Municipality of Carles, Iloilo Province: IloiloTotal land Area: 11, 204.68 hectaresLocation: Carles is the northern most town of Iloilo. It is located in the northern tip of the triangular shaped of Panay island. It is bordered on the North by Jintotolo Channel, on the North West by the Visayan Sea, on the West by the Municipality of Pilar, Capiz, on the South by the Municipality of Balasan, and on the East by Guimaras Strait. It is 146 km away from Iloilo and 13 km away from Balasan.Municipal Water Area: 154, 738 hectares Sometime in 1846, Francisco Arriola, son of the datu from Jolo, together with his men found themselves in the shores of Carles. He immediately organized the early settlers who later intermingled with his men at Punta Bulucawe, a plateau just 300 meters north of Poblacion. The settlement their clearings on the jungles and virgin lands for development. The provincial Governor of Capiz commisioned Arriola to facilitate the transportation of the families recruited from Aklan and Antique. Soon more settlers came. The Punta Bulucawe settlement was includer the Pueblo de Pilar, Capiz. Towards 1856, as the general mclearing progressed, francisco arriola transfered Bulucawe to the lowland south of the first settlement. the new settlement named Badiang( wild gabi,variety) because of the abundance in the vicinity of the new site. As streets were laid out, Arriola cause the equal distributions of the homelots to settlers alongside of the new created streets, some settlers, however built their homes near their farms. This later laid to the formation of the other barrio settlement. On January 1860, the Badiang barrio leaders by Francisco Arriola went to Capiz to petition the provincial givernment to change the barrio Badiang into a municipality. The governor denied the petition on teh ground that the barrio Badiang was newly created and was not capable of becoming a pueblo. Not discouraged by their first failure, the petitioners traveled for days to Iloilo city where they are welcomed by Governor Jose Maria Carles, a Spanish governor. After studying the cases, Governor Carles approved the petition and thus the barrio Badiang was changed to a pueblo. The jubiliant people of Badiang, out of their gratitude to Governor Carles for his benevolence, approved and presented another petition to change the name of Badiang to Carles in honor to the governor. This petition was also approved and thus Carles became a town of Iloilo. On July 1, 1862, Carles was inagurated as a new Pueblo with Alejandro Buaya as a the first gobernadorcillo del Pueblo de Carles which was included to its extended jurisdiction Batad, Estancia, and Balasan. http://municipalityifcarles.jimdo.com
