1521
The ships that passed Bolyna in 1521
After Magellan died, his surviving crews sailed past Balabac on their way to Brunei. One of them wrote the island down.
Island stories
History, tribes and wildlife, told by and about the people who live here, and trips in the words of the travelers who came to visit.
History
The ships, the fort, the lighthouse and the mine that shaped Balabac, in the order they happened.
1858
Príncipe Alfonso, the Spanish post of 1858
Spain sent troops to Balabac in 1858 to keep Britain out of the strait. The fort's ruins still stand at the edge of town.
1892
The lighthouse at the end of Palawan
First lit in 1892, the Cape Melville Lighthouse still looks out over the strait between Palawan and Borneo.
1944
USS Flier and the swim to Mantangule
In 1944 an American submarine hit a mine in the Balabac Strait. Eight men survived, with help from people on the islands.
1947
How Mangsee joined Balabac in 1947
For years after the Americans came, the Mangsee Islands were run from British North Borneo. They became part of Balabac in October 1947.
1970s
The copper mine south of town
A mining company dug copper on Balabac Island in the 1970s, then left. Decades later, researchers found the damage still draining into a stream.
Tribes
Molbog families were here first. Sama, Tausug, Kagayanen, Visayan and Tagalog families came over the centuries. These are short introductions while we gather each community's own telling.
Many peoples, one Balabac
Molbog families have lived here for generations. Sama, Tausug, Kagayanen, Visayan, Tagalog and other families have made it home too.
Molbog
Balabac's first people
The Molbog are the indigenous people of Balabac and the southern tip of Palawan. Their language and family ties reach across the strait to Borneo.
Jama Mapun
From Mapun, in the Sulu Sea
A Sama people whose home island is Mapun, in the Sulu Sea. Their families have traded with and settled in southern Palawan for generations.
Ubian
The Sama of Lumbucan
On Lumbucan Island, part of Barangay Mangsee, children speak Tagalog at school and Ubian at home.
Sama Pangutaran
From the Pangutaran islands, Sulu
Sama families from the Pangutaran islands of Sulu, among the Muslim peoples who settled in southern Palawan.
Tausug
People of the current
The Tausug founded the Sultanate of Sulu, whose reach once extended to southern Palawan and Balabac.
Kagayanen
From Cagayancillo
Families from the Cagayancillo islands settled on Bugsuk, and gave part of it a new name.
Visayan
From the Visayas and Cuyo
Families from the Visayas and the Cuyo Islands came south as settlers, bringing their languages and their churches.
Tagalog
From Luzon
Tagalog families came from Luzon. Their language, as Filipino, is the one Balabac's many peoples share.
In Balabac, everything moves by boat
School runs, market days, clinic visits and holidays all depend on the bangka, and on the people who drive them.
Wildlife
The animals Balabac shares its islands with, from the buwaya in the mangroves to the katala in the treetops. Most are protected by law.
Buwaya
Saltwater crocodile
Dangerous. Keep your distance
Balabac has one of the densest crocodile populations in the Philippines. For people who wash, bathe and fish in its rivers, that's a daily risk.
Katala
Philippine cockatoo
Critically endangered
One of the world's rarest parrots nests on Pandanan and Bugsuk, in the north of Balabac. A few hundred live there.
Pilandok
Balabac mouse-deer
Endangered
A deer smaller than a house cat lives on Balabac and Bugsuk, and nowhere else on Earth.
Unggoy
Long-tailed macaque
Near threatened
Balabac's monkeys are Philippine long-tailed macaques. They live in the forests and mangroves. Please don't feed them.
Baboy ramo
Palawan bearded pig
Near threatened
Balabac's wild pig is the Palawan bearded pig, found only on Palawan, Balabac and the Calamian Islands.
Bayawak
Palawan water monitor
Protected by law
A big lizard of Balabac's mangroves and riverbanks, only named as its own species in 2010.
Tourists
Trips to Balabac in travelers' own words: the long road in, the water, the camps, and what they'd tell a friend.
These first stories are samples. We wrote them from what real visitors report, to show what goes here. Send us your trip and we'll replace them.
Sample Two in the morning in a van, and turtles by lunch
A first joiner tour: the long ride south, a night on Onuk, and the sand flies nobody warned her about.
Sample No signal, no problem
A couple from France on a private boat, learning a few words of Filipino and leaving the starfish where they found them.
Sample Three generations on one bangka
A family from Cebu brings the kids and their lola, picks a calm month, and books a spare day just in case.
Sample Forty, solo, and finally this far south
A balikbayan books from Melbourne for a milestone birthday, loses a day to the weather, and doesn't mind.
