Understanding the Mindanao Conflict
This brief paper intends to contribute to the analysis of the Mindanao conflict and to explore possible solutions to the issue. This is not to discount the on-going peace initiatives in the region by various stakeholders including those initiated by civil society and other non-state actors. The siege of Marawi City in May 2017 by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), aided by the Maute brothers, has hijacked the on-going peace process in the region and has diverted the real issues to resolving the conflict in Mindanao by the attempt of the ASG to resurrect Wahhabism or Salafism, a movement that advocates for the return to early Islam in the Qur’an, creating a threat to national security in the manner of the ISIS[1] (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).
This paper is an attempt to bring back the discourse on the Bangsamoro[2] people’s right to self-determination and human development as critical elements to achieving peace in the region. While Salafism, or Islamic fundamentalism, is gaining popularity among marginalized young people in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), it can be countered by the sincere and committed efforts of development players in the region, to uplift the living conditions of the Bangsamoro people especially the poor in far flung barangays in ARMM.
The Muslim Struggle: From Secession to Autonomy
The current conflict in Mindanao could be traced to past attempts by various Muslim rebel movements for the secession of Mindanao as an independent Islamic state. The original secessionist movement was the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM), founded by Udtog Matalam in 1968, with its armed wing called the Black Shirts. Several other secessionist movements at that time were loosely organized and coordinated such as the Darul Islam, Lamalip (Lanao), Muslim Brotherhood (Jolo), Green Guards (Zamboanga and Basilan), and a few others. There was a previous attempt to organize a coalition of these movements in the early 70s called the Bangsa Moro Liberation Organization (BMLO) organized by Rashid Lucman, renamed later as Bangsa Muslimin Islamic Liberation Organization, where the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) played a critical role.
The formation of the MNLF was triggered by the so called Jabidah massacre[3] in Corregidor, with Nur Misuari, a political science professor of the University of the Philippines and a former member of the radical Kabataang Makabayan, elected as its Chairman. The MNLF, whose first members belonged to the youth sector of the MIM, was founded to confront the government’s failure to address the Muslims’ deplorable socio-political and socio-economic conditions, with the aim of forming an independent Bangsamoro Islamic Republic in Mindanao including the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan which is geographically part of Luzon. Its military wing, the Bangsa Moro Army (BMA), was responsible for waging warfare with the government defense forces in Mindanao which took numerous casualties from both warring forces not to mention the displacement of thousands of civilians whether Muslims, Christians and Lumads over the years of conflict.
When Nur Misuari entered into the Tripoli Agreement[4] with the government for a semi-autonomous arrangement in Mindanao, Salamat Hashim, Misuari’s deputy and then foreign relations head, broke away from the organization together with 57 MNLF commanders and formed a new MNLF leadership due to some disagreements in the way negotiations with Manila was handled by Nur Misuari, among other reasons. Educated in Egypt with a more Islamic orientation, Salamat Hashim’s MNLF faction was more keen on the creation of an independent Islamic state in Mindanao. In 1984 Salamat Hashim’s MNLF faction was named Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). However, after Salamat’s death in 2003 the MILF’s new leadership decided to find a more viable peace process with the Philippine Government. When it agreed with the government to work on an expanded autonomy in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and leave the idea of independence, it created a split within the MILF, with the faction of Ameril Umbra Kato forming the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to pursue the independence agenda.
Obstacles to the Peace Process
There are several terrorist groups in Mindanao which serve as obstacles to the on-going peace process with the MNLF and the MILF, foremost of which is the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) operating in Basilan and Sulu, with membership estimated to be around 300 to 500. The Abu Sayyaf derived its name from the Arabic Abu which means “father”, and Sayyaf which means “sword” or “swordsmith”, and is loosely translated as “father of the sword”. Its founder Abdurajik Abubakar Janjalani, formerly associated with Nur Misuari’s Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), was known to have fought with Osama Bin Ladin in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union invaded the country in the late 70s until 1989. After his return to Mindanao he founded the Abu Sayyaf group in the early 90s with the aim of applying a stricter interpretation of the Islam and the Qu’ran and establishing an independent Islamic State in Mindanao particularly in the provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, thus falling out with the MNLF.
