San Mateo, Isabela

The town was first named as Marasat. It was a former barangay of Cauayan, then Santiago. It was called the Municipality of Yoshisawa under the government of the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War. After the liberation, it was finally created and named San Mateo by virtue of Presidential Executive Order No. 97 on March 17, 1946, by then President Sergio Osmeña. It was named for its founder, the late Don Mateo A. Cadeliña.^[7]

On March 17, 1946, President Sergio Osmeña issued Executive Order No. 97, which established San Mateo as a formal municipality. According to the provisions of Executive Order No. 249 of the Office of the President of the Philippines, and based on the municipality's annual average income for CY 2004–2007 as certified by the Commission on Audit, and as implemented by Department of Finance Order No. 23–08 dated July 29, 2008, the municipality was reclassified from a second class municipality to first class municipality.^[7]

On December 1, 2008, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo designated the Municipality as an Agro-Ecological Destination in Cagayan Valley Region as recommended by the Department of Agriculture due to its vast ecological and agricultural production areas, as well as being the recipient of the Galing Pook Award 2007 for the best local governance programs. On January 27, 2012, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala designated the municipality as the Munggo Capital of the Philippines. This is in acknowledgment of local leaders' valuable efforts to promote munggo production, which is a high-value commercial commodity.'^[8]

According to Republic Act No. 7160, also known as the Local Government Code of 1991, the municipality is responsible for coordinating and providing basic, regular, and direct services to its residents in order to promote social and economic development. As proof, the municipality of San Mateo received the Seal of Good Local Governance from 2015 to 2019 and again in 2022, the Department of the Interior and Local Government's highest accreditation for performing local governments.^[7]

San Mateo is situated in the southwestern part of Isabela. It is bounded on the north by Aurora, on the northeast by Cabatuan, on the east by Cauayan, on the east-southeast by Alicia, on the south by Ramon and on the west Alfonso Lista in the Province of Ifugao.

San Mateo is situated 54.67 kilometres (33.97 mi) from the provincial capital Ilagan, and 382.79 kilometres (237.85 mi) from the country's capital city of Manila.

In the 2024 census, the population of San Mateo was 67,433 people,^[16] with a density of 560 inhabitants per square kilometre or 1,500 inhabitants per square mile.

Poverty incidence of San Mateo

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

According to the 2020 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index conducted by the National Competitiveness Council, San Mateo took the 141st spot among the first class and second class municipalities in the Philippines.

• 2015 44th
• 2016 99th
• 2017 123rd
• 2018 92nd
• 2019 72nd
• 2020 141st
• 2021 292nd
• 2022 242nd
• 2023 160th

The San Mateo Town Fiesta is an annual cultural and civic celebration held every March 17 in the municipality of San Mateo. The event commemorates the town's founding anniversary and serves as a major highlight in the local calendar, attracting residents, visitors, and dignitaries from neighboring areas.

The Munggo Festival, also locally known as the Balatong Festival, is an annual cultural celebration held in the first week of May in the town. The festival is dedicated to honoring and giving thanks to God for the abundance and blessings of the munggo (mung bean) harvest—one of the municipality's primary agricultural products.

• BBCSS Pediatric Medical And Surgical Clinic
• Bumagat Maternity and Medical Clinic
• Juvelo Family Clinic
• New Samaritan Medical And Pediatric Clinic
• Piedad Medical Clinic
• Ricafort's Medical and Surgical Clinic
• San Mateo Integrated Community Hospital
• San Mateo Kidney Care and Dialysis Center
• San Mateo Multicare Hospital
• San Mateo Rural Health Unit
• Sevilleja Medical Clinic

The Schools Division of Isabela governs the town's public education system.^[31] The division office is a field office of the DepEd in Cagayan Valley region.^[32] There are two schools district offices that govern the public and private elementary and high schools throughout the municipality, namely: San Mateo North District, and San Mateo South District.^[33]