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.
Written from public sources to get this page started. We'll replace it with the story as Balabac residents tell it.
In 1930, the United States and Britain agreed where the Philippines ended and British North Borneo began. The line ran through the Mangsee Channel. The islands north and east of it belonged to the Philippines.
But in a side agreement, the British North Borneo Company was left to keep running the Turtle and Mangsee Islands until the United States asked for them back.
The new Republic asked in September 1946. On October 13, 1947, President Manuel Roxas signed Executive Order No. 95, which said the Mangsee Islands "shall form part of the municipal district of Balabac." The handover took effect on October 16.
Together with the Turtle Islands, Mangsee is one of the few places that weren't under Philippine administration when the country became independent in 1946.
Today Mangsee is Balabac's second-largest barangay, with 8,977 people in the 2024 census, most of them Sama and Molbog.
Visiting
Mangsee is a border area close to Sabah, with no tourist transport. Don't try to go there, or to cross to Malaysia informally. It's illegal and dangerous.
Sources
- Convention delimiting the boundary between the Philippine Archipelago and the State of North Borneo (1930), Official Gazette
- Executive Order No. 95, s. 1947, Official Gazette
- Treaty Series No. 58 (1951), UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
- Barangays of Balabac, Philippine Statistics Authority
- Mangsee Islands (Wikipedia)
