Quezon, officially the Municipality of Quezon (; ; ), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Isabela, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 27,037 people.
Quezon is a border town of Isabela with the province of Kalinga through the Quezon-Tabuk Road. It is bordered in the west by the city of Tabuk.
Etymology
The town was named in honor of President Manuel L. Quezon, under the Republic Act No. 2418 which was approved last June 21, 1959.
History
Prior to its creation, Quezon was once part of a vast track of agricultural land called the Mallig Plains and was sparsely populated. Historians believe that its earliest inhabitants were the Igorots and the Kalingas of the Cordilleras as well as the Irrayas. Although the Igorots and the Kalingas are primarily upland dwellers, historians have observed that these natives come down from the highlands from time to time to hunt for low-landers especially the Kanyaw rituals. The site of Quezon the location of a Spanish mission called Nalabangan which was established on 24 May 1598 but vanished from historical records not long afterwards.
When Manuel L. Quezon was elected as the President of the Philippine Commonwealth, one of his administration's main programs was to promote development in the other areas in the country aside from Manila. In order to achieve this objective, President Quezon opened up vast uninhabited areas for settlement hoping that these would be developed by those who will decide to settle in those areas. Aside from Mindanao, other parts of Luzon were similarly offered for settlement and development including the province of Isabela, particularly the north-western portion of the province which was later called Mallig Plains.
Citing for the potential of the area for settlement and agricultural development, President Quezon declared the entire Mallig Plains as project site for his program on rural development. In support of this declaration, he created the Office of National Land Settlement Administration which was renamed to Land Settlement Development Corporation (LaSeDeCo). Subsequently, this corporation was reorganized. At that time, the primary objective of LaSeDeCo was basically to oversee and facilitate the distribution of lands to qualified settlers. With the development of this opportunity for rural and agricultural development and with the completion of the Balete Pass Road in the 1920s that runs through the hinterlands of the Caraballo Mountains, hundreds of inhabitants from the Ilocos and Central Luzon regions opted to settle and avail of the program of the government in the Mallig Plains area.
A few years after the declaration of the area as site for settlement and agricultural development, World War II broke out and the region was later placed under Japanese control. Early settlers had difficulty rebuilding afterwards due to attacks by Kalinga tribes from the north.
One of those who fought the Kalinga was Jesus Estrada for whom a barangay was named after him. It was only after the government and leaders of the tribes negotiated and agreed to end hostilities that the threat to settlers was eventually dispelled.
With the attainment of peace and security in the area, the exodus of settlers to the area increased particularly in the area of Barrio Narra where the future site of Quezon is located. But the continued influx of settlers into the area increased the demand for basic requirements of residents. Provincial officials, particularly Representative Delfin Albano of the lone district of Isabela saw the urgency and the need to create a new municipality out of Mallig. House Bill No. 736 authored by Albano was later approved by the Philippine Senate and President Carlos P. Garcia in 1959 through Republic Act No. 2418. The name of the municipality was in honor of the President Quezon who was instrumental in the development of the municipality.
