CONVERSATION WITH A PRINCESS, SULTAN KIRAM'S DAUGHTER

By Roger Pe

Business Mirror

April 19, 2018 issue

Until March this year, I have never been to Sulu, particularly Tawi-Tawi, a remote group of islands suffering from unfair travel advisories most of the time. Friends have told me, Sulu’s history and its sultanate (Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi) would inevitably surface in any conversation, and the word “Kiram” would often be associated with it.

True enough, the name that always fascinated me, was casually mentioned in the van that was to take us to our hotel. That heightened my curiosity. As soon as we arrived at Rachel’s Place, a hotel I never knew existed in that seemingly lonely planet, I was ready to ask more questions. But the dissonant voices in the lobby reduced my queries to a mere thought balloon, lost in the din of voices getting louder and louder as we headed back to our rooms. For a moment, I had forgotten about “Kiram.”

When I was in grade school, I remember how the Philippines’ claim to Sabah was a smoldering issue. North Borneo was its old name, under the sultanate, and Federation of Malaysia was still not born. It always exploded on the pages Manila Times and Philippine Free Press, publications my mother partly distributed in my hometown.

I became a voracious reader especially when copies of them remained unsold. Needless to say, Sabah was a hot topic because the town was geographically akin to Borneo.

Sabah eventually became part of Malaysia. The newly formed Federation of Malaysia had annexed it in 1963 because of British connections, complex things and through a referendum some people said it stage-managed. Sources said the "referendum" did not involve the entire population of North Borneo at that time, but only representative consultations. The UN mission report also noted that, "there was no reference to a referendum or plebiscite in the request.”

The Philippines would break diplomatic relations with Malaysia. The issue had remained in the back burner ever since the three-nation ‘Maphilindo’ (Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia) group vanished into thin air. Malaysia had made strong statements: “It does not recognize and will not entertain any claim, nor bring the matter to the International Court of Justice even if the Philippines would.”

Fast forward to 2013

The Sabah standoff: Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, a descendant of the Sultan of Sulu from 1568, ordered his family and followers to keep the sultanate’s historic territorial claims to Sabah burning. His younger brother Esmail, and about 200 followers intruded into Sabah’s coastal village of Lahad Datu.

At this point, my interest of wanting to meet any of Kiram’s relatives was getting more intense. It heightened when a cameraman brought by Department of Tourism to the trip, Angelo “Toto” Ancino, my roommate, told me he had personally met Kiram’s daughter, Princess Jacel Kiram.

For days, I nagged him to death about Jacel. I finally got an answer after a week. On March 3, 2018, at three o’clock in the afternoon, I finally came face-to-face with her.

Meeting the Princess

Princess Jacel was wearing a hijab, all smiles and charming when we shook hands. What struck me most was she enunciated English words with crystal clear clarity and nary a regional accent. I almost told her: “You should voice for radio commercials.”

I would describe Jacel with much profundity but “normal” seems to be the better word. She is normal, yes. Normal, if your definition of being one is someone who speaks about peace, equality, and diversity is not an issue. She is intelligent, mild-mannered in her decorum throughout our conversation.

Jacel resides in Maharlika Village, Taguig City, a village created by the government as a subdivision for Muslim Filipinos in 1974. Her grandmother from her mother’s side was from Pangasinan. Her grandfather hailed from Sorsogon. Her father Sultan Jamalul Kiram III met her Christian mother when the latter was reviewing for CPA exams. Her name is a marriage of Muslim and Christian words: Jamalul and Celia.

Being a product of a religious inter-marriage, her clan celebrates Muslim and Christians occasions, like Hariraya and Christmas traditions. In an age when Christians and Muslims stand apart from each other on opposite sides of a very huge divide, hers is a shining example of harmonious co-existence. Beyond the differences, Jacel sees a common ground when it comes to moral values and principles - charity, devotion and faith, just as how other major world religions preach the same. 

When she graduated from De La Salle University College of Saint Benilde (she finished Bachelor of Artswith an Inter-Disciplinary Studies degree) in 2002, her “The Sulu Sultanate’s Genealogy And Its Relation To The Philippines’ Claim To Sabah” was declared Best Thesis.

The daughter of the late 33rd Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III has become an icon of peace, inter-faith, women empowerment and social upliftment, livelihood and development of Muslims in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao.

“I wish people would get rid of their misconceptions about Muslims. We can co-exist,” she says. She laments about many incidents in the city that are still causing her deep pain to the point of being callous. Taxi drivers, for example, speed away and do not take her and her fellow Muslims as passengers if they find out they are going to Maharlika Village.

Her husband, Moh Yusop Hasan, a Lieutenant Coronel in the Philippine Army echoes her sentiments: “Muslim Filipinos had been branded as “bandidos” (bandits), pirates and other unpalatable names for centuries. We should correct the many social injustices that have been heaped on them. It’s about time that people erase the long-time propaganda that they are “terrorists,” he says.

