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.