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John Anthony Manolong: The Sulu archipelagos location between the asian mainland and the large islands of Mindanao, borneo, and Celebes, its varied and productive resource base and its sizeable population early attracted mechants from south china an d makassarese-buginese mariners from Celebes. The annual arrival of Chinese junks and bugis prahus at jolo reflected a regular demand for local products procured principally from the sultanates essential domain the sea. It is important to note, however, that this traditional trade between Southeast Asian ports and the world outside was limited in scale. Since external trade entail more manpower, the authorities need more slaves which could supply enough manpower to dive the ocean deep to search for mother-of-pearls and hunt and search in the forests for birds nest, camphor, and the like which were the primary products for barter or trade. So, they had to be open to new transformations in their bureaucracy and the way things were done in order to cater to the larger population brought about by the external trade. Take Balangingi for example. The most important island in the sulu sultanate was the Balangingi, a dwelling place and organizational centre of the major slaveth retailing group for the Sulu Sultanate in the first half of the 19 century. A related group of marauders, the Iranun, Marano-speaking migratory strand dwellers, established their principal settlements along the river mouths of the southern coast of Mindanao. 2. John Anthony Manolong: Sulus ascendancy towards the end of the 18 century developed out of the expanding trade between India, Southeast Asia and China. Commercial and tributary activity became linked with long distance slave raiding and incorporation of captured peoples in a system which made Jolo a principal entrepot for extruded produce for the china trade. The commerce involving trade with the Bugis of Samarinda and Berau to the south, with Manila to the north, and with Singapore and Labuan to the west formed a complex set of interrelationships through which the segmentary state of Sulu was able to consolidate its dominance over the outlying areas of the zone along the northeast Borneo and western Mindanao coasts. 6. John Anthony Manolong: The mountain peoples of Cordillera Region of northern Luzon -whether called igorots, tinguians, or mandayas - were collectively referred to as tribus independientes rather than indios. They were independent tribes in a sense that they were composed of independent people, not that they were organized into independent naciones. They had no tribal governments or tribal boundaries, did not fight tribal wars or claim descent from common tribal ancestors and are today called tribes simply for want of a better word to indicate their separate cultural and linguistic identities. Rather, they were villages of more or less related persons who, like the inhabitants of pre-hispanic barangays, recognized no central authority, and took heads or slaves when they went to war, but made no political conquests and because they had neither king nor castle and so could not make formal declarations of war, all their killings are recorded in Spanish accounts as crimes whether they were committed for purposes of rustling cattle or defending their brutish independence.
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9. John Anthony Manolong: The scarce resources of our country have been inequitably distributed favorable to the aristocratic or the affluent class of the society. Since they usually have the authority over the indigenous, they seem to be the one controlling the resources and allocating a large portion of those to them leaving the poor in ruins. Also, during those colonial times, the poor people were required to do forced labor, pay inequitably high tributes or taxes

which lead to the greater gap between the rich and poor. And in the context of the Sulu sultanate essay, the slaves were tasked to do the heavy work with all the benefits accruing to their masters. Although some of the slaves were allowed to acquire properties of their own, but still after their death, those properties will not be distributed to their legal heirs but will eventually revert back to their masters making their masters richer and making the families of the slaves poorer. There were times when the masters didnt g ive enough compensation or personal, family or living allowances to their slaves yet those same slaves were forced to work under the heat of the sun or dive the ocean deep to search for mother-of-pearls or even sent for hunting or searching for birds nest , wax, camphor and the like which were the main products of the sultanate at that time, 24/7, all the benefits accruing to their masters eventually so even the profit of the agricultural produce will go to the masters, leaving the servants or slaves in their poor or even poorer state.