THE BANGSAMORO STORY

(The Real Story Behind the Struggle)

By Amilpasa T. Bandaying
In these times of very dramatic upheavals in our land of Mindanao, I feel that
it is the right moment to be reminded of history by going back in time and
relay the story of the Bangsamoro Struggle that seemingly to this day
remains a long journey that is yet to find its destination.
I had been part of this very long journey and I feel that I have the
appropriate memory to retell the story of this endless struggle.
Mindanao had been wrought by tumult since time immemorial; from the time
European colonizers have arrived on our shores towards the fierce
occupation of Imperial Forces of Japan. It had seemed that Mindanao had
been an unfortunate child of war, even to this day.
The Moro Struggle began in the years leading to the very gruelling decade of
the 1970s, in the path towards the spectre of Martial Law declared by then
President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
I was then a young Muslim student at University of the East (UE) taking up
law with an enduring ambition for the legal profession.
In 1967, I graduated my A.B. Political Science degree from the Zamboanga
Arturo Estaquiao College (ZAEC) and immediately I departed towards Manila
to pursue a lifelong aspiration to be a lawyer. As a Commission on National
Integration (CNI) scholar, I enrolled in the University of Manila. There I have
dedicated myself to gain higher education in law and excelled well as I have
performed consistently with my examinations, finishing in the Top 5 almost
all the time.
I have all too suddenly felt that my prowess in legal principles have
sharpened steadily that I have gradually felt that I need to channel this more
suitably. And so after a semester, I transferred to Ateneo de Manila law
school in Padre Faura. The moment I stepped into the hallowed ground of the
Ateneo campus, I was awed to no end with the grandness and splendor of
the place.
Immediately, I went to tackle the rigorous lessons of law there. In fact, the
level of teaching there had been so different than in the previous law school
that I have attended that there was great challenge and a very high level of
difficulty. In Ateneo, we were made to study stacks of cases and digest them
on a very frequent basis that it was almost smothering me and had tested
my will to earn a law degree in a venerated institution as Ateneo de Manila
Law School.
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I was just one of two Muslims enrolled there and in the few months that I was
there I was recruited by Aquila Legis Law Fraternity and became its member
while my other Muslim companion decided to join Utopia, a rival law
fraternity.

In 1968, the Jabidah Massacre instigated the Muslim rebellion when the
military massacred 68 young Muslims recruits who were being trained in
Corregidor Island with the aim of reclaiming Sabah from Malaysia. These
violent deaths instigated sympathy and debacle among Muslims throughout
the country that the most boisterous amongst them is from former University
Professor (UP) Nur Misuari when he formed the Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF) in 1969 as an offshoot organization Mindanao Independence
Movement (MIM) which was formed earlier in 1968 by Datu Udtog Matalam,
former governor of Cotabato Province - with an aspiration for an independent
Muslim state in Mindanao.
In these turbulent years, the Muslims have increasingly felt disenchantment
and deprivation of rights and dignity that a fierce craving for recognition
have ensued, giving rise to the Bangsamoro Movement. Eventually an
armed struggle took root, desiring to end long period of oppression,
exploitation, neglect and discrimination that was the mark of Philippine
policy at that time.
I was among the first recruits of MNLF as I felt then for enduring desire to see
our own homeland, a Moro homeland that could be called to be our own, as I
felt then a patriotic cause for self-determination for our people, for the
creation of the land Bangsamoro. Prior to becoming the main secessionist
entity in Mindanao, It was a initially an underground movement in the youth
sector of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM) to which i have enlisted
as a founding member.
Bangsamoro is a termed coined thru the interplay of two very evocative
words, the word Bangsa is a Muslim term for nation and then Moro, a
word used in vilification for its negative connotation, used by Spanish
colonizers to refer to Muslim population in the conquered Philippines, but to
which Prof. Misuari opted to use in order to emphasize his love and sympathy
for the Moroland.
One fateful day in 1968, I was among a passionate group of young Muslim
students who met in Pasonanca Park in order to sign a Manifesto, pledging
our commitment to fight and struggle for our oppressed people and
homeland.
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Along with fellow recruits, I journeyed towards the faraway land of Sabah,
Malaysia to train in combat.
I was among the 1st group called as Batch 90 who was sent off to Tawau,
Sabah aboard a wooden ship called Tempel, from Jolo Sulu, arriving on New
Years Day, until we reached the secluded island of Pangkor Island.
Along with me in this initial batch was Sali Wali, Jamil Jimmy Lucman,
Hundan Haj Abubakar, Dimasangkay Dimas Pundato, Sabturaji Ji
Salmadan, Alver Boy Alonto, Abdul Bobby Alonto, Mike Japanasi
Madarang, Cesar Cana, Ali Clay Sansalana, George Enampadan, Manran,
Ramit Daddy Hassan, Abubakar Bakkaa Juli, Asamli Amil, Akmad
Sumandal and Bian Lay Lim.
It was only months after that Prof. Misuari arrived at Pangkor Island along
with the group called 2nd Batch and there, the Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF) was formally organized as an armed rebellion where Prof Misuari was
elected as the Chairman of the Central Committee while Abdul Khayer Alonto
was the Vice-Chairman. I was a member of this committee along with Sali
Wali, Jimmy Lucman, Utoh Salahuddin and Ramit Hassan.
As a member of the Central Committee, it was our main duty to look after
the welfare of the recruits, whom we called then as Boys in the Camp and
to be spokesperson between the instructors and trainees.
Often, we call our group as the Central Committee of 7 and in secrecy and
stealth, we have held our meetings in a beach where a big rock dramatically
lies. We call this rock the Matalam Rock in honor of Old Man Matalam, the
founder of the MIM.
The first trainees at Pangkor Island was then on called as Group of 90 and
after a year of training, we have been sent back to Mindanao and spread out
towards our respective provinces and locales, with the task of recruiting
secretly young Muslims into the fold of the armed struggle and then to train
them in armed combat.
The following formed part of the original Batch 90 Commandoes of the
MNLF Central Committee who were trained abroad:
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Nur Misuari
Salamat Hasim
Abdul Khayer Alonto
Operations
Abdul Baki Abubakar

