ILOILO CITY, April 20 -- The city and its top delicacies, like batchoy, siopao and pancit molo, are gaining more international exposure after earning the Creative City of Gastronomy title from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

"What we do is really to promote Iloilo, and it's a good thing that we were tagged as one of the creative cities on gastronomy," Mayor Jerry P. Trenas said in an interview on Saturday on the sidelines of an anti-drug advocacy fun run. "It's those exchanges that we do internationally that we will be able to bring visitors here."

The city government, for the first time, will join the City of Gastronomy cluster meeting on May 9 to 13 in Phuket, Thailand.

Another delegatio...