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- This article deals with the land claimed by the Moro people. For the region controlled by them, see : Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
- For Bangsamoro Incident see Bangsamoro Incident.
█ Historical extent
Contents |
Etymology
Bangsamoro or Moroland is the name for the homeland of the Moro people.[1][2]
The term is a compound of two words, i.e. the Malay bangsa, meaning nation or people (Filipino, "bansa"), and the Spanish word moro, from the older Spanish word Moor, the Reconquista-period term for the "people of Morocco" who invaded Visigothic Spain and ruled over much of the Iberian Peninsula for 800 years. The term slowly grew in scope, eventually covering all Arabs and by extension, all Muslims.
To be more precise therefore, the term "Moro" was a Spanish misnomer of the Muslim Malays of the area, this being the term used by Spanish Catholics during the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula to describe the Moros, or the "People of Morocco", whom they eventually drove back to their "homeland" - Marrakech (Latinized into "Morroch"). The English word "Moors" is derived from the Spanish vocabulary, and not the other way around. The modern-day people of Morocco have been using Moroccan as a demonym, discarding the Spanish "Moro" upon independence in 1956.
A similar case of Spanish misnaming caused considerable confusion in succeeding centuries when noting that most of the Philippines' natives were not Muslim, they then observed that these natives were practicing a religion much-closer to Hindus (the Kingdom of Lakandula in Tondo was known to have been Hindu, as opposed to Rajah Soliman's newly established Muslim Kingdom on the south banks of the Pasig River; and Rajah Humabon of Cebu was Hindu while Lapu-Lapu of Mactan was a Muslim prince), owing primarily to longer contact with the Hindu empires of the Srivijaya and Majapahit, and therefore were promptly called Indians (much the same way as Columbus and the explorers of the Americas thought of the populations there as Indian), in Spanish therefore, these non-Muslim natives were then called "Indios" (SLAVE), causing a division between erstwhile neighbors, with this division having been perpetrated by "separatists" to this day. The term has since ceased being used by all native Malays in the Philippines, preferring to use "Filipino" instead. Curiously, the term "Indian Islander" have lived on in another part of the vast Malay archipelago - in Indonesia.
Modern-day ethnographers, however, generally agree that the term Moro people may be used to describe a collective grouping of all Muslim in the Philippines in general. These include the Tausug, the Iranun, Maranao, and the Maguindanaoan. Other groups such as the Bajao, Yakan, Banguingui, Higaunon, Subanen have been freely described as Moro as well, this despite the fact that substantial numbers of each tribe continue to profess mostly local traditional religions or have altogether converted to Christianity.
A more precise nomenclature would therefore dictate that, to describe religious groupings, there are Moros (to describe all Moros professing the Muslim faith), just as much as are there Filipino Catolicos or Filipino Protestants. Or when taken ethno-linguistically, Moros are the eqivalent to Filipino Ilocanos or Filipino Bisayas or even Filipino Chavacanos or Filipino Bikolanos.
Extent
The supposed Bangsamoro homeland covers all territory within the Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan area, or MINSUPALA. This includes the provinces of Basilan, Cotabato, Davao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Palawan, Sarangani, Shariff Kabunsuan, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, and Zamboanga Sibugay; and the cities of Cotabato, General Santos, Marawi, Pagadian, Puerto Princesa, Zamboanga and the City of Isabela in Basilan. It also included the disputed Federal State of Sabah in Northern Borneo Island.
Other interpretations may include territories that used to form North Borneo including Sabah and the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan. This area is currently under the Sabah dispute.
History
Early history
Bangsamoro is variously described as encompassing the former territories of certain Muslim sultanates of Mindanao (such as Maguindanao and
Its pre-Hispanic extent, however, conforms more or less to the present extent of the Autonomous Region (incorporated into the Draft of the 1987 Philippine Constitution by the Aquino Revolutionary Government after a deal struck between anti-Marcos opposition leaders in Manila and Nur Misuari's by-then defunct claims, assured the revival of the MNLF, and the award of these territories).
American period
After the American occupation of the islands (as well as the Moro Rebellion) the area finally surrendered to the advancing American authorities and was therefore slowly integrated into the rest of the country.
The Moro elite then sent delegates as representatives of the group in the fledgling government in Manila, serving in various national positions as Senators and Assemblymen, thus signalling the acceptance of these traditional Moro leaders of their territory's inclusion in the US-sponsored Philippine Commonwealth.
Moro Province
Moro Province is the former name of the combined and undivided provinces of Cotabato, Davao, Sulu, and Zamboanga, covering most of the South-Central and Western parts of Mindanao, excluding the Misamis Province, and Agusan in Mindanao's northeast (which was created as a reservation for the non-Muslim Indigenous tribes of Mindanao).
The Moro Province however, included what by then were already Christianized areas of Zamboanga, Dapitan, Davao, and even Isabela in Basilan.
