The Jabidah Massacre, which is also known as the Corregidor Massacre, was the alleged killing of

Moro soldiers by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on March 18, 1968.[1] The
Moro soldiers were said to have been deceived to believe that they were recruited to become part
of an elite unit of the Philippine Army and were only told their real mission, which was to foment
chaos in Sabah,[2][3] in the latter part of their training. Consequently, they refused to participate in
the mission because it would involve killing fellow Muslims and Sabahans, to whom they were
related by blood (the recruits were mostly Tausugs and Samals).[4] The superiors of the Moro
soldiers feared leakage of the Philippine's intent to forcibly retake Sabah and decided that they had
no choice but to execute all the Moros.

Witness accounts of the massacre vastly differ. The number of victims, for example, was sometimes
reported to be as low as 11, while others estimate that up to 400 were massacred.[5] Some
authors[6] believe that the massacre never existed.[12] The Jabidah Massacre is widely regarded[by
whom?] as having been the catalyst behind the modern Moro insurgencies in the Southern
Philippines.[3][not in citation given]

Background[edit]

The north-eastern part of Sabah had been under the rule of the Sulu Sultanate since been given by
the Sultanate of Brunei in 1658 for the latter's help in settling a civil war in Brunei[13] before been
"ceded"[14] (in which a translation in Tausug/Philippine Malay translated the word as "padjak")[15]
to the British on 1878.[14] During the process of decolonization by the British after World War II
from 1946, Sabah was integrated as part of the Malaysian Federation in 1963 under the Malaysia
Agreement.[16] The Philippine government however protested this, claiming the eastern part of
Sabah had never been sold to foreign interests, and that it had only been leased (padjak) by the Sulu
Sultanate, and therefore remained the property of the Sultan, and by extension, the property of
Republic of the Philippines. Diplomatic efforts to Malaysia and the United Nations during the
administration of President Diosdado Macapagal proved futile. On September 13, 1963, the United
Nations held a referendum over Sarawak and Sabah, and the people voted to join to forming the
Federation of Malaysia.[17]

Operation Merdeka[edit]

See also: Moro attacks on Sabah

Operation Merdeka

Part of North Borneo dispute

Date 1967–1968

Location Philippines and Sabah, Malaysia

Result

Mutiny

Jabidah massacre

Beginning of Moro insurgency

Malaysia temporarily suspends diplomatic ties with Philippines

Belligerents

Philippines Malaysia

• Sabah

Commanders and leaders

Philippines Ferdinand Marcos

Philippines Eduardo Abdul Latif Martelino Malaysia Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah

Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman

Malaysia Mustapha Harun

This dispute is believed to have led the then-President Diosdado Macapagal, and his successor
President Ferdinand Marcos, to establish special military units tasked with fomenting dissent
amongst Sabah's non-Malay ethnic groups, namely the Tausūg and Sama, two groups closely aligned
ethnically and culturally with Filipinos.[2][18]

The codename for this destabilization programme was "Operation Merdeka" (merdeka meaning
"freedom" in Malay), with Manuel Syquio as project leader and then Maj. Eduardo Abdul Latif
Martelino as operations officer. The object of this program was the annexation of Sabah to the
Republic of the Philippines.[2] The plan involved the recruitment of nearly 200 Tausug and Sama
Muslims aged 18 to 30 from Sulu Province and Tawi-Tawi and their training in the island town of
Simunul in Tawi-Tawi. Simunul is noted for being where the Arab missionary Makhdum built
Taluksangay Mosque, the first mosque in the Philippines, in the 13th century.

