HISTORY

Like other towns along the coastal areas in the island of Panay, Anilao was founded by a group of fishermen during the Pre-Spanish period.  Even before the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the Island of Panay, the rivers of Anilao have already provided sustenance to a group of fishermen. Thick mangrove forests along the mouth of the river served as good shelter for fishing boats during typhoons. They settled as a fishing community near the mouth of the western bank of the Anilao River. From this community now stands a town bearing the name of the river that sustained the lives of its early villagers.

Religious history antedated political history by as much as forty two years as far as recorded history of Anilao is concerned. In 1714, Anilao was already mentioned as a “visita” in the archives of the Order of Saint Augustine while the first Gobernadorcillo, Don Juan Pagdalanon, was appointed and served in 1756. However this should not be taken to mean that Anilao has no political history before 1756.

Anilao was made a pueblo in 1756 by the Spaniards and governed by a gobernadorcillo. The first gobernadorcillo was Don Juan Pagdalanon. The neighboring pueblos then were Lagiag (now Dueñas) on the North, Ajuy on the east, Araout (Now Dumangas) on the southwest and the swamps and the sea on the south.