Input 1: Historical Situationer on Mindanao 2016

This provides a chronological review that establishes the historical injustice that Mindanao and
its peoples have been subjected to and which we need to correct and address.

Part I: A Historical Situationer

(Based on Mindanao 101: A Brief History, a presentation made by Bro. Karl Gaspar, C.S.S.R. to
the Meeting of Superiors and Directors of Work in January 2016)

1. To understand why and how Mindanao was pushed to the periphery of the Philippine
Republic and why peace has remained elusive in Mindanao, we need to go back to what
happened in the past. (Sources: Rudy Rodil, Greg Hontiveros, Samuel Tan, Cesar Majul,
James Warren, Thomas McKEnna, Eric Casiño, Essays in Tambara, and Afrim Publications

2. For centuries before Spanish colonization, Southern Philippines (that is Mindanao with its
surrounding islands including parts of Palawan) was actually the area of greater economic
activity and of more developed political organization.

3. For instance, around 900 C.E., Butuan began to rise as a Southeast Asian maritime trading
port. Then in the 11th century, Butuan became the center of the proto-Manobo
civilization. Later on, Tausogs from this area would then move to Sulu off the western shores
of Mindanao. Butuan eventually experienced a decline as a trading port in the 14 th

4. In the 10th to 14th centuries, the trade routes that had been developing since the 9th Century
and that had already connected Arabia to Central Asia to India and China, expanded to
include Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In the Philippines, the
trading ports were Butuan, Jolo, Zamboanga and Cotobato in Mindanao; Cebu, Panay,
Mindoro, and Masbate in the Visayas, and only Manila in Luzon

5. Arab and Indian traders from Malaya and Borneo set up settlements in Jolo in the 13th Jolo
became a major commercial center where traders from Arabia, Thailand, Indonesia and India
engaged in trade.

6. The trade route in Asia was the passageway for the coming of Islam. 13th Century (1280 c/o
Majul, Tan, Warren and 1310: Jubair) The Islamization process was intertwined with trade.

7. Some of our indigenous peoples were converted to Islam while some were not. The myth
of Mamalu and Tabunaway tells of how two brothers and their descendants came to have
different religious beliefs. Tabunaway embraced Islam and is recognized as the ancestor of
the Maguindanaos. Mamalu remained indigenous (or lumad) and is recognized as the
ancestor of the Arumanen Manobo, the Dulangan Manobo, and the Teduray.

8. It took two centuries after the coming of Islam for sultanates to develop. The first was the
Sulu sultanate founded in 1450 by Sharif Hashim/Abu Bakr. The second was the
Maguindanao sultanate founded in 1511 by Sharif Kabungsuan.

9. Before the Spaniards first came in 1521 therefore, Mindanao already had centers of
settlement/trade: Butuan (at the mouth of the Agusan River; cf: G. Hontiveros); the Sulu
Sultanate (with the Jolo trade; cf. Warren); and the Maguindanao Sultanate (cf:
McKenna). Mindanao was not at all in the periphery of Asian trade, but that would change
as colonization gradually established itself more firmly in the following centuries.
10. The Spanish colonial agenda not only brought the Spaniards to the Philippines; it also led to
the use of the alternative way to reach the east from Europe through the Cape of Good Hope.
This route that approaches the Philippines from the East instead of from the West was an
alternative trade route that would eventually favor the port of Manila rather than the other
ports further south.

11. The establishment of the Spanish colonial government in Manila also created an alternative
center of settlement outside of Mindanao, benefitting from the military and cultural resources
coming from Europe and from the opportunity of new markets in Europe. The Spanish
colonization then had the general effect of shifting trade and governance from Mindanao to
Luzon

12. The already antagonistic relationship between the Spaniards and the moors engendered a
bias among the Christian converts against Muslims. Spain was occupied by Maurus/Mauris
from Morocco, North Africa from 711 to 1492 C.E. Thus the name “moro.”
13. Out of these events, two major political streams came to simultaneously exist in the Philippine
islands, which may heuristically be called Moro and Filipino respectively (from Rudy Rodil):

MORO
• First beginnings in 1280/1310 when Islam arrived in Tawi-Tawi; Continued with Islam
coming to Maguindanao ca. 1515
• Politically and economically established in 1450 through the emergence of the Sultanate
of Sulu and further in the 1500’s with the rise of the Sultanate of Maguindanao
• As of 1898, the two sultanates were still alive.

FILIPINO
• First beginnings in 1521 when Magellan planted Christianity in the Visayas
• Politically and economically established in the decades following 1565 when Legazpi led
the occupation of the Philippines. Attempts at occupying Mindanao include settlements in
Zamboanga Caraga in 1800 and in Misamis (the Jesuit records indicate many and
different dates; dating to as early as late 16th century).
• The birth of the Filipino nation with its roots from the Propaganda Movement (1880 –
1895) and the Katipunan culminated in the declaration of national independence on June
12 , 1898.