Chairman
Vice Chairman for Foreign Relations
Vice Chairman for Military

Secretary General
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Judge Hamid Lucman

Al Hussein Caluang

Legal Adviser
Field Marshall

RANKING FIELD COMMANDERS

Commander Sali Wali (Zone III) ZRC, Alicia, Zamboanga del Sur

Commander Amilpasa Bandaying, Intelligence Officer, Olutanga,

Zamboanga del Sur
Commander Nur Maldisa
Commander Hussin Loong
Commander Hadji Camlian
Commander Rasul Abdullah
Commander Jamil Jimmy Lucman
Commander Amelil Ronnie Malagiok
In 1971, the Group of 300 was sent for training in another neighbouring
country that when Martial Law was declared on September 21, 1972, our
movement remained largely underground due to intensified government
operations. During these times of laying low, we were to await the return of
Group of 300 in order to resume our armed struggle. As soon as the new
trainees have arrived, most of them were assigned as Field Commanders to
lead their men in their respective area of operations.
For myself, I was assigned as Commander and Propaganda and Intelligence
Officer with ten (10) foreign-trained member from the Group of 300.
As the recruitment for new members have intensified, our ranks grew an
army of 16,000 men and the rebel force was then termed as the Bangsa
Moro Army.
In the years of intense fighting and conflict, just ahead of the declaration of
Martial Law, the membership of Central Committee have expanded to
include Ahmad Bon Sumandal, Ali Clay Sansaluna, Amelil Ronnie
Malagiok, Dimasangkay Dimas Pundato, Salamat Hashim and Bian Lay Li,
who later became the Chief of the MNLF Strike Forces in Jolo, Sulu.
The Moro armed struggle has posed a relentless threat to the government,
gaining foothold as a very formidable force. However, in the attack of Jolo in
1973, the MNLF have sustained innumerable losses on their sides, with large
number of casualties. The Basilan bombings have also led to sizable
casualties, many among them were civilians.
In 1973, the government adopted a reconciliatory approach to end the war in
Mindanao thru the Policy of Attraction, which begun a period of
pacification, reconciliation and amnesty.
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Through a series of negotiation and dialogues, a number of MNLF armed

combatants returned to the fold of the government and embraced the offer
of peace and reconciliation as well as the promise of rehabilitation and
resettlement in line with the main promise of ending decades long of
oppression and discrimination against Muslims and Lumads in Mindanao.
Central to this campaign of reconciliation was Rear Admiral Romulo M.
Espaldon, a native of Taw-Tawi, tasked to dialogue with the MNLF in the thrust
for finding a lasting peace in Mindanao.
To strengthen the cause of peace, the government agreed to sign the Tripoli
Agreement on December 23, 1976 granting political autonomy to the
Bangsamoro in Mindanao. And with this agreement, the long quest for peace
took root and thereafter sowed the seed of peace, despite that such road
was so arduous and difficult that even towards this very day, after the
grant of autonomy and self-determination, the road to peace remains endless
and foreboding.