page_title: Isabela, Basilan
section_title: Municipality of Isabela
hierarchical_section_title: Isabela, Basilan / History / Municipality of Isabela
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Isabela Poblacion with Plaza Rizal and Plaza Misericordia
context_page_description: Isabela, officially the City of Isabela, is a 4th class component city in the province of Basilan, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 112,788 people.
  It is also colloquially known as Isabela de Basilan to differentiate the city's name from the province of Isabela in Luzon.
  While administratively the island province of Basilan is part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Isabela, which previously served as its capital since the province's creation, itself is not part of this region, being placed instead under the Zamboanga Peninsula region. While the city is still regulated by the Basilan provincial government and provincial services are provided by Basilan, regional services are provided by the Zamboanga Peninsula regional government. The Philippine Statistics Authority lists Isabela as statistically independent from Basilan. This prompted the provincial government to transfer the capital to Lamitan.
context_section_description: On September 21, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the country. At that time, Basilan was in the middle of the Moro National Liberation Front Uprising prompted by the expose of the Jabidah Massacre on March 18, 1968. A number of native Moro leaders joined the MNLF rebellion, making Basilan a veritable warzone. The first-ever armed confrontation occurred around the heavily forested hills of Bagbagon and Canibungan in Lantawan on the island's western area. This was followed by the occupation of the Alano Plantation (declared "No Man's Land" by the military) by MNLF "munduhin" and "blackshirts" and the ensuing aerial bombardment by the military which left the plantation totally devastated. MNLF rebels then laid siege over Lamitan's poblacion, but was eventually staved off by fierce resistance from Lamitan residents who volunteered to fight valiantly beside elements of the Armed Forces and the Philippine Constabulary.
  Several more raids and ambushes were made throughout the island, which succeeded in stopping all the operations of the plantations. Sporadic gun-battles, too, broke out within Isabela's poblacion, and pirate raids harried fishing operations as well as passenger ferry traffic between Basilan and Zamboanga.
  After more than two years of incessant fighting, a substantial number among Basilan's Christian populace left the place altogether reducing the Christian tribes to minority status once again. After nearly 50 years of continuous immigration from Zamboanga, the Visayas and Luzon, Basilan experienced, for the very first time, a net outflow of people.
  On December 27, 1973, President Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 356, converting the City of Basilan into the Province of Basilan "to provide the close government attention and for the purpose of spurring its growth". Another Presidential Decree numbered 593 dated December 2, 1974, amended P.D. 356. The law not only defines the City's territory but also provided that the capital of Basilan shall be the Municipality of Isabela. It also created ten (10) Municipalities to comprise the new Province of Basilan.
  Presidential Decree No. 593 was later amended by Presidential Decree No. 840 dated December 11, 1975, reducing the number of municipalities to seven (7) in order to render its " territorial portion more complementary to the size of the area and more responsive to pacification, rehabilitation and total development of the province". The municipalities specified in the said amendment were the following: Isabela, Lamitan, Tuburan, Tipo-Tipo, Sumisip, Maluso and Lantawan, of which five (5) municipalities are now in existence. It also provided for the absorption of the territorial jurisdiction of the City of Basilan into the Municipality of Isabela with its poblacion as the capital seat of the province.
  The conversion to Province-hood, and the creation of Municipalities ensured that Basilan's sparsely populated areas were "given" to Muslim warlords and surrendering MNLF Commanders by Presidential fiat, as a form of bounty or reward for laying down their arms. The once-progressive First-Class City of Basilan was emasculated beyond recognition, having been reduced to an area exactly One-Kilometer radius within the Isabela Poblacion.
  Under martial law, Basilan had its first military governor in the person of Col. Tomas G. Nanquil, Jr., then the Brigade Commander of 24th Infantry Brigade stationed in Basilan. There were three (3) vice governors during his tenure as military governor. Col. Nanquil served for about a year and half.
  Before Basilan was converted to a province, it had three regular municipalities, Isabela, Lamitan, and Maluso which are districts of the city of Basilan. Even when Col. Nanquil was appointed Military Governor, the city of Basilan was still functioning under Mayor Brown until December 31, 1975 due to its territorial boundary dispute with the Province of Basilan.
  The second military Governor was Rear Admiral Romulo M. Espaldon. Due to his numerous functions and responsibilities as Commanding General of the Armed Forces of t
caption: Old Plaza Rizal and Plaza Misericordia, opposite Santa Isabel Cathedral, old City Hall (Provincial Capitol) atop the hill at the background
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