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Travel Warning WARNING: Parts of Mindanao, particularly Bangsamoro, SOCCSKSARGEN or Zamboanga Peninsula, remain dangerous for non-essential travel; see warnings on those pages. Other parts of Mindanao are probably less dangerous, but see discussion below.

Restrictions on movement due to the COVID-19 pandemic are in place since March 2020, but are being eased. However, cases are increasing in most regions as of July 2020, especially in the northern and western parts.


Government travel advisories
(Information last updated 06 Jul 2020)
Mindanao Island in red
Associated islands in maroon

Mindanao is an island in the Philippines, the southernmost major island in the country and the second largest, after Luzon.

Regions

For administrative purposes, the Philippine government divides the country into three main regions — Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The Mindanao region includes Mindanao island (shown in red on the map) plus a number of smaller ones nearby (in maroon); the Sulu Islands are off to the southwest, Dinagat and Siargao are to the northeast, and the small island province of Camiguin is in the strait between Mindanao and Bohol.

Mindanao is divided into 5 regions administratively. This guide uses the regions the same as those used in administrative terms:

Cities

Map
Map of Mindanao
  • 1 Cagayan de Oro or CDO, the most important city on the north coast
  • 2 Davao , toward the southeast, the largest city on the island and 3rd in the country
  • 3 General Santos , on the south coast
  • 4 Butuan , northeast of CDO
  • 5 Valencia (Bukidnon) , in the middle of Mindanao
  • 6 Zamboanga , in the southwest at the tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula
  • 7 Pagadian east of Ozamiz.
  • 8 Cotabato City north of General Santos.
  • 9 Koronadal north of General Santos.

Other destinations

Understand

How dangerous is Mindanao?

Western governments all advise caution anywhere on Mindanao, and all agree that travellers should avoid Bangsamoro, SOCCSKSARGEN and Zamboanga Peninsula; see the warnings in those articles. Most suggest avoiding much of the rest of Mindanao as well. The Philippine government says many of the advisories are overstated or cover a broader area than needed.

See these advisories:
Australia Canada Ireland NZ UK US
See also our article on War zone safety if you plan to travel in high-risk areas.

If you travel anywhere in the Mindanao region, most insurers will not pay out if you make a claim.

There are some western travellers in parts of eastern or northern Mindanao, like Camiguin or the surfing destination Siargao, and cities like Davao and Cagayan de Oro have quite a few foreign residents. Most of these people have encountered few problems and feel reasonably safe.

However, some tourists were kidnapped near Davao in late 2015 and later murdered, a bomb was set off in a busy Davao market in September 2016, causing many deaths, and in May 2017 radical Islamists more-or-less took over the town of Marawi and the national government declared martial law in all of Mindanao.

There is quite obviously some risk anywhere in the region.

History

Mindanao has a long, complex and remarkably colorful history. To settlers, it is commonly called Lupang P[in]angako, or the "Promised Land", with its wealth of resources that remain untapped. Much of the region's history circles on a long, ongoing ethno-religious conflict between Christian migrants and native Muslims; religious clashes have been going on since the arrival of the Spaniards on the island in the late 1500s.

Until the late 19th century, almost the entire northern coast of Borneo and parts of the Philippines — more-or-less everything from Sarawak to Mindanao — was heavily infested with pirates, and most of the area was ruled by pirate kings. The Sultanate of Sulu ruled all of the Sulu Islands and Palawan plus parts of Borneo and mainland Mindanao, and its capital Jolo (on Sulu) had a great slave market. The Spanish, the British, the Sultan of Brunei, the White Rajas of Sarawak, and later the Americans fought wars against the pirate kingdoms and eventually shut them down, but it was quite a struggle.

Pirates from Mindanao often raided towns in other parts of the Philippines. Towns like Altavas and Bolinao were built inland to avoid them, while others had fortifications or a warning system like the Dumaguete bell tower. This may not be entirely ended; in 2001 a group based in Basilan grabbed 20 hostages near Puerto Princesa in Palawan and in 2015 another bunch grabbed four near Davao. In both cases the raiders arrived by boat and some hostages were eventually murdered.

The Moros vigorously resisted Spanish, American and Japanese rule for several reasons: Moro nationalism, anti-colonialism, Islam, and piracy. Today some are still resisting the Philippine government. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was established in 1989 to give them partial independence, and a peace deal between the government and the largest Moro militia group (Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF) was signed in 2012. However there are still armed rebel groups in some areas and a substantial Philippine military presence to suppress them; the two sides reportedly have ties to Al Qaeda and the CIA respectively. On January 2019, ARMM was replaced by the Bangsamoro region after a successful plebiscite.

