Colonial period
Cagayan de Sulu was among the islands in the Sulu Archipelago being occupied by the Samal people in the late 18th and early 19th century. The island likewise had a smaller Tausog population than Palawan. [7]
Sulu Sultanate at the growing external trade (Late 1700s–early 1800s)
In 1783, an East India Company ship, the Antelope, spent a month trading among Cagayan de Sulu and the Tapian Tana islands. [7]
Internal trade
Cagayan de Sulu was among the traditional sources of rice and sago. In the 1790s, rice was extensively cultivated for export. The products once supplied the Tausogs in Sulu. [7]
Challenges in the external trade and its aftermath
In 1872, as Spanish authorities began conquering Jolo, they issued a regulation aiming to destroy all Tausog shipping, in a move to reduce their trading activities to a mere submission. Despite this, a usual number of prahus (trading boats) from southern Palawan and Cagayan de Sulu continued to go to the British settlement. [7]
Haji Mansur, a powerful aristocrat, was one of the leading traders bringing precious cargoes to Labuan. He was later attacked by the Spanish. He had returned to Labuan from a pilgrimage in Mecca in July 1875, and left for Cagayan de Sulu. While their prahus were on its way from southern Palawan to Zamboanga, they had an encounter with Spanish vessel Santa Lucia; after which, he was the only one at least (or amomg the few) in his family who survived. [7]
The Tausogs in Sulu were affected by the blockade which severed their access to Cagayan de Sulu, resulting in their insufficient rice supply, despite reports that peace was later maintained in the Sulu Archipelago and people turned to labor and agriculture. [7]
American colonial period
Following the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the first treaty between the United States and Spain, the former later adjusted the borders of the Philippine territory. [8] [9] Later, it was reportedly discovered that some islands were outside the defined boundary. [9] The second treaty on November 7, 1900, [9] included the outlying islands of Cagayan de Sulu and Sibutu and their dependencies, in the territory, [8] situated in the southwest, both of the archipelago [9] and of the Sulu Sea. [10]
American documents stated that what was then called the Cagayan Sulu group was a dependency of the Sultan of Sulu and included the island of Cagayan Sulu, the two Muligi islands to the south, and seven others to the north. Cagayan Sulu, the largest, is bounded by a coral reef except at the steep northwest and southeast parts. There are ranges of hills on the east side. It was then only inhabited and thinly populated. While the soil and climate are favorable to vegetation and the cultivation of tobacco, hemp palm, and various crops, fruits, and vegetables; the natives depended mainly for the abundance of fishes and rice imported from Palawan, being exchanged with coconuts and its oil. Meanwhile, the smaller ones were for turtle catching and other temporary uses. [10]
Throughout American-rule in the Philippines, Cagayan de Sulu was never organized as a regular municipality of the Moro Province's Sulu District despite having authorization by the legislative council, thus it once had its own tribal ward government. At the time, it had the villages of Jurata and Imus. [11]
The first American resident governor of Cagayan de Sulu was Guy Stratton, a former American army officer from Kansas. He lived on the island for nearly two decades, during which he brought the three districts and allied villages under a single municipal authority. He later established an administrative center at the present-day poblacion , Lupa Pula, at a new anchorage. With a new municipal administrative structure, Datu Amilhanja was appointed mayor (1911–1914), directly under a resident deputy governor. [12]
Contemporary
In the final decades as part of Sulu
By virtue of Executive Order No. 355, signed by President Carlos P. Garcia on August 26, 1959, Cagayan de Sulu was among the twenty of 21 remaining municipal districts of then-undivided Sulu which were converted into municipalities effective July 1, 1958. [13] The first election was held in 1959 where Lim Eng, a part-Chinese commoner, won as mayor. First appointed in 1954, he served until 1967. [12]
At that time, Cagayan de Sulu, being called Tana Mapun in the Pelun Mapun language, had been inhabited by Jama Mapun (literally, "People of Mapun") which are Muslim Filipinos like the Tausugs and Samals. It was in June 1963 when lunsay, their popular pre-Islamic traditional community dance, was documented following a performance in Barrio Duhul Batu. [14]
As part of Tawi-Tawi and later developments
After the municipality became part of Tawi-Tawi, its name was further changed twice; from Cagayan de Sulu to Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi through Batas Pambansa Blg. 647 on March 7, 1984; [15] and eventually to its present name, Mapun, through Republic Act No. 6672 on September 5, 1988. [16]
Mapun Island, located near the Philippine–Malaysian border, is inside the Sandakan Basin which is said to be rich in oil and natural gas. On the Philippine side, there have been joint explorations since as early as 2004 off the island, resulting in the discovery of oil within a decade. The waters alone, reportedly, have an estimated reserve of about 500 billion barrels of oil. [17] [18]
Mapun, along with the Turtle Islands—both now among the three main island groups in the province—serve as places of interest for traders bound for northern Borneo, particularly Sabah, and Labuan. [19]
