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. The territory was further reduced when, through
Batas Pambansa Blg. 183 of 1982, fourteen
barangays were separated to create the municipality of
Roseller Lim.
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. Mayabang came from the first Tagalog settlers who intermarried with the first ilocano settlers of the place.
Ipil massacre On the morning of April 4, 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 clothing. The town's
Chief of Police was reportedly killed in the attack and close to a
billion pesos 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 ==Geography==