Moros still talk about a battle at Bud Dajo on Sulu in 1906 where, according to Moro accounts and American critics of the war such as Mark Twain, American forces massacred almost 1000 people, mostly women and children. Some draw parallels with current events; naval guns were used at Bud Dajo to kill at a distance, much as drones are used today. In official American accounts it was a justified counter-insurgency action with some collateral damage, many of the women were armed and some of the children were being used as human shields.

Geography

Mindanao occupies about 98,000 km2 (38,000 sq mi), or about 33% of the Philippines' territorial area, making it larger than countries such as the Netherlands, South Korea, and Austria, to mention a few.

Mindanao has the greatest variety of terrain, having ten mountain ranges, two plateau areas, and many swampy lowlands. Most of the island have scattered mountain ranges, but the central and eastern parts has the most mountains, and sprawling plains between them, especially in the SOCCSKSARGEN region.

Most of Mindanao are covered with rainforest and some peat swamps, but they have been mostly cleared out for farmland and a few oil palm plantations.

Off the southwest end of Mindanao are the Sulu Islands, a chain leading almost all the way to Sabah, which is the easternmost province of Malaysia, located on the island of Borneo.

People

Mindanao's population is diverse, even before colonial times. With a population of over 28,000,000 (2015 figures: over 22% of the Philippines' total), it is the second most populous island of the Philippines and the eighth in the world.

Most of Mindanao's non-indigenous people are of Visayan, and occasionally Ilocano and Tagalog heritage, mostly migrants brought by American-era resettlement programs in the 1930s. They form over 50-60% of the population.

The southwestern portion of Mindanao, from the Sulu Archipelago to Maguindanao and the Lanao provinces, is the homeland of the Moro (Filipino Muslim) people, which are rather a grouping of ethnic groups which practiced Islam long before the Spaniards arrived.

A predominantly Muslim group, the Sama-Bajau (Badjao, also "Sea Gypsies"), live mostly on boats and are found in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. There has always been extensive trade between Mindanao and Borneo, and the Badjao do much of that trading. They are also found in most other parts of the Philippines, and often seen as beggars or vagrants in the cities.

The rest of Mindanao, especially the forested interior, are the ancestral lands of the animist Lumad, rather an umbrella term for all the non-Muslim indigenous peoples of Mindanao. They used to live in most of Mindanao not inhabited by the Moros, until Christian immigrants, primarily Visayans and Ilocanos under American-era resettlement drove them into the mountains. The Lumad are facing an uncertain future, having been repeatedly accused of harboring communist rebels, but they are striving to keep their culture and lifestyle alive.

Climate

City Average temperature in January Average temperature in May Average annual rainfall
High Low High Low
Davao 31 °C (88 °F) 23 °C (73 °F) 33 °C (91 °F) 25 °C (77 °F) 1760 mm (69 in)
Butuan 30 °C (86 °F) 23 °C (73 °F) 34 °C (93 °F) 24 °C (75 °F) 2060 mm (81 in)
Cagayan de Oro 30 °C (86 °F) 22 °C (72 °F) 32 °C (90 °F) 23 °C (73 °F) 1700 mm (67 in)
Cotabato 31 °C (88 °F) 23 °C (73 °F) 33 °C (91 °F) 23 °C (73 °F) 2500 mm (98 in)
General Santos 33 °C (91 °F) 23 °C (73 °F) 33 °C (91 °F) 23 °C (73 °F) 960 mm (38 in)
Surigao 29 °C (84 °F) 23 °C (73 °F) 33 °C (91 °F) 25 °C (77 °F) 3655 mm (144 in)
Zamboanga 32 °C (90 °F) 24 °C (75 °F) 33 °C (91 °F) 25 °C (77 °F) 1270 mm (50 in)

Being 10 degrees north of the equator, most of Mindanao have a tropical climate, with just two seasons, though it really rains at any time for each season. In reality though, the climate is far from uniform, with the northern and eastern parts of the island which faces the Pacific generally wet all year, and the southern and western parts mostly hot and dry.

Mindanao can be said to be outside the typhoon belt, but it can be struck by typhoons during the final months of the year.

Get in

By plane

Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City (DVO IATA) is the main port of entry by plane, and there are international flights from Singapore (on Silk Air), Hong Kong (on Cathay Dragon), Doha (on Qatar Airways) and Quanzhou (on XiamenAir). Laguindingan Airport (CGY IATA) is the second most important airport, but only receives domestic flights and has a short runway which cannot accommodate larger aircraft.