Jacel, herself, was branded a “terrorist” by the Malaysian government when the Lahad Datu incident drew headlines.“I am not a terrorist.  I am just fighting for what is legally, historically and rightfully ours. This fight is not just my fight, but Filipinos’ fight as well,” she exclaims.

“If am being labelled as a ‘terrorist’ fighting for what is ours as Filipinos, let them. Let history be the judge,” she says. She is sad about younger generations of Filipinos who are afflicted with historical amnesia and have forgotten the glorious past of the sultanate. She maintains that the 2013 events in Lahad Datu were simply an assertion of our rights.

Weapon of the weak

“The word ‘terrorist’ is the weapon of the weak against the strong, a defense mechanism of people who make their own rules,” Hasan says. The real ‘terrorists’ are abusers. Muslim people are kind. That’s the difference. They only lose their patience against abuses. Lands were taken away from them. They could not fish from their own seas and do not benefit from their own natural resources. There is widespread inequality and wealth belongs only to a few,” he blurts out.

Jacel has attended many national and international events as a speaker. Among them as head of a Philippine delegation and guest of honor to the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students in the World Federation of Democratic Youth held in Sochi, Russia. She also went to China to celebrate the 600th Year of Sulu-China Friendship, coinciding with the book launching of “Friendship Without Borders,” in Guangxi. She then participated in a United Nations sponsored conference on Drug Control Program held in UN Headquarters, Vienna, Austria. She was also the Chairperson of People’s Coalition for Peace.

In the bigger scheme of things, Jacel says: “We should always go back to history to get a better perspective,” she exhales, sounding like exhausted because “much of our history is being distorted,” she says.

“Sana hindi na lang ako (I wish it should’ve not been me) so people won’t think of me as biased,” she says. But she is optimistic, that history will be corrected with regards to the Philippines’ territorial claim to Sabah. 

While historically, the Philippines has the right to reclaim Sabah, some people doubt if it can recover it now. “Unless we are ready to go to war,” one Filipino lawyer said.

“The best way to reclaim Sabah is do it now. The government must have the will to do it. Not giving up on our proprietary rights and fighting for what is due us are the things to do. As far as Malaysia is concerned, skirting the issue and not wanting to talk about it means only one thing: It does not own Sabah,” she quips.

Malaysian point-of-view

In “Another Brick In The Wall”, a Malaysian political party blog, the unnamed author unleashes fire and brimstone: “The word ‘permanent lease’ means “it cannot be reclaimed” and the words in the grant did not say lease but cede or give away for a certain consideration, and that the grant for a ‘permanent lease’ meant giving away Sabah.”

Raymond Tombung in his article in Free Malaysia Today said: “The Sabah claim will continue to be raised by the Philippines and Sulu as it is powerful and emotive international issue which many leaders from Manila will find convenient to bleed for political mileage. And the many “sultans” in Sulu will continue to cast their hungry eyes at Sabah, considered to be “the last gold coin” and aspire, albeit hopelessly, to try and achieve the impossible.”

Tombung continues: “If Sulu, by a very long shot, gets back Sabah, will it be able to pay Malaysia all the billions utilized to develop it since 1963? Sulu cannot be so arrogant and shameless to think that it can simply and freely take back a piece of land it “owned” 135 years ago after it has been developed by someone else for half a century, “ he says.

In a series of articles written by Joseph G.Lariosa, a Fil-Am correspondent of Journal GlobaLinks (JGL), a Chicago, Illinois-based news agency and a veteran journalist, he asks:

“Did the Malaysian government ever allow the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu to talk to their tenants in Sabah to find out their sentiments if they were really against the Sultanate by way of a referendum for the purpose? Did the Malaysian government allow the Sultanate air time in mass media in Sabah to explain to their tenants that because they are residing on a piece of land owned by a Filipino Sultanate of Sulu, they are supposed to pay rental directly to their landlord – the heirs to the Sultanate of Sulu – not to a third party or middleman such as the Malaysian government?”

Lariosa then drops a bomb: “If I were the heirs to the Sultanate of Sulu, while they are waiting for the ruling of the ICJ, I am not going to encash the 6,300 Malaysian ringgits to protest and humiliate the Malaysian government just as Fidel Castro refused and refuses to encash the US$2,000 annual rental payment of the U.S. to use the Guantanamo U.S. Base in order to humiliate the U.S. into giving up the perpetual rental under the Platt Amendment.”

“Come to think of it,”Lariosa declares. “When the Philippines leased the Clark Air Base and Subic Base to the U.S., which account for 245 square miles land area, the U.S. was paying $200-M annual rental to the Philippine government. While Sabah, which has 28,430 square miles, or 116 times bigger than the U.S. Bases, the Malaysian government is only renting Sabah for a song!” 

