Jabidah and Merdeka: The inside story

The officers who participated in the Jabidah massacre have not fully come clean. In the
end, it may have left a legacy of lying and cover-up in the military.
Marites Daguilan Vitug and Glenda M. Gloria
Published 7:12 AM, March 18, 2013
Updated 10:19 PM, March 18, 2013

(Editor's note: On March 18, 1968 exactly 45 years ago today at least 23 Muslim
trainees were shot to death on Corregidor Island in what has since been known as the
Jabidah massacre. Below is a summary of "In the name of honor?," the chapter on the
Philippine government's clandestine operation to invade Sabah written by Marites
Daguilan Vitug and Glenda M. Gloria in their book "Under the Crescent Moon:
Rebellion in Mindanao," which was first published in 2000.)
MANILA, Philippines As it was a special government operation, details of Oplan
Merdeka were known only to a few people. But the general concept was explained to
the officers who were involved in it. The Philippines was to train a special commando
unit named Jabidah that would create havoc in Sabah. The situation would force the
Philippine government to either take full control of the island or the residents would by
themselves decide to secede from Malaysia. Many Filipinos from Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and
parts of Mindanao had migrated to Sabah. Oplan Merdeka was banking on this large
community to turn the tide in favor of secession.
About 17 men, mostly recruits from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, entered Sabah as forest
rangers, mailmen, police. The Filipino agents blended into Sabah's communities. Their
main task was to use psychological warfare to indoctrinate and convince the large
number of Filipinos residing in Sabah to secede from Malaysia and be part of the
Philippines. Part of their job was to organize communities which would support
secession and be their allies when the invasion took place. They also needed to
reconnoiter the area and study possible landing points for airplanes and docking sites
for boats.
The project did not exactly start from ground zero. Even before then Army Maj Eduardo
Martelino sent his men to Sabah, Philippine armed forces intelligence was already

eavesdropping on the island. In the early 1960s, there was concern over the possibility
that a Pan-Islamic movement financed by Libya's Muammar Qadaffi would reach the
southern Philippines.
Martelino himself went to Sabah 3 times on secret missions as head of the Jabidah
forces, he would reveal in a newspaper interview on Aug 1, 1968. The landing points he
used were Tambisan Point, Lahad Datu, and Semporna. Some of his men traveled on
one of the 50 or more fast-moving fishing boats owned by big-time smuggler Lino
Bocalan. They frequently travelled from Cavite to Sabah, where they loaded thousands
of cases of "blue-seal" cigarettes. At that time, imported cigarettes were not allowed into
the Philippines.
Bocalan, only 31 then, was already a millionaire. In his coastal home in Cavite in 1998,
Bocalan admitted: "Marcos told me he needed help for Sabah. My duty was to finance
the operation. I spent millions (of pesos) I fed the Filipino trainees in Sabah, paid their
salaries. I sent my brother and my people to Tawi-Tawi and Corregidor to give food and
money (to the recruits.)."
Malaysia seemed an easy and vulnerable target at that time. The Federation was still
new and fragile, having come into being only in 1963. Ferdinand Marcos cast his
covetous eyes on a country that was still on its way to political cohesion.
On the ground, though, trade relations between Mindanao and Sabah picked up.
Traders made regular clandestine visits and their business was classified as
"smuggling." Feeling the need to reduce smuggling in that zone, the government looked
for a special operations officer to map out an anti-smuggling campaign plan.
Thus, all 3 factors converged and became the context as well as backdrop for Oplan
Merdeka: the fear of a Pan-Islamic movement creeping into Mindanao, a vulnerable
Federation of Malaysia, and an anti-smuggling operation.

FAILED DREAMS. This is where a Jabidah recruit, Ernesto Sambas, continues to live in
Simunul, Tawi-Tawi. Photo by Karlos Manlupig
Simunul training
The training of recruits from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi was done in Simunul, a picturesque
island-town of Tawi-Tawi (Read: Jabidah recruits plotted Sabah standoff). From August
to December 1967, Martelino, assisted by then Lt Eduardo Batalla, set up camp and
trained close to 200 men Tausugs and Sama (the dominant ethnic tribe in Tawi-Tawi)
aged 18 to about 30. A number of them had had experience in smuggling and sailing the
kumpit, a wooden boat commonly used in the area. What enticed the young men to
Martelino's escapade was the promise of being part of an elite unit in the Armed Forces.
It was not just an ordinary job. It gave them legitimate reason to carry guns carbines
and Thompson submachine guns. It gave them a sense of power.
Camp Sophia, named after Martelino's second wife, a young, naive, and pretty Muslim,
was inside a coconut plantation, fenced by barbed wire. A hut housed a powerful
transceiver and served as a radio room. Bunks were made of ipil-ipil and makeshift
twigs. A watchtower stood tall in the perimeter, facing the sea. It was a world of their
own making, with the trainees wearing distinct badges showing crossbones and a black
skull with a drip of blood on the forehead. Their rings were engraved with skull and
crossbones.

