Last March 17, 2011 upon checking the calendar of activities
on upcoming dates it was announced that Friday that week is holiday called
Bangsamoro day. So I begun to ask anybody what is that holiday all about. Then
a media friend gave me a copy of this Re-Thinking the Bangsamoro Cruisible so I
read it.
Now I want to share this reading material for you to have a
deeper and wider perspective and understanding with Bangsamoro for they are as I
believe as quote out of context and misunderstood by us. Hoping that this material would enlighten us. Thank you.
Here is the preface and introduction:
BY: Oscar Evangelista
Philippine
History has not been very kind in telling the story of the Filipino Muslims. For too long, stereotyped impressions
have been preserved: Muslims have been
treated as pirates,
barbarians, juramentados who kill
Christians, etc. Glossed over is the fact that Islam built the first higher type of civilization
in what would become the
Philippines. Islam brought with it a whole range of politico-socio religious practices, generally put into place without
erasing preexisting ethnic cultures
and beliefs.
The arrival of the Spaniards and the introduction
of the Catholic religion sharply
divided what was once a people united in pre-colonial beliefs and practices. Thus were born the
animosities between Christian and
Muslim Filipinos, exacerbated by the writings of the Spaniards who considered the Muslims enemies. The stereotyped
impressions of the Muslims were perpetuated by early textbooks which
followed the Hispanic colonial perspective.
A case in point was the so called "Moro Wars" pointing to Moro attacks on Christian territories pillaging
and kidnapping "slaves"
with nary an explanation of the war from the Moro side, from whence it must have looked much like a
war against colonial aggression.
The cry for a better
presentation of Filipino Muslims and their plight as a minority group did get a response from
nationalist historians.
To bring Moro history
into mainstream Philippine History, the role of the Muslims in the Filipino struggles against colonialism has been emphasized
by pointing to the Muslims continued fight against the
Spaniards. The
exploits of Sultan Kudarat as a freedom fighter have long placed him on the roll of Filipino heroes. The charge
that Muslims were not part of the
revolutionary struggle of the Christians was refuted by Cesar Majul, noted scholar on the Muslims in the
Philippines, who theorized that
while the Muslims did not directly contribute to the rise of Philippine nationalism, theirs was a parallel movement
stressing the anti-colonial aspect of Philippine
nationalism. Historian Samuel Tan, whose scholarly
research and writing has focused on the struggles of the Muslims, has more recently followed this perspective in
his book, The Filipino-American War, 1899-1913, contrary to mainstream history
that the Filipino-American War ended with
the establishment of civil government in
1901.
While there were
occasional Muslim revolts against the Americans and later against the Philippine Republic, generally for legitimate
causes, the sense of separateness of the Muslims was strengthened with the
birth of Bangsa Moro in the 1960's.
This new CenPEG book,
Rethinking the Bangsamoro Crucible: A Reader thus serves as a valuable resource
documenting the struggles of the Moro
people from their early beginnings (Abreu's article) to contemporary developments: the negotiations of
the MNLF and the MILF with the
Philippine Government; the economic issues and neoglobalism, etc. With a
progressive viewpoint, the scholarly articles of Kenneth Bauzon, Julkipli Wadi, and Temario Rivera, among others, present the Moro perspective and their desire for
self-determination. The issues of
American presence in Mindanao and its connection to the antiterrorist campaigns, and "development
programs" are highlighted for what
they really are.
There are, likewise,
socio-cultural articles like the study of the Muslim women of Palawan (Maria Carinnes P. Alejandria) and that of Muslim songs of resistance (Alexander Martin
Remollino).
Rethinking the Bangsamoro Crucible: A Reader is a
welcome resource for all who are interested
in understanding the Moro view of their
own history and culture.
OSCAR L. EVANGELISTA
Professor of History (Retired)
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City;
Consultant, Palawan
State UniV.
