The Sulu and Celebes Seas, which together form a semi-enclosed sea area and porous region covering about 1 million square kilometers, have been subject to illegal maritime activities since the pre-colonial era and continue to pose a maritime security threat to bordering nations. While piracy has long been identified as a ubiquitous challenge, being historically interwoven with the region, recent incidents include other types of maritime crimes such as kidnapping and the trafficking of humans, arms, and drugs. Attacks are mostly classified as 'armed robbery against ships' under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, as they occur in maritime zones that lie under the sovereignty of a coastal state. Incidents in the Sulu and Celebes Seas specifically involve the abduction of crew members. Since March 2016, the Information Sharing Centre (ISC) of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) has reported a total of 86 abductions, leading to the issuance of a warning for ships crossing the area.
History of piracy in the region
Piracy in the Sulu and Celebes Seas has a long history of attacks and raids, with the region influenced primarily by raiders from the Sulu Sea who originated in the southern Philippines. The Sulu raiders were mostly composed of the Ilanun (or Iranun) and the Sama group of sea nomads, as well as the influential Tausug aristocrats from Jolo Island. Historically, piracy occurred near the island of Mindanao, where frequent acts of piracy were committed against the Spanish. These attacks of the local population are often known as the Spanish-Moro conflict. The term "Moro" thereby originated in the Spanish description, as they introduced the derogatory term for Muslims and portrayed them in negative terms primarily due to their opposition to Spanish colonial rule and Christianity. However, the term is being reclaimed by ethnic Filipinos today and constitutes a reclaiming of Muslim identity; consequently, the term is applied in this historical context.
Because of the continual wars between Spain and the Moro people, the areas in and around the Sulu Sea experienced recurring pirate attacks, which were not suppressed until the beginning of the 20th century. The pirates of that period should not be confused with the naval forces or privateers of the various Moro tribes. However, many of the pirates operated with government sanction during wartime.
The Moro Pirates and Spanish colonial occupation Moro piracy is often linked to the Spanish colonial occupation of the Philippines. Over the course of two and a half centuries, Moro piratical attacks on Christian communities caused "an epoch of wholesale misery for the inhabitants". After the Spanish arrival in 1521, Moro piratical raids against Christian settlements started in June 1578. These spread all over the archipelago and were conducted with impunity by organized fleets equipped with armaments nearly equal to those of the Spanish. The recurring act is often described as a reaction against the Spaniards, who had displaced the Moros from the political and economic dominance they once enjoyed in the region (e.g., strategic commercial standpoints in Mindanao). Moreover, religious differences between Muslims and Christians are frequently cited.
In 1758, the Bishop Manuel Matos wrote to the King of Spain that 12 towns in Camarines had been invaded and about 8,000 inhabitants killed by Moro pirates.
Between 1752-1757, Moro pirate attacks were so successful and persistent that many Visayan towns were depopulated by 50%, through battles and enslavement.
During the 1840s, the Spanish frequently engaged Moro pirates. The expedition to Balanguingui in 1848 was commanded by Brigadier José Ruiz with a fleet of nineteen small warships and hundreds of Spanish Army troops. They were opposed by at least 1,000 Moros holed up in four forts with 124 cannons and plenty of small arms. There were also dozens of proas at Balanguingui, but the pirates abandoned their ships for the better defended fortifications. The Spanish stormed three of the positions by force and captured the remaining one after the pirates had retreated. Over 500 prisoners were freed in the operation, and over 500 Moros were killed or wounded, and about 150 proas were lost. Twenty-two Spanish men were killed and around 210 wounded. The pirates later reoccupied the island in 1849. Another expedition was sent, which encountered only light resistance.
It is estimated that from 1770 to 1870, around 200,000 to 300,000 people were enslaved by Iranun and Banguingui slavers. These were taken by piracy from passing ships as well as coastal raids on settlements as far as the Malacca Strait, Java, the southern coast of China, and the islands beyond the Makassar Strait. Most of the slaves were Tagalogs, Visayans, and "Malays" (including Bugis, Mandarese, Iban, and Makassar). There were also occasional European and Chinese captives who were usually ransomed off through Tausug intermediaries of the Sulu Sultanate. David P. Forsythe put the estimate much higher, at around 2 million enslaved people captured within the first two centuries of Spanish rule of the Philippines after 1565.David P. Forsythe (2009). "Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 1 ". Oxford University Press. p. 464.
