Sulu Island
Today, the Sulu archipelago is commonly referred to as the backdoor of the Philippines. But actually, the Sulu archipelago is the only exception to the isolation the Philippines has because it is an island country surrounded by the open seas.
Whereas travel from overseas to Luzon or the Philippines in general is only possible using public means of transport such as commercial air planes and ocean-going vessels, there is private traffic between the Sulu archipelago and Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo. The distances out of The Country are within the normal range of small fishing boats. However, more dangerous than the uncertainties of the sea which travelers face by going in small boats are, in this corner of the globe, the still active pirates.
The Sulu archipelago is today commonly referred to as the backdoor of the Philippines less for geographical than administrative reasons. It is sort of an unofficial entrance and exit which is widely used for smuggling and allegedly also to supply arms to the various rebel groups in The Country .
For international trade some centuries ago, as well as for Islam, the Sulu archipelago was not the backdoor but the front door.
The Arabs and Islam actually didn't reach the Philippines much earlier than the Spanish and Christianity. In the Sulu archipelago which was the Arabs' and Islam's entrance point, the religion and culture which competed with Christian colonialism was introduced just 150 years before the coming of Magellan, by the Arab knight Makdum, in Sulu around 1380.
The government form corresponding with Islam, a sultanate state, was established in Sulu at around 1450 by the Muslim missionary Abu Bakhr. His reign lasted for 30 years (1450 - 1480) and the sultanate he founded was, at its time, the most advanced state in the archipelago.
Both, the sultanate form of government and Islam, became more deeply rooted through the constant influx of Malayan settlers from Borneo and Sumatra who had been Moslems for some generations.
A Spanish expedition led by Esteban de Figueroa tried to get a foothold on Sulu in 1578. However, the natives had previously firmly adopted the organizational and religious system of the Arabs and were unwilling to be colonized or re-converted. The Spanish only were able to establish their sovereignty over the Sulu archipelago in the middle of the 19th century, and only by granting religious freedom to the Moslem population there.
But Spanish sovereignty remained superficial, and so did the sovereignty of the central Philippine state throughout the last few decades. The Moro National Liberation Front, MNLF, which was founded in 1968 to work for the secession of the Muslim provinces in the Sulu archipelago and on Mindanao, is particularly strong on all islands of the Sulu group.
In the early years of the movement, after then President Marcos had declared martial law, there were many armed confrontations between the MNLF and the Philippine army. February 1, 1974, there even was a conventional battle over Jolo, the capital of Sulu province, during which the whole town was destroyed. Marcos imposed a news blackout on that event, so there are no confirmed numbers on casualties but there were supposed to have been many victims, including civilians.
Some cynical observers claim that the strong presence of the MNLF also has its good side: the complete absence of the NPA there.
Continued
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