Department of Mindanao and Sulu
The Department of Mindanao and Sulu was an agency of the United States colonial administration in the Philippine Islands tasked to administer all Muslim-dominated areas in the territory. It was established on July 23, 1914, pursuant to Act No. 2408, replacing the Moro and Agusan Provinces after both were divided into the then districts of Agusan, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Davao, Misamis, Palawan, Sulu, Surigao, and Zamboanga.
It was eventually abolished in 1920, after the responsibility for the administration of Moro lands was transferred to the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes of the Philippines' Department of the Interior. It was headed by a governor, subordinate to the U.S. Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. Frank C. Carpenter served as its governor from 1914 to 1920.
Philippine Commonwealth
Upon the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935, various institutions were set-up by government to reorganize the former Mindanao districts into full-fledged Provinces on their own. These empire provinces generally conform to present-day regional boundaries (except ARMM), attesting to the relative cultural homogeneity in each of these vast Provinces.
A government program of populating and developing Mindanao's resources was soon inaugurated, and groups of Filipino pioneers voluntarily moved from more densely populated islands of the Philippines' Catholic northern and central isles, into Mindanao.
This was followed by a concerted government effort to locate multi-national corporate interests into Mindanao to quickly exploit the area's resources. American-owned plantations sprung up all over the Cotabato lowlands, the northern shores of Lanao and in Zamboanga and Basilan. Japanese factories and farms took root in Davao. In their wake, waves upon waves of Filipino workers followed, seeking better opportunities in what then was dubbed "The Land of Promise".
Japanese occupation
The area was occupied by Japanese Imperial forces from 1942 until its liberation in 1945. The local Moro guerrillas used traditional weapons such as the Kris, Barong and Kampilan while aiding their liberators. Most of the anti-Japanese action however, were orchestrated from Christian settler areas, and coordinated under American Reserve Captain Wendell Fertig's Guerilla Commands.
Post Philippine Independence
Upon the establishment of the Philippine Republic in 1946, any mention of Moro lands have since completely ceased to exist, as these traditional areas of former Moro ascendancy, have been completely incorporated into the Republic as Provinces.
Owing to the Philippine Consitution's avowed adherence to the separation of Church and State, and its principle of advancing all Filipinos regardless of ethnicity,creed or station, Filipino Muslims were given the same citizenship rights as any other Filipino, able to vote, and be voted upon. Several Muslim leaders then rose to have themselves elected, and ably represented the interests of their constituents even in the highest chambers of the land.
Two decades after the Philippines reclaimed its independence from the U.S., however, Nur Misuari's Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) arbitrarily declared a territory covering 14 Mindanao Provinces and all Cities therein as the "Moro homeland" separate from the Republic of the Philippines. These claims were contested by the sovereign Philippine Government, and hostilities ensued soon after. Muslim-majority communities were generally sympathetic to the MNLF, although these fell one by one under the sustained operations of the military, nearly breaking the back of the secessionist movement so much so that by 1976, a temporary cessation of hostilities was called by the MNLF's supporters in the United Nations and a bilateral ceasefire was therefore agreed upon. With a fractured "peace process" brokered by Libya and the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), however, the Philippine government under dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was coerced (under threat of an oil blockade) to sign what eventually came to be called the 1976 Tripoli Agreement.
Due to the fact that the Philippines was placed under Martial Law by Marcos since 1972, and the Congress abolished soon after, the Agreement was never submitted to nor was it ever ratified by any legitimate body representing the people of the Philippines.
Marcos, however, proceeded to subdivide Mindanao's erstwhile empire provinces by Presidential Decree, awarding choice parcels of land as local government units (municipalities) to Rebel Commanders and Moro elite leaders who agreed to cooperate with the government. The acceptance of these Moro "surrenderees" of their prizes eventually caused the Moro Rebellion to lose steam, resulting in the long-time exile of Nur Misuari, and the factionalization of the MNLF, also giving birth to the more hardline Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 1984, headed by Misuari's former second-in-command, Hashim Salamat.
ARMM
However, after the People Power Revolution of 1986, the Philippine government under President Corazon Aquino initiated a "peace process" with the group, the result of a deal struck between anti-Marcos oppositionists and Nur Misuari, that he would be rewarded handsomely if he calls on his constituents to support Aquino's civil disobedience campaign (after the 1986 Snap Elections showed signs that Marcos was about to be re-proclaimed President).
In 1989, by virtue of Republic Act No. 6734 and, later, Republic Act No. 9054, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was created. Out of the 14 Provinces (including all cities therein) asked in a plebiscite, only four (4) opted to join the ARMM, i.e. Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur. Even the Muslim-majority Province of Basilan and Lanao del Sur's and Maguindanao's respective capitals, the cities of Marawi and Cotabato did not join the autonomous grouping.
By the early 1990s, due primarily to the entrenchment of more sympathetic local government executives, foreign-funded terrorist cells debuted in the Philippines, with numerous terrorist acts committed by groups Soviet-Afghan War veterans, Filipino Moro mujahideen - the Abu Sayyaf - formally styled the "Al Harakatul Al Islamiyah" a branch of Southeast Asia's terror network, the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah, which in turn is connected to the bigger Al Qaida network of Osama Bin Laden.
