Republic of the Philippines

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

Office of the Regional Governor

Bureau of Public Information

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ALICAN B. KARIM

22 years old

Barangay Cabayuan Buldon Maguindanao, ARMM

AB-Philosophy Graduate 2017

Notre Dame University, Cotabato City

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Theme: “Bangsamoro youth, Bangsamoro’s Future”.

Bangsamoro Youth, Bangsamoro’s Future: A Philosophical Analysis

“An unexamined life is not worth living” this is the greatest dictum of Socrates, a superb
philosopher, signifying the start of man’s consciousness of his life and his purpose of living.
It may also refer to the examination of the self, inasmuch as it is directly addressed to the
person. This is the struggle of a person towards his authentic existence. Nevertheless, it
implies that authentic existence does not merely flow inward towards self-centeredness and
total isolation from others, but also to others. Is there a way to authentic existence?

In history, the Bangsamoro people had been in a long battle, long journey and long
quest towards self-identiy and autonomy. The Bangsamoro people are rich in their distinct
character and identity in culture, governance, image and religion, they claim to be the earlier
settlers in the Philippines and dominated way back 28,000 BC (is this date correct?
Abraham was only 1,800 B.C.) Their quest is a quest of historic struggle to regain their
independence and glory in certain point of history. The quest of the Bangsamoro people for
autonomy leaves a trail over time and history, it is indeed not a smooth trail, the way is
arduous and tough. There have been different movements: the Muslim Independence
Movement (MIM) founded by Datu Udtog Matalam, Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF) led by a young University of the Philippines political science instructor from Sulu
called Nur Misuari and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) led by Hashim Salamat. .
There were different agreements between GPH and the Bangsamoro secessionist movements:
the Tripoli Agreement in 1976, Peace Agreement in 1986, Final Agreement by Fidel Ramos
in 1996 followed by Bangsmoro Framework Agreement, Bangsamoro Basic Law and finally
the recent Bangsamoro Organic Law. The timeline of the peace process takes about fifty
years excluding the historical injustices to the Bangsamoro people.

Over the long period of searching for self-identity and autonomy, despairs-hope,
suspicion-trust, fearful trembling-bravery, compassion-hatred, were the peculiar mixtures of
contrasting feelings in the hearts of the Bangsamoro people of Mindanao. The trail also
serves as graveyard for those martyrs who were the victims of unfortunate conflicts in
seeking for Bangsamoro self-identity and autonomy. It is a trail of blood. Yes, it is a sad truth.
Nevertheless, this trail is also a trail of dreams and whims. Such dreams and whims are the
clamor for peace in the land of Mindanao and peace among its people, the Bangsamoro.

Many advocates of the Bangsamoro struggle had already reached their eternal peace
yet the struggle is still going on. The Bangsamoro youth have to take over what had been
started otherwise it will perish and end up to nothing but only a dream of the Bangsamoro
people.

The youth have to be empowered for it seems the youth were corrupted physically, and
mentally. There is this story of father and son in a conversation. “Wata: Ama Enuto ka di
kanu pn di maki pnegotiate sa goberno?, Ama: geya ba I okit a kalilintad., wata: pekardak
kanu dn sa negotiation anan, pagakaln kanu a goberno a pilipinas, aya mapia na skami dn e
maninindgan ko agama”. (acknowdge your source) This a conversation between a father
and son, the son was asking why they are still negotiating with the government, he says that
the government is just playing with them. The son says that they are the ones who will take
over, they will fight for their Religion. See! This is how the young minds have become
influenced. They do not know what was really happening due to lack of education about the
issue. Yes , the son was right because he has strong spirit on defending his religion, but is it
really about religion? Is the way of the son right? It seems he is for the violent way. We have
experienced so much war, we have done so much fighting, killing each other. Enough is
enough.

Since the fighting between the Philippine government and Bangsamoro secessionist
movements started in the 1970’s, a World Bank study (Campo and Judd, 2005) had roughly
estimated the direct economic costs of the conflict from 1970-2001 to be at $2 to $3 billion.
Aside from the direct economic costs are the heavy human and social toll of the conflict.
“The same study estimated the death toll since 1970 at 120, 000 people and uncounted
numbers of wounded and disabled. Internally displaced people at two million of whom 1
million in 2000 alone during the “all-out-war”.” (Zubiri, J. M. 2018). This is what conflicts
have done to us. This must be enough.

In contemporary reality, many of the Bangsamoro youth are lost. They lost their path
toward becoming the great savior and social changer of the Bangsamoro land. Many youth
become the opium (do you mean problems) of Bangsamoro society due to their lack of
education, values formation and misleading ideas. As we open our radio or our television, we
always encounter reports about burglary, drug abuse and even killings which involved the
youths. Recently, in the the Marawi seige, some of the members of the local terrorists were
youth. At that particular stage they were supposed to be in the classroom holding a pen and
using it for their future and for the future of the Bangsamoro land, Mindanao. Unfortunately,
it is not, they were in the battle or at the camp holding an RPG, Armalites ruining their future
and devastating their home-land. It is a disaster to to our land and to our society to see youths
ruining themselves and destroying their lands which they are supposed to fix and develop.

The question now is who neglected the youths? The parents? or the society? Which is
which? What caused the Bangsamoro youth’s to be lost in their path towards becoming a
productive Bangsasmoro citizens. Have we forgotten what Dr. Jose P. Rizal said? “Ang
Kabataan ang Pag-asa ng Bayan”. Now let us re-build the spirit of the youth, let us focus on
our youth, let us pay attention to the youth, making them as especial elements of the society.
Let’ s educate them and build their fragmented values for they are the one who will take over
what had been started. They are the ones who will correct what had been started as injustice.
They are the one who will serve and promote social justice, they are the “Authentic Changer”.

Hence, We the Bangsamoro youth have to take part in transforming and developing the
youth, as what was said in the first paragraph of this essay “the unexamined life is not worth
living”, we should examined our life, our being as a Bangsamoro youth. We should
evaluate our lives and the purpose of our existence. We should look for the “whys” in our
existence in order to address it. As the post-modernist philosopher Friedrich Nietszche said “
If you know the why, you can live almost any how”. Thus, Bangsamoro youth must be at the
center of development to unleash the spirit of goodness in them and eventually serve as the
bridge towards long-lasting peace in the Bangsamoro home-land.