Moros Form 16th NDFP Group, Vow to Take ‘Correct Path of
Struggle’
“We are united in
continuing our struggle for our basic rights to self-determination and to
fight for the democratic rights of our people, rights that are continually
being abused by the reactionary Philippine state and its master, the
imperialist United States.”
By Cheryll D. Fiel
Bulatlat
DAVAO CITY -- The
Moros waging revolution the Communist way are back.
The Communist
movement announced last week the formation of the Moro Resistance and
Liberation Organization (MRLO), the newest and the 16th allied
organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. The
MRLO's precursor, the Moro Revolutionary Organization (MRO), was said to
been established in the 1980s at the height of the struggle against the
Marcos dictatorship.
In a statement it
co-signed with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the MRLO
said: “We declare our unity under the flag of the Moro Resistance and
Liberation Organization. We are united in continuing our struggle for our
basic rights to self-determination and to fight for the democratic rights
of our people, rights that are continually being abused by the reactionary
Philippine state and its master, the imperialist United States.”
It said that the
MRLO’s founding congress, held last month in the mountains of Central
Mindanao, was attended by representatives from 13 ethnolinguistic tribes
of the Bangsamoro: Tausug, Maguindanao, Maranao, Yakan, Iranun, Kalagan,
Sangil, Samal, Pullun/Jama Mapun, Kalibugan, Badjao, Molbuganon, and
Palawani.
MRLO's elected
chairperson Hassan Al-banna, who is a Maguindanaon, explained in a
telephone interview that the Moro people are put in a situation where they
have to fight their way to liberation.
Apart from neglect
from the central government, Al-Banna said many of the Moro people are
buried deep in poverty due to landlessness and concentration of wealth to
the ruling few.
The Moro people find
they can never improve their economic lives in a system where the rules
are imposed by bureaucrat capitalists, he said. "Feudalism and Bureaucrat
capitalism will stay as long as ruling class in connivance with
bureaucrats in the reactionary state continue to be serve the dictates of
U.S. imperialism," Al-Banna said.
The MRLO, he said,
rallies its members and the Moro people in the fight for
self-determination and democratic rights. "These are the same reasons we
go out to battle for," Al-Banna said.
He, however, pointed
out that what is distinct in the way they fight for autonomy is the fact
that they are fighting along "class lines." By this, Al-Banna meant, that
even among Moro people fighting for self-determination, there are those
protecting only their selfish or clan interests.
"We believe that
battling for an autonomy that still perpetrates this order, still falls
short of the Bangsamoro's aspiration for genuine liberation," Al-Banna
said.
Reasons for
fighting
Al-Banna deplored the
worst forms of suffering the Moro people had under these oppressors. He
said the Moro people could not forget the deceptive and exploitative
treaties that held them victims, such as the Kiram-Bates Treaty during the
American occupation and the 1976 Tripoli Agreement between Marcos
government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which reminds
them of how the Bangsamoro are being fooled by the Philippine state.
Al-Banna also counted
the worst forms of discrimination they endured such as the Bud Dahu
massacre in Jolo during the U.S.
occupation, the Jabidah and the Buldon massacres during the Marcos regime,
and the burning and destruction by the Estrada regime of Moro communities
and mosques.
And the bloodbath
still continues to this day, with the Arroyo regime’s all-out war, the
labeling of Moro people as terrorists, and the war against terror that the
U.S. presence in Mindanao use, according to Al-Banna, as a justification
to strengthen its neocolonial grip on the country.
Al-Banna described
these as conditions that only show how atrociously the Moro people are
being treated by the country's ruling elite and the U.S. imperialists.
These atrocities, he said, continue to haunt the Moro people, inciting
them to resist.
"And in fighting a
monstrous enemy, we have to have a method," Al-Banna said, pointing the
need to unite with a broad organization of people that carries out these
political goals.
Methods of
fighting
Being an NDF member
would mean that the MRLO’s methods of revolution, ideologicially,
politically and organizationally would be according to methods of the
front, that is, principally, by way of armed struggle, and secondarily, by
forging alliances with progressive organizations, including other Moro
revolutionary groups.
In fact, Al-Banna
said, these would also mean that from now on, they would be undertaking a
lot of underground work in terms of helping strengthen the armed wing of
the Communist Party of the Philippines-NDFP, which is New People's Army (NPA).
Al-Banna explained
that this would mean that they would be painstakingly going into
organizing work among the ranks of the Bangsamoro and recruiting as well
Moros for the NPA as they establish guerrilla fronts.
Al-Banna, however,
clarified that they will be working in areas where there are no existing
Moro revolutionary organizations. This, Al-Banna said, is in deference to
the NDFP's alliance with other Moro revolutionary groups, such as the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
On the MILF
Asked about what they
think of the MILF, Al-Banna said they are their friends and that there are
goals and beliefs that they have in common. "We salute the MILF for not
laying down their arms, that they are still the ones decisive of the armed
struggle against unjust deals of the reactionary Philippine state. We are
hoping that the MILF will maintain correctly the gains they have committed
through armed struggle," Al-Banna said.
Asked to comment
about the MILF's dealing with the government in the peace talks, Al-Banna
said they are hoping "it will not suffer the same fate as the MNLF who
were fooled by the reactionary state."
Al-Banna said this as
he expressed concern over the programs and projects that the MILF are
reported to be dealing with, such as those from the World Bank, the USAID,
the GEM, as well as the meddling of the U.S. Institute for Peace in the
peace talks.
Al-Banna said they
also see the WorldBank, USAID and GEM projects being implemented in the
Moro areas as clearly aimed at weakening the struggle of the Bangsamoro.
"These projects aim to divert the struggle of the Bangsamoro as merely
economic. These projects are mere palliatives and the ones who stand to
benefit them are just those who are in power," Al-Banna said.
Al-Banna also cited
the presence of U.S. troops in
Mindanao as only a way for the U.S.
to strengthen their colonial grip in the country and in Southeast Asia.
What about the
MNLF?
To the MRLO, the MNLF
forces are also their friends. They see the developments with the MNLF,
particularly in Sulu, as positive.
"They are fighting
the reactionary government and we are ready to coordinate with them so we
can help each other in the armed struggle. We hope that they will hold on
to the lessons of the past revolutions against puppet and reactionary
regimes of the country," he said.
Al-Banna said the
MNLF did not have fundamental gains from the Tripoli Agreement and that
the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which is a "fake
autonomous government."
"The ARMM does not
truly serve the interest of the Moro people. In truth, it only became the
milking cow of the few Moro bureaucrats," Al-Banna said.
On Islam
Al-Banna said Islam
does not hinder the Moro people from being revolutionaries. In fact, he
said, “you can find in the Koran teachings on fighting injustice and
oppressors.”
Likewise, Al-banna
stressed, they are open to those who do not believe in Islam but still are
supporting their struggle. "There is a need for oppressed people,
regardless of their faiths to come together and fight for the common good.
There have been many instances in the past where Moro and Christians
helped each other in the fight against colonialism, against the Marcos
dictatorship, against the corrupt regime of Estrada. In this fight against
U.S.-Arroyo, we also need to be more united than ever, in ousting this
regime,"Al-Banna said.
At present, Al-Banna
disclosed that their members reach only a few hundreds, but their mass
following already reached a few thousands. Many of their members are said
to be in Mindanao, but there are
also others in Luzon.
Although they are
still small in number and still weak, Al-Banna believed that in taking
what they find as the "correct path of struggle," their struggle will grow
in number and in strength. Bulatlat
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