The Sabah issue has created another monster and Jacel’s heart bleeds for Filipino refugees who have become hostage to the territorial pendulum. “The world needs to know about the plight of the “Halaws”, people and children that have been driven away because of this,” she says.

Last year, the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur reported that over 569,451 or 18.2 percent of the total population of Sabah are Filipinos, both documented and undocumented.

Death of Sultan Jamalul

Kiram III

Sultan Jamalul KiramIII died months after the Lahad Datu siege. A younger brother, Esmail Kiram II, in a succession often beset by clan in-fighting and claims by fake descendants of the once-powerful Muslim royalty, succeeded him. When Esmail died on September 19, 2015, another brother, Phugdalon Kiram, was named as the new sultan.

Based on the Kiram family tree, Jamalul was the closest living kin to the sultan, the nephew of 33rd Sultan Esmail Kiram I, and at the same time, the son of crown prince Punjungan Kiram. Ex-Senator Santanina Rasul also noted that former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had recognized him as the real heir.

He was born on July 16 1938 in Maimbung, a small town in the province of Sulu and was the eldest son of Sultan Punjungan Kiram and Sharif Usna Dalus Strattan and was directly descended from the first Sultan of Sulu, Sharif ul-Hashim of Sulu, of the Banu Hashem tribe.

From Sulu High School he moved to Notre Dame in the capital of Jolo, and then enrolled at Manuel L Quezon University in Manila, where he studied Law, which he did not finish. Having joined the Ruma Betchara (Council of the Sultan) during the reign (1962-74) of his uncle, Sultan Esmail Kiram, he ruled as “interim sultan”, while his father, who ruled between 1974 and 1981, was absent in Sabah. In 1984, he was proclaimed the 33rd (or possibly the 39th) Sultan of Sulu and was crowned in Jolo in 1986.

Scholarly facts

In a historical discourse and most exhaustive journal written about the Sabah issue, “Philippines Claim to Sabah: Legal and Historical Bases” by Amando Respicio-Boncales, Graduate Student of Northern Illinois University, with Dr. Kenton James Klymer as Academic Adviser states that the Philippine-Malaysian dispute over the State of Sabah remains “a contentious diplomatic issue”.

Boncales’ objective of the study was to shed light on the historical background of the Philippines’ claim over Sabah by examining how various authors in the field presented the issue. Here are some excerpts:

The sultanate of Sulu was founded in 1380, nearly one and a half century before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines. The sultanate possessed an efficient political organization, extending its influence in Zamboanga, Basilan, Palawan, aside from the Sulu archipelago and was granted the northeastern part of the territory as a prize for helping the Sultan of Brunei against his enemies in 1658.

When the British came and ruled what was to be Malaysia, the Philippine government says the contract of 1878 was a lease, and not a transfer of ownership or sovereignty. William Treacher, governor of Borneo from 1881 to 1887, who was present at the signing of the contract and a witness, characterized the contract as a lease and referred to the money payment as annual rentals.

The late Diosdado Macapagal, who served in the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1946 and later became President of the Philippines, filed a claim to the United Nations on June 22, 1962. It claimed sovereignty, jurisdiction and proprietary ownership of North Borneo claiming it has the legal and historical rights to North Borneo.

Macaskie Dictum of 1939

Charles Macaskie, one of North Borneo's most successful colonial officials, on the other hand, had a different view. The Chief Justice in 1934 and Deputy Governor in 1936, sat as judge in a 1939 case where nine heirs of Sultan Jamalul Kiram claimed money owed to them under the 1878 grant.

Through their attorney, the heirs showed only an English translation of the Grant of 1878 that incorrectly presented the claim as a cession instead of a lease. (A later translation made it clear that this was an incorrect translation). Years after the Macaskie dictum was made, the Philippine government made moves to translate the Grant of 1878. The result showed it was a Lease Agreement.

Francis Harrison, former United States Governor General of the Philippines, eventually repudiated the Macaskie judgment stating, “Upon examination of our own translation of the original document (in photostat) it will be seen that Maxwell and Gibson, the English authors on whose text the decision of Justice Mackaskie was based, have changed the language so as to make the document a grant cession instead of lease, as it really was, and as the word “padjak” in the original, really means.” 

“In view of this vital divergence from the original text, I do not find myself able to give full faith and credit to the opinion of Justice Mackaskie in the famous case in 1939 in Sandakan,” he said.

Moreover, in a letter addressed to then Vice President and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Elpidio Quirino, dated February 27, 1947, Harrison explained:

“In reviewing the subject of the claims of the Sultanate of Sulu to their ancient patrimony in North Borneo, one must come to the conclusion that the action of the British Government in announcing on the sixteenth of July (annexation of North Borneo to the British Crown), just twelve days after the inauguration of the Republic of the Philippines, a step taken by the British Government unilaterally, and without any special notice to the Sultanate of Sulu, nor consideration of their legal rights, was an act of political aggression which should promptly be repudiated by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines.”

