(taken from peyups.com)
I am from Kidapawan, Mindanao. I am a Christian. I disagree with Balikatan II. I disagree with war as the solution to the Mindanao problem. Allow me to share with you a history of this problem, my opinion, and my suggestion, in the hopes of shedding light and sympathy for the people of Mindanao. Since most of the decisions are being decided by those from Luzon and the Visayas, this short narration is crucial. Keep in mind, if anything else, that ignorance always breeds bloodshed.
Pre-Spanish era Philippines was divided into ethno-linguistic groups. In the north were the Tagalogs, Pampango, Kapangpangan, Ilocanos, Ibanags, and Bicolanos. These were further broken down into tribes. The Ifugaos, Igorots, Aetas represented the highland groups. In the Visayas were the Cebuanos, Ilongos, Warays, and Aklanons. In Mindanao, the T?boli, Mano?bo?s, and Bisayas in northern Mindanao. The Muslim groups here were represented by the Maguindanaos, Maranaws, Tausugs, and the Yakans. Back then these groups fought. They fought for control of trade routes, for slaves, and other various reasons but the main point of note is that their religions were of no importance during these little wars. The low land tribes, such as the Cebuanos and Tagalogs, worshiped anitos specific to there regions. So did the Negritos and Igorots of the high lands. The Yakans, Samals, and Tausugs worshiped Islam, a religion they readily accepted from Muslim traders. The Philippine Islands during this time was already experiencing the fruits of the Southeast Asian trades, between China, Borneo, Sumatra, India, Japan, and Siam.
Then enter the Spaniards. They brought with them their swords and their friars, who practiced Catholicism of the Dark Ages. While Europe was waking up into their Age of Exploration, the Catholic Church was still involved in extortion, rapes, and various other criminal acts. This was the Catholicism brought to the Philippines. After subduing the lowlanders, i.e. the Tagalogs, Ilongos, Ilocanos, and Cebuanos, the Spaniards set out to conquer Mindanao. Because the Maguindanao, Maranaw, and Tausug sultanates were more organized and held a strategically more fortified region, the Spaniards never conquered them. They managed to place an outpost in Zambaonga, but that was all they accomplished.
Enter the Americans. The upper class Filipinos took over the revolution began by the peasants against the Spaniards, and decided to hand over their new nation to the Americans (they fought half heartedly, prioritizing their status over the nation?s freedom). The lower class continued their struggle in the mountains, but eventually they were defeated. Luzon and the Visayas knelt to their new colonizer, the US. Mindanao was next. Where the Spaniards only succeeded to call the Maguindanaos, Tausugs, Maranaws, and the Yakans collectively as Moros, the U.S. was determined to win Mindanao. ?If they could pacify the American Indians, it shouldn't be too hard to conquer Mindanao', the Americans reasoned. This was the early 1900s.
Enter the American corporations. Dole and Del Monte are among the largest of these companies. These corporations still hold vast amounts of land throughout Mindanao, i.e. Davao, and Cagayan de Oro. A few years before these companies effectively manipulated the American government to invade and conquer the islands of Hawaii, a sovereign nation at that time. The main purpose was the acquisition of more lands to grow pineapple and sugar. The anti-imperialist forces in America forbade these companies from touching Luzon and Visayas. So they along with the U.S. military set their sites on Mindanao.
With better arsenal the U.S. succeeded, where the Spaniards left off. But unlike the Spaniards, Mindanao was left to continue its culture. This is the most interesting part. While Luzon and the Visayas were set to be Americanized, a different policy was being developed for Mindanao. The U.S. military and the above companies wanted Mindanao for themselves. So, while the U.S. military encouraged the Muslims to continue their traditions, they were making case for full military colonization of Mindanao. Luzon and the Visayas did not require full military colonization because they were already Christianized and Europeanized, Westernized. Mindanao however required the full attention of the U.S. military. So under the auspices of the U.S. army, the corporations prospered. The more Mindanao looked uncivilized in the eyes of the Americans, the more justified the military occupation in Mindanao was.
