READING IN

PHILIPPINE HISTORY
LESSON 14 SLIDE
PEACE STUDIES - COMMUNIST INSURGENCIES IN THE
PHILIPPINES - MORO STRUGGLE

B Y : A LV I N O . H O L OYO H OY
 Peace Studies -
Communist Insurgencies
in the Philippines - Moro
Struggle
The Moro Struggle
Pre-Colonial Times
Islamization of Mindanao and Sulu
• Islam entered Minadanao and Sulu around 150 years before the
arrival of Magellan.
• The first Muslim preacher was Mudum, who came from Arabia.
• Other Muslim preachers followed. They came from present-day
Indonesia and Malaysia. They were Abu Bakr, Sharif Kabungsuan, and
Raha Baginda.
Golden Age of the Sultanate of Sulu
• The Sultanate of Sulu was a
very prominent kingdom then.
• Traders from all over Asia go to
Sulu.
• It is at the exact center of
Southeast Asia
How we got Sabah
• It had close ties with the Sultanate of Brunei because the 2 sultans
were actually relatives.
• The Sultan of Brunei gave the Sultan of Sulu a vast land- Sabah, for
helping him squelch a rebellion in his kingdom.
• Thus, for centuries, Sabah was governed by the Sultan of Sulu, and
the people there and people of Sulu consider themselves as one
family.
Spanish Times
Moro Wars
• When the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines,
Mindanao and Sulu were untouched. Only Visayas
and Luzon were ruled by the Spaniards.
• A few parts of Mindanao fell to the Spaniards, like
Zamboanga City, Dapitan, Cagayan de Oro, and
Davao. But the greater part of the South remained
free and Islamic.
• The Moros successfully repelled the Spanish
invaders for more than 300 years.
Moro Wars
• The Moros were able to preserve their culture, religion, and Sabah,
away from Spanish influence; while their brothers and sisters in
Luzon and Visayas became highly Hispanized.
American Period
Bates Treaty
• When Spain sold the Philippines to the US in the 1898 Treaty of Paris,
Mindanao was part of the deal even though Spain had no complete
control of the region.
• 1899- Gen. John Bates made friends with the Sultan of Sulu, and
signed a treaty with the sultan agreeing to put his territory under
American administration, but he will maintain his religious
leadership over his people.
Moro-American War
• 1902 – war broke out between the Moros and the US colonial army
• 1915 – The Moro-American War ended with the signing of the Kiram-
Carpenter Agreement
• Several American laws put Moro lands under US colonial domain.
Quirino-Recto Colonization Bill
• 1938 – During the Commonwealth Period, Senators Quirino and
Recto provided the colonization of Mindanao by settlers from Luzon
and Visayas.
• 1939 – the massive influx of settlers began in Dadiangas. The office
in-charge of the colonization was the National Land Settlement
Administration led by Gen. Paulino Santos. Later on, Dadiangas was
renamed Gen. Santos City.
Philippine Independence
• When America gave us our independence in 1946, we became a big
and diverse nation composed of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
• There was peace in Mindanao at that time. Muslims and Christians
co-existed peacefully in the South.
It started with the Loss of Sabah
• Flashback to the 1800: a British citizen
came to Southeast Asia and RENTED
Sabah from the Sultan of Sulu. The
British used that territory for their
agricultural business.
• Aside from renting Sabah, the British
colonized other territories in Southeast
Asia- Sarawak, Malaya, and Singapore.
 It started with the Loss of Sabah
• After World War 2, the British started
freeing its colonies. They put together 4
territories – Sarawak, Malaya, Singapore,
and Sabah- to form one country called THE
FEDERATION OF MALAYSIA.
• A year later, Singapore bolted from the
federation and became a separate country.
• Thus, Malaysia became a country with 3
regions- Malaya, Sarawak, and Sabah.
How we lost Sabah
• The Sultan of Sulu and the President of the Republic of
the Philippines (Diosdado Macapagal, 1962) protested
the inclusion of Sabah in the new country, Malaysia.
• But Malaysia wouldn’t return Sabah to us anymore, up
to today.
• The government of Malaysia is still paying the relatives
of the Sultan of Sulu P77,000 per year for the rental of
Sabah, but refuses to return the territory to us.
The Grand Plan to Invade Sabah
• When Ferdinand Marcos became President in 1965, he planned to
get back Sabah by force (because diplomacy wouldn’t work in the
time of Macapagal). He secretly planned Oplan Merdeka.
• The plan was to recruit and train young Moro men from Sulu to
become secret agents who would infiltrate in Sabah society (like the
movie, Salt).
The Grand Plan to Invade Sabah
• The Moro men from Sulu are the perfect secret agents because the
Sabah people wouldn't think that they are enemies because they are
distant relatives from centuries ago.
• On Marcos’ signal, the secret agents would simultaneously attack and
kill key officials in Sabah, and thus grab power in a twinkling of an
eye!
The Jabidah Massacre
• But the plan didn’t work out as expected.
• The Moro recruits were brought to Corregidor Island for their
training.
• Upon learning that their mission was to attack and kill their
brothers in Sabah, they had a mutiny against their training
officers.
• To stop the mutiny, they were massacred in Corregidor. This
was the Jabidah Massacre.
• It was kept a secret for a long time, until a former journalist-
turned-senator revealed the massacre in one of his speeches.
The Mindanao Conflict
• That Senator was Benigno Aquino, Jr., the no.1 critic of President
Marcos.
• He’s the husband of Cory Aquino, and the father of Noynoy Aquino
and Kris Aquino.
• When the Moros in Mindanao learned about the Jabidah Massacre,
they were furious. They took up arms and wanted to be a separate
country from the Philippines.
• Armed groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were formed to carry out an
armed struggle for their independence.
The ARMM
• The conflict raged on through several decades.
• In 1996, President Fidel V. Ramos forged a peace deal with the
MNLF.
• The Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was
created and it appeased the MNLF because its leaders got seats
of power in the said autonomous region. They surrendered their
arms to our government.
The ARMM
• But the MILF was left out in the deal, thus they continued their
armed struggle.
• Things became worse when President Erap Estrada declared an
all-out war against the MILF in 2000.
 The BBL

• Today, our government is trying to come up with another peace deal,

this time, with the MILF.
• The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will create an expanded
autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao, with the MILF personalities
expected to be its key leaders.
• They will have their own set of lawmakers to make pro-Islamic laws,
its own police force, own mayors and provincial administrators, and
budget coming from the Manila government amounting to around
P70 billion per year.
T H A N K YO U