Today, no trace remains of a military camp in Simunul, not a single marker. What was
once Camp Sophia now looks deserted, planted to palm and coconut trees with wild
grass.
Bound for Corregidor
On Dec 30, 1967, anywhere from 135 (the late Sen Ninoy Aquino's count) to 180
(former Capt Cirilo Oropesa's count) recruits boarded a Philippine Navy vessel in
Simunul bound for Corregidor, a tadpole-shaped island guarding the mouth of Manila
Bay. For two days and one night, the troops sailed from the southernmost tip of the
Philippines to Corregidor. They spent the New Year at sea and reached the island off
Cavite on Jan 3, 1968.
Corregidor was the last bastion of Filipino-American resistance against invading
Japanese forces. It was the site of many deaths and some describe its history as written
in blood. Today, it is a tourist destination, with the ruins of battle well preserved.
However, Jabidah is never mentioned as part of Corregidor's storied past. The hospital
turned military barracks and the airstrip where the killings took place are not included in
the routine tour. But graffiti of trainees' and trainers' names, places ("all from Sulu,"
"Siasi market site," "Tapul, Sulu") and one memorable date "Jan. 3/68," when they
arrived in Corregidor bear witness to Corregidor's connection to another island.
Before the recruits docked in Corregidor, the old Corregidor hospital was cordoned off
and declared a restricted area. It was to be the military barracks. The trainees were to
stay inside the bombed-out hospital on the topside of the island, the highest point on
Corregidor, surrounded by trees and bushes.
Once on the island, the trainees were ordered to cut the trees surrounding the camp.
They were taught to dig foxholes and use parachutes. They kept a rigid schedule, and
were up at 5 o'clock in the morning for a two-hour jog followed by drills. Lectures took
place in the afternoons.
Ernesto Sambas, a recruit from Tawi-Tawi, recalls seeing many other soldiers on
Corregidor, but their batch from Simunul was confined to one area on the island. It
appears that there was discrimination against the Tausug trainees. Sambas said he got
his pay but those from Sulu did not. As a commissioned officer, Sambas also noticed
the growing restlessness among other Muslim youths. The recruits were getting
impatient because they couldn't send a single centavo back home. Their promised pay
of P50 a month was never given. The officers were aware of the agitation among the
recruits. They knew that it was just a matter of time before mutiny erupted.

As a precautionary measure, then Lt Rolando Abadilla and the rest took shifts guarding
their own barracks at night. Sambas remembers that they sent at least 16 of the
Muslims back to Sulu because they were always complaining.
By the fourth week of February 1968, some of the trainees started to get restless. Since
their arrival in Corregidor, they had not been paid a single centavo. Their food was
miserable. They slept on ipil wood and cots. Meanwhile, their officers pampered
themselves in comfortable, air-conditioned rooms at the Bayview Hotel, across the
Manila Bay, a short boat trip from Corregidor.

REMEMBRANCE. Graffiti that reminds tourists of the gruesome killings in 1968. Photo
by Angela Casauay
Sent packing
The trainees decided to complain and secretly wrote a petition addressed to President
Marcos, signed by about 62 trainees. Others placed their thumb marks. They wanted
their pay plus an improvement in their living conditions. Martelino visited the trainees
and assured them of their pay. He later met with the 4 leaders of the petitioning group.
To this day, 3 of them remain unaccounted for.
After this, the trainees were given fiesta food: goat, beef, and Nescafe coffee with milk.
Almost every night there was music and dancing. But with the good food and

entertainment came the bad news: the rest of the signatories of the petition were
disarmed. Effective March 1, 1968, all 58 of them were considered resigned.
Some 60 to 70 trainees, meanwhile, were transferred to Camp Capinpin in Rizal. On
March 16, another batch was taken away from Corregidor. These 24 men boarded the
same boat that had brought them to Corregidor in the New year. Then Sen Ninoy
Aquino, who led a Senate probe on the issue, later met this batch in Jolo when he did
his own sleuthing in March.
On March 18, another 12 recruits were told to prepare for home. At 2 am, they left
camp. These men, till today, are unaccounted for. Soon after, on the same day, another
batch of 12 was told that they were going to leave at 4 am. Why a dozen per batch?
Because the plane, they were told, could carry only 12 passengers. Jibin Arula, the
most famous of the Jabidah survivors, belonged to this second batch.
Arula's memory of this day remains vivid: "We went to the airport on a weapons carrier
truck, accompanied by 13 (non-Muslim) trainees armed with M-16 and carbines. When
we reached the airport, our escorts alighted ahead of us. Then Lt Eduardo Nepomuceno
ordered us to get down from the truck and line up [Nepomuceno was later killed in
Corregidor under mysterious circumstances]. As we put down our bags, I heard a series
of shots. Like dominoes, my colleagues fell. I got scared. I ran and was shot at, in my
left thigh. I didn't know that I was running towards a mountain.By 8 am, I was rescued
by two fishermen on Caballo Island, near Cavite."
A presidential helicopter swooped down on Corregidor shortly after the killings. Officers
and men belonging to the Army Special Forces leaped out of the aircraft and engaged in
a clandestine cover-up mission to erase traces of the massacre.
When they landed, the teams of soldiers found burned bodies tied to trees, near the
airstrip, on the island's bottom side. The order from Army chief Gen Romeo Espino was
to clean up the place and clear it of all debris. From afternoon till sunset, they collected
charred flesh and bones and wrapped them in dark colored ponchos. They could not
keep track of how many bodies there were. They also picked up bullet shells lying on
the airstrip. The trainees had been shot dead before they were tied and burned.
At the crack of dawn the next day, they loaded the ponchos in the helicopter and flew
over Manila Bay. They tied heavy stones to the ponchos before dumping them all into
the sea. The remains sank, weighed down by the stones. The soldiers made sure
nothing floated to the surface.
Major players died