Abdurajik Abubakar Janjalani died in 1998 and was succeeded by his brother Khadaffy Janjalani who was eventually killed in 2007. Isnilon Toto Hapilon who succeeded Khadaffy Janjalani, pledged allegiance with the ISIS in 2014 cutting Abu Sayyaf’s connection with the Al Qaeda network. Abu Sayyaf has recently announced its intention to build a Caliphate in Southeast Asia patterned after the ISIS, with Isnilon Hapilon as its Emir. The siege of Marawi City which started on May 22, 2017 by the ASG with the support of the Maute brothers, another terrorist group based in Lanao del Sur, was part of ASG’s plan to establish said caliphate in an attempt to revive Salafism or Wahhabism, a movement in Sunni Islam that advocates for the return to early Islam, even as it continues with its criminal activities in the region such as kidnap-for-ransom, rape, drug trafficking, bombings, murder, etc., which are inconsistent with the teachings of Islam.
Other smaller bands of gangs are also committing terrorist activities in Mindanao especially in ARMM which further exacerbate and complicate the conflict situation in the region and which makes it convoluted. In the case of kidnapping for ransom, it does not always start with the ASG, but with some gangs who would sell their kidnapped victims to other groups who would in turn sell them to some other groups who could pay higher until the victims are sold to the ASG. These terrorist groups are able to operate freely because they are sanctioned and protected allegedly by some local politicians who also benefit from these activities for their own purposes. Some local communities especially in far flung areas protect too these terrorist organizations because they get some share from the ransom and other spoils as the ASG and the other groups are seen as some kind of Robin Hood.
The local communities may not be blamed for colluding with these terrorist groups simply because of the lack of government presence in these areas and the vacuum is being filled up by these groups who provide them with protection and some form of livelihood. Therefore it is not enough to send in the military to apprehend such groups, where the military is in a very disadvantaged position because the local communities are not on its side, aside from its unfamiliarity with the local terrains, but for the government to honestly establish its presence to respond to the development needs of the people in these areas. This is the only way to effectively curtail terrorism and criminal activities in these provinces and anywhere in the country.
A Complex Issue
While the Mindanao conflict is essentially political in nature, i.e. the Islamic movement for the secession of the Muslim provinces[5] comprising the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), it is actually more complex than it appears to be, as it is rooted in a historical animosity between Muslims and Christians and which is still seen today by many people as a religious issue. This historical animosity is in fact not a monopoly of Mindanao but is also seen and felt elsewhere in the world as the mainstream media would tend to associate terrorism with Muslims while downplaying the parallel violence perpetrated by some “Christian” countries against some Muslim countries, for example the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Social media too is used to fuel this kind of animosity depending on which side of the argument one is affiliated to.
The historical animosity between Muslims and Christians could be traced back to the era of the European Crusades when Roman Pontiffs would urge the kings of Europe to wage war against the Muslims in an attempt to regain the Holy Land which was by then controlled by the Muslim Turks. The crusades, initiated by Pope Urban II in 1095 in response to the appeal for help by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I when the Seljuk Turks threatened to invade Constantinople, would last for two centuries but their repercussions would last until today.
When the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines in 1521 on behalf of King Philip II of Spain, he found out that the islands were inhabited predominantly by Muslims. The subsequent colonization of the Philippine islands by Spain was characterized by forced conversion of Muslims in the regions of Luzon and the Visayas into Catholic Christianity which the Spanish colonizers have almost completely succeeded except for the Muslims in Mindanao who never subjected themselves to Spanish colonization.
