This is Palawan
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This is Palawan
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Sulu Sea Islands

Cagayancillo

Municipality

Flock of terns over a white sandbar and turquoise shallows at Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park
Photo: Ron Van Oers / UNESCO, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons

Cagayancillo is a cluster of small, low islands ringed by reefs in the middle of the Sulu Sea, about 330 km east of Puerto Princesa and nearer to Antique on Panay, some 133 km away.

It is the closest settlement to Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, the atoll reefs in the open Sulu Sea that are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Area
Sulu Sea Islands
On the map
Open Cagayancillo in Google Maps

The local government

Mayor
Sergio Tapalla
Vice mayor
Lourdes Lanoy
Municipality of
Cagayancillo
PSGC code
1705308000
Barangays
12
Land area
26.4 km²

Elected on 12 May 2025 for the term to 30 June 2028, named as on the ballot, from the count COMELEC released (via Rappler); checked 9 November 2026. An official can be suspended or replaced during a term, so the town hall has the last word.

In an emergency

Call 911

Cagayancillo’s disaster office (MDRRMO): 0917-139-8622

From the provincial emergency page, checked 8 November 2026. Every emergency number

  • Municipal Government of Cagayancillo (Facebook)Facebook page, opens in a new tab
Every local government in Palawan

Cagayancillo in pictures

Keep scrolling and they travel past. Press one to see it whole.

Flock of terns over a white sandbar and turquoise shallows at Tubbataha Reefs Natural ParkPhoto: Ron Van Oers / UNESCO, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons
The ranger station on stilts at Tubbataha, alone on the open seaPhoto: Dianathegreat2018, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Its people and its past

Early settlers came from Panay and were known as skilled shipbuilders; under early Spanish rule the islands were governed from Arevalo in Iloilo.

The diamond-shaped Cagayancillo Fort, of sea rock and lime with walls 12 m high and 3 m thick around a church, took about 130 years to complete and is one of the Spanish forts that still stand in Palawan.

Signature places in Cagayancillo

  • Flock of terns over a white sandbar and turquoise shallows at Tubbataha Reefs Natural ParkTubbataha Reefs Natural ParkReef

Also around Cagayancillo

  • heritage

    Cagayancillo Fort

    A Spanish-era fort of sea rocks and lime on a high point of the coast. It encloses a church within walls 12 m high and 3 m thick.

    Cagayancillo - Wikipedia
  • island

    Calusa Island

    An outlying island of Cagayancillo, run as an island sitio under Barangay Magsaysay.

    Cagayancillo - Wikipedia
  • island

    Cavili Island

    An outlying island of Cagayancillo, run as an island sitio under Barangay Magsaysay.

    Cagayancillo - Wikipedia

Where it is

Cagayancillo

270 km east of Puerto Princesa, as the crow flies.

Its nearest towns

  • Cuyo142 km north
  • Magsaysay144 km north
  • Araceli171 km north-west
  • Agutaya177 km north
The areaSulu Sea IslandsEvery local governmentThe LGU directory