Tawi-Tawi Province, Philippines Genealogy

Asia Philippines  Tawi-Tawi Province

Guide to  ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
Tawi-Tawi was previously part of the province of Sulu. On September 11, 1973, pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 302, the new province of Tawi-Tawi was officially created, separate from Sulu. The seat of the provincial government was established in Bongao.

The name of Tawi-Tawi is a projection of the Malay word "jaui" meaning "far." Prehistoric travelers from the Asian mainland would repeat the word as "jaui-jaui" to mean "far away" because of the distance of the islands from the continent of Asia. The word "Tawi-Tawi" was picked up to later become the official name of the province.

Below is an article about the history of Tawi-Tawi from the Government of Tawi-Tawi The folklore of the Tawi-Tawi Samals holds that the seafaring people came from the Malay Peninsula. The links with the rest of Southeast Asia are very strong and these contacts have helped shape the culture and the history of the islands.

Tawi-Tawi claims the distinction of being the earliest home of Islam in the country. In 1380, Sheik Karim ul-Makhdum established the first mosque on Philippine territory, in Simunul. Makhdum’s tomb in Sibutu continues to be revered by Philippine Muslims. From the time of the Sulu Sultanate’s inception in the 14th century, Tawi-Tawi had traditionally been part of its realm.

During most of the Spanish period in the Philippines, Tawi-Tawi remained free of western intervention. In 1882, the Spaniards made their first attempt to control the island group by establishing a garrison on the island. They withdrew from the islands at the close of the century as a result of the Philippine Revolution.

The Americans established control over the islands and incorporated Tawi-tawi into the province of Sulu in 1914. Parts of the Tawi-Tawi islands were repurchased from Spain as a consequence of omissions in the Treaty of Paris. Sibutu and Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi were bought for an additional $100,000.

In 1948, when the Turtle Islands were returned to the Philippines by Great Britain, they were constituted as part of the island group. The islands remained part of Sulu until 1973 when the province of Tawi-Tawi was created through Presidential Decree No. 302.

Tawi-Tawi was incorporated into an autonomous regional government for Western Mindanao in 1979 following agreements with the Moro secessionist movement. In 1989, the province voted overwhelmingly to become part of an Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Source: http://www.zamboanga.com

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