If Marcos and his men were to be believed, the killings on Corregidor never happened.
The expose on Jabidah, they said, was part of a grand plot by the opposition to discredit
the Marcos regime. They said Arula, a survivor of the massacre, was an agent planted
by Malaysia after it had uncovered Jabidah's purpose.
The Armed Forces top brass never ordered a search for missing persons, living and
dead. No real investigation took place, except for a few Senate and Congressional
hearings which yielded inconclusive findings. The young and intensely energetic
opposition Sen Ninoy Aquino Jr, using his deft journalistic skills, put some of the pieces
of the Jabidah puzzle together, but the picture remained incomplete.
Eight officers and 16 enlisted men were court-martialed in 1968. All of them, however,
were cleared in 1971. The major actors are by now all dead.
After Jabidah, Abadilla gained notoriety as head of the Military Intelligence Security
Group that arrested and killed political activists. In 1996, communist guerrillas shot him
dead while his car was held by traffic at a busy intersection along Katipunan Avenue in
Quezon City.
Abadilla's immediate commander in Oplan Merdeka, Eduardo Battalla, had been killed
much earlier, in 1989, when he bungled a hostage incident involving a bandit, Rizal Alih.
Batalla, then a general, was the regional Constabulary commander in Western
Mindanao. (Editor's note: We earlier said Battala was commander of the military's
Southern Command then. We regret the error.)
Martelino, who executed Merdeka, was reported to have been imprisoned in Sabah in
1973. Martelino returned to Sabah after his acquittal, his daughter Pat Martelino Lon
recalls. They believe he is dead, but a few of his former colleagues think he may still be
languishing in a Malaysian prison.
Some senior military officers and men talked to us in 1997 and 1998 to fill in the gaps of
this story. A number of them participated in the operation as leaders who gave orders or
followers who implemented such orders. Others knew or were close to the people who
were recruited to Jabidah.
For many soldiers involved in Operation Merdeka, there was nothing wrong with a plot
to take back a territory they believe the Philippines owned. Looking back, they say that if
not for the bungled training, the killings would not have ensued and Oplan Merdeka
would have pushed through.

But the Jabidah massacre tainted the reputation of the military. Those who participated,
either in actual training or in the clean-up operations, have not fully come clean. In the
end, it may have left a legacy of lying and cover-up. Rappler.com

Moro conflict
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the insurgency of 19692015. For the insurgency of 18991913,
see Moro Rebellion. For the pre-1899 conflict, see SpanishMoro conflict. For a series
of attacks over Sabah, see Moro attacks on Sabah.

The Moro conflict[34] is an ongoing insurgency on the island of Mindanao in

the Philippines.
In 1969, political tensions and open hostilities developed between the Government of
the Philippinesand Moro Muslim rebel groups.[35] The Moro Insurgency was triggered by
the Jabidah massacre, which saw the killing of 60 Filipino Muslim commandos on a
planned operation to reclaim the eastern part of the Malaysian state of Sabah. In
response, the University of the Philippines professor Nur Misuari established the Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF), an armed insurgent group that was committed to
establishing an independent Mindanao. Over the successive years, the MNLF has
splintered into several different groups including the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF), which wanted to establish an Islamic state within the Philippines. The
Moro Insurgency is rooted in a long history of resistance by the Bangsamoro people
against foreign rule, dating back to the American annexation of the Philippines in 1899.
Since then, Moro resistance has persisted against the Philippine government.
Casualty statistics vary for the conflict; however, the conservative estimates of
the Uppsala Conflict Data Program indicate that at least 6,015 people were killed in
armed conflict between the Government of Philippines and ASG, BIFM, MILF,
and MNLF factions between 1989 and 2012.[36]

