BRIEF HISTORY
The Municipality of Lezo is home to the smallest land area of the seventeen (17) municipalities established by Aklan. Before it officially became a Municipality, Lezo was previously a barrio of Kalibo, historically referred to as Guicod — a name that literally means “guicab,” or chock-full of eels — located behind the present-day Lezo Elementary School.
It was also known informally as Tierra Alta (“High Land”), given its central part stayed clear of deluge during the great flood of the early-19th century.
The road to local municipal independence began with the mobilization of Don Juan Legaspi in 1865, when well-known Lezeño leaders such as Don Juan Legaspi and Doña Benedicta Geronimo petitioned Spanish colonial authorities for independence and self-determination, and Don Anacleto G. Ramos was made Capitan Basal.
Over time, the chief executive’s title changed—from Capitan Basal to Capitan Municipal, then Presidente Local, and eventually Presidente Municipal. After the Philippine-American War was over, Lezo, along with Numancia and Banga, was returned to Kalibo under Act No. 720 of the Philippine Commission (April 4, 1903) due to financial deficiency. As a result, with the promulgation of Executive Order No. 58 dated July 31, 1909, Lezo was again restored to functioning as an independent municipality, with Numancia as one of its barrios.
The status of Lezo as a municipality remained tenuous at best in the early twentieth century. After the 1918 elections—when candidates aligned themselves with then-Governor Manuel A. Roxas of Capiz were brutally beaten in Lezo—the seat of government was shifted to Numancia.
An administrative turn was then committed with the endorsement of Executive Order No. 17 (1920) and Republic Act No. 3086 (March 16, 1923), which reclassified the municipality as Numancia, thus reverting Lezo to barrio status again.
Ongoing petitions from Lezeño residents for self-governance resulted in President Manuel L. Quezon’s issuance on August 28, 1941, of Executive Order No. 364, which established Lezo an independent municipality. The first inauguration was in 1942, but the outbreak of World War II delayed formal turnover until January 1, 1945. The ceremonial inauguration was led by native son and guerrilla leader Captain Prudencio Fernandez and Atty. Moises F. Morado—then the municipality’s sole lawyer—and was appointed as the Municipal Mayor after the turnover (1945–1946).
Since then, Lezo gradually established its character as an indomitable town of community that grew into a resilient community that was also committed to farming, faith-rooted, and agricultural, guided by the continuing power of Señor Sto. Niño de Lezo and the collective mind of a people who have long been insisting on their right to self-determination and dignified local rule and leadership, at a time when they, for all the time on their own territory and with their own small power, have long been asserting their sovereignty.