MANILA – The government is dedicated to sustaining President Rodrigo Duterte’s vision of long-lasting peace and development in the country.On Saturday, the President reiterated that commitment during the fourth anniversary of the liberation of Marawi from the Islamic State-linked… Read More
President Rodrigo Duterte is racing against time to meet a deadline for the approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
Congress itself is working overtime in putting the finishing touches and the eventual approval of the landmark legislation seen as the final and lasting solution to the Mindanao problem.
While Mindanao Muslims, in general, are all-out in their support, President Duterte believes that the BBL approval by Congress is not yet the light at the end of the festering, decades-old Moro problem, and is not leaving any stone unturned in a bid to clear whatever rough roads that may derail the BBL.
One of these roadblocks is the apparent apathy between two of the Bangsanoro’s leaders, who, while in solidarity with the quest for peace in Mindanao, are not totally in the same page in their views on many provisions of the BBL.
It is crucial, indeed, that President Duterte should smoothen the kinks and rough edges in Moroland by meeting with Chairman Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Nur Misuari of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
It would be a tragedy if the continuing rivalry, over who should carry the voice of the Bangsamoro, between the MILF and the MNLF should be allowed to jeopardize the quest for lasting peace in Mindanao and President Duterte’s timeline for BBL to be in place before he bows out of office in 2022.
*****
Would you believe that there are Muslims in Mindanao who dislike being called “Moro”?
But it is not because they want to be called by other names, hate their blood brothers or sisters who call themselves “Moro” or that ethnic conflict is rending Moroland.
This is due to history.
Moro refers to the name ascribed to Mindanao’s first and original inhabitants by foreign invaders, and its continuing use today is perceived as derogatory by some Muslims.
Even Bangsamoro, the collective word used to refer to the Muslim population as an ethnic group with a distinct custom and tradition, is likewise frowned upon if used to refer to the “Moro nation.”
There had been, for years, intensive debates among the Muslims themselves on the Moro. At times at the sideline of the debates came mild threats against those who call Muslims in Mindanao as Moros.
Moro is a two-faced description to explain the debates. For those who despise it, cite its history as a name that denigrates Mindanao Muslims with blasphemy. Those who stand proud to be called Moros praise it as a unifying factor among the Muslims.
The sentiment against being called a Moro is that it is, to some, an insulting colonial tag, that still persist today, heaped on them by Spanish conquestadors in the 16th century.
Making the name more repulsive is the violent adjective, juramentado , attached to Moro at the turn of the century by the Americans.
Mindanao Muslims fiercely opposed the occupation of their homeland and the Americans were forced to develop the powerful Colt .45 1911 semi-automatic pistol against suicidal Muslim warriors who armed only with a kris would face American soldiers in a man-to-man combat. The “juramentado” is a criminal running amuck, an image that took Mindanao Muslims decades, after the Americans left, to erase.
Modern liberation movements starting from the 50s added further a bad meaning to the word Moro, as Mindanao Muslims’ demanded for self-determination and engaged a bloody war against the government. The Moro war killed thousands and displaced millions.
Happily, the bad connotations smeared in the past on the Moro, has been totally obliterated with acceptance of Moro as the name for Muslims of Mindanao, by Muslims themselves, the public in general and by the government.
The recognition is enshrined in no less than the proposed law that aims to carve out parts of Mindanao as the Bangsamoro of the Moros of Mindanao.
Still, the debate over Moro and Bangsamoro as representative of the Muslims of Mindanao, lingers.
Although the Muslim of today no longer abhor being called a Moro, the word having found acceptability, the debate over the use of the Moro that in the past spawned conflicts among Muslims and between them and Christians, has been revived.
It is sad that the debate, particularly in social media, has caught in its web the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the law that is on its last stretch of approval by Congress, that would give the Muslims a semblance of self-determination.
It is also sad that respected Muslim leaders, who cannot forget the past, are behind the resurrected debate over the Moro and Bangsamoro.
“I am greatly embarrassed, and ashamed if somebody calls me Moro or Bangsamoro,” said Lanao Del Norte Congressman Abdullah Dimaporo who is opposing the BBL.
First posted in Luwaran.com, Dimaporo’s statement has crossed over to Facebook and is generating a whirlwind of comments from the pros and the cons thus, resurrecting an issue that should have been best forgotten.
Dimaporo aired his sentiment against the continuing use of Moro to describe Mindanao Muslims and its inclusion, along with Bangsamoro, in the BBL, during a recent widely-attended public consultation on the proposed law in Marawi City organized by the House of Representatives.