14. These two bodies politic with a third un-unified, unorganized group (i.e. the Lumads) co-
inhabited Mindanao:
15. Throughout Spanish rule, the two larger political bodies remained separate and hostile to one
another. Those of the third disorganized group (the Lumads) either remained separate
because they were inaccessible or entered the ambit of the larger political bodies thus
creating the Christian Lumads and the Muslim Lumads. The Muslim Lumads will eventually
develop a praxis of Islam that, in the 21st century, needs to be distinguished from the Arabic
praxis of Islam. Most of Mindanao territory effectively remained outside the control of the
Filipino political stream at this time.

16. American rule (beginning 1898), would then forcibly and with a sleight of hand establish
control over Mindanao territory. In 1898, Spain ceded all of 27 million hectares of the
Philippines to become U.S. property through the Treaty of Paris. This would include
Mindanao which Spain never truly was able to occupy. In 1899, Brig. Gen. J. Bates
contracted a treaty with Sultan Jamalul Kiram II to recognize each other’s sovereignty.

17. The U.S. colonial government then promulgated the Land Registration Act 496 in 1902 which
required all land to be registered with a Torrens title. In 1903, the Philippine Commission Act
718 voided the land grants of the Moro Sultanate and of Chiefs of tribes made without
government authority. In the same year, Public Land Act 926 was promulgated allowing for
Homestead and Resettlement Areas in Mindanao, the Land of Promise, thereby legalizing
the acquisition of land in Mindanao by migrants to the island.

18. The Kiram-Bates Treaty was then abrogated; and American General of the Moro Province,
Leonard Wood began the Moro-American War lasting 3 years (1903-06). In the battle of Bud
Dajo, a thousand Moros were killed resisting the attacks of 800 US soldiers. Resistance
persisted through the 1920’s and 1930’s.

19. In 1935, the commonwealth government under Manuel L. Quezon imposed the Filipinization
policy.

20. Under U.S. rule, what were two distinct political systems began to be fused together by
common subjection to a colonial master but at the same time differentiated in privilege that
favored the Filipino over the Moro:
 MORO
• subjects of American colonialism
• Territory became “Our Insular Possessions”
• Labeled non-Christians; also uncivilized, along with “wild tribes”
• 1903 – Special provinces formed: Moro Province for Moros; Agusan for Lumad to
facilitate their Filipinization

FILIPINO
• subjects of American colonialism
• Territory became “Our Insular Possessions”
• Labeled as Christians and civilized
• Regular provinces formed

21. The Moro Province would later lead to the notion of the Bangsamoro (McKenna, Muslim
Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines).
However, the territory of the Moro Province became the destination of migrants coming
mainly from Central Philippines.

22. With the rise of U.S. rule, Mindanao became labeled as the Land of Promise. Landless
peasant-settlers were encouraged to come to Mindanao by the American colonial
government through the homestead program. Plantations for rubber, pineapple, coconut,
etc. arose throughout the island.

23. The following statistics on the migration to Cotabato illustrates the displacement of the
Muslims and the Lumads (Rodil):

24. The homesteading laws clearly favored either the migrants or inbound corporations:
25. The Church was part of the influx of migrants into Mindanao. As more Christians flocked to
Mindanao the Catholic Church wanted to have her presence among them. At the end of the
Spanish colonial era, there were Christians communities in parts of Zamboanga, Caraga,
Misamis, Davao. They were the minority. Not enough diocesan and religious priests available
from Luzon to go to Mindanao –Sulu in the 1940-1960s. With the revolution in China where
foreign missionaries were forced to leave, foreign religious congregations flocked to
Mindanao-Sulu. Also, Bishop Luis del Rosario, S.J. of Zamboanga was responsible for
inviting the OMI, PME, Maryknoll Fathers, and Claretian Fathers to Mindanao; and Bishop
James Hayes, S.J. of Cagayan de Oro for inviting the Columban Missionaries. By 1948, the
muslims and the lumad combined had become a minority of just about 30%.

26. As more land-hungry peasants-settlers flocked to Mindanao. LAND became more and more
contested. TENSIONS at local levels arose even as generally, there was peaceful co-
existence. The tension would eventually become widespread.

