Revisiting the Bangsamoro Struggle: Contested Identities and Elusive Peace

Abstract

This article revisits the issue of the quest for the “Bangsamoro” since its first articulations in the 1960s. It examines the dynamics of identity in the history of this struggle and how these dynamics have shaped the Muslim separatist movements in the Philippines. Given the diverging trajectories of “Moro” groups that took up the “Bangsamoro” struggle and the contemporary developments that have since unfolded over the years, the paper argues that the issue of identity is a tenuous factor undergirding the fight for a “Bangsamoro” homeland. It is tenuous for many reasons: one of these is the construction of a “Moro” identity, which has come to mean different things to the many multi-ethnic and multi-lingual groups. The other is divisive history of the various ethnic groups who have wanted to be part of the envisioned separate state called the “Bangsamoro.”

Notes

1. See, for example, Cesar A Majul, The Contemporary Muslim Movement in the Philippines (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1985); T. J. S. George, Revolt in Mindanao: The Rise of Islam in Philippine Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980); Thomas McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in Southern Philippines (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); and Patricio Abinales, Making Mindanao: Cotabato and Davao in the Formation of the Philippine Nation-State (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2000). See also Federico Magdalena, “Islam and the Politics of Identity,” Center for Philippine Studies, University of Hawai'i, Accessible via www.hawaii.edu./cps.identity.html, 8 April 2005.

2. See, for example, Charles O. Frake, “Abu Sayyaf: Displays of Violence and the Proliferation of Contested Identities among Philippine Muslims,” American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 100, No. 1 (March 1998), pp. 41–54; and Che Man, Muslim Separatism: The Moros of Southern Philippines and the Malays of Southern Thailand (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1990); and Lela G. Noble, “Muslim Grievances and the Muslim Rebellion,” in Carl Lande, ed., Rebuilding a Nation: Philippine Challenges and American Policy (Washington, DC: Washington Institute Press), pp. 417–434.

3. McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels, p. 5.

4. See for example, Peter Gowing and Robert D. McAmis, eds., The Muslims Filipino: Their History, Society and Contemporary Problem (Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1974); Majul, The Contemporary Muslim Movement in the Philippines; George, Revolt in Mindanao; and McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels.

5. The Tausugs were the aristocrats or elites among the other ethnic groups that co-existed in the Sultanate. The other ethnic groups were the Samas, Badjaos, Jama Mapuns, Molbogs, Palawanis, Uakans and Kalibugans. B. R. Rodil, The History of the Moro People and the Lumad Communities in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan, as cited in Jamail A. Kamlian, “The Agonizing Search for a Peaceful Alternative to Ethnic, Religious and Cultural Conflict in ASEAN: The Mindanao Experience,” paper presented at the Workshop on Ethnic, Cultural and Religious Conflict in the ASEAN Region, April 14–17, 2002, Singapore.

6. See in particular, Abraham Sakili, “Towards Bridging a Gap and Crossing the Bridge in Muslim–Christian Relations in the Philippines,” p. 22, cited in Kamlian's “The Agonizing Search.”

7. James F. Warren, The Sulu Zone 1868–1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery and Ethnicity in the Transformation of Southeast Asian Maritime States (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1985), pp. 3–9.

8. Majul, The Contemporary Muslim Movement in the Philippines.

9. McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels, p. 81.

10. As well as the island of Palawan, which altogether is generally referred in contemporary period as Mindanao.

11. These 13 Islamized ethno-linguistic groups include the following: Badjao, Iranuns, Jama-mapun, Kalagan, Kalibugan, Maguindanao, Maranao, Molbog, Palawani, Samal, Sangil, Tausug and Yakan. See Kamlian, “The Agonizing Search.” See also Abinales, Making Mindanao.

12. Rodil, The History of the Moro People, p. 7, cited in Kamlian's “The Agonizing Search,” p. 14.

13. Kamlian, “The Agonizing Search,” p. 16.

14. According to Peter Gowing, the military power of the Americans was too much for the Muslims and within a decade they were able to subdue the Moro resistance. See Peter Gowing, Mandate in Moroland: The American Government of Muslim Filipinos, 1899–1920 (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1983).

15. Gowing, Mandate in Moroland, pp. 36–41.

16. Kamlian, “The Agonizing Search,” p. 18. See also Myrthena L. Fianza, “Contesting Land and Identity in the Periphery: The Moro Indigenous People of Southern Philippines,” Working Paper prepared for the 10^th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, August 9–13, 2004, Oaxaca, Mexico, pp. 4–5; and Syed Serajul Islam, “Ethno-communal Conflict in the Philippines: The Case of Mindanao-Sulu Region,” in R. Ganguly and I. Macduff, eds., Ethnic Conflict and Secessionism in South and Southeast Asia: Causes, Dynamics and Solutions (London: Sage Publications, 1998), p. 445.

17. The term “Lumad” is a relatively new name that emerged in the mid-1970s during the Martial period in the Philippines. It refers to 20 ethno-linguistic groups inhabiting the Mindanao region. Prior to this, the Spanish used to refer to these groups as “paganos” or (pagans), while the Americans called them “cultural minorities.”

18. Magdalena, “Islam and the Politics of Identity.”

19. Thomas McKenna, “Saints, Scholars and the Idealized Past in Philippine Muslim Separatism,” Working Paper Series No. 23, Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong, March 2002, p. 7. See also McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels.

