Ibajay 5.63

Ibajay, officially the '', is a of the Philippines in the province of in the of the Philippines. The population was at the.Ibajay is the birthplace of Col. Alejandro S. Melchor, whose design of the pontoon bridge contributed to the Allied Forces winning World War II.HistoryUnder the Spanish - "Panay Y Bayjay"The autonomous barangays that the Spaniards encountered in Cebu could barely provide them with food enough for their needs. Miguel López de Legazpi had to move his camp sailing from Cebu to Panay Island in 1569.Desiring to explore the island for food and spice, Legazpi ordered some of his men to move further on the Island until they run out of bread to eat. Tired and hungry, the Spaniards solicited something to eat from the natives. To their surprise, they were given a container full of brown rice. When the Spaniards asked the natives what kind of rice they gave, they politely replied, “ba-hay,” meaning, a third class rice. In recognition of the generosity of the natives, they named the place, “Panay y bahay” – the place in Panay where there was and the Spaniards were given “ba-hay” rice.The word Ibajay was originally written with the capital letter Y. It was only in 1902 when an American supervising teacher made the change of Ybajay to Ibajay because of the preference to the English alphabet and the difficulty of the Americans in spelling the word.The first seat of government by the Spanish authorities was in Boboc-on, Barangay Naile in the 17th century. The system of government that the Spaniards established was the encomienda. They rule the natives by control from a royal grant from the King of Spain. The King of Spain appointed an encomiendero as the overseer with the Governadorcillo, Cabeza Mayores and Cabezas de Barangay as subordinates.