The other airports with regular flights are:

Zamboanga, Pagadian, Dipolog, Cotabato, General Santos, and Butuan, can accommodate flights using medium-sized jet aircraft like Airbus A320s or Boeing 737s, but the others are only capable of accommodating turboprop planes and small business jets.

By ferry

Ferries connect Mindanao with Luzon and Visayas, and internationally from Malaysia (Sandakan) and Indonesia (Bitung).

By bus

Philtranco has buses from Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan, Tandag, Bislig, Tagum and Surigao going to/from Manila via Lucena, Naga, Legazpi, Calbayog and Tacloban. PP Bus Lines also has a similar daily service from Manila to Davao City.

There are Ceres buses from Dumaguete to Zamboanga, starting with a Dumaguete-Dipolog ferry.

Get around

Mindanao is as vast as Luzon, and as said above, roughly the same size as some European countries such as Austria or Netherlands. By land, bus travel is the best mode of transportation, but for even longer distances, air travel is faster.

By bus

A Rural Transit bus

Mindanao's long-haul bus services are dominated by the Bacolod-based Yanson Group of Bus Companies (YCBC), which operates under three brands, Bachelor Express in eastern Mindanao, Rural Transit in western Mindanao, and Mindanao Star in the northern and central regions. Some other major bus lines in Mindanao island are Super Five, Yellow Bus Line and Davao Metro Shuttle.

Most cities and towns in Mindanao have one centralized bus station, generally outside dowtown. The hub cities, Davao, General Santos and Cagayan de Oro, have one central terminal providing easy transfers between bus lines, though Cagayan de Oro is an exception, with two separate terminals, which means you have to take local public transport to reach the other terminal. For example, if transferring from a bus coming from anywhere in western Mindanao to a bus headed for Davao, you must take a jeepney or a taxi to the terminal for trips to eastern Mindanao.

By plane

Flying is a possible alternative to the slower provincial buses for long distances in Mindanao, and are the only way to get between the mainland and Sulu Archipelago aside from the ferries.

Cebu Pacific flies to Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga from their Davao hub and to Cotabato City and Tawi-tawi from Zamboanga, while Philippines airlines flies to Zamboanga and Siargao from Davao and to Tawi-tawi via Zamboanga.

By car or motorcycle

Driving is not a good option due to the relative high accident rate, the risk of being attacked and robbed by bandits around Bangsamoro, and the lack of rental agencies outside the largest cities, but is an enjoyable experience as open roads are more possible here and some inland locations are only best reachable by car or motorcycle.

Mindanao proper has a good network of national highways, linking most major cities with each other. Traffic is relatively light, with less cars but more motorcycles, tricycles, and larger and longer trucks. Most cities and towns only grew during the American era, with more centralized settlements surrounded by large swaths of rural land, and roads are quite wider as there are a few houses built close to the road. Road quality has been improved through efforts to widen the most travelled highways, but this is only true for most of the mainland (except Bangsamoro or the former ARMM).

Car rental is only available on the largest cities (e.g. Davao), and if you intend to drive a lot, you could either bring a vehicle from Luzon or buy one within the island (useful if you intend to stay in Mindanao for the long term).

Small tourist towns and the outlying islands (e.g. Siargao, Camiguin) have motorcycle rentals, but is only good for trips within a few kilometers from town.

By ferry

Ferries and boats connect mainland Mindanao with outlying islands. There are also a few services between coastal cities in the mainland, but are slower than a bus ride or a flight.

Talk

Most Mindanao residents speak Visayan languages like Cebuano (often called Bisaya by the speakers themselves) and Hiligaynon as their first language, reflecting the Visayan background of most of its migrant population. Ilocano can be encountered as well, especially in inland Cotabato where some Ilocos residents settled back in the 1930s. English and Filipino is spoken and understood as well for their official status.

Languages native to Mindanao are numerous; among the notable of them are Surigaonon in the Surigao provinces of Caraga, Maguindanaoan in Maguindanao, Maranao in the Lanao provinces, and Tausug in Sulu. The animist, jungle-dwelling Lumad also speak their own languages but are less useful as they can speak in Cebuano, Hiligaynon, or the lingua franca of their area.

The Spanish-based creole language Chavacano, is spoken and understood as a first language in Zamboanga City and Basilan.

See

Do

Stay safe

See the information box in the Understand section.

Go next



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