Lost Moro Heroes, Gems of the Malay Race By Yusuf Morales (this article is written as a reflection of the researches

done in our continuin g initiative to discover the lost roots of the people of the areas mentioned the rein. any quotations or reposting of this article would be best appreciated if citation and acknowledgement is observed. magsukul) Symbolism is an essential part of any culture and people. it allows people to fi nd inspiration and strength as well as the mental images that become sources of heroes for the people. There has always been issues as the Filipino people has been a scarred, people s carred by the repeated incursions of foreign invaders and colonizers, as well as the repeated erasures through both physical and cultural genocide inflicted by the occupying forces. A quick question to any schoolboy in these islands as to who the oldest here tha t they can remember, they will always mention Lapu lapu, and a quick glance some wil l reply Jose Rizal, or the reverse. Asking further questions regarding the ident ity of the two persons will only result to the schoolboy scratching his scalp as he barely knows much abouth these symbols. Cultural genocide has been the method of erasing and defacing s of a people, which is both scarring and enslaving. This has be the cause of the colonial mentality of the people. It is a tural genocide that we are unable to remember as a people our and history. the racial memorie been described to result of this cul collective memory

Part of this amnesia is the loss of recognition and records of our pre-hispanic heroes resulting to a misrepresentation of their identities. part of this amnesi a is the question whether if we call our people the rang Mahardika or what is known a the Mahalika Race, this however speaks of an identity which relates to our conn ection to the Madhjapahit and Sri Vishaya empires, this identity however has bee n passed over when the malay chiefs and their relatives embraced Islam as is evi denced by the intermarriages and the relatedness of the ruling clans all over th e archipelago. This has been seen in the different surveys and census conducted by the Spanish colonial authorities prior to the eventual conquest of the Lu Sio ng and the Vishaya areas. The first clash being the clash between Magallanes and Lapu Lapu, A cousin of th e Sultan of Sulu, this was the first instance where the Spanish Armada had met a group that was having the same religion as their enemies in Qurtuba and Andalus (postscript to this, the Spanish fleet left in full view of the spanish forces anahiliting the last remaining Muslim forces of the Amawi Kingdoms).This clash w as disastrous as this left with the death of their expedition leader leading to the eventual decimation of this expedition except for a small group of survivors . Part of this history is the Macabebe Kingdom, which runs from the original Bulak an (Bu Lakan) to the present Pampanga area, the Balayan Kingdom which comprised of the areasof cavite, Batanggas, Bicol Quezon , the Mayit Kingdom which was Min doro. The Macabebe kingdom fell during the battle of Bangkusay, where the dreaded Maca bebe warriors, whose leader Tarik Soliman was related to the Sultans of Brunei a

nd Sulu, his areas was reoccupied by some of the Balayan Taga-ilogs as a result of resettlement policies of the Spanish colonial authorities. The Kingdom of Kot a Seludong, off the mouth of Manila Bay, a settlement ruled by Rajah Sulayman re lated to the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu, also fell during this period, thanks t o the connivance of Rajah Lakandula who viewed this as an opportunity to gain po wer from the Solimans and upstage the other kingdoms. The Balayan kingdom consequently fell after the fall of the Macabebe kingdom, as they have lost their allies to the spaniards and was now facing the combined mi ght of both the Vishayan natives and the Spanish armada. the defeat of these two kingdoms allowed the Spanish armada to consolidate its forces with the surrende red troops of the Macabebe and Balayan Moros, which had undergone a convert or d ie assimilation policy, not withstanding the brutal death of the chiefs and the eventual enslavement of the descendants of their children. This policy had become the trend, employed harshly to the relatives of the Sulta ns (being Muslims), whether this was in Lu Siong, Vishaya or other areas of Mindolang where the Spanish Garrisons managed to maintain a foothold. This resulted to the destruction of cultural records, relics and landmarks that showed our Muslim heritage, something that we are still in the process of recons tructing, as oppostion to recognition of this heritage has taken many forms. amo ng them is the maharlika culture, which puts more emphasis on the pre-islamic ci vilization that was not respresentative of the Malay culture that represents the evolution of the Malay people as well as the Philippine islands. The different oral traditions or what is known as tarsilas clearly indicate that the preceeding statements stated herein comes from both the Sultanates of magui ndanao, Sulu and even as far as the Sultanate of Brunei. who are tied by ties of kinship coming from the same lineage of Seyyeds (descendants of the prophet Muh ammad ). As we continue to recover and uncover from records these lost gems of the Malay race, the Lost Moro heroes, who have been subsumed under the pages of surveys, r eports and records of colonial authorities, in the hope of rediscovering parts o f our past.