Dimaporo summed up his disgust at the tag: Moro is a shameful word, meaning ignorant, illiterate and pirates, coined in the 1600s by the Spaniards who invaded Mindanao and tried to Christianize the Muslims.
The statement of Dimaporo, contained in a news report by Luwaran.com, has elicited a cacophony of comments and discussion and debate, from recollection of “historical injustice” committed during centuries of violence against the Muslims in the hands of foreign invaders to the state of affairs of the Muslims under the past and present administrations.
“Where is the justice for all of us who are offended by this Spanish insult?” said a commenter to a post by Marawi City-based Norodin Alonto Lucman, who reposted the Luwaran.com story in his Facebook account.
And there are more who pitched side with Dimaporo:
“Nobody wanted to be called Moro because Moro meant marauder and pirate. The Spanish colonizers came to our shores and branded us as Moros because they considered us as ladrones , moros , magnanakaw . Ngayon, you find distinction and glory in being called Moro. Please don’t be fooled by those same enemies of our race. They are all the same dogs in sheepskins. They can fool us some of the time, but they can not fool us all of the time. The BBL Will eventually cause our people and territory to dissipate and then on, we can no longer be called a people, not even indigenous because we Will have no more territory to claim as ours, and our identity will be gone forever and become part of history.”
“There is an Identity Crisis.”
“If politicians have a little sense of self-respect, they should follow the lead of Dimaporo.
To be proud of the Spanish insult is totally mind-boggling.”
“This is a case of cultural genocide concocted by the Castillans .”
“Usurping a foreign identity. Goddamn, mind-boggling!”
“Don’t change the name Muslim Mindanao.”
“The name Moros is racist. It’s politically incorrect.”
“We have constitutional rights to a proper identity.. can’t change the identity of the entire Muslim population to a made-up Bangsamoro.”
“Only wise, intelligent and learned people know how to react against colonial imposition against us. Others are silent bcos they have limited knowhow . Congrats to the Dimaporos.”
“SAY, I AM NOT A MORO. I AM A TAUSUG, I AM MARANAW, I AM A MAGUINDANAOAN . NOT A MORO.,
“If we do not want to be called Moro, what would you call people who originally inhabited Mindanao? My tribe is Maranao and also do not like to be called Moro not because I am ashamed but because I felt insulted knowing that being called a Moro meant being uneducated and uncivilized.
However, for the sake of unity in building our own territorial land , we must be united to one common goals for the benefit of our children’s children.”
“Bangsa” means nation. The Philippines should remain one integral nation, and not be divided into many nations.”
But there is another side to the coin.
Luwaran.com reports that Dimaporo’s statement “reaped negative reactions” and described as “against the aspirations of the Bangsamoro in attaining a just, and lasting peace in Mindanao.”
Officials of the Federation of the Royale House and Sultanates of Lanao Del Sur, reports Luwaran.com, were “wondering” why Dimaporo “cannot accept to be called as Moro or Bangsamoro when historical injustices were clearly committed by colonial powers and accepted by the government leadership.”
“The Bangsamoro people have the legitimate right to determine a political solution to the Moro Question, and this can only be realized through the passage of the BBL.”
“Let us strengthen our unity, and solidarity in facing various challenges ahead, and work hard for the passage of the BBL by Congress,” the sultanates’ leaders urged in the luwaran.com report.
President Rodrigo Duterte, has certified BBL as a priority bill, and is steering up Congress into its early approval.
While BBL is looked up to by many as the road to peace in Mindanao, we are mystified that there are still many Muslims who suffer from historical hangover over the word Moro, and in the process derail the collective efforts to find peace in Mindanao..
We are not saying that the debate over Moro and Bangsamoro is trivial.
But having gained acceptability, it is now time for Muslims to stop the debate and accept Moro and Bangsamoro not only as cultural and political identities of the Muslims of Mindanao but as well as a unifying factor in the search for lasting peace.
After all, Moro is the banner word in Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MNLF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the liberation movements that carry the voice of the Moros, who fought for decades for self–determination for the Bangsamoro. ALSO READ IN PNA
Would you believe that there are Muslims in Mindanao who hate being called “Moro”?
But it is not because they want to be called by other names, hate their blood brothers or sisters or that ethnic conflict is rending Moroland that Mindanao Muslins now hate each other and don’t want to be identified as Moros.
Moro here refers to the name ascribed to Mindanao’s first and original inhabitants, and its continuing use that Muslims perceive as derogatory.
Even Bangsamoro, the collective word used to refer to the Muslim population as an ethnic group with a distinct custom and tradition, is likewise frowned upon if used to refer to the “Moro nation.”
