San Miguel, Leyte

According to the manuscript written by Lorenzo Babula, one of the old town executives of this municipality, the first people were only few then so their homes were scattered in the forests where they tilled land for subsistence. Later, some settled along the seashore and they fished for food and as a means of livelihood.

As time went on, many of them lived in a place called "Sabang" which means mouth of the river then later it became a small barrio. This was the period when the "Moros" from Jolo who were pirates forced women to go with them to Mindanao so they could be sold to their "datu" or ruler as cooks or laundrywomen.

In 1903, San Miguel was consolidated to Alangalang and thus became its barangay but was subsequently reversed by the Governor General in 1909 through Executive Order 81.^{[6] [7] [8]}

On 27 October 1944, American and Filipino forces captured San Miguel from the 14th Area Army of the Imperial Japanese Army under the command of Tomoyuki Yamashita. They proceeded to advance towards Barugo on their way towards the main headquarters at Carigara.

San Miguel is politically subdivided into 21 barangays. ^[9] Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.

In the 2024 census, the population of San Miguel was 20,322 people,^[15] with a density of 140 inhabitants per square kilometre or 360 inhabitants per square mile.

Poverty incidence of San Miguel

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]}