Tawi-Tawi residents enjoy the sea as the setting sun sets off a warm glow along the shores of Bongao. Photo / Washington Post
As rebrands go, the southern islands of the Philippines face what has to be among the toughest challenges.
For a long time, these jungled islands were known as sites of war between the Philippine military and Muslim Moro insurgents, including several radical groups that carried out kidnappings, beheadings and bombings in the name of Islamic State. With that conflict now abating, the island provinces of Bangsamoro – or nation of Moros – are pitching a new image.
Paradise. Open for business.
If successful, this could be a path forward for one of Asia’s most beleaguered yet pristine and beautiful places. There are models to follow, such as Sri Lanka and Vietnam, which have remoulded themselves as buzzy tourist spots after long periods of conflict. But having experienced nearly a half-century of violence, including decades caught up in the global “war on terror”, the southern Philippines faces an uphill climb, residents say.
Resorts, restaurants and markets have opened across the islands of Tawi-Tawi, Jolo and Basilan, which sit west of the main island of Mindanao in what’s called the Sulu Archipelago. Efforts are under way to preserve historic Islamic sites and the customs of ancient seafaring groups indigenous to these parts.
Both the national and provincial governments have lent support, investing tens of millions of dollars to build roads, upgrade ports and incentivise more commercial flights to the islands.
Philippine Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco, who has made attracting more Muslim tourists a priority, said last year that she had visited the “beautiful province” of Tawi-Tawi. “I am very pleased to inform you that they are ready for tourism,” she said in Manila, the Philippine capital.
The southern islands are endowed with natural beauty: long, white-sand beaches that trim the edges of crystal waters filled with marine life; lush forests with dramatic waterfalls and rare birds. But residents are also emphatic they’re not looking for their islands to become the next Boracay.
“We have our own identity that is unique,” said Sitti Djalia Hataman, mayor of Isabela, a port city in Basilan. Muslims are a minority in the Philippines, which is overwhelmingly Catholic, and those in the southern islands have close ties with seafaring communities throughout Asia. This heritage and the lengths to which residents had gone to defend it were part of the region’s identity, Hataman said.
On Jolo, there’s a recently completed replica of the Astana Darul Jambangan, or Palace of Flowers, where the Sulu sultanate commanded a powerful Muslim state centuries before the arrival of Portuguese and Spanish explorers and colonisers.
On Tawi-Tawi, there’s Sheikh Karimul Makhdum Mosque, the oldest site of Muslim worship in the Philippines, which residents say was built in the 14th century by Arab traders and missionaries, long before Christianity was spread across much of the archipelago.
And then there’s Bud Dajo, a mountain sacred to the local Muslim population that has drawn historians from the West and elsewhere because of a 1906 massacre in which American soldiers killed, by some estimates, almost 1000 Muslim Moros.
“Our history here … is also the history of the whole country,” said Alkasbi M. Antung, 36, a tourism officer in Tawi-Tawi.
There are signs the tourism drive is working. Isabela recorded 440,000 visitors in 2023, up from 30,000 in 2019, Hataman said. The city, which a decade ago fell silent after 5pm because of curfews, now has night markets that run until the early morning. There are floating cottages that show off traditional weaving and wood-carving practices, and cafes and milk tea shops catering to young people.
Even some of the Philippine troops who used to sail to the Sulu Archipelago to root out insurgents now spend their days there diving and surfing. “I’m happy I lived to see this,” said Colonel Allen Van Estrera, head of operations at the Philippine military’s Western Mindanao Command, which led the fight against the Moro rebels. Like his colleagues, he vacations in Tawi-Tawi. “I have high hopes that Mindanao is ready to fulfil the potential it has always had,” Estrera said.
Most visitors are from other parts of the southern Philippines who are persuaded to come through word of mouth, local officials say. People on the islands want to attract visitors from farther afield, but the perception of danger persists across much of the country and abroad.
Many foreign governments still advise citizens not to travel to the Sulu Archipelago. The US State Department lists the islands here under “Level 4 – Do Not Travel”, the highest possible threat advisory, which is also applied to countries such as North Korea and Russia.
When Jackie Ramirez, 44, heard about an opening for a manager position at a resort in Tawi-Tawi, he was initially hesitant. People in his town in the north of the country had this notion that “there’s nothing but wars and terrorism in Mindanao”, he said. Arriving at the Bihing Tahik resort in May changed his mind.
The resort, renovated in 2021 by a boutique Manila-based design firm, has 26 villas with wavy, clamshell-inspired roofs priced US$60-$90 ($106-$160) a night – significantly more than what most residents can afford. It offers diving courses, dance parties and an infinity pool – the first one in Tawi-Tawi. “Bihing Tahik figuratively speaks on behalf of the province. And it says it’s safe,” Ramirez said.
Amin Hataman, a local official in Basilan who’s the son of Isabela’s mayor, said people in the north and abroad “aren’t aware of the strides we’ve taken”.
Basilan was the birthplace of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), considered by many to be the most violent militant group in the southern Philippines. But this year, the island declared multiple cities, including Isabela, ASG-free. “We are trying to take back control over our own destiny,” Hataman said. Tourism, he says, can be a long-term driver for economic growth in the south, which has lagged behind other parts of the Philippines.
Still, some watchdog groups and security analysts say safety threats in the Philippine south can’t be written off yet. The dangers aren’t necessarily Islamist extremists, but heavily armed politicians and common criminals.
Kidnappings have gone way down from a decade ago. But in October, an American living in Sibuco, a coastal town on the western tip of Mindanao, just opposite Basilan, was shot and abducted in the middle of the night. Elliot Eastman, 26, had been posting videos online of his life in the Philippines after moving there in May. He’s likely to be dead, Philippine authorities say.
Bobby Lagsa contributed to this report.
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