Those undaunted Muslims in Mindanao, whom the Spanish colonizers derogatorily called “Moros” because the Spaniards associated them with the North African Moors who were Muslims who invaded Spain in 711 AD[6], retaliated by their frequent raiding of the Christian settlements in the coastal areas of Luzon and the Visayas. It was thus that a historical animosity and prejudice among Christians and Muslims in the Philippines developed through the centuries since the Spanish colonization of the country. This would be exacerbated later when Christian settlers from Luzon and the Visayas would claim most of the lands in Mindanao through the Torrens[7] land titling system, which would be a main cause for the Islamic secessionist movements in Mindanao.
While there is no doubt that the Mindanao conflict is essentially political in nature which the Philippine government is trying to resolve through a bilateral peace process with the MILF[8], religion has a big role in the past struggle for an independent Islamic State in Mindanao by various Muslim secessionist movements in their pursuit for self-determination, and which has now shifted down to a struggle for a broader autonomy in ARMM supported by both the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the two major political movements for Muslim autonomy in Mindanao.
The recent “siege” of Marawi City on May 22, 2017, instigated by the ASG in collaboration with the Maute brothers[9], which prompted the Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to proclaim Martial Law in Mindanao, tried to enkindle the age old animosity among Muslims and Christians in Mindanao as the Abu Sayyaf head Isnilon Hapilon called for a “Jihad”[10] or a “holy war” during the early days of the siege, urging fellow Muslims to kill Christians whom they regard as “kufar” or infidels or non-believers (in the Islam Faith). This fundamentalist overtone, which is not subscribed to by the mainstream Muslim populace in the Philippines, while dismissed by the Philippine government as clear terrorism in the manner of the ISIS, contains an element of religion no matter how blurred their followers’ understanding of the Qur’an is, or of Salafism or Wahhabism.
This kind of a cultural prejudice which has become part of the collective unconscious among Muslims and Christians alike needs to be rooted out in order to achieve a meaningful reconciliation and peace in Mindanao and in fact in all the world.
Peace and Human Development
As pointed out earlier, internal conflict in the context of Mindanao is the result of social inequity and the skewed distribution of resources, including land grabbing which was a main issue for the Muslims, wrong policies and corruption, and the historical prejudice against the Muslims resulting further to unfulfilled aspirations which had consequently led to violent conflicts, something that could be explained by the frustration-aggression theory[11]. For as long as this deprivation is not effectively addressed, conflicts will continue to inflict havoc into the lives of the people as it had done so in the last several decades, thus limiting the people’s potential and opportunity for development.
Archbishop, now Cardinal, Orlando Quevedo, OMI[12] of the Archdiocese of Cotabato, who has been a pillar in religious dialogues towards reconciliation and peace in Mindanao, pointed out to the same causes of conflict in Mindanao such as injustice to the Moro identity, injustice to the Moro political sovereignty and injustice to the Moro integral development[13] which are interrelated. The Moro identity is tied up with the Islam religion and the Islamic way of life, and, therefore it cannot be subsumed into the broad governance framework which is essentially Christian in orientation. Such an injustice to the Moro identity limits the Moro political expression and consequently limits its own socio-cultural and socio-economic development.
The Catholic Church’s social encyclical called “Populorum progressio” issued by Pope Paul VI in 1967, even before the founding of these revolutionary movements, has already pronounced that “development is the new name for peace”, which means that peace can only be achieved through development. The context of this social teaching was the social unrest brought about by the uneven development around the world where the economy serves only the few who controls the system. The encyclical discussed the rights to security of employment and fair wages and the equal access to the world’s goods and resources. Pope John Paul II has renewed this call to equal access to development in his encyclical “Sollicitudo rei socialis”. Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical “Caritas in veritate” reiterated the many development themes in the original encyclical. And Pope Francis on many occasions pointed to the unjust situation of the poor in the great divide between the rich and poor that needs to have a radical solution if we want to change the world.
Human development, as defined by the United Nations, is the process of widening the range of people’s choices, or the widening of choices for people to do and to be what they value in life. However, human development requires that people can move about freely and safely, that they can exercise their choices freely and without fear – this is the concept of human security.
