The settlement was first called Dupong, after a venomous snake said to have inhabited a local river.

Isabel, municipality on the western coast of Leyte, Philippines, developed from the older settlement of Quiot near Dupón Bay. Quiot was a Spanish-period visita, or dependent mission, of Palompon; became an independent Roman Catholic parish in 1877; and was recorded as a separate municipality at the beginning of American rule. It was incorporated into Merida in 1903. The Philippine Congress created the present municipality under the name Isabel in 1947, and it began its corporate existence on January 15, 1948.

A local history collected by Francisco S. Tantuico Jr. records that the settlement was first called Dupong, after a venomous snake said to have inhabited a local river. In the same account, visiting Spanish missionaries were served wild honey and were told that it was dugos sa quiot—honey from the quiot, a small wild bee—after which Quiot became the name of the settlement. Juan Félix de la Encarnación’s 1885 Diccionario bisaya-español defines dopong as a small venomous snake and quioot as a bee-like insect that produces slightly sour honey, but it does not date the place-name tradition. Late Spanish hydrography used Dupón for the bay and a nearby river, while administrative, ecclesiastical, census, and cartographic records used Quiot for the settlement. A hydrographic description published in 1900 placed Dupón Bay between Punta Sacaysacay and Punta Catiyoman and described it as a good anchorage. (Tantuico local history; Encarnación dictionary; hydrographic description, p. 478)

When Augustinian missionaries assumed the former Jesuit missions of Leyte in 1768, Agustín María de Castro described Palompon as a mission with a stone church, about 500 tributes, and the island annexes of Poló and Gatos. Quiot does not appear separately in his list of the transferred towns and missions. (Castro, printed pp. 348–349)

Quiot appears clearly in records from the middle of the 19th century. A modern transcription of supporting papers in National Archives of the Philippines file SDS 14018, expediente 5, reports 203 tribute-payers at Quiot in 1849 and describes it as attached to Palompon. The catalogue entry itself concerns the proposed separation of Ormoc parish from Palompon; the Quiot figures occur in the papers supporting that case. (National Archives catalogue, SDS 14018; transcription, pp. 25–26)

Tantuico’s local history dates Quiot’s first organization as a municipality to 1851. A gazetteer published in Madrid that year by Manuel Buzeta and Felipe Bravo still described Quiot as a visita of Palompon, situated on level ground in a moderately warm climate; its population, production, and tribute totals were included under Palompon. (Buzeta and Bravo, vol. II, p. 412)

Agustín de la Cavada’s 1876 statistical geography listed Quiot among the pueblos of Leyte and assigned it 1,133 inhabitants. Its creation-year cell repeats the year 1768 from the preceding entry for Palo, although Quiot is absent from Castro’s 1768 transfer list and was still identified as a visita in 1851. (Cavada, vol. II, p. 262)

Quiot’s documented ecclesiastical separation from Palompon followed. National Archives file SDS 14019, expediente 6, records that a Royal Order of July 24, 1871, and a superior decree of October 22 approved the erection of Quiot as an independent parish. Communications from the Diocese of Cebu concerning the approval are dated July 21 and August 7, 1877. Felipe Redondo y Sendino’s diocesan survey gives June 6, 1877, as the date of parish erection and names the Santo Niño as patron. Redondo described a church built of timber posts and tabique pampango, 24 brazas long, 6½ wide, and 8½ high to the roof ridge, with a cemetery and parish house. Bantigui and Matlang were its dependent visitas, each with a church and cemetery. (National Archives catalogue, SDS 14019, exp. 6; Redondo, p. 210)

Redondo’s population table counted 2,106 inhabitants in Quiot in 1884–85. The 1899 Atlas de Filipinas plotted Quiot as a pueblo on the western coast of Leyte and Bantigui as a neighboring barrio. (Redondo, p. 262; atlas plate 19)