Harrison concluded:  “The Malaysian claim to Sabah, based on the British claim, is not sustainable. The territory was only leased to the British North Borneo Company and not ceded as the Great Britain, and later Malaysia, had claimed.” The claimants also argued that the sultanate’s territory had been leased only to Britain, with no agreement on incorporation into Malaysia.

Current status

Every year, the Malaysian Embassy in the Philippines issues a check in the amount of 5,300 Malaysian Ringgit (about P77,000) to the legal counsel of Jamalul Kiram’s descendants.

Before he became spokesperson of President Duterte, Harry Roque, then a law professor at the University of the Philippines, said: “In my opinion, this is more consistent with a lease rather than a sale, because you can’t have a purchase price which is not fixed, and which is payable until kingdom come,” he said.

Though the Lahad Datu incursion failed and former President Benigno Aquino weighed in against her father saying the insurgency had caused “death and suffering among his own people, Princess Jacel says “it brought attention to the largely dormant issue of the claim by the Philippines to parts of Borneo, based on the Sultanate of Sulu’s past control over the area.

Decades and centuries may go, but Jacel says her family remembers its history as clear as it were yesterday. No change of presidency, not even the odds posed by the Malaysian security forces are going to make them forget that Sabah used to belong to the Sulu Sultanate.

-->

THE PINOY CAPTAIN WHO HAS CIRCUMNAVIGATED THE WORLD MANY TIMES

By Roger Pe

Business Mirror

March 17, 2018 issue

Serendipity, I met Ric Autajay and his wife Ces on a ship, about the same time last year. It was the maiden voyage of Star Virgo, the 19-year old luxury vessel to Manila, a much-publicized event that hugged lifestyle sections of many broadsheets in the metro. 

The 13-storey ship with 2,600-passenger capacity and 935 cabins had carried 2,000 Filipino tourists per sailing over a three-month period - to Laoag, Kaoshiung and Hongkong. 

It happened on our last night on the ship, where all passengers were requested to attend a black-tie gala dinner. As the ship was heading back to Manila, we agreed to meet in the grand lobby. On that crowded night when the bands were playing loud music and people were pushing elbow-to-elbow to get to the dining hall, I suddenly became sociable (I was chasing deadlines the night before). Alas, that happened only for less than one hour. I had lost them in the stream of people and I thought I would never ever see them again.

Fast forward after 12 months, I would meet them again in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique, on the opening of national SCUAA (State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association) sports meet, part of our DOT media familiarization tour activities that the Western Visayas Tourism council had planned for us.

As he toured me around the town, Ric told me his story. Being a retired captain of large foreign ships, it was time to get to know him better and know how it was to travel around the world, living on a ship most of the year. Now happily building his gasoline station business and tending to his fish farm, I would learn later on that he has also helped a lot of people in Antique pursue a maritime career. 

The subject of Filipinos always being away from their homeland always interested me, and the fact that Ric had mentioned that he had circled the world many times excited me more. As I was writing this article, I was wondering how many Filipino seamen are sailing the world seas right now, and why shipping companies prefer to hire them than other sailors from other countries. 

According to DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment), the country remains to be the world’s top source of seafarers, with around 229,000 Filipinos on board merchant shipping vessels around the world at any given time. Filipino seafarers comprise more than 25 percent of the 1.5 million mariners worldwide, making them the “single biggest nationality bloc” in the global shipping industry. 

In a study made by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), 358,898 Filipino seafarers were deployed last year, infusing about $5.575 billion to the country’s economy through their remittances.

Filipinos are the most preferred seafarers in the world because they are better trained and proficient in English.

Ric emphasized the importance of English communication, especially in life and death situation in the middle of the sea. He related a horror story that caused logistical nightmares to his shipping company when a foreign crew mistook a message and delivered “ice” instead of “rice” to a foreign port during a typhoon.

Being a seaman gave Ric a great satisfaction to provide for his family and some form of financial stability. “The fact that I would like to feel being an adventurer, to see many places in the world and still get paid for doing it excited me no end,” he said. Ric, who was expected to be away from his family for at least ten months every year prepared for the worst. He and his wife and made some adjustments.

“What’s the difference between manning a vessel and a cruise chip, I asked. “Being a seaman and a captain at the same time, is a big responsibility. You are dealing with millions of dollars of goods to be transported to some specific locations all over the world, and making a safe voyage without any major problems to the vessel, its crew and the company as well,” he emphasized. A cruise ship crew has its own way of dealing with thousands of passengers on board to make them safe and enjoy their trips,” said.

To be successful being a seaman, Ric gave important pointers: “First of all, you need a degree in nautical or maritime science to be eligible for an on-board training experience with subsequent testing process until you get to the highest level of being a captain, which takes about five years to accomplish,” he said.

