The 2026–27 sugar milling season in the Negros Island Region is officially set to begin Oct. 1. The delay reflects the SRA’s return to the October milling calendar, while floods, dry spell, RSSI infestation, and reduced cane yields have complicated preparations.
The delay may also partly reflect limited harvester availability, as economic difficulties have reduced workers’ capacity and willingness to return this season.
The ‘sacadas’ mostly came from Antique in the 20th centuries, driven primarily by the explosive growth of the sugar industry in Negros. This movement became one of the most significant labor migrations in the history of the Visayas and profoundly influenced the population, economy, and culture of western Negros.
Following the opening of the Port of Iloilo to international trade in the 19th century, sugar production expanded rapidly, and large haciendas required thousands of workers not only to plant and cultivate sugarcane but, particularly, to cut and load the cane during the harvest season.
The growing sugar economy created employment opportunities that were largely unavailable in many rural communities of Panay.
At the same time, Antique had very limited employment opportunities. It was — and remained — one of Panay’s poorer provinces, where many rural families were landless or owned only small farms. Employment outside agriculture was scarce.
A study published in the Philippine Journal of Social Development identifies poverty and the lack of regular employment as major reasons why Antique became a principal source of sacadas. For many families, seasonal work in Negros offered one of the few realistic opportunities to earn cash and improve their economic circumstances.
Wages in Negros, although low by today’s standards, were generally more attractive than what workers could earn at home. This was probably the strongest immediate incentive for migration.
Historical accounts indicate that many sacadas went to Negros because they needed cash to support their families. The work was physically demanding, and many workers experienced homesickness, but the prospect of earning money encouraged them to return year after year.
Geography also facilitated the movement. Antique is located on the western side of Panay, across the Panay Gulf from Negros Occidental. Seasonal workers could travel by boat to ports in Negros and then proceed to the sugar haciendas. Over time, this became a well-established annual migration route between Panay and Negros.
The migration also became self-perpetuating. Once workers from a particular barangay or municipality established relationships with contratistas, or labor contractors, these contractors would recruit relatives, neighbors, and friends for succeeding harvest seasons.
Many sacadas preferred to work through contratistas from their own communities because of established relationships and familiarity. As a result, entire communities developed a tradition of migrating to Negros during the sugar harvest.
This was not merely a small seasonal movement. The Provincial Government of Antique has described the deployment of more than 10,000 sacadas from Antique as a century-old practice that can be traced to the early 1900s, when sugar plantations expanded rapidly in Negros Occidental.
By the 1920s, Negros faced such a serious labor shortage that one estimate placed the requirement at approximately 15,000 sacadas for the 1927 crop, rising to about 20,000 by 1931.
An important consequence was that some sacadas never returned permanently to Antique. Although the term sacada originally referred to a seasonal migrant worker, many eventually settled in Negros and became permanent agricultural workers, sometimes referred to as ‘duma’an’. What began as seasonal migration therefore gradually became permanent settlement for many families.
This migration helps explain why many families in Negros Occidental today have roots in Antique, Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz, and other parts of Panay. The movement of workers across the Iloilo Strait and Panay Gulf fundamentally transformed the demographic and cultural landscape of western Negros.
It also created enduring family, social, and economic connections between Panay and Negros that continue to this day.
In simple terms, the migration was the result of a basic economic imbalance: Antique had people but too little land and too few employment opportunities, while Negros had abundant agricultural land and rapidly expanding sugar plantations but not enough workers.
Poverty and limited employment in Antique pushed people to seek opportunities elsewhere, while the growing demand for labor in Negros pulled them toward the sugar haciendas. Contratistas organized and recruited workers, thousands crossed from Panay to Negros, and many returned every year—while others eventually made Negros their permanent home.
This history is particularly relevant to Capiz and western Panay, as well as to communities throughout northern and western Negros.
The broader Panay–Negros migration involved not only Antique but also Iloilo, Capiz, and Aklan, helping create the close historical and cultural ties that exist between these provinces and Negros Occidental today. | NWI