Although the Muslims groups were subdued, culturally they were not conquered as the Cebuanos, Tagalogs, and the Ilocanos were. So, under American occupation little Moro children went to school, but they were taught to continue their traditions and culture. While their Christian brethrens were mastering the intricacies of Americanization and American laws, the Muslims in Mindanao were effectively getting marginalized by the Americans, still practicing their native ways and customs. This would later prove disastrous after WWII, as this ignorance of American laws and culture led to the Muslims? victimization by their more westernized counterparts of the north, the Cebuanos and the Tagalogs.
After WWII, the Americans left. They passed the torch of western American thought to their fully colonized prodigies, the Tagalogs and the Cebuanos. After the Americans left, these Americanized bearers of government saw the vastness of Mindanao. They patterned a settlement program similar to what the Americans did in the west, when they killed off all the Native Americans under "Manifest Destiny". They invited various people from Luzon and the Visayas to settle in Mindanao. The people of the north were now the new colonizers of Mindanao. It is the late 1940s.
This is where my family comes in. From Cebu, my parents were educators. In the 1950s, the state constructed various schools and colleges throughout Mindanao. I attended elementary, high school, and college here. 1960s was a great time in Mindanao. My classmates were Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Ilongos, Maguidanaos, Maranaws, some Tausugs, and still some from indigenous tribes such as the T?boli and Mano'bo'. The land was beautiful and the people got along very well. We were foreigners, but the local Muslims and Mindanao natives welcomed us as new settlers. We were all Filipinos, and proud of it. Just 20 years before our parents fought the great Japanese empire and defeated them.
In the mid 1960s, a few settlers became too greedy and began tricking various Muslim peasants into giving up their lands. Once a few more settlers got wind of this ignorance?that many Muslims were not fully aware of the intricacies of western land laws and codes?these peasants became common victims. Eventually it snowballed; many more Muslim peasants were ousted from their lands by Christian settlers. The natives of this land were now being marginalized and victimized further since American occupation of Mindanao. This was the beginning of Muslim peasant displacement. Landless now, they became refugees.
The MIM (Muslim Islamic Movement) was established by Datu Udtug Matalam in 1968. The former Governor of Cotabato, Matalam was ousted from his office in 1967. Prior to forming the MIM, Matalam was the premier advocate of Christian-Muslim political harmony in Mindanao. Having become a political casualty himself, by a Christian supported Muslim rival, Matalam decided to call for Mindanao secession.
1968 was also the year of the Jabidah Massacre on Corregidor Island, off Manila Bay. About 30 Muslims from Sulu had been executed by Ilocano Philippine Army officers. There were originally 180 Muslim trainees recruited from Mindanao, and brought to Corregidor Island for secret military training. Their secret mission, devised by Marcos, was for the infiltration of Sabah, Malaysia. The small Muslim force was to invade and destabilize the region of Sabah, preparing it for a larger Philippine Army invasion. Very similar to the ?Bay of Pigs? incident, devised by the Americans to oust the Castro regime. So, the Muslim trainees traveled to Corregidor. In the process of the training, the Muslims were severely maltreated by their Ilocano trainers. They also did not receive their promised pay. In response, the Muslims demanded to be allowed to go back home. The Philippine Army, in response, executed 30 of the Muslims. This became the Jabidah Massacre of 1968, and became the catalyst for the larger Mindanao Muslim secessionist struggle. Amidst the violence, extortion, and illegal Christian land acquisition in Mindanao, the Jabidah Massacre was the last straw that broke the camel?s back.
Two rising leaders of the Mindanao struggle, were Nur Misuari and Hashim Salamat. Both became active after the Jabidah Massacre. Nur Misuari, from Sulu, represented the emerging western educated new counter-elite. He attended the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Hashim Salamat, from Maguindanao, represented the middle-eastern educated cleric counter-elite. He attended Al-Azhar, in Egypt. In contrast, Datu Udtug Matalam represented the old datu elites of Mindanao.