“On top of that, maritime law requires you to have a rigid training onboard ocean navigation with specific scenarios. The traits you need to have: You must be calm, level headed and very knowledgeable on all aspects of seagoing oceanography, that includes safety of life and protection of the environment at sea (to maintain the blue color of our oceans),” he added.

He also stressed that one must be passionate about being a maritime adventurer, you must have the determination, decisiveness and diligence,” he pointed out.

His career as a seaman started on April 1973 until July 2015, a span of 42 years. Among his many memorable trips was being an apprentice onboard a freight vessel from Manila to the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, to Hawaii and trans-exiting through the Panama Canal, and then to Philadelphia, USA - a full circle of an exciting but very challenging internship.

He has sailed to Scandinavian seas, Europe, Africa, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and South American sealanes. 

What about his most frightening experience? Ric related that it happened near Alaska when he and his men encountered a bad weather during winter. The temperature was below zero and a hurricane was fast approaching ready to slam their boat with a brute force. It almost rendered him witless but he and his men were able to manage and pull through the storm.

He would also get many awards throughout his career. The highest award he received was from Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), the Japan presidential award given out during the first Annual General Meeting for safe operation on December 10, 2008, an industry gathering sponsored by Japan’s Safety Operation Headquarters. 

He also received a plaque of appreciation from Toyota Automotive Company for safe, efficient operation with zero damage in transporting cargoes. During the time, the biggest issue facing the company was maintaining safety, maintaining zero incidents, and to make the safety of the vessel as well as sefarers the highest priority. The plaque has been onboard the vessel, on display throughout his tenure as captain of the vessel.

Born in Hamtic, Antique, Ric attended primary schooling in the same town and finished high school in Antique National School (ANS) in San Jose. At Iloilo Maritime Academy, he finished an Associate in Nautical Science college degree. His parents were Mariano Xavier Autajay and Salvation M. Mosquera. He has six brothers and a sister, all of them grew-up in Hamtic and Manila. He and Ces got married in 1982 and had their first child in 1983.

Being a seaman was his choice right after he graduated from high school, mainly for the following reason: To be able to enjoy what the world has to offer. The very first world city he saw was New York City, then on to his most exciting trips as a sailor: Practically every European country, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, South and Central American countries, the West and East Coast of the US, African nations, the Southeast Asia and Australia, including New Zealand.

He did not forget to tell me the reason why Filipinos are top priority by maritime companies: “Filipinos are hard working and they have the ability to communicate intelligently. They are full of energy,” he said. Did he ever encounter discriminatory acts? 

Ric said, “No, we were given orientations on how to handle derogatory remarks and try to solve them if there were issues.”

Loneliness and Homesickness

“Having a family away from your sight for a length of time makes your heart grow fonder", Ric said. “I was able to separate my job responsibilities and the longing for my family. We have entertainment facilities for our crew. We have movies on weekends and mount crew parties,” he related.

Being a captain of a big shipping company gave Ric financial stability for himself and his family. He had no qualms in saying that if he would go through life again, he would still choose being a seaman and a captain.

“I loved the adventure and challenges I met,” he proudly said. He said that in the next ten years, shipping companies would still prefer Filipino seamen even with the advent of modern equipment, computerized technology and other countries like China, India, Vietnam and Russia are training seamen also. “I think it will be a big boost to the hiring process of the shipping companies,” he said.

After retirement, what keeps him busy? “I deal with the "ins and outs" of owning a business but the best fringe benefits of being retiree is seeing my family everyday (though deep inside, I still crave for life on the sea),” Ric said. I try to maintain a regular routine schedule that benefits my family and our business as well, and tending to my fish farm. I try to be very considerate and understanding with people I work with. Life is really too short to have enemies at our present age,” he said.

Had he not became a ship captain, Ric wanted to be a criminal lawyer. Today, he just wants to share his knowledge and experience to the younger generation of seafarers. “To be able to tell them how challenging but rewarding this profession is and be able to help their potential to succeed and have a meaningful life,” he said,

TAWI-TAWI: A BEAUTIFUL PEARL IN SULU'S WATERWORLD

By Roger Pe

Business Mirror

March 8, 2018

I have never been afraid of southwestern Philippines, much more the Sulu group of islands. I don’t even believe the bad images people keep painting about them. To me, these stories are like ancient tales retold and rewoven by people who have not even been there, not seen the real picture, and heard only from third party sources. They have failed miserably to update their old knowledge and continue to nurture them in the cobwebs of their biased minds.

Last year, around one million people visited Tawi-Tawi and some people still keep asking if it is safe. Well, listen to travelers who recently visited it. Value the experiences of those who have actually been there.

I am annoyed by the tone of journals written by serial rumormongers about Tawi-Tawi, the harbingers of false news, which portray the islands as lair of bandits and its people as pirates. They scare the hell out of innocent travelers based on information that is unreliable, or they may have been there years ago and situations have changed.