Origins[edit]
Main articles: SpanishMoro conflict, Moro Rebellion, and Philippine resistance against
Japan Moro resistance on Mindanao and Sulu
Christian Filipinos, who served under the Spanish Army, searching for Moro rebels,
in their
battle against
the
Filipino Muslims in
1887. Theinsurgency problem
in Mindanao is rooted in the 1500s, when the Spanish arrived in the Moro heartland.
The Moros had a history of resistance against Spanish, American, and Japanese rule
for 400 years. The origin of the war between the Moros and Christian Filipinos during
the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. [citation needed] During theSpanishMoro conflict,
Spain repeatedly tried to conquer the Moro Sultanate of Sulu, Sultanate of
Maguindanao, and theConfederation of sultanates in Lanao. The violent armed struggle

against the Japanese, Filipinos, Spanish, and Americans is considered by current Moro
Muslim leaders to be part of a four-century-long "national liberation movement" of the
Bangsamoro (Moro Nation).[37] The 400-year-long resistance against the Japanese,
Americans, and Spanish by the Moro Muslims persisted and morphed into their current
war for independence against the Philippine state. [38]
The root of the conflict originates in the Spanish and American wars against the Moros.
[39]

Following

the SpanishAmerican

southern Philippines between

the

War in

1898,

another

revolutionary Muslims

in

conflict
the

sparked

in

Philippines and

the United States military that took place between 1899 and 1913. Filipinos opposed
foreign rule from the United States, which claimed the Philippines as its territory. On 14
August 1898, after defeating Spanish forces, the United States had established a
military government in the Philippines under General Wesley Merritt as Military
Governor.[40] American forces took control from the Spanish government in Jolo on 18
May 1899, and at Zamboanga in December 1899.[41] Brigadier General John C.
Bates was sent to negotiate a treaty with the Sultan of Sulu, Jamalul Kiram II. Kiram
was disappointed by the American takeover, as he expected to regain sovereignty after
the defeat of Spanish forces in the archipelago. Bates' main goal was to
guaranteeMoro neutrality in the PhilippineAmerican War, and to establish order in the
southern Philippines. After some negotiation, the Bates Treaty was signed which was
based on an earlier Spanish treaty.[42] The Bates Treaty did ensure the neutrality of
the Muslims in the south, but it was actually set up to buy time for the Americans until
the war in the north ended.[43][44][45] After the war, in 1915, the Americans imposed the
Carpenter Treaty on Sulu.[46]
On 20 March 1900, General Bates was replaced by Brigadier General William August
Kobb and the District of Mindanao-Jolo was upgraded to a full department. American
forces in Mindanao were reinforced and hostilities with the Moro people lessened,

although there are reports of Americans and other civilians being attacked and slain by
Moros.
The American invasion began in 1904 and ended at the term of Major General John J.
Pershing, the third and final military governor of Moro Province, although major
resistance continued in Bud Dajo andMount Bagsak in Jolo. The Americans slaughtered
hundreds of Moro women and children in the Moro Crater massacre.[47][48][49][50]
Repeated rebellions by the Moros against American rule continued to break out even
after the main Moro Rebellion ended, right up to the Japanese occupation of the
Philippines during World War II. During the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, the
Moros waged an insurgency against the Japanese on Mindanao and Sulu until Japan
surrendered in 1945. Moro Juramentados attacked the Spanish, Americans, Philippine
Constabulary and the Japanese.
History[edit]
Marcos (19691986)[edit]
Main article: Jabidah massacre
Under President Ferdinand Marcos, 68 Filipino Muslim military trainees were murdered
in Corregidor, allegedly by soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.[51][52] The
trainees were believed to be a part of an upcoming rebellion. [52] By then, University of
the Philippines professor Nur Misuari had formed the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF) to condemn the killings of the 68 Filipino Muslims and to seek the
establishment of a Bangsamoro nation through force of arms.[52]
The American colonial government and subsequently the Philippine government
followed a policy of demographic swamping by settling massive amounts of Filipino
settlers from the Visayan islands and Luzon on Moro lands in Mindanao. The policy
resulted in a massive wave of Filipinos settling on Mindanao where the population of
Filipino settlers now outnumbers the native Moro by the millions. This was an additional
factor in aggravating conflicts between the native Moro and Filipino settlers as disputes