The recruits were excited about the promise not only of a monthly allowance, but also over the
prospect of eventually becoming a member of an elite unit in the armed forces. From August to
December 1967, the young recruits underwent training in Simunul. The name of the commando unit
was Jabidah.[19]
Aftermath[edit]

Realization of actual mission and massacre[edit]

On December 30, 1967, 135 to 180 recruits boarded a Philippine Navy vessel for the island of
Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay for "specialized training".[20] This second phase of the
training turned mutinous when the recruits discovered their true mission. It struck the recruits that
the plan would mean not only fighting their brother Muslims in Sabah, but also possibly killing their
own Tausūg and Sama relatives living there. Additionally, the recruits had already begun to feel
disgruntled over the non-payment of the promised monthly stipend. The recruits then demanded to
be returned home.[19]

The alleged sole survivor of the massacre, Jibin Arula, recounted how the young Moro recruits were
taken in batches of twelve to a remote airstrip where they were executed with machine guns by
their military handlers. Arula, who was wounded in the left knee,[21] managed to attach himself to
driftwood long enough to be rescued by fishermen from the nearby province of Cavite.

There has never been an official count, and different sources number the victims from 11 to about
200.[12]

Protest and the starting of insurgency in the southern Philippines[edit]

Main article: Moro insurgency in the Philippines

The subjective truth of the massacre took some time to emerge. In March 1968 Moro students in
Manila held a week-long protest vigil over an empty coffin marked ‘Jabidah’ in front of the
Malacañang Palace. They claimed "at least 28" Moro army recruits had been murdered. Court-
martial proceedings were brought against twenty-three military personnel involved. There was also
a firestorm in the Philippine press, attacking not so much the soldiers involved, but the culpability of
a government administration that would foment such a plot, and then seek to cover it up by
wholesale murder.

Though it has been argued that the Jabidah massacre was a myth, feelings about it in the Muslim
community led to the crystallization of Moro discontent and the subsequent formation of the Moro
National Liberation Front and, later, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.[22]

For years, Filipino Muslims had been complaining of official discrimination at the hands of
consecutive governments and the Catholic majority. This included discrimination in housing and
education, as well as lack of government funding for the majority-Muslim south. Coupled with the
official government policy of settling Filipino Christians in Mindanao, a class of radical Moro
intellectuals emerged, led by student activist Nur Misuari.

The Jabidah Massacre further radicalized Filipino Muslims, leading some to take up arms in the style
of the CPP. This new organization, formed in the early 1970s and led by Misuari, was named the
Moro National Liberation Front. Following a split over the role of Islam in a Bangsamoro state, a
new, more conservative movement emerged in 1981, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Official acknowledgement[edit]

President Benigno Aquino III acknowledged the incident on March 18, 2013, when he leading
commemorations on the 45th anniversary of the massacre. This notably marked the first time that a
ruling President had acknowledged the massacre as having taken place. Aquino also directed the
National Historical Commission of the Philippines to designate the Mindanao Garden of Peace on
Corregidor as a historical landmark.[3]

Contradiction[edit]

Contrary to the claim of his son President Benigno Aquino III, his father, the late senator, Benigno
Ninoy Aquino Jr., a staunch critic of Marcos and a prominent opposition leader, conducted his own
investigation and went as far to where it all started-in Sulu, where he found out that the 11 other
recruits named by the sole witness Jibin Arula where all alive.[not in citation given]

Ninoy Aquino did not expose the Jabidah massacre but refuted it with clear evidences he gathered
after his investigation. He categorically declared in his speech in the Senate that the alleged
massacre is a hoax (see Ninoy Speech: Jabidah! Special Forces of Evil delivered in the Philippine
Senate on March 28, 1968)[not in citation given]

A Portion of Senator Ninoy Aquino Senate Speech:

“ "This morning, the Manila Times, in its banner headline, quoted me as saying that I believed
there was no mass massacre on Corregidor island.

And I submit it was not a hasty conclusion, but one borne out by careful deductions. What brought
me to this conclusion:
1. Massacre means, to my mind, the wanton killing of men — maybe premeditated, but definitely
committed according to a previous plan. I submit that there was no plan to kill the Muslim recruits.

2. What would have been the motive for the "massacre"? Some quarters have advanced the theory
that the trainees were liquidated in order to silence them. But then, 24 boys have already shown up
in Jolo safe and healthy. To release 24 men who can spill the beans and liquidate the remaining 24
"to seal" their lips would defy logic.

3. Jibin Arula has been telling the truth all along. However, his fears, which in his place may be
considered valid, may not be supported by the recent turn of events. Twenty-four recruits have
turned up."[23]