', officially the ', is a of the Philippines| and capital of the province of,. According to the, it has a population of people. It is the most populous municipality of Zamboanga Sibugay. Ipil is located three hours from the key cities in the region. The Ipil seaport is south of the town center. Ipil Airport is located at Barangay Sanito, along the Pan Philippine Highway, and it is the only airport in Zamboanga Sibugay.
History
Ipil used to be known as Sanito, a place under barrio Bacalan under the Municipality of Kabasalan. It was a swampy area and a docking spot for pioneering Ilocanos who settled in the upper areas of Titay. Ipil was a jumping point for their lantsa sailing to Zamboanga City. The first mayor of Ipil was Gregorio Dar, an Ilocano who came from Titay. The Dar Family were the second batch of Ilocanos who settled upon the invitation of Mariano Families who are among the first batch of Ilocanos from Luzon. When Sanito became a Town in 1949, its name was changed to Ipil, as there were many Ipil trees found within the said locale.
Early Ilocano routes
The first Ilocanos used Ipil as the nearest jump point in connecting Titay with Zamboanga City. They would walk via Lumbia then to Longilog then Gabo reaching Mayabang their original settlement. It was this route that they do not have to cross the rivers as it is uphill. It was the Ilocanos who first set foot on these areas.
Ipil massacre
On the morning ofApril 3, 1995, Ipil was attacked by approximately 200 heavily armed Abu Sayyaf militants who fired upon residents, strafed civilian homes, plundered banks, took up to 30 hostages and then burned the centre of the town to the ground. The militants allegedly arrived in the town by boat and bus, and a number of them had been dressed in military fatigues The town's Chief of Police was reportedly killed in the attack and close to a billionpesos were looted from eight commercial banks. Army commandos pursued some rebel gunmen in nearby mountains while officials said that the rebels were looting farms and seizing civilians as "human shields" as they fled the town of about 40 rebels, who may have taken hostages, were cornered in a school compound west of Ipil on the 6th of April when an elite army unit attacked. In the fighting that followed, the television stationGMA reported, 11 civilians were killed.
Several radio stations operate in the area: dxLR- 98.1 FM, Flazh-FM 99.7, Hitz 98.9, Magic 103 FM, 94.3 dxIR FM, dxDS FM, Igsoon FM and Radyo Lipay AM; and several newspapers are published here, including the Zamboanga Sibugay Tribune and The Sibugay Express.