In the beginning the UN envisioned two major components of human security which were: freedom from fear and freedom from want. This was emphasized in the speech by the US Secretary of State before the UN Security Council in 1945: “The battle of peace has to be fought on two fronts. The first is the security front where victory spells from freedom from fear. The second is the economic and social front, where victory means freedom from want. Only victory on both fronts can the world be assured of an enduring peace…No provisions that can be written into the Charter will enable the Security Council to make the world secure from war if men and women have no security in their homes and their jobs.” (Edward Stettinius, Jr., US Secretary of State, and later first US Ambassador to the United Nations.)
The 2005 Philippine Human Development Report discussed the two components of human security which by this time have been categorized into the “narrow” concept and the “broad” concept. The narrow concept focuses on protection of individuals and communities from violent threats, i.e. internal violence, while the broader concept includes other threats to human life and dignity such as hunger, disease and natural disasters.
The concept of peacekeeping, usually associated with the military, has always been resorted to as a response to violent conflicts, which could be seen as necessary to prevent the further loss of lives. However, the narrow concept should be complimented by the broader concept and not to be left as a “stand alone” strategy on human security. While it is necessary that individuals must be able to act freely in order to actualize their choices, it is important to understand what caused the conflict in the first place that hamper the free movement of individuals before it is made a prior requirement for human development for people to widen their choices and determine their lives.
The use of the military for peacekeeping is not the solution to the conflict in Mindanao. It is imperative to first address the causes of these conflicts which, in the context of Mindanao, are rooted in the non-fulfillment of the requirements for the Bangsamoro people and the Lumads[14] to be able to live with dignity as equal citizens of the country, and this then is the broader concept of human security which includes economic security including security in employment, education, housing, food and nutrition, health, and environmental security, and thus, human development.
The Promise of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL)
The Bangsamoro Basic Law or BBL was initially crafted during the time of President Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III, which was supposed to grant greater autonomy to ARMM. The BBL was set to be approved by the Philippine Congress in 2015 but it was sent to the backburner after the Mamasapano incident[15]. The granting of a greater autonomy to the Bangsamoro people through the BBL will recognize their right to self-determination and grant them the right to manage their own affairs politically, economically and culturally but within the bounds of the Philippine Constitution. The BBL was seen to be the key to resolving the decades of conflict in Mindanao.
There is no need to reiterate that the Bangsamoro people deserves self-determination. In the first place they were never colonized by the Spaniards nor by the Americans. Originally the three stars of the Philippine flag commissioned by Emilio Aguinaldo did not include Mindanao. The three stars originally represented Luzon, Visayas and Panay which had a special place in the Philippine revolution against Spain. Panay was also credited for being the first province outside of Luzon to have raised the flag. It was only later (after Independence perhaps), that the 3rd star in the Philippine flag was meant to represent Mindanao.
Surprisingly in the Treaty of Paris, Spain included Mindanao in the sale of the Philippine islands to the Americans without the knowledge of the Moros and the indigenous peoples (IPs) or the Lumads of Mindanao[16]. However, as a temporary arrangement the rulers of Mindanao at that time accepted the terms of the Treaty while hoping to work out a more acceptable solution to the issue concerning Mindanao’s future. For example the Sultan of Sulu, Hadji Mohammed Jamalul Kiram II, signed the Bates Treaty in 1899 to uphold mutual respect between the US government and the Sultanate of Sulu. It was actually a strategy by US to hold in abeyance any other armed resistance in the country while it was still fighting Aguinaldo’s armed revolution in Luzon. Eventually the treaty was abrogated unilaterally by the US government in 1904.
As a policy to integrate Mindanao, the central government in Manila encouraged migration from Luzon and the Visayas to Mindanao. This policy of integration was continued by the post-World War II government after independence. The Moros and the IPs of Mindanao welcomed the migrants at first and allowed them to acquire lands in the island that was so rich with natural resources. Later on, national and foreign corporations were able to get land concessions in Mindanao for timber, mining and cash crops for export.
