San Jose de Buenavista

San Jose de Buenavista, or simply San Jose, is a town of 63,000 and the capital of Antique province in the Philippines, on Panay island.

Understand
The first people who lived around San Jose are the indigenous Ati, or Negritos, until one of the ten datus who left Borneo and settled in Panay bought their traditional lands along the coast. What would become San Jose started as the village of Tubigon ("under water" in the Kinaray-a language), then a part of nearby Hamtic, mostly covered by jungle and was frequently targeted by Moro pirates. Tubigon became a formal settlement in 1733, and its first parish church was established in 1790. The center of government is at the sitio (hamlet) of Mala-iba, soon renamed to San Jose, both after its patron saint and the son of a local town chief. When Antique is separated from Oton (present Iloilo province), San Jose is made the capital, but only in 1872 became a town and the suffix "de Buenavista" was added after its remarkable views.

San Jose is from Iloilo City, but it receives few visitors. One draw to San Jose is the Binirayan Festival, the beaches and its the town. Pace of life in San Jose is much relaxed, and there are a few visitors.

By van
UV Express vans run from Iloilo, and takes 2 hours. Like the Ceres buses, they also arrive around Tradetown.

Get around
The bus terminal is 1 km from the center.

Buy


There are two banks with 24-hour ATMS, BDO (at Moscoso St) and PNB (at Tobias Fornier St)