Bongao is one of eleven (11) municipalities comprising the province of Tawi-Tawi in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region ( BARMM ). The town is politically subdivided into thirty-five (35) barangays, and is a part of the Lone Congressional District of Tawi-Tawi.
The municipality consists of three major islands (Bongao, Pababag and Sanga-Sanga), as well as a portion of mainland Tawi-Tawi, plus several outlying minor islands and isolated islets.
Bongao is the province’s cultural, commercial and educational hub, a minuscule cosmopolitan center that is becoming a model of a multi-cultural society. In downtown Bongao, there are mosques for the majority Muslim population, a Catholic church, a church for Protestant inhabitants, a Chinese temple, a church for the Iglesia ni Cristo, a church of the Seventh-Day Adventists and a Baptist church.
Datu Halun Street in Poblacion is the main thoroughfare, and where the Town Hall is situated. Most of the businesses here are owned by local Chinese. Banks operating in Bongao include Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine National Bank and Allied Banking Corporation. Due to its relative peace and order situation, the town has been experiencing the gradual influx of migrant Muslim and Chinese traders from Zamboanga.
Bongao is home to two government-owned state colleges ~ the Mindanao State University - Tawi-Tawi College of Technology and Oceanography (MSU-TCTO) and Tawi-Tawi State Agricultural College (TSAC) ~ as well as several privately-owned colleges, namely the Mahardika Institute of Technology (MITI), Abubakar Learning Center Foundation College (ACLC), and Tawi-Tawi School of Midwifery (TSF). One of the best schools for secondary education is the Science High School, which is a part of MSU-TCTO.
Bongao still serves as the provincial capital (de facto), although this designation had been transferred officially to Panglima Sugala (formerly Balimbing). Most of the provincial government’s agencies and services, though, are still administered from here.
The white-washed, Taj Mahal-inspired provincial capitol building is located on a hill overlooking the bay and the whole town to the north of the island, against the backdrop of Mount Kabugan and the famous Bud Bongao (Bongao Peak).