden tool on Lin-ay's 

left hand was missing)

So, there. Thanks to the security guard who opened the museum for us even though it was past 5PM, I now know who she is. 

But even more important, 'Lin-ay' and her fellow Ilonggos should know that they, and not plants and fish, are the most important treasures of Iloilo. 😀

                     (I can't see Lin-ay's farm implement, or 

                        was it just the lighting and angle?) 

Iloilo City's Dinagyang Festival: The Religious Sadsad @ San Jose de Placér Parish Church

It's the feast day of the Santo Niño, the Child Jesus, whom the Catholics in the Philippines worship and celebrate every January.

The Sto. Niño is at the center of the most popular festivals of Cebu, Kalibo and Iloilo Cities in the Philippines, where the locals organize and hold extravagant parades in His honor.

     (The San Jose de Placer Parish Church at dawn)

A year ago, I was lucky to have attended the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City, and the night before the main festival competition, a religious sadsad was  held after the Holy Mass celebrated in the honor of the Sto. Niño at the San Jose de Placer Parish Church. This church is located right in front of the Plaza Libertad of the city, and the religious sadsad was held in front of the church to accommodate the thousands of devotees.

(Parish priests welcoming parishioners to the church)

(Those chandeliers bring 'light of a million mornings')

'Sadsad' is a Visayan word that means dancing, and a religious 'sadsad' is a religious activity, where devotees dance and sing to express their gratitude and devotion to the Sto. Niño. This activity is both a religious and a cultural tradition practiced by devotees of all ages.

The San Jose de Placér Church has seen history for more than 400 years. The site of the church was put up in 1607. Its belfries were built in the 1890s with the help of Ilonggo laborers.

The interiors of the San Jose de Placér Parish Church were impressive! With all the illumination inside the church during the festival day, the grandeur and beauty of the church would overwhelm any new visitor like me. 

The giant chandeliers lining up the ceilings along the nave reminded me of the song 'Light of a Million Mornings' because the hundred light bulbs from these chandeliers spread so much brightness that it literally felt grand and heavenly inside this place of worship.

        (A welcome banner at the Plaza Libertad 
                    in Iloilo City, Philippines)


But it was the religious sadsad in front of the church that fascinated and enthralled me. Even before the Holy Mass for that Saturday night finished, thousands of people carrying their Santo Nino's of all sizes - from baby Sto. Ninos to child-sized ones - all in different fancy costumes and colors, were already gathering outside the church.

With prayers and chants, the devotees danced, sang and raised their Sto. Niños to the tune played by loudspeakers next to a small stage on the right side of the church, where a big Sto. Niño was also standing and being regularly wiped by handkerchiefs brought by the devotees. 

              (A video of the religious sadsad)

         (The huge crowd of devotees in front of 
                the San Jose de Placer church)


The devotion to the Sto. Nino dates back to the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines, almost 500 years ago, when only a handful of natives were converted to Christianity. 

Today, the devotion and veneration of the Child Jesus have grown even more, with religious festivals and processions being held all over the Philippines just to celebrate the feast of the Child Jesus.

          (Another video of the religious sadsad)

Those who attend the religious sadsad not only ask for graces and pray to the Sto. Niño for their wishes to come true. They also dance to express gratitude for the blessings they receive all year-round.

I won't be able to join this year's sadsad in Iloilo City, but just let me include my prayers for the Sto. Niño - prayers of gratitude, continued blessings, peace and safety for me, my family, my friends, and for those who need them.

       (Hands raised in devotion and supplication)

Viva Señor Sto. Niño!