In 1814, the inhabitants of Dongon gradually transferred to the village of Sablayan, until Dongon ceased to become a village in 1829. In 1832, the missionary friar Simeon Mendoza de la V. de Ibernalo requested the Spanish government for the exemption of the town's inhabitants from paying taxes so that they could build a stone church, convent and fort at a hilly part of the village. The church that stands today at the town may have been built from 1832–1835, and its advocacy was placed under San Sebastian.