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Module 8

INSTANCES AND ATTEMPTS OF MORO, LUMAD AND

“CHRISTIAN” FILIPINO COOPERATION
Juvanni A. Caballero
Department of History, CASS, MSU-IIT

I. Objectives

At the end of the module, the students should be able to answer the following
questions:

1. Were there instances or attempts of Moro, Lumad and Christian Filipino

cooperation in their struggle against foreign colonialism?
2. What inspiration can we get out of these attempts?

II. Introductory Activity: Revisit Horacio Dela Costa’s Report on the Speech
of Datu Buisan to the Datus’ of Leyte

The Leyte datus were waiting for him. He took their gold and bells
and released to them whom they would. Then he opened his mind to
them. It was not so much for the ransom, he said, that he had sent for
them, but to ask them to consider well what advantage they derived from
being tributary to the Spaniards. Has the Spaniard been able to protect
them? Had he been able to protect the people of Panay, Mindoro and
Balayan? But if they allied themselves to the Maguindanaus, they would
have him, Bwisan, for their friend, and not what he was now, much to his
regret, their foe. Let them further consider how easy it would be for them
to throw off the Spanish yoke with the help of the Maguindanaus. The
Spaniards, after all, were only a handful, nor were they as invincible as
they made themselves out to be. Let the people of Leyte be resolute; let
them prepare to rise as one man. The following year he, Bwisan, would
come with a great armada and together they would sweep the island clear
of Spaniards.

The datus… thought that there was much wisdom in this speech.
They sat down with Bwisan and entered into a blood compact with him.
They slashed their wrists and let the blood drip into a bowl of brandy.
They drank their mingled blood from the common bowl, and so became
brothers. This done, Bwisan turned the prows of his fleet for home.1

1
H. dela Costa quoted in Majul, pp. 132-133.
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III. Lesson Proper

1. Were there instances or attempts of Moro, Lumad and Christian Filipino

cooperation in their struggle against foreign colonialism?

The above report about Datu Buisan’s blood compact with the Datus of Leyte is a
concrete example of cooperation between our Islamized and Christianized forefathers
against foreign colonialism. But, is it an isolated incident? Were there no other instances
where representatives of the Moro, Lumad and/or Christian Filipino attempted to unite
as one?

Certainly, the case of Datu Buisan in Leyte was not the only incident of this sort. The
revolutionary government of Emilio Aguinaldo, in fact, sent a letter to the Sultan of
Sulu, calling for solidarity and brotherhood “upon the basis of a real confederation with
absolute respect for their beliefs and traditions”. Aguinaldo then sent the letter to Datu
Pedro Cuevas, a native of Cavite who managed to become a Datu of some importance
in Basilan. Majul described the letter:

It spoke of how the Igorots and the Aetas had joined the Revolution to
share in the victories of their brothers in the valleys. They had lived in the
mountains not because of racial differences with the lowlanders but
because they loved liberty. Now that there was liberty in the country, they
were coming down to the lowlands. Cuevas was asked to appraise the
Sulu Sultan of all these and to assure him that there would not anymore
be repetition of the bloody wars initiated by the criminal ambitions of the
Spaniards who made brothers fight each other, and to warn him that
another power (the Americans) was now trying to succeed the Spaniards.
The letter explained how a combination of the Sulus with the people of
Luzon would make it difficult for outsiders to dominate the Filipinos. 2

Then, in another instance, Baldomero Aguinaldo, the brother of President Emilio

Aguinaldo also wrote a letter dated May 31, 1899 which he addressed to the Sultan of
Marangas. The said letter talked about one God, “but that the Spaniards, especially the
friars, made a distinction between the Moros who were described to have a false
religion, and the Christians who were asserted to have the true religion, in order to sow
religious discord among the Filipino race”. Baldomero Aguinaldo further expressed
confidence that “as brothers and sons of the same race, they would join in the
aspirations of independence and liberty”.3

2
Majul quoted in Rodil p. 34.
3
Ibid. pp.34-35.
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We do not learn of any positive response to the letters. The quick turn of events
brought about by American occupation plus the difficulty in the system of transportation
and communication may have hindered the blossoming of a wonderful relationship
between the revolutionary government of Aguinaldo and the Sultanates of the south.
Yet, despite these unanswered calls, the letters are still very important because they
represent a turning point in our ancestors’ view of things. Note that for 333 years, we
were historically conditioned to believe that the Islamized is the enemy of the
Christianized native. But in the letters, they have come to realize that they were only
made to fight by the “criminal ambitions” of the colonizers. Here we see too the
“Christian” Filipino president widening his horizon and entertaining the idea of
establishing a republic based on multiculturalism and respect for right to self-
determination.