The idea of
coming out with a Moro reader took off during some
informal talks
among Fellows and staff of CenPEG sometime
June 2007 about the
conduct of the May elections in the Muslim provinces. CenPEG had been in the thick of the election monitoring through
its involvement with the non-government Task Force Poll Watch (TFPW), the mobilization of its student volunteers from the Volunteers Integration Program (VIP), and
networking with lawyers groups and
other poll watchers. Naturally, interest also centered on the elections in the ARMM with reports reaching the
CenPEG office that dramatized widespread voters disenfranchisement, cheating,
and the involvement of corrupt election officials in fraud.
Disturbing in those discussions and poll watching
was the graphic and brutal truth of
a region in prolonged disquiet - a whole society unhealed from its generational wounds of violence, grinding poverty, and election manipulation. ARMM and other Muslim
provinces constitute the most
depressed region in the Philippines - the outcome of land grabbing by landlords
and transnational corporations, and of being left out from so-called development paradigms that all the more fueled
armed conflicts with deep historical roots.
At that time also,
the peace talks between the GRP-MILF ground to a halt over the issue of the Bangsamoro ancestral domain. There was also news of more joint war exercises between U.S. and
Filipino troops in Sulu and other
provinces in pursuit of what was turning out to be a permanent war against the Abu Sayyaf. The whole situation
spoke of a region torn by
critical conditions in the socio-economic and political
spheres while the search for
stable governance remained fruitless. There were opposing views on how to approach the peace process. But some of
the modalities of crisis
resolution being pushed either tended to obfuscate the fundamental issues or were driven by goals that made
peace even less promising.
These impressions gave birth to a plan for CenPEG
to come up with a publication in the form of a Moro reader. A major reason for
the plan is to publish the reader as
CenPEGs contribution toward rekindling public awareness on the issue of the Bangsamoro struggle for secession or self-determination. Another is to offer the book as a
reference material for current and
future discussions on critical Moro issues particularly among people's organizations, non-state
institutions, human rights groups,
poll watchers, academic community, democratic governance institutes, media, and Moro-oriented research
agencies. The last is to revive
interest among CenPEG's network of partners, online subscribers and publication readers, roundtable/ forum
participants, and other sectors for the amplification and resolution of Moro
issues particularly on
self-determination, policy legislations, and other aspects of governance. In the course of editorial work, the
Moro reader eventually evolved its
title Rethinking the Bangsamoro Crucible: A Reader.
Views and options
The contributors to this book - many of them
scholars and educators in their
myriad fields of academic and non-academic expertise in the Philippines and other countries - represent
varied perspectives on looking at the
thematic issue, the Bangsamoro struggle for self-determination. The views and, in some respects, policy recommendations of the authors are based on their
own assessment of the complex issue.
But this should not dilute the fact that their studies are a product of a shared interest, as defined in the
preceding paragraph, as well as a
shared belief that the Moro people have the rights to life, freedom, land, and progress.
CenPEG's policy study
program includes conducting research and analysis of the Philippines' political and governance system. The
Center's multi-disciplinary
approaches developed by its roster of Fellows and researchers dissect politics and governance in the
context of the country's socio-economic
and political structures and dynamics. As in the rest of the
national society, one particular perspective looks at the Moro situation and the difficulties of crisis
resolution in the context of power relationships
as defined by the control of resources and, hence, by power hegemony. The Moro reader is CenPEGs first step at
assessing the interplay of forces
and other actors in the Bangsamoro, including the role of feudal-based political dynasties, traditional
warlords, transnational corporations,
foreign intervention, and state bureaucrats that continue to pin the Moroland to its institutional injustices
and, hence, recurrent armed
conflicts.
Historical backdrop
Nearly all the research studies in this book
provide some historical backdrop to
the thematic issue. Giving specific focus on the historical overview are the studies of Lualhati M. Abreu,
"Colonialism and Resistance: A
Historical Perspective," and Julkipli Wadis "Multiple Colonialism in Moroland." Abreau's study
reiterates the roots of the nation-states
among the Islamized indigenous groups in MindanaoSulu-Palawan with influence extending to parts of
Visayas and Luzon even before the
European incursions and Spanish colonial annexation of the archipelago in the early 16 century. The resistance of the Moro peoples against these trepidations in order to
guard their nation-states and
ethnicity was waged through the long period of colonialism, chiefly by Spain and the United States, followed by the
founding of the Third Republic in 1946 that began the arbitrary assertion for the
territorial co-optation of the Moro
provinces, resulting in the ethnocidal attacks by the Philippine armed forces and government-backed
private armies during the 1950s-1960s triggering the wars of secession and
self-determination of the 1970s until today.