The migrants took the opportunity to acquire lands in Mindanao using the Torrens Title system, through a series of migration proclamations and land acquisition policies by the central government in Manila which were disadvantageous to the Moros and the Lumads. These were tantamount to landgrabbing by the migrants and Christian settlers. In fact, this was one major reason for the Moro rebellion as one day they realized that they have been dispossessed of their own ancestral domain. Today the majority of the people in Mindanao are originally not from Mindanao, and majority of them are Christians. Was this the meaning of “national integration” as perceived by those who designed the policy? Yet this is water under the bridge now because decades after Independence the Moros and the Lumads have accepted themselves to be part of the Philippine Republic as Filipinos, and with the BBL they are no longer asking for their own independence but only greater autonomy so that they could govern themselves according to their own cultural values and belief system.
To say that they deserve self-determination after long decades of historical neglect is an understatement. In ARMM, due to poverty, the pre-K to 12 data on the cohort survival rate in the elementary level is 20 percent for boys and about 30 percent for girls, which means that for every 10 boys who enroll in Grade 1 only 2 will finish Grade 6, and for every 10 girls only 3 will graduate and that is still conservative. Where did the dropouts go then? Thus, the cycle of poverty. The next question is, for those who graduate elementary school, how many would actually continue with their secondary education, and so on. To pass the BBL and establish the Bangsamoro will give greater opportunity for these young people to seek better options than war and poverty.
Mutual Tolerance and Peacebuilding
A big hope for achieving peace in Mindanao through mutual understanding and tolerance among Muslims and Christians could be seen through the peace process between the Philippine government and the MILF which supports the Philippine military in its campaign against the terrorist groups in Mindanao, and through various initiatives by non-state actors to promote peace in the region. In the recent crisis in Marawi City, there were stories of how the Muslim residents of the city exerted all means to save or hide their Christian neighbors or workers from the marauding terrorists of the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Maute brothers. On the other hand, the Christian residents of the adjacent city of Iligan openly welcomed Muslim evacuees from Marawi City and gave them food and shelter as the refugees fled the armed confrontation between the Philippine military and the terrorist groups in Marawi. Moreover, the Christians from the Visayas and Luzon sent their assistance through food supplies, clothes and medicines to the Muslim evacuees with words of solidarity and encouragement.
There is a need to build from these peace initiatives a more sustainable cultural action for mutual understanding and tolerance among Muslims and Christians in the country, including the indigenous peoples (IP) in Mindanao, by the inclusion of the history of Islam in the Philippines, including Islamic values, in the curriculum of the Department of Education which should be taught from elementary through college. Equally important is the presence of government, in far flung areas of ARMM especially of education, health and the other social services sectors, to provide development in these areas which otherwise serve as nurturing grounds for terrorism because of the absence of government.
Taking a more religious perspective, both the Qur’an and the Christian Bible are rich in their exhortation for tolerance. For example, in Qur’an 6.108 the Prophet Mohammad says “Revile not those unto whom they pray besides God, lest they out of spite revile God through ignorance”. On the part of the Christians they are exhorted to “Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in case they speak against you as wrongdoers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter.2.12).
In fact the initiatives for reconciliation and peace among Christians and Muslims in Mindanao and in the Philippines as a whole, can be enriched by their own holy scriptures where they will discover that both are actually preaching the same beliefs. in Qur’an 3.84 it says, “Say, We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and in what was given to Moses, Jesus and the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to God do we submit”. In Qur’an 5.69 it says. “Those who believe in the Qur’an, those who follow the Jewish Scriptures, and the Sabeans and the Christians – any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness – on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve”. A similar thought is found in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17.22-28): And Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him”.