There had been for years intensive debates among the Muslims themselves on the Moro. At times at the sideline of the debates came mild threats against those who call Muslims in Mindanao as Moros.
Moro is a two-faced description to explain the debates. For those who despise it cite its history as a name that denigrates Mindanao Muslims with blasphemy. Those who stand proud to be called Moros praise it as a unifying factor among the Muslims.
The sentiment against being called a Moro is that it is, to some, an insulting colonial tag, that still persist today, heaped on them by Spanish conquestadores in the 16thcentury.
Making the name more repulsive is the violent adjective, juramentado, attached to Moro at the turn of the century by the Americans.
Mindanao Muslims fiercely opposed the occupation of their homeland and the Americans were forced to develop the powerful Colt .45 1911 semi-automatic pistol against suicidal Muslim warriors who armed only with a kris would face American soldiers in a man-to-man combat. The juramentado is a criminal running amok, an image that took Mindanao Muslims decades, after the Americans left, to erase.
Modern liberation movements starting from the 50s added further a bad meaning to the word Moro, as Mindanao Muslims’ demanded for self-determination and engaged a bloody war against the government. The Moro War killed thousands and displaced millions.
Happily, the bad connotations smeared in the past on the Moro, has been totally obliterated with acceptance of Moro as the name for Muslims of Mindanao, by Muslims themselves, the public in general and by government.
The recognition is enshrined in no less than the proposed law that aims to carve out parts of Mindanao as the Bangsamoro of the Moros of Mindanao.
Still, the debate over Moro and Bangsamoro as representative of the Muslims of Mindanao lingers.
Although the Muslim of today no longer abhor being called a Moro, the word having found acceptability, the debate over use of the Moro that in the past spawned conflicts among Muslims and between them and Christians, has been revived.
It is sad that the debate, particularly in social media, has caught in its web the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the law that is on its last stretch of approval by Congress, that would give the Muslims a semblance of self-determination.
photo: Luwaran.com
It is also sad that respected Muslim leaders, who cannot forget the past, are behind the resurrected debate over the Moro and Bangsamoro.
“I am greatly embarrassed, and ashamed if somebody calls me Moro or Bangsamoro,” said Lanao Del Norte Congressman Abdullah Dimaporo who is opposing the BBL.
First posted in Luwaran.com, Dimaporo’s statement has crossed over to Facebook and is generating a whirlwind of comments from the pros and the cons, thus resurrecting an issue that should have been best forgotten.
Dimaporo aired his sentiment against the continuing use of Moro to describe Mindanao Muslims and its inclusion, along with Bangsamoro, in the BBL, during a recent widely-attended public consultation on the proposed law in Marawi City organized by the House of Representatives.
Dimaporo summed up his disgust at the tag: Moro is a shameful word, meaning ignorant, illiterate and pirates, coined in the 1600s by the Spaniards who invaded Mindanao and tried to Christianize the Muslims.
The statement of Dimaporo, contained in a news report by Luwaran.com, has elicited a cacophony of comments and discussion and debate, from recollection of “historical injustice” committed during centuries of violence against the Muslims in the hands of foreign invaders to the state of affairs of the Muslims under the past and present administrations.
“Where is the justice for all of us who are offended by this Spanish insult?” said a commenter to a post by Marawi City-based Norodin Alonto Lucman, who reposted the Luwaran.com story in his Facebook account.
And there are more who pitched side with Dimaporo:
“Nobody wanted to be called Moro because Moro meant marauder and pirate . The Spanish colonizers came to our shores and branded us as Moros because they considered us as ladrones, moros, magnanakaw. Ngayon, you find distinction and glory in being called Moro. Please don’t be fooled by those same enemies of our race. They are all the same dogs in sheepskins. They can fool us some of the time, but they can not fool us all of the time. The BBL Will eventually cause our people and territory to dissipate and then on, we can no longer be called a people, not even indigenous because we Will have no more territory to claim as ours, and our identity will be gone forever and become part of history.”
“There is an Identity Crisis.”
“If politicians have a little sense of self respect, they should follow lead of Dimaporo. To be proud of the Spanish insult is totally mind-boggling.”
“This is a case of cultural genocide concocted by the Castillans.”
“Usurping a foreign identity.
Goddamn, mind-boggling!”
“Don’t change the name Muslim Mindanao.”
“The name Moros is racist. It’s politically incorrect.”
“We have constitutional rights to a proper identity….can’t change the identity of the entire Muslim population to a made-up Bangsamoro.”
“Only wise, intelligent and learned people know how to react against colonial imposition against us. Others are silent bcos they have limited knowhow. Congrats to the Dimaporos.”
