Sulu is one of four provinces under
the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM): the others are Basilan,
Maguindanao, and Tawi-Tawi. The ARMM is a product of the 1996 peace
agreement between the MNLF and the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP), which sought to end the MNLF’s 27-year armed struggle
for a separate state.
“The present conflict in Sulu is part
of the Moro struggle which began during the Spanish colonial period,” Dr.
Abdulrakman Amin, MNLF liaison to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC),
told the UP forum on Feb. 21.
The MNLF was established in 1968 as an
armed revolutionary group fighting for an independent state in Mindanao.
Indeed the MNLF, at the time of its
founding, was just the latest chapter in the Moro people’s struggle for
self-determination, which dates back to the Spanish colonial period.
Colonial period
In 1521, a Spanish expedition headed
by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan “discovered” Mactan, Cebu and
claimed it for Spain. The natives of the island, an Islamized group led by
Lapu-Lapu, rejected the claim and fought the Spanish forces; the fighting
eventually led to the death of Magellan.
Spain followed up its claim on the
Philippine Islands in 1565. Using the tactic of divide et impera
(divide and rule), the Spaniards succeeded in colonizing the Philippines
and occupying it, except for the Muslim stronghold Mindanao, for the next
333 years.
It was the Spaniards who were
responsible for the negative image of Muslims in Philippine mainstream
culture. By propagating a dramatic form called the moro-moro (based
on the term Moro which the Spaniards used to derogate the Mindanao
Muslims) the Spaniards were able to mold into the consciousness of the
“Christianized” majority an image of the Muslim as an unthinking homicidal
maniac.
Though the term Moro was originally a
derogatory term, however, the Mindanao Muslims would eventually “coopt” it
and transform it into a badge of pride.
Though the Spaniards were never able
to colonize Mindanao, the region was included in the Treaty of Paris,
which Spain secretly signed with the United States in 1898 after the
former’s defeat in the hands of Philippine revolutionary forces – with a
minimal participation by American troops in Manila and Cavite. The Treaty
of Paris ceded the Philippine Islands to the U.S. for $20 million.
The American occupation was
characterized, among other things, was characterized by legislation that
allowed for large-scale migration of non-Muslims to Mindanao. Land laws
created and implemented by the American colonial administration opened
Muslim lands to land-grabbing.
As the U.S. neared its promise of
granting “independence” to the Philippines, Moro leaders fought for
Mindanao not to be included in the “independent Philippines.” But Mindanao
was incorporated in the “independence” grant just the same.
After “independence”
The pattern of large-scale non-Muslim
migration to Mindanao continued, as well as land-grabbing. At some point
the government even instituted a Mindanao Homestead Program, which
involved giving land parcels seized from Moros to former communist
guerrillas who availed of amnesty.
This was intended to defuse the
revolutionary war that was staged in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the
communist-led Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB or People’s Liberation
Army).
The marginalization of the Moros in
their own land led to the formation of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM)
in the 1950s. The MIM struggle, however, would fizzle out before long as
many of its leaders, usually from Mindanao’s elite classes, would be
coopted by the government.
During the presidency of Diosdado
Macapagal (1961-1965), Sabah, an island near Mindanao to which the
Philippines has a historic claim, ended up in the hands of the Malaysian
government.
During his first presidential term,
Ferdinand Marcos conceived a scheme which involved the recruitment of
between 28 and 64 Moro fighters to occupy Sabah. The recruits were
summarily executed by their military superiors in 1968, in what is now
known as the infamous Jabidah Massacre. According to Moro historian Salah
Jubair, this was because they had refused to follow orders.
The Jabidah Massacre triggered
widespread outrage among the Moros and led to the formation of the MNLF
that same year. The MNLF waged an armed revolutionary struggle against the
GRP for an independent Muslim state in Mindanao.
The Marcos government, weighed down by
the costs of the Mindanao war, negotiated for peace and signed an
agreement with the MNLF in Tripoli, Libya in the mid-1970s. The pact
involved the grant of autonomy to the Mindanao Muslims.
“The government insisted on a
plebiscite to settle the territories of the autonomous government as
allegedly provided for by the government,” wrote Guiamel Alim, a Mindanao
civil society leader, in 1995.
The MNLF did not recognize the results
of the plebiscite and the negotiations bogged down. In the meantime, the
Marcos government was able to win over some of the MNLF leaders “through
various forms of attraction,” Alim continued.
The disastrous aftermath of the
Tripoli Agreement led to a split in the ranks of the MNLF and the
formation of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 1978. The MILF
waged armed struggle for an Islamic state in Mindanao, and continued to do
so even after the signing of the GRP-MNLF peace agreement in 1996.
The MILF is currently engaged in peace
negotiations with the GRP which is brokered by the Malaysian government
and supported by the U.S. government. Bulatlat
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