MikeLigalig.com

Written By Joe Espiritu
Columnist
Bohol Sunday Post

Whether we admit it or not, there is a fratricidal conflict going on in the South.

While in Basilan, they call it police action; the battles in Sulu cannot be called that. In Basilan, while the Philippine marines were on a search mission for the kidnapped Italian priest, they were ambushed by a group, which styled themselves members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF. In Sulu, a splinter group of the Moro National Liberation front or MNLF ambushed a contingent of the Philippine Army. Each claimed that government soldiers violated the space controlled by those groups.

It seems as if there is no win-win solution when dealing with those groups.

Whenever the government strikes up a deal with a main body, another faction calling itself a splinter group would demand recognition from the government. This goes on ad nauseam. Even when offered local autonomy under a political unit called Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, where the provinces with predominant Muslim population would be considered a political division of the Republic and given the power to govern themselves, it is still not acceptable to them.

The root of the problem goes a long, long way; way before the Spaniards came to the Philippines. The Philippines was populated by peoples coming from Southeast Asia. Although coming from a common racial stock, and perhaps speaking the same basic language, the settled far away from each other. Each isolated group, ruled by chieftains known for sagacity or valor or both, developed their own peculiarities. Filipino historians have never taught, which missionaries came first, the Arabs propagating Islam or the frailes spreading Christianity.

Local warlords pay homage to the most powerful ruler nearby. History books mention only the sultanates of Lanao and Sulu as the ones holding power in Mindanao. The Lanao sultans enjoy the loyalty of the Maranaos while the Sultans of Sulu ruled over the Tausogs, Samals. Yakans and perhaps the Maguindanaos of Cotabato. Although their common denominator is Islam, it is not clear whether or not the sultanates have diplomatic relations with each other. The Spanish found it hard to incorporate those sultanates into the Philippine colony. It took Gen John J. Pershing to complete the conquest.

In the first years of the third Republic, - the first was under Emilio Aguinaldo, the second under Jose P Laurel and the Third under Manuel A Roxas -, Mindanao was treated as a poor relation. Development was centered in Luzon leaving the Visayas and Mindanao - especially Mindanao, to fend for themselves. Muslims fell under the influence of their strongmen while Christians settled and developed some parts of Mindanao. The island became a patchwork of various ethnic groups with Christianity and Islam as dominant religions.

While the Christians can live and work with each other and with other ethnic groups, it is not clear whether the ethnic Muslims such as the Maranaos, Maguindanaos and Tausugs could live with each other. If they were lumped under one autonomous region, would a Tausog agree to be governed even temporarily by a Maranao or Maguindanao or vice versa? Then, would the central government allow those ethnic groups to carve their own empires? Definitely not.

The conflict cannot be settled with guns alone. Political scientists would have to work hard to find a solution. It is not possible that there is a no win solution if everyone, Christian, Muslim or whatever work together. However, as a sovereign country, the Philippines do not have to bargain with rebels or insurgents. Her armed forces will have to uphold the sovereignty of Republic.

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