“SAY, I AM NOT A MORO. I AM A TAUSUG, I AM MARANAW, I AM A MAGUINDANAOAN. NOT A MORO.,
“If we do not want to be called Moro, what would you call people who originally inhabited Mindanao? My tribe is Maranao and also do not like to be called Moro not because I am ashamed but because I felt insulted knowing that being called a moro meant being uneducated and uncivilized. HOWEVER, for the sake of unity in building our own territorial land ,we must be united to one common goals for the benefit of our children’s children.”
“Bangsa” means nation. The Philippines should remain one integral nation, and not be divided into many nations.”
But there is another side to the coin.
Luwaran. Com reports that Dimaporo’s statement “reaped negative reactions” and described as “against the aspirations of the Bangsamoro in attaining a just, and lasting peace in Mindanao.”
Officials of the Federation of the Royale House and Sultanates of Lanao Del Sur, reports Luwaran.com, were “wondering” why Dimaporo “cannot accept to be called as Moro or Bangsamoro when historical injustices were clearly committed by colonial powers and accepted by the government leadership.”
“The Bangsamoro people has the legitimate right to determine a political solution to the Moro Question, and this can only be realized through the passage of the BBL.”
“Let us strengthen our unity, and solidarity in facing various challenges ahead, and work hard for the passage of the BBL by Congress,” the sultanates’ leaders urged in the Luwaran.com report.
President Rodrigo Duterte, has certified BBL as a priority bill, and is steering up Congress into its early approval.
While BBL is looked up to by many as the road to peace in Mindanao, we are mystified that there are still many Muslims who suffer from historical hangover over the word Moro, and in the process derail the collective efforts to find peace in Mindanao..
We are not saying that the debate over Moro and Bangsamor is trivial.
But having gained acceptability, it is now time for Muslims to stop the debate and accept Moro and Bangsamoro not only as cultural and political identities of the Muslims of Mindanao but as well as a unifying factor in the search for lasting peace.
After all, Moro is the banner word in Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MNLF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the liberation movements that carry the voice of the Moros, who fought for decades for self–determination for the Bangsamoro.
Of late, our lawmakers have given assurance that the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) may be approved by Congress by the end of May.
This assurance made during a recent meeting between President Rodrigo Duterte and key leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives is the biggest news to come for Mindanaoans.
The President is pushing hard the approval of the BBL because he strongly believes that giving Muslims of Mindanao limited autonomy in governing their Bangsamoro is the answer to ending the Moro problem; that BBL means closing the door to more violence in the island.
More importantly, the BBL responds to the “historical injustice” committed against the Moros for centuries for which they demand restitution even to this day.
It is this injustice that makes the Moros vulnerable to overtures by terrorists groups to rebel against the government.
President Duterte has warned of doomsday scenarios of a conflagration of pocket wars in Mindanao if the Moros are not given a measure of autonomy in their Bangsamoro homeland.
President Rodrigo has also warned that foreign terrorist groups are piggybacking on the Moro frustration to stir up local Muslim extremists to replicate the siege of Marawi City, held hostage for five months by terrorists last year.
The Middle East-based Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), considered today as the world’s most violent terror group, fired up local terrorists when it exported its brand of terrorism to Mindanao soil and linked up with the home-grown Maute and Abu Sayyaf terror groups in the siege of Marawi City.
The President’s warnings are more than shock-and-awe statements.
They are dire warnings that the threat of terrorism from local terror groups with ties to foreign extremists, could continue to be a monkey in the back of Mindanao.
Marawi City may have been freed from the grip of the marauders after bloody battles that killed hundreds of soldiers, policemen and civilians, and terrorists, and reduced the Muslim city to rubbles; and the ISIS may have lost its bite with its defeat in Iraq and Syria — and Marawi — but terrorism will continue to rear its ugly head in Mindanao.
The strength of the ISIS ideology feeds on ethnic frustration and violence, the lethal combination it used to gain support to control a wide swathe of Iraq and Syria for years before the terror group was defeated by US-led forces middle of last year.
The frustration of Mindnao Muslims over centuries of “historical injustice’ against the Moro people, the root cause of the decades-old Bangsamoro rebellion, is a wound that has not cured.
The frustration fits the ISIS formula to get support from local terrorists in its mission to make Marawi its caliphate and the Philippines as the epicenter of its terrorism in Southeast Asia, and its grandiose aim of global domination by establishing caliphates worldwide.
The ethnic frustration mixed with the ISIS brand of violence in tandem with local terror groups is a deadly brew that could spell doom for the country.
Reports that the Maute Group is regrouping and that scores of foreign terrorists have secretly entered the country are indications that ISIS is not dead in the water in Mindanao.