The night I was thinking whether to accept an invitation to go to Tawi-Tawi reminded me of my first trip to New York in the late 90s. My advertising agency friends had bled my ears to ‘deaf’ stage by giving me unsolicited advice on how not get mugged in Manhattan (by not staring at people eyeball-to-eyeball in the subway,walk alone in Central Park, and so on and so forth).

To make the story short, all of them turned out not to be true, as with other pieces of advice I got before I went to Berlin, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona in the succeeding years.

I have always been adventurous. I stretch my boundaries at some point. I guess my being an adman made me that way – that the only way to find the truth is be actually in the marketplace to be able to write truthfully.

I am referring to misconceptions about Sulu islands, the hotspot much maligned by bad press. I am not saying that my truth is higher than some people’s views. Am just saying that we can interpret information differently by seeing the positive in people and situations, even if others may have a different outlook in life.

Anyway, I accepted the invitation even if we were only four(two travel bloggers, a cameraman and myself). We were usually about seven to ten, but I presumed the others had backed out or chose not to go. Well, the lesser, the better (and quieter), I thought.

I know what’s probably on their minds. But I would tell them right now that Tawi-Tawi is the safest province within the Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi archipelago. Pirates do not exist there because there is a naval base stationed in Panglima Sugala. The Philippine Coast Guard regularly patrols its shores, too.

The almost two-hour late afternoon flight to Zamboanga (where we would spend the night) was surprisingly smooth as silk, to use an airline tagline.After a quick check-in at Garden Orchid Hotel, we were brought to Alavar Restaurant for the obligatory “Curacha” dinner.

The chi-chi members of Davao media were already comfortably seated when we got there. Their bandwidth frequency ran high they dominated the dining chitchat airwaves. As in most media fam tours I’ve been to, no one introduced them to us, and us, to them, so we ended up gingerly, cautiously guessing who they were.

We were then told that our wake-up call would be at5 am, which meant we should sleep early and all powerbank batteries must be fully charged to the last bar. Like all my first nights in a new place, I would not be able to sleep, and much to my abomination, I had asthma, aggravated by a room reeking with chest-piercing scent of cigarette smoke.

I woke up at 3am, ready for our much-awaited Tawi-Tawi flight. While counting sheep, I had mentally reviewed Sulu’s geography, which islets and island provinces we will be flying over. The thrill of hovering above them gave me goosebumps. I also loved the fact that we will be within striking distance to Borneo (Sabah) when we get to Sitangkai and Sibutu, islands that have always mystified me.

It was drizzling when we arrived in Zamboanga airport. I was expecting some turbulence across the Sulu Seas when the plane took off but that did not happen. The only thing that disturbed me was when we were already descending to Bongao, Tawi-Tawi’s capital town. As we were approaching Sanga-Sanga airport, the plane abruptly maneuvered up and the pilot announced: “We apologize for the inconvenience but we will attempt to land for the second time because of poor visibility.”Another fifteen minutes of circling the island, we were able to land.

Hello, Tawi-Tawi

My Facebook friend, American documentary and travel photographer Jacob Maentz, in his jaw-dropping creative website, describes the Sulu Sea as “one of the most beautiful seascapes on earth.”  I echo his sentiment.

Despite its reputation, the entire strings of islands look like an untouched tropical paradise with a huge tourism potential. From the air, every single islet is ringed with white sand, what a sight to behold.

As soon as we had set foot in Tawi-Tawi, I had thought that I would be seeing a different country. No, it was just like another Philippine town, except for beautiful mosques, Islamic influences on house structures and the sound of ‘kulintang’ instruments gently thumping our ears with a warm welcome.

From the airport, we rolled through Bongao’s cemented roads and passed through a historicboulevard named Ridjiki (meaning “blessing”). I would later learn that it is a famous landmark facing the big expanse of Sulu and Celebes seas.

We saw children jumping and swimming into its turquoise blue waters. We saw young men and women chatting on the sea wall. Had we came late in the afternoon on that day, we would have seen a gloriously spectacular sunset.

The seaport has served the local populace for hundreds of years, a docking place for motored ferry boats from the municipalities of Sitangkai, Sibutu, Simunul, Sapa-Sapa, Tandubas, Languyan, South Ubian, Mapun, Turtle island and the rest of other far flung islands.

Philippines’ oldest mosque

As we went past Ridjiki, a black mountain standing in solitude beckoned on the horizon. It was a mini version of Australia’s Uluru Ayers Rock towering 342 meters above sea level amidst the flat island of Bongao, but more on that later.

We were now heading to Simunul, an island town where we would see the country’s oldest mosque. Our very enthusiastic tour guide, Tony Said, brought us to a seaport where we would take our speedboat. Before boarding, he obliged to take my photo infront of a famous structure in Bongao, the White Mosque located in Barangay Tubig Tanah. Sitting quietlyon a manicured carpet of grass, it gleams against a backdrop of coconut trees adjacent to the house of Tawi-Tawi’s provincial governor.

