Raiders In Sulu Sea

Film Analysis by Group 2; Reading In Philippine History

Raiders in Sulu Sea Introduction: The film was made to be released for National Geographic and Discovery channel, Icelle Gloria D. Borja together with other historians contributed in creation of this film. Raiders in Sulu Sea is a film about the frequent piracy acts of Moro people against the Spanish and how they persisted until the early 1900’s.

Skillful at using swords, expert at sailing and building sea vessels, these well-organized forces of raiders are fierce and fearless even against Spaniards with their superior weaponries. It was told in the film that these raiders might be an indigenous people who were trying to defend their way of life against their foreign oppressors. One of the known examples is the battle of Fort Pilar in 1720 where Rajah Dalasi, The king of Bulig Maguindanao along with joined forces of Sulu Sultanate attacked the Fort Pilar.

Moro people has many tribes on the Sulu island but there were actually 3 different groups of Muslims; The Balangingi tribe or Samal, a raiding tribe that occupied islands between Basilan and Sulu island, The second one is Illanuns which was important in history of piracy, It was told in the film that the Illanuns and Samal have an outstanding community and often join forces with the Taosugs, a tribe without a maritime experience but deadly warriors and has a great political power. Taosugs was the one that controls the Sulu Sultanate in the south. All of the retaliatory and raiding activities that are conducted from Sulu and from Maguindanao are always carried by these 3 mentioned tribes.

One of the most notable origin of raiders of the Sulu sea originates from Sulu Sultanates having trading activities with China and India, and Europeans simply entered into that trading activities but the difference was the Europeans wanted to take control of the whole part of the exchange of trades, along with the conversion of their own religion and colonization of the island in which resides a conflict between the people of the south and the newly arrived Spanish. Conclusion: Forcing something or a beliefs into someone who don’t want to or does not believe in it is counted as oppression. Especially Muslim, they have this characteristic of strong faith and most likely will fight for their freedom of not losing their own identity.