TOWARDS PEACE. President Benigno Aquino III (right) accepts a gong from Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Al haj Murad Ebrahim (second from left) and MILF peace panel chief Mohager Iqbal (leftmost) just before the signing of the Bangsamore framework agreement at the Malacañang Palace. Photo from Gov.ph

“HERE, WE couldn’t really be ourselves.”

Management engineering freshman Ameera Tungopon recalls these words of her cousin from a conversation they had about studying in Manila.

“He told me that Manila isn’t really a place for us—that here, being a minority, we will always be expected to ‘bend’ in favor of what the non-Muslims want,” says Tungopon, a Muslim who hails from Zamboanga City.

“Personally, I thought he was just being paranoid. But thinking back to that time, I see that he is right,” she says. “Whenever my mom and I go shopping here, she doesn’t wear her sulban [a kind of a wrap that goes around a Muslim woman’s head]. Whenever we’re here, we usually speak only in Filipino or English.”

“Looking at the bigger picture, I realize that my people have always been expected to bend in favor of what the majority wants,” Tungopon adds.

Tungopon’s experiences and sentiments reflect not only the discrimination that Muslims have long endured but also echo the cry of the suffering people of Mindanao.

The signing of the Bangsamoro framework agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) last October 15, 2012 redirected much attention to the dispute that Mindanao has been mired in for many decades now.

The framework agreement is set to enable the creation of Bangsamoro, a separate political entity that replaces the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, which is considered a “failed experiment” by critics, including President Benigno S. Aquino III.

The agreement sparked hope that genuine and long-lasting peace may finally be secured for the conflict-ridden region, after decades of being the stage for political unrest, power struggles, and numerous deaths, both on the side of the government and of the rebels.

Whether or not the framework is successfully implemented and achieves the results it envisions, it is necessary to look at the context of the issue to clearly understand what is going on in this volatile part of the Philippines.

A long history of settlement

In a 1998 study entitled “The Islamic Independence Movements in Patani of Thailand  and Mindanao of the Philippines” in Asian Survey, an academic journal published by the University of California Press, Syed Serajul Islam from the International Islamic University discusses that before the arrival of Spaniards in the Philippines, Mindanao was an independent kingdom of different indigenous tribes. In the 14th century, the Muslims established a sultanate and subscription to the Islamic faith was a main requisite to being a part of the community.

However, when the Philippines’ colonizers, mainly the Spaniards and the Americans, took control over the country, Mindanao was incorporated into Philippine territory, much to the dismay of the Moros. This was especially seen in the fact that the local Moro leaders lost their power and a Moro province was created under the control of the colonial government of the Americans.

Mindanao saw massive transformation as a result, as settlement into the area by non-Muslims was promoted and secular educational institutions were built. Land-grabbing became prevalent and many indigenous peoples and natives lost their ancestral lands, aggravating the frustrations of the Moros.

Contemporary issues

In recent years, the qualms of the Moros were heightened, as more alarming issues further engulfed the region.

Interdisciplinary Studies Department faculty member Renato Oliveros identifies the main culprits of conflict in the area: agrarian problems, extreme poverty, corruption and prejudice.

Oliveros explains that the migrants who have settled in Mindanao could not alone be blamed for land-grabbing and leasing them to corporations. “Those who benefit, too, are the ‘landed’ Muslims in the area, particularly from the datu class, who claim ownership of hectares and hectares of land even without any legal deed or title—just because the lands are located in a town or barrio named after their ancestors.”

Moreover, Oliveros says that provinces in Mindanao are currently some of the most poverty-stricken. “Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Sulu have recorded the highest incidence of poverty, with approximately 57% of its population [living in poverty].”

Oliveros notes that corruption also has high incidence, as exemplified by the case of the Ampatuans, who, according to him, “have acquired power, guns and money through its quid pro quo relationship with the previous administration as their padrino. This padrino relationship ensured winnability in elections or favored positions of authority.”

Muslims in Mindanao have also become a minority. “[They] suffer from prejudice—thus, the bias of policies and development programs for the non-Muslim majority,” says Oliveros.

Complex origins of conflict

“The roots [of the situation in Mindanao] are multi-faceted and intertwined,” explains University of the Philippines Diliman Institute of Islamic Studies Dean Julkipli Wadi.

Wadi says that the main conflict point is the “[assertion] of rights and sovereignty of the Moro people for the past several decades and [their] illegal or arbitrary integration to the Philippine republic without plebiscitary consent.”

This manifested in the rise of Moro nationalism and the formation of different groups seeking independence for the Moros. Aside from the MILF, other Moro groups, such as its forerunner, the Moro National Liberation Front, and the notorious radical bandit group Abu Sayyaf, have waged war for the Moro people’s interests.

A struggle for peace

Amid the battles fought and the lives lost in the name of either Moro independence or national unity, it is ultimately only peace, justice and progress that Muslims and many other people in Mindanao desire.

In contrast with the complexities of the situation in Mindanao, Tungopon puts her dreams for her people rather simply.

“I want peace. I want to sleep at night, knowing that my people are also sleeping comfortably in their own beds, in their own houses, without having to fear gunshots or bomb explosions in the middle of the night,” Tungopon explains. “I want my people to be able to live the life that their ancestors would have wanted for them. I don’t want my ancestors’ deaths to have been in vain. I want my people to be happy.”