Batad - People and Nature

In 1895, the Municipality of Balasan was officially founded as a parish town by a Spanish "Real Orden" and Batad was considered an arrabal of Balasan. The word "BATAD" is a Hiligaynon version for a sundial shell of the Architectonicidae family of varied species, color and sizes abundant in Embarcadero, a coastal barangay two (2) kilometers away from the present townsite. The town of Batad has its beginning in Embarcadero until the settlement was transferred to the new site and called Batad Viejo due to Muslim raids.



Alapasco Dam

It was said that when the carabao and the cattle herd watchers would stand at the top of the mountain separating the new site from Embarcadero and view the picture of the houses in spiralling formation around the hill resembling the sundial shell popularly known as "batad" they were heard to exclaim "daw batad"!(looks like batad), because of their seashore orientation. The name become a by word to the people as so it was that the new site called Batad, the name it carries up to the present.


Maliaya Island

On October 30, 1949, Hon. Juan Borra of the 5th District of Iloilo passed a bill and was signed into law by former President Elpidio Quirino creating the Municipality of Batad, and separating it from the its mother municipality- Balasan.

At present the Municipality of Batad is composed 24 barangays that primarily produce crops like coconut, corn, and palay. Several Ponds including the coastal areas produce good catch of seafoods, to note numerous barangays in the municipality are named after a specific seafood or creature associating the place to the sea.

Source:Batad, Iloilo LGU