Contrary to conventional knowledge that after the Emilio Aguinaldo declaration of independence,all the islands effectively separated from their Spanish colonizers,the latter actually transfered their center of power to Iloilo,after the mock battle between the Americans and the Spaniards in August 1898.  Thinking that the Ilonggos were loyal to the Spanish crown,they tried to make their last reforms here,until late November 1898,where an event in Jelucuon (now part of New Lucena town) sparked the Ilonggo Revolt against the colonizers. Later on,the revolutionists moved to the town of Santa Barbara where Nazaria Lagos historically "smuggled" the Philippine flag beneath a haystack. Santa Barbara was the first place outside Luzon to have hoisted the Philippine flag.

The story of freedom and nationality is being celebrated over a hundred years after its declaration in Santa Barbara with their Annual Kahilwayan Festival which is held every November 17th. Kahilwayan is the Hiligaynon word for "freedom." The town has brought in their best dramatic interpretative dance tribes,manifesting their graceful moves and the drama behind their ancestor's fight for freedom. As the largest flag in the Visayas-Mindanao area was hoisted,so are the spirits of every Ilonggo,remembering what their ancestors did to attain the freedom Filipinos everywhere enjoy today.