No one really knows for sure when Ibajay was first established nor how it got its name.

It has been known that the first community of natives had existed in the sitio (burg) of Bubuk-on. Hence, the existence of Ibajay as a community may have been around long before the arrival of the Europeans, although the place at the time may have no name or not been named as such. Only then, after 1571, during one of the Spanish explorations of the general area did Ibajay got its name when the first Europeans mistakenly coined “Ybajay” as the name of the place – so the legend goes.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Habatak, Hungeo and Sadak had guided Bubuk-on and ruled its people with respect, and in return, they were well loved by the people. With their experience and basic understanding on the fundamentals of life, they guided them agriculturally, economically, socially and politically. They considered community life as an extension of family life to achieve peaceful coexistence, social order and unity.

Upon reaching the place from the east in 1571, the Spanish conquestadores stayed, prepared and recruited Ibajaynons for an expedition of Luzon. When the expedition left, Pedro Sarmiento, a Spanish army officer, was left behind by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, firmly establishing the Spanish foothold in this part of the Panay.

By the 17^th century, the hold and influence of local chieftains on the people had loosely disappeared. In dismay, the aging last chieftain and his loyal followers fled to the mountains and were never heard since.

With the Spaniards in control, they introduced a system of governance known as encomienda¹ – feudalistic in nature - created in May 1493, by the Crown in Castile, wherein the will of the king of a foreign land were imposed upon a group of natives in a geographical area. To "oversee" such imposition, the King of Spain who unknowingly realized that the system signify oppression and exploitation of natives appointed encomenderos. Normally these encomenderos were themselves Spaniards. As subordinates, locals were elected as Capitan Basal², Cabeza de Barangays, etc.

Bubuk-on, (presently a sitio of Barangay Naile), was still the site of the first seat of local government by the Spanish authorities.

As early as 1673, as recorded in the books of Actas³, Ibajay has her own town head, known as capitan basal. Francisco Calizo Dalisay was its first town executive, elected by the principales of the town. The principales were selected married men of good community standing. In subsequent years, these principales was defined to be composed of 13 electors - the out-going Capitan, 6 Ex-Capitans and 6 incumbent Cabeza de Barangays who were selected by lot.

In 1760, the town was torched. Bubuk-on was burnt to the ground. A large contingent of Moro (Muslim) marauders from the South, landed on the shores. There was a great conflagration on this particular incident. A number of natives were killed, captured, brought to and sold for slavery down South – to Mindanao, Borneo and Sumatra.

Constant pillage by the Moros, prompted the people to move their town number of times. In 1767, it moved north from Bubuk-on to Maganhup, an area that lies between the present day Barangays Naile and San Jose. In 1792 it was again moved a bit farther northwest to Adiango, a place that is now part of Barangay Laguinbanwa. Finally, Ibajay and its seat of government moved to its present location in 1811.

The town was laid based on the typical Spanish model – a main square or plaza surrounded with a church, school, and government building or municipio. From there, streets were formed about it. Far way down, in-line with the municipio, is the public market, and way just outside the town, the cemetery.

Trail ways appeared leading to and out of town. Later, roads were curved out in the woods, to link the new formed town to other smaller communities that flourished around.

For a while, Ibajay covered a vast area west of Akean. Its northernmost limit was Ilig-iligan Point on Boracay Island, while the easternmost was the highest point on Campo Verde, the westernmost was Pucio Point (Buruanga), and the southernmost was a point where it borders with Madalag and Malinao.

The municipalities of Nabas, Buruanga and Malay were once part of Ibajay. Due to their remoteness, the length of time to travel, and accessibility of these major communities to its central hub where the seat of government was located, were good reasons why these communities have to be set apart or seceded from Ibajay. The desire of the people with the same tongue, customs and traditions to group together and govern themselves was another reason.

The secession of Buruanga (Buruangan) in 1732 was initiated by Ibajay to make Buruanga a separate and independent town by petitioning the Spanish governor (of then Capiz), on which the governor agreed without hesitation. This was during the time of Esteban Yganib, the Capitan Basal of Ibajay. Buruanga became a town from then on with Venancio de Pedro from the neighboring community of Alimbo appointed as its first Capitan Basal. He replaced the reigning Teniente Absoluto - the Cabeza de Barangay.

Nabas was then a barangay called Alimbo, situated on the river delta at the mouth of Alimbo River. When Nabas separated from Ibajay, she took with her, her neighboring barangays - Panaytayon (Toledo), Gibon, Pakilawa (Unidos), Namao (Rizal), Kabangrosan (Union) and Nagustan. Originally, it was named as "Navas" in honor of the then governor of Capiz, Governor Nava. Since, however, people does not pronounce or use the consonant "v" when speaking in their local dialect, it was renamed in 1906 to “Nabas” after the Municipal Council unanimously approved and adopted it as their town's official name.

The last Cabeza de Barangay of Alimbo (1853) and the first Governadorcillo of Nabas (1854) was Remegio Briones. The families that were instrumental in creating the municipality of Navas were the Angelan, Briones, Castillon, Rioja, Sadiasa, Solanoy, Sumanga. Currently, Nabas has a total of 20 barangays, including the poblacion⁴. Its total land area is 9,862 ha. or 98.62 sq km (24,370 ac or 38 sq km).

Through the tireless effort of Arcadio Tandez and Alfredo Sta. Maria who sought the support of Congressmen Jose M. Reyes and Cornelio T. Villareal of third and second districts of Capiz respectively, the House Bill 1749 was enacted into law (Republic Act 381), on June 12, 1949. This enactment triggered great geopolitical changes on Buruanga. The municipality of Malay was created and separated out from Buruanga, taking along with it almost half of Buruanga’s population and geographical area. Its total land area is 6731 has. or 67.31 sq km (16,650 ac or 26 sq mi).

The separation of Malay economically hurt Buruanga. Its plan on future developments has to be put aside for a while. It left Buruanga with three remaining barangays namely, Alegria, Santander and Tag-osip. Today, Buruanga has a remaining land area of 8850 has. or 88.50 sq km (21,870 ac or 34 sq mi).

After all these separations (of Buruanga, Nabas and Malay), Ibajay was still left with some sizable habitable and cultivable areas. Todate, Ibajay has the most number of barangays in the province, a total of 35 barangays, including the town proper, 10 of which are located in coastal areas. Except for Cabugao, Rivera, Aparicio, Yawan and Mina-a, all other barangays have direct access to the town proper. With a total land area of 18,196 hectares (44,963 acres or 70 square miles), Ibajay is next to Libacao in land area.