Sulu island hosts many locations of natural beauty with tourism potential. Decades of insurgency and violent crime, along with underdeveloped transportation infrastructure, have unfortunately stymied both domestic and international tourism. Image Source: Department of Tourism, Ph

The US advisory reflects many international concerns, warning that the Sulu archipelago is still too risky to visit due to crime, terrorism, and kidnappings.

At the same time, it must be recognized that Sulu has made significant headway in securing peace and stability. Only recently on August 30th, 2026, Sulu’s first district, which includes the capital Jolo, has been declared a State of Stable Internal Peace and Security.

Previous fighting grew from the Moro separatist insurgency of the 1970s, and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) emerged in the early 1990s from militant MNLF elements, later linking with al Qaeda and then the Islamic State. It became notorious for kidnappings, bombings, and attacks on civilians, including the 2009 Red Cross abduction and the 2019 Jolo Cathedral bombing.

Sustained military campaigns have sharply reduced ASG since 2016, with fighters dropping from around 1,200 to about 50 by late 2025 and Sulu's government declaring the province free of the group in 2023. Some top leaders remain at large, though many such leaders have been progressively captured or killed in recent years.

At the height of security operations, as many as five to six thousand soldiers may have been stationed on Sulu. Today, the 11th Infantry Division’s 1103rd Infantry Brigade continues a watchful vigil, a duty often challenged by the island’s inadequate infrastructure. Units recently received solar power units to alleviate conditions in bases guarding the remote interior.

The same infrastructure difficulties challenging soldiers also impedes the growth of tourism. Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan II has repeatedly highlighted the continued lack of frequent commercial flights, reportedly asking for a small commitment of only one flight per week each from airlines Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines.

“The same infrastructure difficulties challenging soldiers also impedes the growth of tourism.”

Securing the peace with development and growth is a priority frequently raised by the governor. His calls for a growth on Sulu’s domestic potential is unfortunately often overshadowed by narratives of foreign adventurism.

What often grabs headlines about Sulu, though, is the Sabah dispute: the Kiram family, descendants of the once-powerful Sulu Sultanate, claims Sabah as rightfully theirs, based on contested historical accounts of whether the territory was actually part of Sulu in the nineteenth century. The Kiram’s family politics has not only distracted from Sulu’s domestic priorities, but directly escalated Sulu’s legacy for violence. In 2013, fighters from the so called Sulu Royal Force invaded Sabah before being defeated in a pointless military standoff.

“The Kiram’s family politics has not only distracted from Sulu’s domestic priorities, but directly escalated Sulu’s legacy for violence.”

More recently, the divided members of the Kiram family continue to call for the possession of Sabah in their own ways. Fuad A. Kiram, a claimant to the symbolic title of Sulu Sultan, has sought to seize nearly $15 billion from Malaysia’s international assets, framed as recompense for Sabah. Muedzul Lail Tan Kiram, the more widely recognized Sulu Sultan, likewise maintains a claim while Princess Jacel Kiram, daughter of Jamalul Kiram III who led the 2013 attack, has called on all of the Philippines to seize Sabah from Malaysia.

None of this addresses the obstacles to Sulu’s potential as a tourism hub. If anything, it recalls a time of violence and may even reattract the substantial under-resourced population to take up arms and undo a decade of progress achieved by the Philippine Army and Sulu community leaders.

REFERENCES

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