over land increased. Another complaint of the Moros is the extraction of Mindanao's
natural resources and wealth by the central government while the Moro population lives
in mass poverty.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Moro Muslims and Lumad animists controlled
an area which now covers 17 of Mindanao's 24 provinces, but by the 1980 census, they
constituted less than 6% of the population of Mindanao and Sulu. Heavy migration to
Mindanao of Luzon and Visayans, spurred by continuous government-sponsored
resettlement programs, turned the indigenous Lumads and Moros into minorities. [53] The
native Moros struggled against Christian settlers over the land. [54]
Moro Muslims and Lumads were supplanted by the first Spanish and American
colonization programs, with settlers taking control of key areas along newly-built roads
and disrupting the Moro's traditional administrative structures and control over
resources. The Americans chose the obedient settlers to become officials of settlerpopulated townships instead of Lumad and Moro, with the environment becoming
ruined due to the activities of the settlers and logging. [55]Severe deterioration of the land
in Mindanao ensued after the continuing influx of Filipino settlers, with the land
becoming essentially useless.[56] Eric S. Casio wrote about the interaction between the
Filipino settlers, the Moro and Lumad natives and the impact on the environment in his
book Mindanao Statecraft and Ecology: Moros, Lumads, and Settlers Across the
Lowland-highland Continuum.[57]
The Americans started a colonization program on Mindanao for foreign agricultural
companies and Filipino Christian settlers against the native Muslims and non-Muslim
Lumads of Mindanao, in order to secure the area with a Christian presence and help the
American military assert control over the area once it was conquered. [58]
Journalist Peter Kann has compared the American conquest of the west from the Native
Americans to the Filipino conquest and settlement of Mindanao from the Muslims; the
Philippine government, Philippine military and Filipino militias used extremely violent
tactics against natives to support the settlers.[59]

The government agencies involved in settlement on Mindanao were the National Land
Settlement Administration (NLSA) and subsequently the Land Settlement and
Development Corporation (LASEDECO), followed by the National Resettlement and
Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA).[60]
The Americans used their control over property and land laws to let American
corporations and Filipino Christian settlers take over Lumad and Moro Muslim resources
and land and depriving them of self-governance after eliminating the sovereignty of the
Moro Sultanates, and ignoring Moro requests for their own independence, with the
Philippine government continuing the colonization program after independence leading
to a huge number of Filipino settlers streaming into Moro territories, and this led to
Moros making moves for independence and armed struggle against the government of
the Philippines.[61]
After 1960 the settlement program turned the Moro Muslims into a minority from their
previous

majority

in

Mindanao,

similar

to

what

happened

in

the

IndonesianTransmigration program where Javanese people in frontier areas settled with

ethnic Madurese and Javanese people. [62] The native Moros became victims to land
grabs by Filipino Christian settlers.[63][64]
Severe violence between native Muslims and Christian settlers erupted due to the influx
of Christian colonists, companies and other entities seeking to exploit new land on
Mindanao.[65] Lumad and Muslim interests were ignored by the state-sponsored
colonization program led by the National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA) which
provided benefits for the colonists and made no consideration for the Muslims. [66]
Private companies and Filipino colonists from the Visayas and Luzon took lands from
Moro clans, with the Philippine government issuing land titles to settlers and ignoring
Moro ownership of the land, declaring Moro lands to be public lands. [67]
Land disputes between Christian settlers and Muslim and tribal natives eventually
turned violent, and the colonization, along with the Jabidah massacre, led to the

formation of the Moro National Liberation Front and Moro armed insurgency against
Philippine rule.[68][69][70]
The Philippine government encouraged Filipino Christian settlers in Mindanao to form
militias called Ilaga (rat[71]) to fight the Moros. The Ilaga engaged in massacres and
atrocities and were responsible for the Manili massacre of 65 Moro Muslim civilians in a
mosque in June 1971, including women and children. [72] The Ilaga allegedly also
engaged in cannibalism, cutting off the body parts of their victims to eat in rituals. [73] Due
to these and other actions, the Ilaga settlers were given the sarcastic acronym of the
"Ilonggo Land Grabbers' Association". [74][75]
The Moros were only incorporated into the Philippines by "conquest and colonization",
constituting a separate nation from Filipinos analogous to the experience of Native
Americans who violently resisted American conquest. [76]
In 1969, the MNLF waged armed conflict against the Philippine government.[52] During
one of the fierce battles of the insurgency in 1974, Jolo was burned and news of the
tragedy galvanized other Muslims around the world to pay greater attention to the
conflict. Over 10,000 Moro and Chinese civilians were killed by the Philippine Armed
Forces when they burned Jolo to the ground. [77] Two years later, the Philippine
government and the MNLF signed the Tripoli Agreement, declaring a ceasefire on both
sides. The agreement provided that Mindanao would remain a part of the Philippines,
but 13 of its provinces would be under the autonomous government for the Bangsamoro
people.[52] President Marcos later reneged on the agreement, and violence ensued.
Other massacres committed by the Philippine armed forces against Moro civilians
include the November 1971 Tacub massacre, 1974 Malisbong massacre, October
1977 Patikul massacre, and February 1981 Pata Island massacre.[78][79][80][81][82][83]
On 24 September 1974, in the Malisbong massacre the Armed Forces of the
Philippines slaughtered about 1,500 Moro Muslim civilians who were praying at a
mosque, in addition to mass raping Moro girls who had been taken aboard a boat.[84]

