NAME: Raihana M.

Gote
Subject: HISTORY 211 (Economic History of Mindanao)
Topic: Part II, Land: key to Mindanao Problem (Two Hills of the Same Land) by Silva, Rad D. (pseud)
Date: October 8, 2016

Land: key to Mindanao Problem

 A non – Moro view of the Mindanao question is that it is the Moros who are the problem. This notion has
for a long time served a net cover for the truth that the land problem is a primary issue in Mindanao and it
is not the Moros who created it. The Moros have of course been a problem to those who have sought to
dominate them.
 To the American colonizers, to whom sovereignty over the entire archipelago was vested by the provisions
of the treaty of Paris, the Mindanao problem was also the “Moro Problem”. How they went about their
solutions until their Moro problem became, for both Moros and Filipinos, a land problem, deserves
detailed treatment.

Bates Treaty: Temporary Cover for U.S. Intentions

- the agreement entered into between the Sultan of Sulu and Brigadier General John C. Bates in
August 1899 otherwise known as Bates Treaty was in reality an instrument to keep the Moros
neutralized and prevent any possible tie up with the freedom fighters of the north, while they were
busy fighting the latter. The treaty was made as a temporary expedient to avoid trouble.

Early Ideas and Inducements for Resettlement

- Programmed resettlement did not start until 1912. It first went through a process of crystallization,
which started with proposals to import foreigners into the Moro province and jelled into the
invitations for establishing American plantation in said province, finally ending up with the systematic
and continuous resettlement of Christians Filipinos to accompany the steady influx of investors into
Mindanao.
- In the beginning the idea of settlement was both scattered and disorganized.
- The most ambitious of the American proposals desired the separation of Mindanao and Sulu from
the Philippines to serve American imperialist interests. On January 10, 1910, the American
dominated Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution “to use every effort to have
Mindanao and the adjacent islands become a territory of the United States”. To them this was the
best condition in order to establish American plantations which would later transform the entire into
prosperous agricultural community of American planters.
- Neither resolution nor bill prospered, yet on clearly discern a reflection of the American imperialist
drive not only to create a market for American manufactured goods but also to build up regular
sources of raw materials for their factories.

Resettlement Program begins

 Colonial government sponsored settlement of Mindanao began in 1912. The adverse effects of a
drought in Sulu and Zamboanga and grasshopper infestation in Davao in 1911 -1912 on the level
of supply of rice supply the Moro province gave Pershing the excuse to call “for the importation
of homesteaders from the overpopulated Philippine areas”.
 In 1913, the Philippine commission passed Act No. 2254 creating agricultural colonies aimed at
financing the rice production effort started in Cotabato Valley.
 The following year Act 2280 was passed creating the Momungan Agricultural Colony in Lanao.
 In 1919, Act No. 2206 was passed authorizing the Provincial Boards to manage colonies
themselves and their expense.
 No significant government sponsored settlement program was put out until 1935. what took
place instead was the movement of settlers either on their own or through the Interisland
Migration Division of the Bureau of Labor.
  Legislative Act No. 4197 passed on February 12, 1935 otherwise known as the Quirino – Recto
Colonization Act. It became popular as the organic Charter of Organized Land Settlement. It was
actually for settlement of public land in any part of the country but with special preference to
Mindanao.
 It was not until 1939 that another settlement law was passed, that is Commonwealth Act No.
441, creating the National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA)
 In March 1949, the Rice and Corn Production Administration (RCPA) was created to promote rice
and corn production. It was also involved in resettlement.
 In October, 1950, both RCPA and NLSA were abolished and replaced by the short – lived Land
Settlement Development Corporation (LASEDECO) which, by the time it was replaced in June
1954 with the creation of the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA)
through republic Act No. 1160, had resettled 1,500 families.
 From 1954 to January 1963, NARRA administered a total of 23 resettlements all over the country,
a good number of which were in Mindanao and Sulu.
 When the Agricultural Land Reform Code was signed into law in August 1963, NARRA was
replaced by the Land Authority, thus making land resettlement part of the general program of
land reform.
 In September 1971, republic Act No. 6389 was signed by President Marcos creating the
Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) at the same time abolishing Land Authority.
 In 1951, when Ramon Magsaysay was the secretary of National Defense, he initiated the
establishment of the Economic Development Corporation (EDCOR) Farms for captured and
surrendered Huks.

The Truth Behind Resettlement

The government sponsored resettlement provided the opening wedge for the massive and
systematic exploitation of the vast natural resources of Mindanao which gathered momentum
after the last war and has continued without let up to the present.
Certain false premises have been propagated and popularized, or at least indirectly encouraged
as valid in the process of penetrating Mindanao and exploiting its vast natural resources. And
these proved very useful indeed for covering up the self-serving motives of the ruling elite.
1.) the issue of overpopulation.
2.) resettlement is the lasting solution to the Mindanao problem.
3.) the exploitation of the vast natural resources of Mindanao and Sulu is for national
progress and development.
4.) the Christians are the culprits in the Mindanao problem.
5.) the Moros must be blamed for the Mindanao problem.