Misuari and Salamat, first met under Datu Udtug?s MIM meeting. At this time the MIM was just a small unpopular movement whose only public political actions were pronouncements in the form of manifestos and declarations of policy publicized in the press and disseminated to politicians and leaders. Basically, a useless propaganda machine. Eventually military training was begun under the MIM, but soon after came Marcos? martial law.
Under martial law, all political groups were ordered to be disbanded. The MIM (later renamed Mindanao Independence Movement in 1973,a sponsored government front organization to wrest popular support away from the MNLF) was dissolved, and Datu Udtug Matam pledged his allegiance to Marcos. The Datu class (established elites) of Mindanao did three things in response to the martial law: 1). They left the country, 2) they supported the Marcos regime, or 3) they joined the MNLF. The majority of the datus supported Marcos.
This left only the new emerging counter-elites, one western educated and the other, Islamic educated. In response to the martial law, the Moro National Liberation Front was formed and later went underground to fight for a free Mindanao and defend against Philippine Military atrocities perpetrated against the Muslims of Mindanao.
Misuari, a reluctant soldier, was an academic, a professor of political science and a product of UP Diliman. As a poor scholar from Sulu, Misuari saw first hand the injustices of the state, along with its few settlers, have perpetrated. He saw the injustice the state perpetuated upon the Muslims outside of Mindanao. The settlers who stole lands were now engaging in full extortion using arms and the military to retain the lands they've stolen. In response, Nur Misuari formed the above group. It represented Christians, Muslims, and indigenous groups who were now living in Mindanao, but needed to defend themselves from the new settlers infected with greed. Around the same time Sison's NPA also developed. More and more the settlers who stole lands were being helped by the state's military. So these groups organized and began to defend themselves. Misuari believed the only way to save themselves from these thieves and the military is to form an entirely different nation, the Bangsa Moro. In 1984, Hashim Salamat would later peel off the MNLF, to form a more Islamic oriented organization, the MILF.
When Marcos came in the picture, he made the situation, which could have been solved by dialogue, entirely worst. He sent in his Ilocano military to attack the NPA, MNLF and MILF groups which had legitimate grievances with the state, who begged for dialogue. Marcos?s answer was to annihilate them. During this time, the military killed anyone and everyone who got in their way. This led to more displacement of both Christian and Muslim peasants in Mindanao. Seizing the opportunity, Ilocano officers, decided it was high time that they participate in the acquisition of lands. Stealing the lands left behind, as well as extorting those which were still occupied.
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My Humble Opinion
Fast forward to 2003. The U.S. is now in a rampage to kill anyone Muslim. It?s labeling all groups who are anti American as terrorist, regardless of their reasons, which are mostly economic and representation. These are dangerous times. The groups I?ve mentioned above have legitimate grievances with their government, very similar to the grievances the American colonies had towards the English crown in the late 1700s. The problem in Mindanao can be easily compared to the U.S. policy towards its native American Indians in the 1800s. The Indians were killed off to make way for American westward expansion. Now the products of these Americans, the Tagalogs and the Cebuanos, are doing the same to the Mindanao natives.
In my eyes the Philippine military is more a terrorist organization than the above groups. It wouldn't surprise me if the ones responsible for the bombings in Mindanao were connected to the military to bolster support for American intervention. This has happened before. For the military, it is nothing new.
Now specifically, the Abu Sayyaf. This group, at most numbers 500 men. Before Balikatan I, last year, this small group consistently out maneuvered a regiment size military force, comprising of Philippine marines and army soldiers, in the small island of Basilan. How is this possible? They are supposed to be Muslim fundamentalists, but they have been known to eat lechon and engage in many non-Muslim acts. Kidnap for ransom is something common in the Philippines and almost all the time, the ones behind such operations are various personalities in the Philippine military or the national police. More and more I?m led to believe that the Abu Sayyaf was a mere tool designed by the military to justify an all out attack against various Mindanao liberation factions with the help of the U.S. military. Let us not forget, that the military since the 1970s has consistently derailed peace talks thru bombings, executions, and intimidation. This is understandable, as the military officers stand to benefit from the chaos it produces in Mindanao.
