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For more than 300 years dating back as far as 1521, the Spaniards
attempted to subjugate the Moros in Mindanao. This was continued by the
Americans when Mindanao was included in the transfer of power to the later
by Spain way back 1898 by virtue of the Treaty of Paris. These subjugation
by both the Spanish and the Americans have resulted to no effect. When the
American granted independence to the Philippines, a strong objection from
the Muslims in Mindanao occurred. The Muslim contest the inclusion of
Mindanao in the Republic of the Philippines. Ever since, the search of the
Moros for secession away from the Philippines and their insurgency against
the government has continued.
Mindanao has been the traditional indigenous territory to numerous
Muslim ethnologist groups. Prior to the coming of the Spanish, the said
groups had already owned their distinct social, cultural, and political
institutions. They enjoyed genuine freedom and independence in living their
own lives according to their customs and tradition.
Islam was introduced in the Philippines 1460. They developed the
various communities in the southern part of the country into principalities
and sultanates while the other Filipino tribes in the northern and central
areas of the country, being Luzon and the Visayas region, were
unconsolidated and scattered. These principalities and sultanates indulged
themselves in an expansive maritime trading with the Southeast Asia, India,
Japan and China. Jolo, Maguindanao, and Zamboanga served as
international trading ports, usually visited by Arabs, Chinese, and other
Asian merchants.
When the Spaniard colonizers extended their military and missionary
conquests to southern Philippines, the Muslims resisted, which resulted to
what historians refer to as the Moro Wars. The resistance further
strengthened even during the American Period. The signing of the Treaty of
Paris in 1898 arrogated to the American Colonial government the control
and the ownership of all lands in the country.
The strong belief among the Muslim tribe that they possess a distinct
and separate nation from that of the Philippine nationhood and that the
government has been a colonial government engendered a strong call for
independence and freedom leading to the creation and organization of the
resistance movements in the 1960s. Other Muslim political leaders, students
from Mindanao and Sulu studying abroad, and those in Manila planned and
organized the movement.
The Moro National Liberation Front or MNLF emerged as the first
revolutionary group among young Muslim radicals. Its surface came in the
wake of a growing Islamic awareness among Filipino Muslims. The MNLF
became the forefront of the separatist movement among the Moros. It
represented the general sentiments of the Moro people of oppression in the
hands of the Christian-dominated government.
Lt. Gen. Ismael Villareal, a retired Philippine Army general who served most
of his time in service in Mindanao, wrote a book titled Conflict Resolution
in Mindanao. In this book he touched on the historical background of
Muslim rebellion in the Philippines, the contemporary conflict environment
in the area, the past conflict resolution strategies applied, and he proposed a
conflict resolution of the Muslim problem from the twenty-first century. He
analyzed why Muslims in Mindanao rejected the colonization of the
Spaniards and the Americans and why they continue to rebel against a
government at the present time. He touched on the contemporary solutions
made by the Philippine government to solve the problem and why these
solutions continue to fail.
Marites Danguilan and Glenda Gloria also wrote a book titled Under the
Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao. The authors researched extensively
the origins of the Muslim war in the southern Philippines beginning with the
unwritten Jabidah Massacre in 1960 to the signing of the Peace Accord with
the MNLF in 1996 that brought some quiet in Mindanao. They wrote on the
sources of conflict in Mindanao and retraced its path to the present. Also it
touched how Mindanao, the Philippine government, and the rebels relate
with Malaysia and other Muslim countries. The authors held several
interviews before writing this book. It is one of the most reliable sources of
information regarding the contemporary history of Muslim rebellion in
Mindanao. The book does not however cover the conflicts of Muslim
rebellion in Mindanao before the sixties.
There are many books about the history of Islam and the Muslim Filipinos in
general but among the outstanding and more comprehensive ones are Cesar
Adib Majuls Muslim in the Philippines (1973); Peter Gowings Muslim
Filipinos (1979) and Mandate in Moroland (1983); and Peter Gowing and
Robert Mc Amis The Muslim Filipinos (1974).
Aside from the foregoing publications, data on the study could be found in
magazines, journals, and websites about Mindanao and intelligence and
operational reports from the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf
strategy and tactics were primarily sourced from military operational reports
and studies.
Federalism and the solution to the Insurgency in Mindanao
In 2016 July, during his first State of the Nation Address, President
Rodrigo Duterte strongly encouraged the members of the congress to push
for federalism. According to some political experts, this proposed federalism
by the president is patterned with that of the German system.
At first look, this could best fit the setting of the Philippine, without
stressing at the outset of course, that ours is an archipelagic country, divided
by waters, and with islands of different cultures and traditions.
An Academic Paper in
Legal Research I
By:
JD 1 EH 410
Cebu City