In 1977, Sheikh Salamat Hashim established the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF),
a splinter group of the MNLF seeking to establish an Islamic state. [85] Conflicts between
these rebel groups and the Armed Forces of the Philippines would continue until the
end of President Marcos' regime.
On 15 September 2013, the New York Times published an article crediting every
Philippine government for having struggled to bring peace to the Muslims of Mindanao
since 1946 when it became independent, and claimed that it is the belief of the Muslims
that they are being subjected to oppression and exploitation by the Christians that is the
cause of the conflict. The newspaper also claimed that the conflict stretched back to
1899 when Moro insurrectionists were quelled by the American army.[86] On 26 January
2014 the New York Times published another article claiming that "every Philippine
government" has "struggled to bring peace to Mindanao" and claimed that reports of
exploitation and oppression by the Filipino Christians originated from what Muslims say.
The newspaper also praised President Benigno S. Aquino III's "landmark peace deal".
[87]

The New York Times labelled Moro fighters as "Muslim-led groups" and as "violent".

[88]

The New York Times blamed "Islamic extremist groups" for carrying out attacks in the

Philippines.[89] The New York Times editorial board endorsed Philippine President
Benigno Aquino's planned peace deal and the passage of Bangsamoro Basic Law,
blaming the Muslim insurgency for causing trouble to the "largely Catholic country".
[90]

The New York Times claimed that Islamic militants were fighting the Philippine

military.[91]
The New York Times claimed the peace deal between the Philippines and MILF "seeks
to bring prosperity to the restive south and weaken the appeal of the extremist groups",
and linked the winding down of an American military counterterrorism operation to
increased American military cooperation with the Philippines against China. [92] The New
York Times hailed Mr Aquino's peace agreement as an "accomplishment" as it reported
on Aquino raising the alarm on China in the South China Sea. [93] The New York
Times editorial board published an article siding with the Philippines against China in
the South China Sea dispute and supporting the Philippines' actions against China. [94]

[95]

The New York Times editorial board endorsed aggressive American military action

against China in the South China Sea.[96][97]

C. Aquino and Ramos (19861998)[edit]

The CMC Cruiser as shown in an AFP Anniversary parade in 1997.

Earlier in her term, President Corazon Aquino arranged a meeting with MNLF chairman
Nur Misuari and several MNLF rebel groups in Sulu, which paved the way for a series of
negotiations. In 1989, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was
created under Republic Act No. 6734 or the ARMM Organic Act, pursuant to the 1987
Constitution.[98]
In 1991, Abdurajak Janjalani, a former teacher who studied Islam in the Middle East,
formed

the Abu

Sayyaf

Group after

reportedly

meeting Osama

bin

Laden in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Janjalani recruited former members of the MNLF for
the more radical and theocratic Abu Sayyaf. [52]
Under the Presidency of Fidel V. Ramos, several negotiations and peace talks[35] were
held and the ARMM solidified and was to have its own geopolitical system. [52]
Estrada (1998-2001)[edit]

Political map of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

During his term, President Joseph Ejercito Estrada declared an "all-out war" against
the MILF on 21 March 2000, although a series of negotiations for cessation of hostilities
were held.[85] Apparently, several conflicts in and around Mindanao erupted and clashes
between the Philippine Military and the rebel groups resulted in massive loss of life.
During Estrada's term, these rebel groups kidnapped three Italian priests, two of whom
were later released and one was shot dead; [99][100] seized the municipal hall
of Talayan, Maguindanao and Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte; bombed the RORO ferry
M/V Our Lady of Mediatrix at Ozamiz; and took over Narciso Ramos Highway. All these
incidents resulted in massive loss of investments abroad, especially in the area
of Mindanao.

M101 howitzer was widely used as the artillery in the operation against the Moro
insurgencies inMindanao.
As a result, the Armed Forces of the Philippines launched a successful campaign
against these rebel groups and 43 minor camps, 13 major camps including the MILF
headquarters, and Camp Abubakar [101] fell. MILF suffered heavy losses and the head of
MILF, Sheikh Salamat Hashim, fled the country and sought refuge in Malaysia. On 5
October 2000, 609 rebels surrendered in Cagayan de Oro, along with renegade town
mayor Mulapandi Cosain Sarip.[102] This was followed by another massive surrender of
855 rebels on 29 December 2000. President Estrada then ordered that the Philippine
flag be raised in Mindanao, which symbolized victory. It was raised on 9 July 2000 near
a Madh'hab and again the next day for President Estrada, who held a feast inside a
classroom just meters away from a mosque.[101]