We have to be more critical about the issues involved. I?ve lived through a peaceful Mindanao, and I?m sure if all parties involved were willing to talk to solve the problems at hand, your generation can see the beautiful Mindanao I saw in the 60s. War is not a solution, as too many peasant refugees and innocent lives have already been affected by the fate of history that has befallen Mindanao.
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My Simple Suggestion
We began with mere ethno-linguistic differences. The Aetas, Negritos, Agtas, and other original Filipinos, called us "straight haired". And we called them "curly haired". There was never mention of light and dark skins, until the Spaniards came. Skin color was a European means of separating the world: light skins were smart and dark skins were stupid--a foreign value from foreign invaders.
The Spaniards called the ethnic groups in Mindanao ?Moros?, because they resembled the Moors who they've recently driven out from Spain. The Moors gave the Spaniards architecture, arithmetic, science, art and music. The 'Moros' in Mindanao were exactly like the 'Catholics' of the Visayas and Luzon. They practiced the rituals, rites, and prayers of their foreign beliefs but both groups knew very little of their religion. Both foreign religions existed side by side with indigenous beliefs. To this day, there are 'Catholic' and 'Muslim' mananambals (shamans). Our indigenous similarities still out-weight our foreign differences.
The Americans fostered Muslim separatism to suite their interest: the U.S. military and U.S. corporations wanted Mindanao for themselves, separate from Manila's control. After WWII, when the Americans left, the cold war set in and two super powers grew. To balance this, the Middle East, under Nasser of Egypt attempted to push for pan-Arabism. Under this, he invited young Muslims around the world to attend Arab cleric universities in the 1960s. Prior to this, the only Arab connection to Mindanao was more than 500 years ago when Islam first came to our islands. This was at the wane of Islam's golden era.
1960s for Islam, signify another era, an era sanctioned by the Wahabi clan (religious clan of Saudi Arabia) and their sole interpretation of Islam. While the Saud clan handles civil matters, the Wahabi clan handles religious matters for the rest of the Muslim world. Only history can analyze the significance of this era. The 'Muslim' conflict in Mindanao is only 30 yrs old. Prior to 'Muslimizing' the issue, our conflict was merely a human one--of GREED. 'Muslimization' of the Mindanao issue began when Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq interfered.
Granted, 'Muslimization' would never have happened had not our 'American-westernized' policy gone completely astray. Our government copied America's ?Manifest Destiny? policy and implemented it on Mindanao. Basically, those who were colonized, now wanted to colonize. And they targeted non-westernized Mindanao, marginalizing them as non-Filipinos.
Take away Manila's 'American-westernized' policy in Mindanao, take away our blinded 'America-is-the-best' philosophy of doing things, get rid of colonial mentality and our irrational dependence on the U.S., then take away the Middle East's interference in our domestic conflict, and we can begin working through the problem in its simplest form?simply that of GREED. Why is the state supporting illegal land acquisition? Why is the military supporting and participating in this illegal act? Slowly work through the problem as Filipinos?not Americanized Filipinos, not Catholicized Filipinos, not Muslimized Filipinos, just simply as FILIPINOS (a collective ethnic title only 100 years old), in which our indigenous similarities outweigh our foreign-influenced differences.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, everyone in Mindanao?from the Tagalogs to the Tausugs, the Bisayas to the Mano'bo's, Maguindanao to the Ilocanos?agreed to target only one group. That was the Ilongos, simply because they were, and still are, a bunch of braggarts. So, let's return to the peaceful Mindanao, in which we only make fun of one ethno-linguistic group?the ILONGOS!!! (this is a joke of course, among Filipinos as each group is known for a specific characteristic)
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