Ruben langs de Zuid-Chinese Zee S01E03 - Sulu - De sultan van Sulu

In the southern Philippines, Ruben meets the Sultan of Sulu, heir to a once-powerful kingdom that stretched to Malaysia and the Spratly Islands. His power has vanished, but his historic claims to maritime areas rich in oil and gas keep tensions alive in the region. In the predominantly Muslim Sulu archipelago, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) fought for decades for an independent state. The arrival of ISIS fighters brought the resistance to a standstill years ago, but the call for autonomy seems never to have entirely disappeared. On Tawi-Tawi, an island where many different religions and peoples converge, Ruben discovers how Sulu history profoundly influences daily life.