20. McKenna, “Saints, Scholars and the Idealized Past in Philippine Muslim Separatism,” p. 7.

21. Mamitua Saber, “The Muslim Minority in the Philippines,” cited in Abinales, Making Mindanao, p. 61.

22. Speech by Aluya Alonto at the Philippine Constitutional Convention 1935, cited in Abinales, Making Mindanao, p. 61.

23. Abinales, Making Mindanao, p. 57.

24. Abinales, Making Mindanao, p. 60.

25. McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels, p. 112.

26. McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels, p.133. Emphasis added.

27. Philippine Muslim News (Manila), Vol. 2, July 1968, cited in Kamlian, “The Agonizing Search,” p. 21. Also cited in P. T. Makol-Abdul, “Colonialism and Change: The Case of Muslims in the Philippines,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs Vol. 17, No. 2 (1997), p. 319.

28. See for example the World Bank 2003 Report, “Social Assessment of Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao.” Accessed via http://inweb.worldbank.org.

29. The MIM Manifesto was issued on May 1, 1968 in the province of Cotabato and called for the establishment of an Islamic state comprising the islands of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan. See Kamlian, “The Agonizing Search,” p. 23.

30. For a number of accounts on the Jabidah massacre, see, for example, Abinales, Making Mindanao; and Lela Gardner Noble, Philippine Policy Toward Sabah: A Claim to Independence (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1977).

31. See Eric Gutierrez, “The Re-imagination of the Bangsamoro,” in Kristin Gaerlan and Mara Stankovitch, eds., Rebels, Warlords and Ulama: A Reader on Muslim Separatism and the War in Southern Philippines (Quezon City: Philippines, 2000), pp. 305–345.

32. McKenna, Muslims Rulers and Rebels, p. 164.

33. Gutierrez, “The Re-imagination of the Bangsamoro,” p. 312.

34. Gutierrez, “The Re-imagination of the Bangsamoro,” p. 311.

35. Majul, The Contemporary Muslim Movement; Abinales, Making Mindanao; McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels and “Saints, Scholars”; and Gutierrez, “The Re-imagination of the Bangsamoro.”

36. The Tripoli Agreement, December 23, 1976, as appended in Papers on the Tripoli Agreement, International Studies Institute of the Philippines (Quezon City: University of the Philippines, 1986).

37. For more details on the MNLF–GRP talks, see Samuel K. Tan, “Three Wars and the President,” in Kasarinlan Vol. 14, No. 2 (2000), pp. 221–233.

38. Just as the non-Muslim Philippines is said to be ruled by a few families/dynasties, the same is true for the Muslim Mindanao. The traditional Muslim elites discussed above had been actively involved in post-colonial politics and in national and local elections to consolidate their positions. Among theso-called traditional Muslim elites are: (1) The Alontos, Lucmans, Dimaporos, Tamanos in Lanao; (2) the scions of the Maguinadao political families of the Sinsuats, the Mengelens, and the Pendatuns in Cotabato; and (3) the Kirams, the Abubakars, the Tulawis, the Kirams, the Rasuls, the Tans and the Loongs in Sulu. Samuel Tan, Internationalisation of the Bangsamore Struggle, cited in Mary Ann Arguelles, “The Non-Traditional Moro Elites and the Organisation of Islamic Conference,” Philippine Political Science Journal Vol. 22, No. 45 (2001), pp. 97–134.

39. See for example, George, Revolt in Mindanao, p. 200 and McKenna, Muslim Rulers and Rebels, p. 141.

40. Arguelles, “The Non-Traditional Moro Elites,” p. 103.

41. Abinales, Making Mindanao.

42. Abinales, Making Mindanao, p. 104.

43. Arguelles, “The Non-Traditional Moro Elites,” p. 106.

44. Arguelles, “The Non-Traditional Moro Elites,” p. 107.

45. For more on the reported linkages of ASG and the al-Qaeda connection, see Zachary Abuza, Militant Islam in Southeast Asia: Crucible of Terror (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003); and Rohan Gunaratna, Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (London: C. Hurst & Company, 2002).

46. See Guttierez, “The Re-imagination of the Bangsamoro,” pp. 324–325.

47. Guttierez, “The Re-imagination of the Bangsamoro,” p. 325.

48. In 2000 under the Estrada administration, the Philippine military launched an aggressive campaign to stamp out Muslim resistance in the south. As a result, the government forces were able to infiltrate and demolish Camp Abubakar, reported to be the MILF's training camp for rebels. It was also widely reported that this camp was used to train “terrorists” linked to the wider al-Qaeda terrorist network. See, for example, Alexander Aguirre, “The Mindanao Peace Process: Initiatives Toward Peace and Development Following the Cessation of Hostilities in Southern Philippines,” in Kasarinlan Vol. 15, No. 2 (2000), pp. 227–233.

49. “Updates on the Status of the GRP–MILF Peace Talks,” Office of the President Advisor on the Peace Process, October 22, 2004.

50. Fianza, “Contesting Land and Identity in the Periphery,” p. 17.

51. See Status of the GRP–MILF Peace Processes (Embassy of the Philippines, Washington), February 8, 2005.

52. See Douglas Bakshian, “Philippines Offers Muslim Rebels Self-Determination,” in Voice of America News. Accessible via http://voanews.com/english/2007-03-13-v0a10.cfm.

53. Abinales, Making Mindanao, pp. 187–188.