Abdusakur Mahail Tan

The Honorable
Abdusakur Mahail Tan
The Honorable Abdusakur Mahail Tan
	Tan in 2023
Governor of Sulu
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; June 30, 2019
Preceded by	Abdusakur Tan II
	In office; June 30, 2007 – June 30, 2013
Preceded by	Benjamin Tupay Loong
Succeeded by	Abdusakur Tan II
	In office; 1996 – June 30, 2001
Preceded by	Hajib Munib Estino
Succeeded by	Yusop Jikiri
Vice Governor of Sulu
	In office; June 30, 2013 – May 2016
Member of the Philippine House of Representatives from the First District of Sulu
	In office; June 30, 1987 – June 30, 1992
Preceded by	Post created
Succeeded by	Bensaudi Tulawie
Member of the Municipal Council of Jolo
	In office; 1981–1987
Personal details
Born	July 13, 1950 (age 74); Maimbung, Sulu, Philippines
Political party	PDP (2019–present); Liberal (1981–2019)
Spouse	Hadja Nurunisah Abubakar

Abdusakur "Sakur" Mahail Tan (born July 13, 1950 in Maimbung) is a Filipino politician and current governor of Sulu Province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. He previously served as the Vice Governor of Sulu.

Background

Tan is of Chinese-Tausug descent and was born on July 13, 1950, in Maimbung, Sulu, the eldest child of Abubakar Tan (former mayor of Maimbung) and Satriya Mahail. He attended high school at the Notre Dame of Jolo for Boys and obtained a bachelor's degree in 1983 from the Notre Dame of Jolo College.^[1]

He is married to Nurunisah Abubakar-Tan, former Vice Governor of Sulu (daughter of former Jolo mayor Habib Aminkandra N. Abubakar) and has five children.^[2]

Political career

Tan established a political base in Jolo by aligning himself with the Abubakar and Isquerdo families. He served first as a municipal councilor of Jolo (1981–87), then as the representative of Sulu's first congressional district (1987–1992) and as governor (1996–2001).^[1] He lost the 2001 election to MNLF leader Yusop Jikiri but won the governorship a second time in 2007 with 110,715 votes.^[3] In 2010 he won re-election, beating rivals Munir Arbison and Nur Misuari by over 24,000 votes.^[4]

2010 Zamboanga City airport bombing

Tan was among 12 persons injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded at the arrival area of Zamboanga International Airport in August 2010. The attack was suspected to target Tan himself. The explosion occurred a few days after a suspected member of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Edgar Malaydan, was arrested in Monkayo, Compostela Valley.^[5]

2025 Bangsamoro election

On May 18, 2024, Tan announced that he would forego another term as governor in the 2025 local election and challenge Murad Ebrahim as Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro in the concurrent parliamentary elections during a rally in Maimbung. He received support from the BARMM Grand Coalition composed of the Serbisyong Inklusibo-Alyansang Progresibo Party, Al-Ittihad–UKB Party, Tan’s Salam Party, and the Bangsamoro People’s Party.^[6]

Tan presumably became ineligible to run for chief minister after the Supreme Court ruled on September 9, 2024 that Sulu was not part of the BARMM due to a majority of its voters choosing not to join the region in a 2019 plebiscite. Tan and his son, Abdusakur Tan II, had previously opposed Sulu's inclusion into the BARMM, with the latter, in his capacity as governor of Sulu, filing the petition that led to the Supreme Court decision.^[7] Tan welcomed the Supreme Court ruling despite its implication on his Chief Minister bid, believing that the province's exclusion from the autonomous region would be beneficial economically in the long run.^[8]