The initiatives for religious and cultural dialogues between Muslims and Christians should be strengthened to enhance current efforts for mutual understanding and tolerance, however emphasizing what is a common aspiration among them, that is, to seek what is good for all. The answers are not really very far but can be found in both religious traditions. Jesus thus exhorts his disciples, “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Matthew 7.12). In Islam, the believers are exhorted in the same manner, “Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” (Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13). By seeking what is good for everyone as a guiding principle, it could perhaps be easier to work for reconciliation and peace among Muslims and Christians in the Philippines and in the world.
Conclusion
In order to resolve the Mindanao conflict, it is important to first have a common analysis of the issues surrounding the situation, which is far from being religious but essentially political, as pointed out earlier, and with implications to human development in the region. The use of the military may be needed to ensure human security but the long-term solution requires a culturally appropriate integral development that is suited to the Bangsamoro context. Therefore, the passage of the BBL is an imperative to ensure greater autonomy recognizing the Bangsamoro’s political sovereignty and right to self-determination.
In the meantime, local government units in ARMM, supported by its regional government may need to assess mechanisms for implementing its strategies to achieve its vision. A clear vision, with appropriate strategies, is one thing, but implementation is another thing. As elsewhere, local government units play a crucial role in achieving social change at the local level, i.e. in ARMM, to respond to the rights and development needs of the Bangsamoro people. The extent social change and peace in the region can be achieved depends on the extent of the local governments’ commitment to the welfare of the people. Therefore, local leaders as well as the leaders of the regional government would need to put aside personal or tribal interests for the sake of the common good of the Bangsamoro people.
Development however is not enough a solution to the conflict in Mindanao. To respond to the legitimate grievances and undo the historical injustice suffered by the Muslims and the lumads in Mindanao is the task of a cultural “re-conditioning”. There is a need to unlearn the cultural prejudices which Christians and Muslims, and even the lumads, have imbibed from generation to generation, to truly transform minds and hearts and achieve unity in the midst of diversity. Unless children are taught that everyone is a fellow human being and that all are all brothers and sisters regardless of ethnicity and religious persuasions, it would be difficult to achieve the goals of human security and development. This implies that history must be rewritten to right what has been wrongly taught in the past. In this regard, it would be necessary to include in the educational curricula a better understanding of Mindanao and the history of Islam in the Philippines.
A bigger challenge now in the region is how to respond to the radical preaching of the rising number of self-proclaimed imams and asatidz whose theologies have been influenced by Islamic fundamentalism abroad interpreting the Qur’an literally and out-of-context. Unfortunately the Abu Sayyaf, the Maute brothers and other terrorist groups in Mindanao use Islamic fundamentalism to attract adherents and recruit poor and uneducated young people into their ranks. The educated elite are few but most of them are caught up in their own struggle for political power or economic interests in the region. The fragmented local elite is advantageous to the terrorist organizations who have the capacity to organize many groups of marginalized young people, promising hope for a better future by their Salafist radical preaching. Thus, the fragmented local elite, in pursuit of their own vested interests, is also an obstacle to the peace process in the region although not very manifest.
The local elite and political leaders in ARMM will have to get their acts together to counter the rising popularity of Islamic fundamentalism among young people by strengthening basic education and providing more basic social services in far flung areas. These can be done by spending government funds to support rural infrastructures and social services to uplift the living conditions of the poor in remote areas than spending them for personal purposes with a latent intent of winning the next local elections.
In this regard, it is high time for local government officials, including barangay officials, to include in the list of poor families in their barangays and municipalities those who are truly poor as recipients of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program of the national government, also known as the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program). In many cases CCT recipients in the region are not really the poorest of the poor but supporters of local politicians in the context of patronage politics. And for those qualified poor beneficiaries, anecdotes abound about cuts and commissions by local politicians so that the beneficiaries do not really receive the full amount they are supposed to receive from the program, hence there is no real impact of the CCT on poverty alleviation and, thus, the situation of the poor in these localities remain unchanged as before.