As a result, several Islamic rebel groups retaliated, bombing several key locations within
the National Capital Region on 30 December 2000, resulting in 22 deaths and hundreds
of people injured. Saifullah Yunos, one of the perpetrators, was arrested in Cagayan de
Oro as he was about to board a plane bound for Manila in May 2003. [103] In 2004, two
members of the Jemaah Islamiyah were arrested, namely Mamasao Naga and Abdul
Pata as they were identified by Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi as responsible for the train
bombing.[104] al-Ghozi was also arrested, but was later killed in a firefight when he tried
to escape the prison on 13 October 2003.
Macapagal Arroyo (20012010)[edit]
On 27 May 2001, the Abu Sayyaf seized twenty hostages from an upscale resort
in Palawan. Four of the hostages managed to escape. [105] The kidnapping group
composed of 40 gunmen then seized the Dr. Jose Torres Memorial Hospital and St.
Peter's Church compound in the town of Lamitan in Basilan[106] and claimed to have
taken captive 200 people, although 20 people were confirmed to be taken captive inside
the hospital, including the staff and the patients. [107][108]
There was a crossfire between the Army and the Abu Sayyaf rebels in Lamitan following
the hospital takeover which resulted in the deaths of 12 soldiers, including the army
captain.[108] Up to 22 soldiers were reportedly killed in an effort to rescue the hostages.
Five more captives escaped during the battle at Lamitan. Two of the captives were killed
prior to the siege in Lamitan, including one beheading. [105] The Abu Sayyafthen
conducted a series of raids, including one at a coconut plantation [109] where the rebel
groups hacked the heads of two men using bolo knives. The owners and a security
guard were also held captive and the rebel groups burned down two buildings, including
a chapel, a week after the battle in Lamitan.[109] Another raid was conducted on 2 August
2001 on Barangay Balobo in Lamitan, Basilan. After three days, the Philippine
Army rescued numerous hostages[110] after they overtook the hideout of the militants,
where 11 bodies were found beheaded. [111] Other hostages were either released or had
escaped.[110]

On 13 June 2001, the number of hostages was calculated at around 28, as three more
people were found beheaded in Basilan,[112] including Guillermo Sobero.[113]They were
beheaded since the Philippine Army would not halt the rescue operation.[113]
The Burnhams were still in the group of 14 still held captive, according to three
hostages who escaped in October 2001.[113] On 7 June 2002, after a year of the
hostages being held captive, a rescue mission was conducted resulting in the deaths of
Martin Burnham and a nurse named Ediborah Yap [114] after they were caught in the
crossfire. Martin was killed by three gunshots to the chest while Gracia Burnham was
wounded in her right leg. By this time Nur Misuari ordered his supporters to attack
government targets to prevent the holding of elections on ARMM in November 2001,
ushering his exit as the governor of the region. [52] Misuari would be later arrested in
2007 in Malaysia and was deported back to the Philippines for trial.[52]
In July 2004, Gracia Burnham testified at a trial of eight Abu Sayyaf members,
identifying six of the suspects as being her former captors, including Alhamzer Limbong,
Abdul Azan Diamla, Abu Khari Moctar, Bas Ishmael, Alzen Jandul and Dazid Baize.
Fourteen Abu

Sayyaf members

were

sentenced

to life

imprisonmentwhile

four

were acquitted. Alhamzer Limbong was later killed in a prison uprising.[115]

These rebel groups, especially the Abu Sayyaf, conducted several terror attacks,
namely the bombings at Zamboanga in October 2002; the bombing of SuperFerry 14 in
February 2004; the simultaneous bombings in Central Mindanao in October 2006;
the beheadings of several Philippine Marines in July 2007; the Batasang Pambansa
bombing in November 2007; and the 2009 bombings in Mindanao.
One thousand MILF rebels under the command of Umbra Kato have seized control of
thirty-five villages in the North Cotabato province. Two thousand Philippine troops with
helicopters and artillery were sent into the seized area on 9 August to liberate it from the
rebels. The MILF had wanted North Cotabato to be included in the Autonomous Region
of Muslim Mindanao. The government and MILF had been negotiating for the inclusion

of the province in the Muslim Autonomous Region but the Supreme Court had struck
down the proposal after hearing concerns from local Christian leaders in the region.
The rebel troops were ordered to leave the area by their commanders, but the
contingents under Kato refused to leave the villages they had occupied and instead dug
in. The Philippine Army responded on 9 August by bombarding them. The next day, the
government forces moved to retake the villages, recapturing two of them from the
rebels.[116][117]
Numerous clashes erupted between the Philippine Army and the rebel groups, such as
the clash on 14 June 2009 that killed 10 rebels. [118]
Since 2001, the Philippines and the United States have been part of a joint campaign to
battle this insurgency, known as the War on Terror. To combat the insurgency,
the United

States and

the Philippines conducted Operation

Enduring

Freedom

Philippines,[119] a part of the worldwide campaign against terrorism known as Operation