The census taken under American rule in 1903 enumerated Quiot as a separate municipality with 4,019 inhabitants. Its component places were the poblacion, with 623 inhabitants; Anislag, 616; Bantigui, 588; Kangag, 241; Matlang, 1,015; San Isidro, 348; and Santa Cruz, 588. Merida was listed separately with 4,686 inhabitants. (1903 census, p. 70; U.S. Census Bureau publication record)

On October 22, 1903, the Philippine Commission enacted Act No. 954, which reduced Leyte’s 49 municipalities to 33. Section 1 made the reorganized municipality of Merida consist of its existing territory and the territory of Quiot, with the seat of government at Merida. The existing municipal organizations remained in place until the officials of the reorganized municipalities were elected and qualified. Tantuico identifies Crispulo Cabacoy and Santiago Martin as the last officials of the old municipality and records that Quiot’s municipal building was burned shortly before the merger. (Act No. 954; Tantuico local history)

The 1918 census listed Quiot as a barrio of Merida with 464 inhabitants. Apale, Bantigui, Libertad, Matlang, Santa Cruz, and Tolingo—places later included in Isabel—were also listed as barrios of Merida. The territory created in 1947 did not reproduce the 1903 municipality exactly: it included Libertad, Tolingan, Apale, and Jonan, while Anislag, Kangag, and San Isidro were not named in the 1947 statute. (1918 census, pp. 200–201; continuation; Republic Act No. 191)

Residents repeatedly petitioned for the restoration of a separate municipality. Tantuico names Galicano N. Ruiz as leader of a 1938 petition to President Manuel L. Quezon proposing that the restored town be called Aragon, after Aurora Aragón Quezon; the petition was disapproved. After World War II, Ruiz and Leodegario A. Conciliado led another delegation to Malacañang and obtained the support of Leyte politician Carlos S. Tan. (Tantuico local history)

Carlos Salvatierra Tan (November 4, 1893 – June 10, 1976) was a Filipino politician who served as Senator in the 1st Congress of the Philippines. Tan was born in Ormoc, Leyte to Pablo Tan and Rosalia Salvatierra. Tan attended Colegio de San Carlos, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Manila High School and the University of the Philippines. He is a holder of the degree of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws and was admitted to the bar in 1915. He was married to Isabel Mirasol of Jaro, Iloilo City who presumably gave the town of Quiot its present name.

The measure became House Bill No. 877 and was enacted, without executive approval, as Republic Act No. 191 on June 22, 1947. It separated the barrios of Quiot, Sta. Cruz, Libertad, Matlang, Tolingan, Bantigue, Apale, and Jonan from Merida and constituted them as the municipality of Isabel, with the seat of government at Quiot. The law directed the president to appoint the first mayor, vice-mayor, and councillors and provided that the municipality would begin to exist on a date fixed by presidential proclamation after its officers had been appointed and qualified. (Republic Act No. 191, Senate record and full text)

The statute does not explain the choice of Isabel. Tantuico states that the name honored both Isabel Mirasol, the wife of Carlos S. Tan, and Queen Isabella II of Spain. The official Senate biography of Tan confirms that his wife was Isabel Mirasol of Jaro, Iloilo, but does not discuss the naming of the municipality. (Tantuico local history; Senate biography of Carlos S. Tan)

President Manuel Roxas issued Proclamation No. 49 on January 8, 1948, fixing January 15 as the date of Isabel’s inauguration. Galicano N. Ruiz became its first appointed mayor. A local account records that Deputy Governor Cipriano Macion inducted the new officials on the feast day of the Santo Niño. A later Supreme Court decision records that boundary stones marked “1947,” “M,” and “I” were installed along the boundary with Merida. (Proclamation No. 49; Municipality of Isabel v. Municipality of Merida, 2020; Tantuico local history)

The census of October 1, 1948, counted 14,085 inhabitants in the new municipality of Isabel and 14,977 in the reduced municipality of Merida. (Philippine Statistics Authority historical census compilation; Proclamation No. 111, proclaiming the 1948 census)