Moro-Moro on the Rise

More than 100 years after moro-moro plays were popularized by Spanish colonizers in the Philippines to fan anti-Muslim resentment among the people, the same tactic continues, according to a militant Muslim-Christian group.

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat.com

The moro-moro is a play that became popular in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period. It depicted battles between Christians and Moros-as Muslims in the Philippines are popularly known-with the Moros as the perpetual villains who always lost to the Christians in the end.

Progressive historians have viewed the moro-moro as a tactic by the Spanish colonizers to demonize the Moros, the largest ethnic group that successfully warded off attempts at conquering them. The moro-moro plays helped fan the flames of anti-Moro sentiments among the Christianized ethnic groups.

Today, Filipino Muslim groups point to the continuing effects of the moro-moro as seen in the recent cases of harassment of Muslims not only in Mindanao but also in the Muslim communities.

MILF fighters: terrorists?

As the Islamic holy month of Ramadan began last Nov. 6, the government announced that the United States was planning to include the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in its list of "foreign terrorist organizations."

The Moros did not miss the irony. This announcement drew a stinging rebuttal from Amirah Ali Lidasan, secretary-general of the Moro-Christian People's Alliance (MCPA). 

"The U.S.' plan to tag the MILF as a terrorist group and its timely announcement by the Arroyo government during the very first day of Ramadan is a blatant disrespect of Islamic principles and Muslims all over the world. However, we do not find this surprising at all, for after the US's arrogant tagging of the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization, other pro-people organizations that are against the US-Arroyo clique are sure to be on their hit list," Lidasan said.

Muslim "bombers"

Last Nov. 13, several persons were arrested in connection with the recent series of bombings in Metro Manila and Zamboanga. Most of them are residents of the Muslim Compound in Barangay Culiat, Tandang Sora, Quezon City.

As a WG&A Super Ferry from Cotabato City unloaded its passengers at Pier 4 at 1 p.m., six Muslim civilians were arrested. Three of them - Muhaliddin Hassan, Argie Adam and an unidentified female - are residents of the Muslim Compound. They are all detained in Camp Crame, the Philippine National Police headquarters located in Quezon City.

The MCPA condemned the arrest of the six and denied that the three Culiat residents are MILF members. In a press statement, Lidasan said that Hassan is a vendor with a wife in Saudi Arabia, his cousin Adam is a construction worker in Laguna, and the unidentified female is Hassan's sister-in-law. 

"Their only purpose in going to Cotabato last October 16 was to attend the wedding of Hassan's sister," Lidasan explained.

There were also raids in Barangay Culiat that day.

There was one raid at 4:00 a.m. Another took place at 1:00 p.m., in which one male was arrested. An hour later, there was another raid; two persons were arrested. K-9 sniffing dogs were used in some of these raids, according to the human rights group Karapatan.

At 2:15 pm, nine members of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and elements of the National Bureau of Investigation, armed with baby armalites and .45 caliber pistols, broke into the Lumpingan residence.

Without identifying themselves, they said they had come with a warrant of arrest for a certain "Salongga," with an address of 106-C Lanao Street, Muslim Compound, Barangay Culiat, Quezon City—beside the Lumpingan residence.

Five of the raiders went straight to the second floor and searched the area, though residents of the house had explained that the person mentioned in the arrest warrant does not live there. Nurmina Lumpingan, 14, a member of the Kalipunan ng Migranteng Pilipino at Pamilya (KMPP), was held at gunpoint by one of them and ordered to come down. The four other SWAT members searched the first floor.

Abdullah Lumpingan, 71, who suffers from a heart ailment and is another KMPP member, was also threatened at gunpoint.

The raiders only stopped searching the house after Tarhata Lumpingan, 43, KMPP vice chair, explained that they are KMPP members and when they discovered the Lumpingans' Bayan Muna ID cards among their belongings.

"They might squeal on us to Satur Ocampo," one of the raiders remarked, referring to a Bayan Muna representative.

Islamophobia

Lidasan sees in all these a manifestation of what she calls “Islamophobia.”

"This series of arrests in Muslim communities and the tagging of innocent Muslims as terrorists are glaring manifestations of Islamophobia, the demonizing of Muslims in the eyes of the people," she said. Bulatlat.com

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