Enduring Freedom.
B. Aquino (201016)[edit]
See also: Zamboanga City crisis
In 2013, two main camps of the Abu Sayyaf group were overrun by forces of the Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) in its latest offensive in Patikul.[120] According to MNLF
leader Nur Misuari, the MNLF offensive against the Abu Sayyaf is because of the MNLF
opposition to the Abu Sayyaf's human rights abuses which go against Islam.
During the term of President Benigno Aquino III, a series of peace talks for the
cessation of hostilities was held, including the meeting of MILF Chair Al Haj Murad
Ibrahim in Tokyo, Japan which was lauded on both sides. [52] Norway also joined the
International Monitoring Team (IMT) in January 2011, overseeing the ceasefire
agreement between the government and MILF on Mindanao. Despite the peace talks, a
series of conflicts erupted. On 10 September 2011, Jal Idris, a hardcore member of Abu
Sayyaf, was arrested by government forces after a crossfire between the Philippine

Army and the rebel group[121] The Armed Forces of the Philippines also killed three Abu
Sayyaf militants in a stand-off[122] the day after the arrest of Jal Idris.
Terrorism continued throughout President Benigno's term. Notable cases include when
four merchants and a guide were killed by Abu Sayyaf bandits in January 2011.[123] Later
a soldier was killed in a clash against the rebels. [124] In August 2011, rebel factions
attacked a village in Sulu, killing 7 Marines and taking 7 civilians captive. They later
freed 2 of the hostages after a ransom was paid. [125] Also, several areas
of Mindanao were bombed in August by the government, and a Filipino businesswoman
was abducted in September 2011, [126] who was later freed after the three gunmen were
gunned down by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.[127]
On 20 October 2011, the MILF was blamed for an attack on 40 government soldiers in
the province of Basilan, which led to the deaths of 19 soldiers and 6 MILF fighters.
[128]

This violated the ceasefire agreement between the government and MILF, which

caused outrage in the government and led to the continuation of the war
against terrorism in the country.
On the website of the Moro National Liberation Front, Nur Misuari declared his support
for China against the Philippines, in the South China Sea dispute, calling both China
and the Moro people victims of Philippine colonialism, and noting China's history of
friendly relations with the Moros.[129] The MNLF website also denounced America's
assistance of the Philippines in their colonization of the Moro people in addition to
denouncing the Philippines' claims to the islands disputed with China, and denouncing
America for siding with the Philippines in the dispute, noting that in 1988 China
"punished" Vietnam for attempting to set up a military presence on the disputed islands.
The website also pointed out that the Moros and China maintained peaceful relations,
while on the other hand the Moros had to resist other colonial powers, having to fight
the Spanish, fight the Americans, and fight the Japanese, in addition to fighting the
Philippines.[130]

A GKN Simba used by the Philippine Army in various military operations against rebels.
The Zamboanga City crisis erupted on 9 September 2013, when a MNLF faction known
by other groups as the Rogue MNLF Elements (RME), under the Sulu State
Revolutionary Command (SSRC), led by Ustadz Habier Malik and Khaid Ajibon
attempted to raise the flag of the self-proclaimed Bangsamoro Republik at Zamboanga
City Hall (which had earlier declared its independence on 12 August 2013 in Talipao,
Sulu), and took civilians hostage. This armed incursion was met by the Armed Forces of
the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), which sought to free the
hostages and expel the MNLF from the city. The standoff degenerated into urban
warfare, and had brought parts of the city under a standstill for days. On 28 September,
the government declared the end of military operations in Zamboanga City after
successfully defeating the MNLF and rescuing all the hostages.
On 24 January 2014, the Philippines government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel
Ferer and MILF chief negotiator Murad Ebrahim signed a peace agreement in Kuala
Lumpur. The agreement would pave the way for the creation of the new Muslim
autonomous entity called "Bangsamoro" under a law to be approved by the Philippine
Congress.[131] The government aims to set up the region by 2016. The agreement calls
for Muslim self-rule in parts of the southern Philippines in exchange for a deactivation of
rebel forces by the MILF. MILF forces would turn over their firearms to a third party to be
selected by the MILF and the Philippine government. A regional police force would be
established, and the Philippine military would reduce the presence of troops and help
disband private armies in the area. [132]

On 23 July 2014, Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon swore loyalty to Abu Bakr alBaghdadi in a video, along with the rest of the organization, giving ISIL a presence in
the Philippines.[22][23] In September 2014, the group began kidnapping people to ransom,
in the name of ISIL.[133]
On 25 January 2015, Philippine National Police's SAF conducted an operation to
capture Abdul Basit Usman and Marwan in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. They were
trapped between MILF's 105th Base Command, BIFF, and several armed groups. 44
SAF members were killed, but they were able to eliminate Marwan. American
involvement resulted in caused massive blow back for the botched raid, putting a
decisive halt to American plans for its Asia military "pivot" in the Philippines. [134]Moros
have reported that "4 caucasian-looking (American) soldiers" were killed in the
Mamasapano clash along with the 44 Filipinos. [135]
On February, the MILF and BIFF fought for territory in the boundaries of Maguindanao
and North Cotabato.
In mid-February, the Philippine Army along with the Philippine Marines, declared a state
of all-out war against the BIFF. MILF forces were pulled out to prevent them from falling
victim to the fighting.