Living in the Shadow of Giants: Iloilo City Needs Professionals, Not Just Friends

Iloilo City is cooling down. After a blistering 10.4% economic growth rate in 2023, the city’s expansion decelerated to 7.1% in 2024. While still respectable, this slowdown serves as a quantifiable warning shot for the newly elected leadership. The “Iloilo miracle” – once the darling of national business pages – is not self-sustaining. It requires the fuel of political stability, a fuel that business leader Felix Tiu warns is running dangerously low.

Tiu’s recent caution is not merely a complaint; it is an invocation of the “Golden Age” of the Mabilog-Treñas era. During that period, a unified City Hall and Congressional District unlocked massive capital inflows, most notably Megaworld Corporation’s PHP 35 billion (approx. USD 600 million) investment to develop the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park. That era established a “stability test” that the current leadership – Mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu and Representative JamJam Baronda – is struggling to pass.

The current political reality – a “split ticket” government with the executive branch led by Treñas-Chu and the legislative district held by Baronda – presents a distinct danger. Tiu’s call for unity is well-intentioned, but perhaps slightly misplaced. In a mature democracy, we do not strictly need “unity” in the form of friendship or a monolithic party; we need professional cohabitation.

By electing opposing camps to the city’s two highest offices, Iloilo City’s voters have issued a complex mandate. They did not ask for gridlock. They asked for checks and balances. However, there is a thin line between rigorous debate and obstructionism. If the legislative arm blocks the executive solely for 2028 posturing, it is not “checking” power; it is sabotaging the city’s future. The electorate’s message was clear: “We hired you both. Make it work.”

The danger of failing this mandate is regression. Cities do not just stall; they slide back. The PHP 2.43 billion in locally sourced revenue generated in 2023 is a testament to the momentum built by the previous generation. But this inheritance is fragile. Investors like Megaworld did not bet on Iloilo City because of its batchoy; they bet on the predictability of its governance. They bet that zoning ordinances wouldn’t be held hostage by political feuds and that permits wouldn’t become weapons in a proxy war.

To avoid becoming just another provincial city bogged down by feudal politics, the Treñas-Chu and Baronda camps must pivot from campaigning to governing. They must treat the city’s economic policy as a demilitarized zone. If they cannot find common ground, they will find themselves presiding over a city that used to be the next big thing.

The “Golden Age” proved that Iloilo rises when its leaders look in the same direction. The new guard doesn’t need to like each other, but for the sake of the billions in investment still sitting on the sidelines, they absolutely need to work together.