For the more enlightened educated Muslims, they would need to use their energies and resources in promoting understanding and tolerance to counter Islamic fundamentalism, hence the critical role of basic education in the region which thus needs to be strengthened. The local media will have to play an important role in promoting understanding and tolerance in the battle of minds and hearts by promoting radio programs or television shows that emphasize peace and other life-promoting values among Muslims, Christians and Lumads to counter the rigid interpretation of the Qur’an by the Islamic fundamentalists and motivating a discussion on Salafism that it is only a thing of the past and is out-of-context vis-à-vis mutual understanding and peacebuilding.
Indeed, everyone has a role and responsibility in resolving the conflict in Mindanao to achieve peace in the region. It begins with a sincere desire for social change and an unselfish commitment to alleviate the poverty of the poor and to promote the inclusive good of all people in the region: Muslims, Christians and the Lumads. It is not naiveté in realpolitik but a practical element for those who truly seek change, development and peace.
[1] Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIL or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and known in Arabic by its acronym “Daesh”, a proto-state which follows a fundamentalist Wahabbi doctrine of Sunni Islam. ISIS or ISIL originated as Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999 and was affiliated with the Al-Qaeda network. It gained prominence in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and announced the establishment of a global Caliphate. ISIS was disowned by Al Qaeda because of its brutality including mass killings and beheadings. (Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant retrieved on July 12, 2017.)
[2] The term used by the Muslims in Mindanao for their self-identity.
[3] There were doubts as to whether the March 18, 1968 Jabidah massacre really happened, but accordingly it was mythicized by the MNLF in order to get the support of then Sabah’s Chief Minister Tun Mustafa who eventually funded the MNLF and allowed them to use Sabah as their training base.
[4] The Tripoli Agreement of 1976 was facilitated by the Quadripartite Ministerial Commission of the Organization of Islamic Conference. It was hosted by the former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli, Libya.
[5] There are five provinces consisting the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARRM): Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi also dubbed as BASULTA.
[6]In 711 AD the Moors from North African, also known as the Berbers, initiated an invasion of the Iberian peninsula under the leadership of Tariq ibn-Ziyad.
[7] Patterned after the land registration system introduced by Sir Robert Torrens in Australia and later adopted in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Initially the Muslims and Lumads (indigenous peoples) in Mindanao did not believe in land titles as basis for land ownership as they believed that all land belongs to Allah or to God. The Christian migrants exploited this Muslim and Lumad worldview by having the lands they occupied titled under their names.
[8] The MNLF has agreed to a peace agreement with the Philippine government in 1996 during the administration of former President Fidel V. Ramos.
[9] The Maute brothers belong to the Maute family, a rich and prominent family in Lanao del Sur in Mindanao, who formed a local terror group in the province of Lanao del Sur which has allegedly aligned with the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) with the intent of supporting the establishment of an independent Caliphate in Mindanao. No one is certain when and how the Maute brothers have started their radicalization to become a terror group.
[10] Isnilon Hapilon’s call for Jihad was captured by some local radio stations during the early stage of their siege of Marawi City
[11] Refer to John Dollard or Neal E. Miller. The frustration-aggression theory was cited in the 2005 Philippine Development Report in explaining the Mindanao conflict.
[12] Oblates of Mary Immaculate
[13] Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/47815-philippines-orlando-quevedo-cardinal-mindanao on Aug. 11, 2017.
[14] Indigenous peoples (IP) in Mindanao.
[15] The Mamasapano incident was well publicized because of the massacre of 44 members of the police Special Action Forces (SAF) on January 25, 2015 in a police operation codenamed Oplan Exodus to capture Malaysian terrorist and bomb-maker Zulkifli Adbhir. The MILF was accused of participating in the massacre which caused the suspension of the BBL.
[16] In 1878 there was a treaty signed between the Spanish Governor-General in Manila on behalf of King Alfonso XII of Spain, through the politico-military governor of Sulu Senor Don Carlos Martinez y Romero, and the Sultan of Sulu Padukka Mahasari Mawlana Sultan Jamalul A’lam, making the Sulu archipelago a protectorate of the Spanish government. This is probably the reason for including Mindanao and Sulu in the Treaty of Paris.