[3] Hilongos is the biggest municipality in terms of income, population and land area in the southwestern part of Leyte.

A string of five equidistant municipalities, namely Inopacan, Hindang, Hilongos, Bato and Matalom comprises the southwestern part of Leyte.

[citation needed] The Port of Hilongos is one of the biggest and busiest in Eastern Visayas (Region 8), well known for its good passenger and cargo services to Cebu City and vice versa.

[citation needed] Due to its strategic location and close proximity to the city of Cebu, Hilongos Port caters quite a number of day and night trips to and from the city and is the primary choice for travelers especially from the southern part of Leyte.

Also, Hilongos has an airport, which can be more helpful and useful if improved (for so many years, travelers from the southern part of Leyte need to go as far as Tacloban and or Cebu just to avail the services of commercial airlines).

Lore has it that in the 12th century, Amahawin, an Ilonggo from Iloilo, conquered neighboring barangays on Leyte's western shore and extended his territory to the present limits of Inopacan, Hindang, Bato, and Matalom.

In late 1992, an unrecognized municipal government ran by the New People's Army from within Barangay San Antonio, Hilongos collapsed upon being taken over by the Philippine National Police (PNP).

The original church, now incorporated as a transept, was a single-nave structure whose main door was also the gate to a bastioned fortification.