The 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.
Written from public sources to get this page started. We'll replace it with the story as Balabac residents tell it.
The Molbog, also called Melebuganon, are Balabac's earliest known people. They live across the Balabac islands and the southern tip of Palawan, and on Banggi Island in Sabah, just across the strait. In Sabah they're sometimes called Balabak.
Anthropologist Lanfranco Blanchetti described them as once part of Palawan's indigenous peoples, who became Muslim after long contact with the Tausug, the Sama and others in the Sulu Sultanate. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts says they embraced Islam through missionaries from Brunei. Either way, for centuries the southern tip of Palawan sat between the worlds of Brunei and Sulu.
When President Diosdado Macapagal visited Balabac in 1964, the first sitting president to set foot there, the Official Gazette reported that Molbog made up about 90 percent of the island's 4,500 people. Molbog musicians welcomed him with the agong and kulintang, the bronze gongs of the southern Philippines.
Land
Molbog communities first applied to have their ancestral domain recognized in 1999. Parts of that claim, on Bugsuk and at Mariahangin, are still disputed today.
If you visit a Molbog village, go with someone from the community, dress modestly, and ask before taking photos.
Stories we're gathering
This is a short introduction written from public sources. We'd like to replace it with the story as Molbog families tell it themselves. If that's your family, send us a message.