Antique

Antique is one of the provinces comprising the island of Panay in Western Visayas. Its capital is San Jose and is located at the western portion of Panay Island. Antique is mostly isolated from the rest of the island of Panay by the Cordilleras of the island. The province’s borders with its three neighbors lie on the divide of this mountain range. Antique faces the northern portions of the Sulu Sea to the west. The Semirara Islands, located between Panay and Mindoro are part of Antique.

Bugtong-bato Falls in Tibiao, Antique

Profiled like a seahorse, Antique is an oversized serrated hemline on the western border of the three-cornered scarf-like land mass that is Panay. It lies between the China Sea to the west and a tall mountain range, 155 kilometers long and 33 kilometers at its widest, to the east, separating it from the rest of Panay.

Antique was one of the three old sakups (districts) of Panay before the Spanish colonizers arrived in the islands. The Antique was then known as Hantik, which was named after the large red ants found on the island, called hantik. The Spanish chroniclers, however, recorded it as “Hantique” in the French manner. Later, the initial “h” was dropped, and the name officially became “Antique.” Unlike the English term “antique”, the province is pronounced “ahn-tee-keh.”

The land is rugged and mostly mountainous, cut by many short streams that come down from the eastern mountains. There are two distinct climatic regions in Antique. The North experiences an even distribution of rainfall throughout the year. The south is drier as the high mountains shield the area from the monsoons.