Wadis "Multiple Colonialism in
Moroland" takes cognizance of the Philippines
as being burdened by a neo-colonial status under the United States. In his study, however, Wadi clarifies the
four major strands of control over
Moroland: U.S. colonialism, Philippine colonialism ("direct, relative to the Moros"), multilateral
colonialism which includes corporate
globalization, and the current U.S. colonial invasion particularly in southern Philippines under the
global "war on terror." The
authors formulation illustrates the nuances of colonialism in Moroland even as he reminds us about the
"'short-sightedness, factionalism,
and disunity" seriously plaguing the Moro struggle while
Muslim trapos (traditional politicians) end up benefiting from the peace dividend and presumed economic development in Mindanao.
Independence or autonomy
In his "The Struggle of the Muslim People in
the Southern Philippines:
Independence or Autonomy?" Temario C. Rivera notes that the Moro movement to establish an independent
state has gone through cycles of armed struggle, international diplomacy,
mediation, and peace negotiations
without reaching any satisfactory closure. The current demographic and political realities in southern
Philippines, he says, dramatize the
difficulty of pursuing an independent Moro homeland but the continued marginalization of the
Muslim-dominated provinces remains a potent force for resistance. He
warns that the renewed presence of U.S.
forces in Mindanao could derail efforts for a lasting political solution since American intervention
largely subsumes the local armed
conflicts to U.S. strategic interests in its current war on terrorism. With the Moro struggle reaching a critical stage,
it is time to look for feasible
alternatives and one of these, Rivera avers, is to expand or deepen autonomy whether in the framework of
federalism or by radically amending
the organic act that created the ARMM. He also points out the many intractable issues related to legitimizing the
creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical
Entity (BJE) as proposed by the MILF.
Indeed, in the ongoing peace process between the
GRP and MILF that is brokered by the Malaysian government, the major
contentious issue is the ancestral
domain. Abreu's second study, "Ancestral Domain Claim - the Core Issue," seeks to provide
clarity to this controversy stressing,
in particular, that this territorial claim is at the core of the Bangsamoros fight for self-determination.
Historically, Abreu writes, the
ancestral domains claim is based on the Moro peoples customary laws that date back to pre-Spanish colonization
and has been the rallying call for
armed resistance to retake their homeland. The MILF leadership, in the current talks with the GRP, categorically
identifies its claim over predominantly
Moro communities. Even if they appear to be flexible, this precisely remains thorny not only because there are
non-Moro indigenous peoples and
other settlers in these communities but also because, as reported, while the MILF is asking for 1,000 barangays the
GRP is willing to allow only 600.
Neoliberal globalization
Kenneth E. Bauzons "Ruminations on the
Bangsamoro Struggle and Neoliberal
Globalization," brings a new dimension to the analysis of the Moro struggle. His ruminations center on
"the role of overarching economic policies and principles"
being pushed by the Philippine government at
the behest of the global institutions of foreign governments packaged under "neoliberal globalization" which,
he laments, even Nur Misuari, leader
of the MNLF, failed to recognize or anticipate.
A concrete illustration, Bauzon writes, is the neoliberal formula behind the 1996 final peace agreement
between the GRP and MNLF that brought to an end the Moro rebels two decades of
rebellion. The United States, Japan,
Australia and other countries, Bauzon notes, have staked their interests in
Mindanao - dangling economic aid while pursuing other programs that are
essentially counter-insurgency instruments
as they set their eyes at deeper geo-political and economic objectives.