It was a quick ride to Simunul. The island has an attention-getting port entrance because of a big replica of a Koran on top of its archway. Crystal-clear blue waters, clean streets, symmetrical houses on stilts, the entire island was picture-perfect.

We walked around the island and we saw Sheik Karim al Makdum Mosque, the oldest mosque in the country. Declared a national cultural treasure, it was visited by the late President Ferdinand Marcos in 1965.

The newly renovated mosque still stands on its original site that was built in 1380. Inside, the four original giant pillars (made from Philippine Iron tree, “Ipil”) are encased in gilded iron railings.

We then moved to Poblacion Tampakan where we saw a monster of a crocodile measuring nineteen feet long and four feet wide on its tummy. Caught by Barangay Sukabulan fishermen, the beast has become an unusual attraction in Simunul.

Philippines’ longest sandbar

It was now time to visit the longest sandbar in the Philippines, Panampangan, a spectacular work of nature that measures three-kilometers from end-to-end forming the shape of a crescent moon. The island is not an ordinary sandbar. It is gifted with soft, silky, powdery white sand that could be ranked as one of the best in the world.

As our speedboat cranked up the heat for us to get there early, we saw amazing local color sights along the way. Picture these:

Bintang Boats: Our tour guide said, “They come and go, and they are culturally Malay but have assimilated with the Badjao culture and daily life.”

Inter-island Ferry Boats: Loaded with passengers with army soldiers. Each time they went past us, they reminded me what our Zamboanga tour guide Errold Bayona said – “When you meet them along the way, raise your hand and wave back.”

Muslim Wedding Boat: You know they are rushing to an island nearby for a wedding ceremony because of one thing –you see a “Malong” (traditional Muslim tube skirt) flying in the wind, like a flag planted near the boat’s prow.

Flocks Of Wild Sea Gulls: They number by the hundreds and they routinely swoop down the water surface to catch flying fishes. Their choreographed movements will make you utter: “What a wonderful world we live in.”

Panampangan

More birds appeared on the horizon. The way they moved were enough to tell us that we are much welcome. Too bad, my smartphone couldn’t capture them on extreme close-ups.As I was positioning to get another shot, our boatman told me: “It happens only in an undisturbed place like this.”

To my consolation, I was able to take a video of the breathtaking sandbar. The hardly visited island is now getting visitors and more are trickling in. Wrong perceptions have unfairly hounded many stunningly beautiful places in Tawi-Tawi for decades, but the truth is, it is safe and heavily guarded by Philippine Navy, Marines and five Badjao families, which live in the island.

Sacred mountain, Bud Bongao

You can call this mountain a masterpiece of nature. Bud (meaning “mountain”) has vertical limestone rocks and verdant moist forest. The mountain has six limestone pillars that form six of its peaks. They have viewing decks named afterBongao, Pajar, Sibutu (the summit), Simunul, Tambisan and Tinondakan.

We climbed a 3,608-step cobblestone trail and reached the highest view deck on Tambisan Peak in less than hour. The magnificent view at the top unraveled the coast of Sabah accentuated by a solitary eagle soaring above the deep blue sea. The summit gave us an almost 360-degree view of the Celebes Sea.

Before ascending, we were told not to bring plastic bottles, but we could bring Bananas to feed schools of Macaques (monkeys) that populate the entire mountain. Barely a quarter of the total height, two of our companions faded into oblivion and went back to the foot of the mountain.

Halfway through, I wanted to stop and just sit on one of the rest huts. My inner self said, “No” even if my chest was tightening and knees were wobbling. My shirt was now all wet as I was sweating profusely. “No turning back now,” I said, in an effort to establish a personal record – book my first real mountain climb.

Along the way, we would occasionally meet a family with a young boy or girl in tow. It was explained to us that it's a Bongao tradition, a sign of respect to bring young ones to a royal Muslim burial site above the mountain. It is also a practice to request for the sick to get cured. A hike is also a sign of penitence,the mountain being a holy ground for Muslims.

By this time, the forest monkeys have started to come down. I immediately saw one throwing his full body weight to branches of trees. Some would walk along the trail and glide through railings. I was able to capture one on video but as I got closer, he began to open his mouth wide open revealing his sharp fangs. Fearing he would jump at me and I would be off-balanced and, horrors, fall off the cliff, I backed off.

Our tireless guide Tony told us there is an Imam (Muslim priest) on the site and one can leave a donation and he will pray for you. Mountain trekkers can also make a wish by hurling pebbles towards the ravine. They say that if the pebbles hit the rock, their wishes would come true.