In the 1840s, James Brooke became the White Rajah of Sarawak and led a series of campaigns against the Moro pirates. In 1843, Brooke attacked the pirates of Malludu; in June 1847, he participated in a major battle with pirates at Balanini, where dozens of proas were captured or sunk. Brooke also fought in several more anti-piracy actions in 1849. During one engagement off Mukah with Illanun Sulus in 1862, his nephew, ex-army Captain Brooke, sank four proas, out of six engaged, by ramming them with his small four-gun steamship Rainbow. Each pirate ship had over 100 crew members and enslaved people aboard the galley, and was armed with three brass swivel guns. Brooke lost only a few men, while at least 100 pirates were killed or wounded. Several prisoners were also released.
Despite Spanish efforts to eradicate the pirate threat, piracy persisted until the early 1900s. Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States as a result of the Spanish–American War in 1898, after which American troops embarked on a pacification campaign from 1903 to 1913 that extended American rule to the southern Philippines and effectively suppressed piracy.
Ships
The pirate ships used by the Moros include various designs like the paraw, pangayaw, garay, and lanong. The majority were wooden sailing galleys (lanong) about 90 feet long with a beam of 20 feet (). They carried around fifty to 100 crew members. Moros usually armed their vessels with three swivel guns, called lelahs or lantakas, and occasionally a heavy cannon. Proas were fast, allowing the pirates to prey on merchant ships that had been becalmed in shallow water while passing through the Sulu Sea. Slave trading and raiding were also very common; the pirates would assemble large fleets of proas and attack coastal towns. Hundreds of Christians were captured and imprisoned over the centuries; many were used as galley slaves aboard the pirate ships.
Weapons
In addition to muskets and rifles, the Moro pirates, navy sailors, and privateers, all used a sword called the kalis with a wavy blade incised with blood channels (fullers). The wooden or ivory handle was often heavily ornamented with silver or gold. The type of wound inflicted by its blade makes it difficult to heal. The kalis was often used in boarding a vessel. Moros also used kampilans, another type of sword; a knife, or barong; and a budjak (spear) made of rattan and an iron spearhead. The Moros' swivel guns (lantaka) were unlike the more modern guns used by the world powers and were of much older technology, making them largely inaccurate, especially at sea. Lantaka dated back to the 16th century and were up to six feet long, requiring several men to lift one. They fired up to a half-pound cannonball or grape shot. A lantaka was bored by hand, sunk into a pit, and packed with dirt to keep it vertical. The barrel was then bored by a company of men walking around in a circle to turn drill bits by hand.
Piracy after World War II Piracy reemerged in the immediate post-WWII period due to deteriorating security conditions and the widespread availability of military-surplus engines and modern firearms. Police authorities of the newly independent Philippines were unable to curb the traffic in arms and goods (copra and cigarettes) by rebel groups, which was fueled by the motorization of inter-island support. Emerging pirate groups mostly originated in the South of the country and were drawn from Muslim ethnic groups. In the northern parts of Borneo, the Tawi-Tawi pirates were of particular concern to the late British colonial authorities, who were said to be descendants of 19th-century Samal pirates. The authorities in North Borneo recorded 232 pirate attacks between 1959 and 1962. During this period, pirates primarily targeted barter traders engaged in the copra trade, but also attacked fishing and passenger vessels and conducted coastal raids on villages. As an example, in 1985, pirates caused chaos in the town of Lahad Datu in Sabah, killing 21 people and injuring 11 others.. Specifically, the proliferation of arms, which increased with armed insurgencies in the following years, contributed to the level of violence and threat posed by pirates in the region. Philippine authorities at the time reported more than 431 deaths and 426 missing people in the course of twelve years, resulting in an extremely high threat level for the region. Victims (local seafarers and Sea Nomads) were often ordered to jump into the water (practice of ambak pare, meaning "Jump, buddy!"), which explains the large number of people missing. The armed insurgencies of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), founded in 1972, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), founded in 1977, provided a new impetus to piracy, with both organizations engaging in piracy to fund their armed struggle. MNLF has engaged in the extortion of fishermen, threatening to attack them if they did not pay protection money. Similarly, Abu Sayyaf, founded in the early 1990s, began engaging in piracy attacks, both to fund the organization and for personal financial gain.
Contemporary piracy 2000–2014 Throughout the turn of the millennium, the threat of piracy remained high, with recurring attacks on small vessels and raids on towns and businesses in coastal villages in Sabah, mostly attributable to groups of the southern Philippines, as the main types of piratical activities. At the time, specifically the 2000 Sipadan kidnappings received a lot of international media attention, resulting in an increased engagement of anti-piracy measures by the Malaysian government. Subsequently, the Malaysian government increased their law enforcement agencies and established naval bases in the following years that can be found today in Semporna, Sandakan, Lahad Datu, and Tawau. These efforts (combined with e.g., the signing of ReCAAP and an increase in the number of law enforcement personnel showed some success and led to a decrease in incidents. Soon, on a global scale, piracy in Southeast Asian waters was outnumbered by Somali piracy.