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JORDAN GERARD ARBOLEDA ABPO 2A Negrense Studies Reviewer May 29, 2015 - President Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order 183 creating the Negros Island Region. Executive Order 183 - combining the islands of Siquijor, Negros Occidental and Oriental into one administrative region. Negros is the...

JORDAN GERARD ARBOLEDA ABPO 2A Negrense Studies Reviewer May 29, 2015 - President Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order 183 creating the Negros Island Region. Executive Order 183 - combining the islands of Siquijor, Negros Occidental and Oriental into one administrative region. Negros is the 4th Largest Island in the country. (land area of 13, 309.6) NIR has the least number of provinces (ONLY 2) It Comprises 19 cities and 13 municipalities, 557 barangays. Inhabitants of the Island are called Negrenses. Negros Island was originally know to the native as “ BUGLAS” meaning cut off in old Hiligaynon. April 1565 they named it NEGROS, because the people has dark skinned tone. NEGROS OCCIDENTAL - also known as Occidental Negros or Western Negros. The primary spoken language is Hiligaynon (also known as ILONGGO) Predominant religion is Roman Catholicism. FESTIVALS: Masskara Festival Bacolod City - every October (MASS; multitude of people, KARA; faces) Pasalamat Festival - thanksgiving celebration. Bailes de Luces La Castellana - Luces means light. Pintaflores Festival San Carlos City - Dances of Flowers SPORTS Negros Occidental is known as the Sports Capital of the Philippines. LANDMARKS: Panaad Stadium The Capitol Park and Lagoon The Fountain of Justice The Bacolod Public Plaza Silay City - knows as the Paris of Negros. Balay Negrense The Ruins NEGROS ORIENTAL - also called Oriental Negros or Eastern Negros Capital City is Dumaguete City Primary spoken language is Cebuano Predominant Religion is Roman Catholicism. Natural Resources - Sugarcane, Mango, Rice, and Corn. Tourist Spots: Mt, Talinis, Balanan Lake, Kanlaon Volcano FESTIVALS: Hambalalud Festival Municipality of Jimalalud Masulog Festival Brgy Maslog, Sibulan Bodbod Festival City of Tanjay Sinulog sa Tanjay Festival Sugar in Negros “(B)etween 1750 and 1850 sugar ceased to be a luxury, and became a popular necessity, Violeta Lopez-Gonzaga writes in her paper Landlessness, Insurgency and Food Crisis in Negros Island: A Study of the Social, Political and Economic Determinants of Hunger. “Thus, in the period from the 1850s to the first half of the 20th century, sugar became an important commodity in international trading.” When Iloilo was first opened to foreign direct investments in 1855, a British national named Nicholas Loney handled trade in the region between Great Britain and the Philippines. According to historian Michael Billig, Loney occupied the position of vice consul as well as commercial agent for British firms “and an indefatigable purveyor of British goods.” There is evidence that, before Negros became the “Sugarlandia” that we now know it today, the province actually had a diversified economy. Lopez-Gonzaga writes of Spanish chroniclers who mentioned rice plantations in the island that was consumed by its people and exported to other islands, as well as other trades and skills of the people of Negros. “As a whole, a study of the extant Spanish records yield a picture of a relatively self-sufficient people living in Negros who, though using what in European terms was primitive technology, managed to produce not only staples such as corn and edible root crops, but also textile fibers which they used in the domestic manufacture of clothing, baskets, hats, and slippers,” Lopez Gonzaga says. “In addition, they produced cacao, tobacco, and wax, not only to meet their finer needs but to trade as well.” From Textiles to Sugar But with the rising demand for sugar in his home country and the rest of Europe, Loney saw an opportunity. “The fledgling sugar industry, unlike the older textile business, was thoroughly dependent on foreign capital,” “Loney lent as much as P75,000 at a time at the low rate of 8 percent (compared to the 30-40 percent of the money lenders) and he provided state-of-the-art milling equipment at cost, under the condition that Loney & Ker company be the sole purchaser of the produce. “(He) was...remarkably successful in his mission,” “Iloilo’s textile exports to Manila dwindled from 14,420 piezas (pieces) in 1863, to 30,673 in 1864, to 12,700 in 1869, to 5,100 in 1873.” For a time, Negros enjoyed the fruits of this pivot toward becoming a monocrop region, devoted solely to the production of sugarcane. But, more accurately, it was the hacienderos or planters and landowners, who profited from the great demand for sugar. Unfortunately, this left the people of Negros—who had transformed from being self- sufficient to wage-dependent plantation workers—highly dependent on the the harvest and vulnerable to external factors that affected their only source of livelihood. “The growing commitment of agriculture to sugarcane production made the emerging laboring class vulnerable to hunger, with the onslaught of storm, drought, or a plague of locusts,” (Lopez-Gonzaga,1989). “In fact, from the second half of the 19th century onward, the scourge of hunger frequently struck the people of Negros.” The Heydays of the Sugar Industry One would think that the lessons from the past would encourage business and provincial leaders to take action to cushion the effects of these unpredictable external conditions on the people of Negros. But for whatever reason, that was not to be. After the Philippines came under American rule in 1898, the U.S. became yet another sizable market for sugar exports from Negros. Business was booming. “When prices were good, the sugar planters prospered and Bacolod flourished,” said a report in The Washington Post from September 1986. “Expensive foreign cars plied the city's streets, nightclubs and restaurants thrived, and, at one point in the 1970s, impresarios tried to book the Beatles for a Bacolod concert date.” One other thing that helped was an agreement between the Philippines and the U.S., called the Laurel-Langley Pact. Under the pact, the Philippines was assured of an annual quota of sugar exports to the U.S., and local producers were reimbursed at above-market prices. But the good times had to come to an end