President Duterte sees limited autonomy, through the BBL, for the Moro people as a final solution to the Mindanao problem that would respond to the search for peace in Mindanao and address the “historical injustice” committed against the Moro people.
Mindanao Muslims, in general, are not warlike, despite perception of many, and would grab at any opportunity to achieve peace in Mindanao through peaceful means.
This is the reason why most of the Moros support BBL and abhor terrorism as a way to address the historical injustice that they suffered for centuries.
For most of the Moros, terrorism is haram and should not be considered as jihad or a tool for Mindanao Muslims to find justice, because terrorism violates the teachings of Islam.
The sooner that the Philippine government responds to Muslim demand for at least limited autonomy of the Bangsamoro through the BBL, the better that we can resolve the threat of terrorism and find peace in Mindanao.
It is not difficult for the government to respond to this demand, seen as the answer to “historical injustice” that the Mindanao Muslims suffered in the hands of “foreign invaders” and the government itself.
It is comforting that the Philipine Congress is responding to this demand, and is wrapping up action on the BBL, the legal instrument that would create a new Bangsamoro for the Muslim minority.
The assurance bylawmakers of the May approval of the BBL is a breathe of fresh air that has come after decades of searching for peace in Mindanao.
Muslims had suffered injustice for centuries in the hands of the Spanish, American and Japanese invaders, including the government through a policy that relocated Christians from the Visayas and Luzon to Mindanao in the 50s that practically stole Mindanao from the Muslims.
The injustices remain as a painful sore in the hearts and minds of the Muslims, particularly the youth who until today could not forget past attempts to subjugate the Moro people and steal their homeland.
But we cannot turn back the hands of time to prevent the 1906 Bud Dajo massacre in Jolo where American soldiers killed hundreds of Moros, including women and children.
We do not have a time machine to go back to the past and help them fight the Spanish conquistadores who tried to christianize the Moro people.
And how many Moros were killed in defense of their homeland during the Japanese occupation?
Christians from Visayas and Luzon, joined the “conquest” of the Bangsamoro homeland, when they carved parts of Mindanao for their own when they were resettled on the island by government in the 50s.
Mindanao today is a land for Muslims, Christians and lumads living harmoniously, but its peace is shattered by pockets of rebellion and terrorists.
Add to this the young generations of Moros. who are the most susceptible to influence by extremists like the ISIS, who could not forget the past and continue to nurse a festering anger and a cry for vengeance until today.
The perception that by nature the Mindanao Moros are war-like and possessed by the culture of jihad is wrong. The culture of jihad was a self-defense mechanism developed during the four centuries that the Moros defended their Bangsamoro from foreign invaders dating back to the 1600 against the Spaniards up to early 1900 against the Americans.
The Moros of today are a peaceful people and live in harmony with Christians and lumads in Mindanao.
If the Moro problem in Mindanao remains today, it is because their demand for independence and the historical injustice done to the Moro people continue to pulsate in the hearts and minds of the 20th century Moro, especially the idealistic among the young.
Today, however, while young Moros could not forget the Bud Dajo massacre and other violence against the Bangsamoro, their elders are willing to face the future by agreeing to government overtures for peaceful co-existence for as long as the Bangsamoro is given a measure of independence.
Muslim liberation movements which have been fighting for Mindanao independence or self-rule for decades, have in fact abandoned their arms for the negotiating table.
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guided by their wise leaders had struck in 1996 a final peace agreement with government that led to the creation of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
We look up with great anticipation to to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) finally making peace with government under BBL that would replace ARMM.
The twin historical pacts were crafted with senior Muslim leaders who are fed up with the seemingly endless fighting that claimed more than 100,000 lives and displaced millions of people.
The ideology of the ISIS thrives on ethnic frustration and despair.
Of course ISIS is not a generally accepted ideology among Mindanao Muslims. It was embraced by local extremists not because it offered a window for an answer to the Muslims’ long search for justice, but due to the influence of the violent ISIS and its terroristic ideology.
With ISIS gone, the thirst for independence and justice will continue to linger in the heart and mind of our Muslim brothers and sisters and, if the Bangsamoro will not materialize, will find disastrous expression in the pocket wars that President Duterte had warned erupting all over Mindanao.
We should not allow the alien ISIS ideology to steal away with its violence the breath of fresh air that will descend all over Mindanao once the BBL is approved by the government.
Do we now see the bright light after decades of fighting at the end of Mindanao’s tunnel of violence?
BUSINESS, POLITICS, TOURISM, NEWS, DAVAO CITY, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
BY ROGER M. BALANZA
TOPNEWSNOW 