27. WHAT LED TO THE RISE OF THE MORO REBELLION?

In the late 1960’s, in a bid to re-claim northeastern Sabah for the Philippines, President
Ferdinand E. Marcos had Tausugs from Sulu trained under the AFP. The Tausugs would
then be sent to Sabah to destabilize it. For reasons still contested and unconfirmed, a
number of these trainees (68?) were killed on March 18, 1968 on Corregidor Island by AFP
personnel. This came to be known as the Jabidah Massacre. This incident was met with
indignation. In retaliation to this massacre, Datu Udtug Matalam organized the Muslim
Independence Movement in May 1968. Abdul Rahman of Malaysia, in retaliation, trained
ninety Moro young men who were initiated by Congressman Luckman. This group went from
Malaysia to Cairo for studies, paving the way for integrating elements of Islamic faith into an
armed uprising, namely that of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

28. Two Muslim groups would eventually emerge: the more secular MNLF set up by Nur Misuari
ca. 1969 and the MILF which adhered to Islam teachings under Hashim Salamat ca. 1977.
Both shared the Bangsamoro dream. Meanwhile, armed groups opposing the Muslims were
formed: the Ilaga (set up by settlers led by the Ilonggos) and the
Blackshirts/Barracudas. Violence erupted in Mindanao creating the problem of bakwits,
evacuees. (J. Canuday)

29. Marcos declared an all-out war against the Moro rebels. MNLF made its first appearance to
seize Jolo in October 1973. In February 1974, war in Jolo between AFP and MNLF started
to spread across Mindanao.

30. Other massacres committed by the Philippine Armed Forces include the Tacub Massacre-
1971, Malisbong Massacre-1974, Patikul-1977, and Pata Island Massacre-1981.

31. On December 23, 1976, under the Marcos Regime, the GRP and MNLF signed the Tripoli
Agreement brokered by Muammar Qaddafi. Thirteen of twenty-three provinces were
supposed to be granted autonomy, but this promise was never fulfilled by President Marcos.

32. After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the 1987 Constitution was ratified. This Constitution
provided for setting up an autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao. This led to the ARMM
during the presidency of Corazon Aquino. Congress passed R.A. 6734 known as the Organic
Law on August 1, 1989. The ARMM was officially inaugurated on November 6, 1990.
33. Under the presidency of Fidel Ramos, “The Final Peace Agreement” was signed with the
MNLF on September 2, 1996. The agreement provided for transitional structures for the
Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD). There was massive
opposition to this agreement, but it pushed through.

34. Unfortunately, not all the Muslim factions were satisfied with autonomy and wanted nothing
less than a secession from Philippine sovereignty. The largest and strongest group among
these factions was the MILF which rose in arms and war once again erupted in
Mindanao. This posed yet another obstacle to the Ramos administration.

35. In 1997, peace negotiations between the government and the MILF began. When the term
of President Ramos ended in 1998, the government continued with low level peace
negotiations into the presidency of Joseph Estrada. On March 21, 2000, however, citing
violations by MILF of past peace agreements, President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out
war against the MILF. The all-out war policy continued until the premature end of Estrada’s
term.

36. The peace process resumed under the presidency of Gloria Arroyo in 2001. The “Agreement
for the General Framework for the Resumption of Peace Talks” was signed by the
government and the MILF. In the same year, E.O. 9054 which amended the Organic Act and
which allowed for the expansion of the jurisdiction of the autonomous region through
plebiscite lapsed into law. By virtue of E.O. 9054, Marawi City and Basilan (excluding Isabela
City) were added to the four original provinces of the autonomous region.

37. The peace process continued through the years with various agreements signed. One
notable agreement which was finalized for signing in 2008 was the Memorandum of
Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) of the Tripoli Agreement of 2001 which would
have created the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (or BJE). The Peace Panel announced
that they were ready to sign the agreement on August 5 in Kuala Lumpur. North Cotobato
Vice-Governor Piñol et al sought the Supreme Court’s TRO which was granted on August
2. There were very strong objections from members of Congress against this agreement,
even without their having read the document. Local politicians and the media fanned the
longtime bias against Muslims to campaign against the agreement. And people in
Zamboanga and Illigan took to the streets. The ILAGA was resurrected. The agreement was
not signed and war came to Mindanao once again.

38. Despite the setback in 2008, the peace process continued into the presidency of Noynoy
Aquino which began in 2010. The process reached an important milestone in the signing of
the Framework Agreement for Bangsamoro (FAB) on October 15, 2012. However,
the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) which would have transformed the agreement into law and
made possible the implementation of the FAB provisions has, as of April 2016, been stalled
in Congress.

3. Bangsamoro Territory after BBL Plebiscite All other contiguous areas

2. Bangsamoro Core Territory as of Cotabato City where there is a resolution

2001

1. ARMM Basilan Isabela City of the local government

 Lanao del Sur Sulu 6 Municipalities of unit or at least 10 percent
Lanao del Norte

Maguindanao Tawi-Tawi of the qualified voters in

39 Barangays in 6 Municipalities in North Cotabato the area may ask for their

inclusion in the plebiscite

39. In the meanwhile, Islamic extremist forces from the Middle East such as Al Qaeda and ISIS
are suspected to be making inroads into rebel groups in Mindanao, providing more arms
and tactics support and hardening ideological/religious positions.