The paper, "The Economic and Security
Intricacies of the Bangsamoro
Struggle" seeks to substantiate Bauzons neoliberal globalization underlying the peace agenda and
other forms of foreign intervention
in Mindanao. But this paper of Bobby M. Tuazon also underscores the interplay of renewed U.S.
economic objectives and the infusion
of economic assistance in Mindanao, on the one hand, and the pursuit of geo-military or security objectives in
Southeast Asia through its basing
operations in the southern Philippines, on the other. Tuazon notes that the
U.S. peace overtures to the MILF and its support for the peace process with a pledge of financial grants
contingent on a final peace accord
are apparently designed to soften Muslim guerilla intransigence as it deepens its basing facilities and operations
in the region. Interestingly, there are
clues that the MILF is open to negotiations on the U.S. military bases and, apparently, Moro leaders
do not take the U.S. presence with a modicum of concern.
Abhoud Syed M. Linggas paper, "Understanding
the Bangsamoro Right to
Self-Determination," is strong on using the framework of international treaties and conventions to assert
the Moro peoples right to self-determination,
as articulated in the MILF's position in the current peace talks with the GRP. Bangsamoro leaders,
Lingga states, had under U.S. colonialism
asserted their right as a nation-state. Such assertion was followed by strong resistance against attempts to
be integrated into the
Conversations with Nur
The tribulations of the Moro people particularly
as regards their yet unresolved
ancestral domain claim and onslaught of neoliberal globalization will persist because the Philippine
government is an "untrustworthy
and an unreliable negotiating partner." That is why, Bauzon writes in his second paper, "Searching
for Peace in the Southern Philippines:
A Conversation with Nur Misuari," it is "important for the struggle for Bangsamoro dignity and identity to
carry on." The paper is an
annotated interview with former MNLF chair and ARMM Coy. Nur Misuari held on August 11, 1999. Despite its
belated publication, Bauzon explains
that the historical document opens insights into Misuari's definitive thinking at that time and offers some
clarity into the events that transpired
later including major flaws of the ARMM.
"40 Years of Revolutionary Struggles"
traverses the various armed movements
in Mindanao led by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and
the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP). The study, written by Abreu and Tuazon, explains the ties forged between the Leftist
armed movement and the Bangsamoro
rebel groups in the course of fighting a common enemy that made it more
imperative over and above their ideological diversity. What is important is that the armed mass struggles share some common roots and grounds particularly, albeit in varying
degrees, the Moro people's right to
self-determination.
Political dynasties
in the Bangsamoro may have similarities with those in the rest of the country but their unique characteristics borne
out of the old social and economic
structures make them different in many ways.
Ruling oligarchs in the Bangsamoro, Professor Wadi contends in his second study, "Moro Political
Dynasty," have arisen from the
Muslim women of Palawan
A
unique contribution to the Moro reader is Maria Carinnes P. Alejandrias "Veiled Political Realities: The
Case of Muslim Women in Palawan." There have been no women mujahideen in
the current Moro wars of independence except to perform auxiliary role
and this is explained by the strong feudal
relations in the traditional Moro society as well as, says Alejandria, the "cultural impediments to the active participation of women in political and economic
affairs." But her study of Muslim
women in Palawan - which had its share of the Moro resistance since the 16th century - unearths an increasing level of radical
albeit un-articulated dissident
politics among them. Still harboring a deep
distrust in government, many of the Muslim women the author interviewed were inclined to support the Moro
armed movement if "constitutional
and conventional means of political participation" do not work.
But
certainly there are other ways of fighting in a Muslim jihad. Alexander
Martin Remollino, poet and feature writer, writes of the legacy of the Moro peoples artistic expressions of
their struggle in his "Songs of
Resistance, Tales of Pride in Moroland." The Bangsamoros struggles have inspired artistic expressions
mostly through traditional narrative
ballads or folk songs. Songs and tales are thus alive and, in 2007, these resonated in radio stations in Sulu and
other provinces recounting Moro
warriors battles against U.S. troops at the turn of the 20 century. The
narrative songs were broadcast as organized Muslim communities took to the
streets to oppose the presence of U.S. troops in southern Philippines.
I AM STILL WORKING ON ATTACHING THE WHOLE READING MATERIAL FOR YOUR COMPLETE REFERENCE.