We also learned of an incident during the Philippine Revolution in Cagayan de

Oro where a group of local Christian Filipino revolutionists sought refuge in the
mountains of Bukidnon. Exhausted and some were wounded, the group asked the help
of Bukidnon natives who never hesitated to cook food for them and treated their
wounds. In the course of their stay, the Bukidnons introduced the Filipino revolutionists
to some Maranao Datus living in the border of Lanao and Bukidnon. A conference was
later on held where the Filipino revolutionists, the Bukidnons and the Maranao Datus
promised to defend each other in case the colonizers would reach them. 4

2. What inspiration can we get out of these attempts?

The above instances or attempts at cooperation of our forefathers should inspire us that
we are not only related by blood, language and culture (which are the basis of
ethnicity- the primordial foundation of nationhood), but more importantly, we also had
the conviction to belong to each other.5 In other words, moments of cooperation in our
history such as above should not be relegated only as footnotes in our textbooks.
Rather, they should occupy the centerfold of our history because they formed part of
the most glorious moments of our collective past!

IV. Lessons Learned and Peace Message

In the study of Philippine History, it was often the polarization, conflict and divergence
of Muslims, Christians and Lumads which are emphasized and highlighted. Inspiring
moments of unity and brotherhood such as above are outshined by accounts of
conflicting loyalties; of stories about “them versus us”; of disagreements between the
east-clinging way of life of the Moro and Lumad against the westernized culture of the
4
This paper was presented by Antonio Montalban during the Regional Conference on Mindanao History held in
May 2003 at the Academic Complex, MSU, Marawi City.
5 These two when combined together should strengthen our sense of being one community.
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Christianized Filipino. Whether this is because of the lack of information or because

regionalism and chauvinism make our memories selective in remembering our past, one
fact remains – Philippine history needs to balance the distressing accounts with
inspiring ones.

We understand the reasons why points of convergence are dwarfed by the points of
divergence in our usual treatment of Philippine history. In the first place, there were
indeed more conflicts than harmony in the relationship between the Islamized, the
Christianized and the unconverted natives of this archipelago. On the whole, these
conflicts were generated and/or exacerbated by our colonial experience under the
divide and rule. Secondly, human memory is selective. There is no problem in the
selectivity of human memory per se as that is a natural given. But if history is to serve
its purpose for nation-building, why focus the selectivity only on divergence and bad
experiences when we can also pay attention to the inspiring moments of our history?

We are not saying we forget (or hide) the bad experiences of our past for they too offer
us valuable lessons. But we should not be oblivious too that at some points in our
collective past, our ancestors, vividly or vaguely, once recognized their commonalities,
attempted to nurture the feeling of belonging; and aspired to become one community.

V. References and Recommended Readings

Antonio Montalban. Instances of Moro, Lumad and Christian Filipino Cooperation During
the Philippine Revolution. A paper presented during the Regional Conference on
Mindanao History held in May 2003, Academic Complex, MSU, Marawi City.

Peter G. Gowing. Muslim Filipinos: Heritage and Horizon (Quezon City: New Day
Publishers, 1979)

Majul, Cesar A. Muslims in the Philippines. Quezon City: University of the Philippines
Press, 1999.

Rodil, Rudy B. A Story of Mindanao and Sulu in Question and Answer . Davao:
MINCODE, 2003

------- Statement of Moro Datus and Leaders with Respect to Filipino Independence and
their Deisre for Self-Determination. Dansalan Quarterly. Vol. 25, Nos. 1-4, January –
December 2005. Pp. 3-86.