This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 23, July 17-23, 2005

Moros Form 16^th 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

© 2004 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Publications

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