Coming from Zamboanga City, the Western Mindanao Command (army) gave us the advice not to go to Jolo, the Capitol of Sulu island, because we wouldn't have an army escort and might not be safe. Nevertheless, we took a night fairy for 8 hours and arrived in Jolo at around 4 am with trust to our fellow Octavio Dinampo (a University Professor living in Jolo and a peace advocat who is closely working together with IID; he was lately kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in Sulu with a famous Filipino reporter). We thought of going for a low-profile-visit to be more safe.
But at our arrival, Prof. Octa was welcoming us with a big banner! So much for low profile..With our WFDA mission (World Forum for Democratization in Asia)
we made up appointments with the Vice Governor of Sulu, Lady Ann.
We discussed our issues with her and asked questions about the situation and position of Sulu regarding current happenings in Mindanao. After that we met the Mayor of Jolo and later on we discussed our findings with different Civil Society groups which apparently were all women. The inhabitants of Sulu are mainly Tausug, Muslims with a long history and many traditions (like i.e. mechanisms of conflict solution) which are still used today. The government wants to promote tourism and change the "terroristic" image but the local civilians are complaining about a lack of basic services. Both, Government and Civil Society emphasized that Sulu is different from Mindanao but safe. Both parties were also concerned about the heavy militarization on this small island. There are about 3000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers running after 50 Abu Sayyaf terrorists (who are mostly just teenagers) in Sulu. Locals are used to see guns around and although they have nothing to do with the operations going on, they often get labelled as terrorists by outsiders. After all, we had very interesting discussions, learned a lot about Sulu from different perspectives and didn't see any Abu Sayyaf. 
Maybe because we were escorted by six heavily armed police men and some secret agents from Prof. Octa. Octa took really good care of us, we were even able to visit his house and eat lunch there. The food variety and Sulu specialities were amazing (Sulu Durian is really masarap)! His house is located close to the sea, that means he has a beach as backyard! Unfortunately, our stay was only planned for one day and we had to leave in the evening back to Zamboanga City.
We discussed our issues with her and asked questions about the situation and position of Sulu regarding current happenings in Mindanao. After that we met the Mayor of Jolo and later on we discussed our findings with different Civil Society groups which apparently were all women. The inhabitants of Sulu are mainly Tausug, Muslims with a long history and many traditions (like i.e. mechanisms of conflict solution) which are still used today. The government wants to promote tourism and change the "terroristic" image but the local civilians are complaining about a lack of basic services. Both, Government and Civil Society emphasized that Sulu is different from Mindanao but safe. Both parties were also concerned about the heavy militarization on this small island. There are about 3000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers running after 50 Abu Sayyaf terrorists (who are mostly just teenagers) in Sulu. Locals are used to see guns around and although they have nothing to do with the operations going on, they often get labelled as terrorists by outsiders. After all, we had very interesting discussions, learned a lot about Sulu from different perspectives and didn't see any Abu Sayyaf. 
Maybe because we were escorted by six heavily armed police men and some secret agents from Prof. Octa. Octa took really good care of us, we were even able to visit his house and eat lunch there. The food variety and Sulu specialities were amazing (Sulu Durian is really masarap)! His house is located close to the sea, that means he has a beach as backyard! Unfortunately, our stay was only planned for one day and we had to leave in the evening back to Zamboanga City.
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