After a decade of peace negotiations brokered by the Organization of Islamic Conference through Libya and, later Indonesia, the 1996 GOP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement (1996 FPA) was signed under the term of Aquino's successor and political ally, President Fidel Ramos. The 1996 FPA, however, again averred to the 1976 Tripoli Agreement's 14 Provinces (including cities), and faced with wholesale rejection from ten (10) Provinces, Ramos instead inaugurated the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development or SPCPD, which by Presidential fiat, covered all 14 "Tripoli Agreement" Provinces without the consent of its residents. The Special Zone of Peace and Development or SZOPAD was likewise established by Ramos to get around the mandatory plebiscite demanded by the Constitution. Both measures were met with vociferous, sometimes violent, protests all over the affected areas. Presidential motorcades were pelted with tomatoes and eggs as residents voiced their indignation over government's obvious deception. In the meantime, MNLF fighters were integrated into the Philippine Armed Forces, aptly dubbed the "MNLF Integrees", they now serve various duties as geographical militia units assisting the Philippine military in operations against their former comrades - the MILF.
In 1999, President Joseph Estrada declared an "All Out War" policy on the MILF and the bandit-group Abu Sayyaf after a series of high-profile kidnapping and bombing incidents revealed collusion between the two groups. MILF camps, including its biggest - Camp Abubakar (which encompassed at least 3 municipalities in 2 provinces), fell in quick succession, and MILF lines were on full retreat when Estrada was deposed in 2000, and Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was hoisted to the Presidency in a mass protest against Estrada's perceived excesses.
In 2001, a plebiscite expanding the ARMM was held anew under the auspices of the Arroyo administration. This was provided for by the 1996FPA. However, only the Province of Basilan (excluding the city of Isabela) and the City of Marawi opted to join the club.
MOA-AD and the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity
Two plebiscites after, certain sectors among the Filipino Moros continue to complain about the consistency of the laws creating the ARMM with that of the provisions found on the 1996 FPA, as well as the quality and extent of the Philippine government's implementation of the peace agreement.
Currently, the MNLF faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which seeks to establish an independent Islamic state in Mindanao, is engaged in what has been called a low-intensity conflict with Government forces in the area. Peace Negotiations have been resumed since 2001, and nearly reached a tipping point in August 2008, when the Peace Panels announced a breakthrough in the peace process - agreement was apparently made over claims of Ancestral Domain by Filipino Moros, again without popular consent. Protests erupted once again when copies of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) were circulated, exposing the establishment of a "separate, distinct and exclusive" pseudo-state for the Filipino Moros, and a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) to be managed jointly through a Commission composed of Government appointees and MILF grandees (eerily reminiscent of the Philippine Commission which served as the Commonwealths's early upper house), and a Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary composed only of Moros, with its own foreign affairs and pseudo-diplomatic corps, army, police, and right to claim over Mindanao's natural resources, as well as a patent permission to take-over even private properties which any claim of "Ancestral Domain" can legitimately cause to invalidate any government-issued document declaring its rightful ownership.
Local executives in Iligan, North Cotabato, Zamboanga City spearheaded loud protests which eventually brought the question on the MOA-AD straight to the Philippine Supreme Court. A Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued by the Philippine Supreme Court, effectively derailing this phase of the talks. The Agreement has since been declared "unconstitutional" by the high court. Even before this, however, the Government has backtracked on the signing of the MOA, citing instances of MILF incursions into Lanao del Norte towns which caused the death of several civilian residents as a "lack of goodwill" on the part of the MILF. The Government peace panel which "initialled" the MOA-AD was subsequently disbanded, and the Peace Process suspended.
The discredited MILF were likewise condemned by several Moro politicians decrying its self-serving claims of representing the Filipino Moros without submitting themselves to any free or open elections. According to Tawi-Tawi Congressman Nur G. Jaafar:
| “ | Mindanao is not represented by MILF fighters only. [T]he silent majority are the peace-loving civilians in the region who were forced to migrate to other areas to escape the hostilities of the rebel group.[3] | ” |
Overtures from both the Government and the MILF point to the resumption of Peace Talks. And the government, under intense pressure from foreign countries (OIC, EU, US, etc.) threatening a pull-out of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) Funds unless any sort of appeasement is made with the MILF, might still spring yet another surprise soon.
References
See also
External links
- http://ranaw.com Ranaw, The lanao del Sur Community
- http://www.bangsamoro.com ::a new medium for the modern moro::
- http://www.bangsamoro.info The Bangsamoro Online - The History and Struggle of the Bangsamoro People!
- http://www.luwaran.com The Moro Islamic Liberation Front Website
- http://www.joomlamoro.com Joomla! Bangsamoro Translation Project
- http://www.morofocus.com The Bangsamoro Documentation Project
- Isulong SEOPH entry by a Proud Moro - Moslemen M. Macarambon Jr. writes about his thought and experiences on search engines optimization on the keyword: "Moro" and "Bangsamoro"
- Amir Butler: The Moro Struggle for Independence
- North Cotabato - Overview of its Past, People & Resources. Accessed on February 5, 2007.
Moro Organization links
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