The Sulu Archipelago and its people, by Sixto Y. Orosa ...

14 SULU ARCHELAGO AND ITS PEOPLE

kilometers of second-class road. There are three large
concrete market buildings on the island of Jolo; and
86 kilometers of telephone lines reach all the constabulary stations on the island. In 1918 the Bureau of Lands
surveyed 1290 parcels of land, containing a total area of
16,838 hectares; and 375 free patents were applied for,
covering an area of 4260 hectares.
The surveying of land is one of the most important
tasks in Sulu today. For many years there have been
numerous disputes over boundaries and titles. Some of
these disputes have given rise to lawlessness./The
chiefs formerly claimed all the land over which they
ruled, and the people living on the land were regarded
very much as their tenants, Now the land is being surveyed in the names of the actual occupants, thus doing
away with the "datu claims." Some of the datus have
bitterly resented this change, but it has met with the
approbation of the people. It is estimated that there
are on the island of Jolo about 10,000 hectares of land
which the land court will declare to be public property.
This land extends from Bilaan, on the east coast, into
the interior. Over 4000 hectares of land between Bilaan
and Taglibi have been reserved, by act of the Philippine
Legislature, for the sultan and his near relatives. This
land is to be developed by the government, and the
products are to go to the Kiram family in consideration
of land claims that the family has agreed to renounce.
Practically all the land on the island of Tawi-Tawi is
public property.
There is only one regularly maintained jail for the
province, and that is the one at Jolo. During the year
1918 the total number of prisoners committed to the
provincial jail was 600, while in the year 1917 the total