Transportation and Communication

one of the coolest public jeepneys roaming around the province of Iloilo


Panay News, Western Visayas' first and largest daily newspaper.


the modern jeepney - innovation of the Ilonggo entrepreneurs and drivers

          Transportation is not a major problem in Western Visayas. Most of the towns and cities of the various provinces are linked to each other by a network of well-paved roads and permanent bridges. Travelling from province to province in the island of Panay is easier and faster nowadays because of a modern network of wide, asphalted highways connecting the provinces. Taking a voyage from Iloilo to Negros and back is no problem for ships like Negros Navigation and Superferry and also fastcrafts. Caticlan port is connected to the Mindoro port via the interisland shipping system in the country, roll-on roll-off (RORO) as well as the ports of Semirara, Culasi and San Jose de Buenavista in Antique. One could travel from Iloilo to Guimaras and vice versa by means of pumpboats, sailboats or steamboats anytime daily provided the weather is fair.

        Travelling within Panay and Negros Occidental is easier because of different means of transportation and hundreds of thousands of buses, taxis, jeepneys, vans and other public vehicles like tricycle and motorcycles which provide pleasant transport service to millions of commuters. The giant bus companies which lorded it over the long-distance travel are Ceres Liner, Vallarte Liner, Garnet Express, Seventy Six Express, Calmark, RN Express and JP Joyce.

        Besides those bigger vehicles, taxis and jeepneys, there is an array of tricycles, motorcycles for hire. The invention of the Ilonggos, the trisikads – bicycles attached to a sidecar that could accomodate 2 passengers but the modern version of trisikads are mechanically powered by motor engines. These vehicles could enable the commuter to go to any places with narrow passageways. There are also six (6) airports which serve the people of Western Visayas who wish to go to any parts of the country namely Bacolod Airport, Busuanga Airport in Aklan, Caticlan Airport in Aklan, Iloilo Airport, Kalibo Airport and Roxas City Airport in Capiz. The biggest airport in Western Visayas, the Iloilo International Airport will cater to international flights both direct and connecting flights starting in 2012.

        Several telephone and wireless cellular networks and TS1 and underwater cable broad bandwith serves different cities, towns and localities in Western Visayas. Major telephone companies are Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), Globe Telecoms, Islacom, Bayantel among others give a convenient way of communicating through phone among the region’s populace while wireless cellular networks like Globe Telecoms, Smart Communications Inc, Sun Cellular are just a few that provide wireless mobile services. More than half of the region’s population has at least one cellphone or mobile phone. Internet with high bandwidth is common in the region which makes it interconnected with the rest of the world. Philpost with more than a century of delivery mails and the nation’s oldest postal system serving the country still delivers mails and packages around Western Visayas. Local express courier in the form of freight, cargo and mail forwarders are LBC, 2GO, JRS Express and Eagle while International express courier are FedEx, DHL and UPS allows packages and big deliveries to arrive the fastest to its destination in Western Visayas.

        There are several local and national newspapers widespread throughout the region which represent the print media. Several dozens of radio stations both AM and FM station dominate the airwaves to bring in the latest news and weather update and other information as well as music to the music lovers. While there are at least 4 tv local stations in the region to entertain the populace.