As it was almost five in the afternoon, we readied ourselves to come down. The race was on, who will reach the foot of the mountain first? I did, though my knees were hurting badly and my leg calves ached like hell. I was advised to cool down by walking around slowly and not just sit on a chair.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) spent P56 million in developing Bud Bongao’s trail. The construction of an access road to Bongao Peak was the first eco-tourism park project developed by the regional government. It included construction of a tourist center where visitors can register and receive orientation before climbing, and concreting of about 750 steps and railings for construction of resting sheds.

Bongao Peak is one of the 12 key biodiversity sites in the country protected under the Department of Natural Resources’ New Conservation Areas in the Philippines Project.Around 1,500 tourists visit the peak every week. To increase visitor arrival in the town, Bongao Mayor Jimuel Que said the local government would help sustain and maintain Bud Bongao and will also conduct activities that will further promote tourism in the municipality. Que said, his governance would develop more community-based tourism that will also focus on local culture.

A feast of seafood

We barely had time to freshen up when we arrived at the house of Bongao mayor Jimuel Que for dinner. The boyish-looking Que gave us a sumptuous feast of the freshest seafood we’ve ever tasted - huge crabs, succulent white clamsoup, “Samaral”, broiled squid, and the winner of the night –Mantis Shrimp (“Alupihang Dagat”), winner, because it tasted so good like lobster and oozing with roe from end to end.

It was also a time to interview the mayor who gamely answered courteous and no-holds-barred questions. Que said he is hopeful about the positive buzz Tawi-Tawi is getting today. “We want to start slow, we don’t want to rush things. We want to fix peace and order in the community first,” he said.

Speaking of peace and order, Que said Bongao, is one of the most peaceful towns in Sulu archipelago. “We used to only have one battalion of soldiers, now we have three and the LGUs are cooperating. We want to maintain peace and order here. “Ayaw naming masira ‘yon” (we don’t want to ruin it),” he said.

ARMM Tourism Secretary Ayesha Dilangalen sees the big potential of Tawi-Tawi as a tourist destination. She mentioned that the establishment of tourism council and creation of association of hoteliers and restaurants in the province have helped boost tourism in Tawi-Tawi. Bongao alone has 300 hotel and pension house rooms for tourists. She is hoping that more hoteliers will invest in the province.

But in order for tourism to thrive, electricity, water and communication must flow unceasingly. Que laments that some of Bongao’s basic needs are not addressed. “Many of our islands don’t have rivers to supply the water needs of our people. Electrification is also a problem but he is thankful that the Regional Board of Investments of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RBOI-ARMM) has approved an eight-megawatt capacity diesel power plant project in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.

“For a region where residents miserably experience daily rotational brownouts due to power shortage, this is great news,” Que said. The whole of Sulu archipelago, including Tawi-Tawi, is the least penetrated market for power projects.

Que also reiterated that his mayorship would continue implementing an efficient waste disposable management in the town, make its seas and beaches trash-free and encourage people to be more environmentally conscious.

Tawi-Tawi Integrated Seaport and Economic Zone

Meanwhile DOT Secretary Wanda Teo, held an inter-agency dialogue on the Zamboanga-Sandakan Air connectivity and Tawi-Tawi Freeport and Ecozone Project in Zamboanga City on February 26, 2018.

As chairperson of Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area Tourism Cluster, Teo said, only Mindanao and Palawan are not connected by air and sea to the other three countries. She is optimistic that with the upcoming cruise tourism in Buliluyan, Bataraza, Palawan and Kudat, Malaysia, we can now be truly connected with the BIMP-EAGA, she said.

Teo also said that the Philippines would be aggressively promoting Mindanao through DOT’s “Go South Philippines” campaign. “We believe in the vast offerings of the island, including ARMM, specifically, Tawi-Tawi. With its beautiful beaches and its location as a natural gateway, there is vast potential for the island. Thus, the proposal to develop the Tawi-Tawi Integrated Seaport and Economic Zone (TISEZ) will prove to be a worthwhile,” she said.

DOT is tapping the younger generation of travelers to see the countryside with the campaign, zeroing in on the entire Mindanao island for the first quarter of 2018, beginning with Davao and to other Mindanao regions in the following months.

“Go South” will be our new message and tone for Mindanao,” Teo said. DOT is reviving this highly successful marketing campaign to give Mindanao a stronger and unified voice as a “single tourism destination”. Among its lofty objectives is to position Mindanao by spotlighting its world-renowned attractions, like the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Mount Hamiguitan, Mount Apo and Mount Kitanglad.

As part of our efforts to improve the tourism experience of our country’s Asean neighbors, Teo said, DOT has initiated Muslim Friendly Tourism to cater to specific needs of our brethren of the Islamic Faith.

Teo said there is much to see in Mindanao. “As we launch our “Go South” campaign, we will showcase the “Land of Promise” in a new light of fun, adventure and pleasant memories.” With the launch of these routes, we are taking the first step and we firmly believe that we, as a united front, will sustain what we have started,” she said.