HIST 01. MODULE SIX.

Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

Hello, everyone! Our sixth and last module for Hist 1 is entitled Nation and Globalization,
1946 to the Present. In the previous lesson, we learned about the history of Cagayan de
Oro, and how its history is intertwined with the history of Xavier University. In today’s
lecture, we’ll talk about the place of Muslim Mindanao in Philippine history. A topic like
this actually deserves to be talked about in a separate course, but we make do with what
limited time we have. Of course, if you’re interested in learning more about this topic on
your own, you can always let me know and we can talk some more. Ready?

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

Let’s begin with a recap of our very first lesson in this subject: the difference between
history and the past. Can you still remember how we differentiated the two? In Module
1, we said that the past is everything that has ever happened, even when nobody was
there to witness the events, even when nobody cares that it happened. History on the
other hand is a selective interpretation of what remains from the past, and if you’ll look
at Philippine history, we’ve indeed stuck to a very selective interpretation of what has
happened to our country. I’m talking about how the creation of the Philippine nation
revolves so much around the Katipunan revolution that took place in the Tagalog-
Pampanga regions. I’m also referring to how much of our history stars the people from
the north and is written by the north. Of course, if we stick with our definition of the past,
we know that the experiences of the Tagalogs and the taga-Luzon do not represent the
experience of the whole Filipino population. If you remember from Module 5, we talked
about mainstream Filipinos, those who had been converted to Christianity and placed
directly under Spanish and American rule. We should know also that the experiences of
the mainstream Filipinos are not the experiences of all the people in our country. So
what about the people of Muslim Mindanao, the people of the Cordillera, those from the
territories that had never been fully Christianized and colonized? Who tells their story?

The Filipino historian Cesar Adib Majul has something to say about this. He wrote: “To
refuse to take the history of [non-Christian natives] as an integral part of the history of the
national community….” [See slide.] In other words, if we do not give the past of the non-
Christian Filipinos the right amount of attention, it’s like we’re saying that only Christian
Filipinos deserve to have their history told. Do you think it should be like that?

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

Personally, I think the history of the uncolonized in the Philippines should be given more
credit, because these are people whose cultures have stayed free of major Western
influence. In history, there are usually 2 kinds of narratives or storylines: the mainstream
and the alternative. When we say mainstream history, we’re referring to the history that is
learned by the majority in schools and through mass media, regulated by DepEd, CHED,
and other people in power. In the Philippines, mainstream history is the one that
includes the Spanish colonial era, the American colonial era, and the Japanese
occupation.

However, we should all know by now that mainstream history is not THE only story of the
past, only A story, one out of thousands. The other stories that do not get told as much
are what we call alternative histories. They’re just like alternative medicines: alternative
medicines still can cure people, just in another way, and they don’t get as much
advertising as mainstream medicines do. In this case, one alternative storyline in
Philippine history would be what was happening to Muslim Mindanao and other non-
Christianized territories while the rest of the country transformed under Spain and the
US. Another alternative storyline that doesn’t get studied often by Filipino students is our
country’s place in Southeast Asian history. SEA is where we find our country’s literal next-
door neighbors, but we tend to focus on our relationships with the Western nations that
are much farther away. Can you see now how mainstream history differs from alternative
history? This is the history of the colonized Filipino, as opposed to the history of the
uncolonized Filipino.

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

Where do even begin with alternative history, specifically the history of the Bangsamoro
nation which is the topic of this lecture? Let’s start with the evidences or primary sources
that we know exist. Scholars of Filipino-Islamic studies have been known to use
manuscripts or unpublished papers as primary sources, but these are inaccessible to
most Filipino students because either most of them are found in American or Indonesian
archives, they are in the hands of royal families or sultanates in the Philippines, or they
have been destroyed or lost over time. Cesar Majul, whom we mentioned earlier, would
specifically say that tarsilas or silsilas are your best friends if you want to study Filipino-
Islamic history. Tarsilas are genealogies, some oral in nature, others written down and
preserved on paper. They are records of ancestors, marriages, linkages, usually kept also
by royal families for the following purposes: first, tarsilas allowed them to keep better
track of who would inherit the throne in a sultanate; and second, some tarsilas traced the
family’s lineage all the way up to the family of the Prophet Muhammad.

Unfortunately, the most accessible primary sources for us in this class are records from
the Spanish colonial era, records of the colonizers’ encounters with the Muslims, whom
they called Moros. For those of us who read “Glorious Victories against the Moros of
Mindanao” in Module 3, we know just how biased the Spaniards could get when talking
about their religious enemies. Still, if we know how to look past the biases, Spanish
records give us a glimpse of an alternative way of life in the archipelago.

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

So now that we know where to look for information on Bangsamoro or Filipino-Islamic

history, a word of caution: not all Muslims in the country had the same experience of
living outside of colonial rule. Even today, the Bangsamoro is composed of distinct
ethnolinguistic groups. When we say ethnolinguistic groups, these are groups of people
whose practices, customs, and languages differentiate them from one another.

Out of the many ethnolinguistic groups in our country, 13 of them are united by a
common religion, which is Islam. On the west side of Zamboanga peninsula, we have the
Kolibugan; in Western Mindanao, the Maranao, the Iranun, and the Maguindanao. Down
south, we have the Kalagan and the Sangil. Over at Palawan, on the southern tip close to
Mindanao we have the Jama Mapun, the Molbog, and the Palawani. And in the islands
west of Mindanao, we have the Yakan, the Badjao, the Sama, and the Tausug. Some of
these groups are probably already familiar to you. However, even though they are all
Muslim, keep in mind that we still cannot generalize the experience of one group as the
experience of all 13 groups. Okay?

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

For the remaining time, we’ll only be able to talk about how much (or how little) the
stories of these people actually appear in mainstream Philippine history. For the most
part of the Spanish colonial period, the colonial government had realized that it was
going to be difficult to control the Muslim regions in the same way they had controlled
the rest of the country. When Muslim elites did agree to collaborate with Spaniards, it
was supposedly in the name of good trading relations. When Spaniards did clash with
Muslim or Moro forces, they treated those clashes as a continuation of the Crusades or
the Reconquista, both fights between Moros and Christians over holy land. Fun fact: this
is the reason that the mascots of Xavier University are the Crusaders, fighters for a land
they believe is rightfully theirs. The Jesuits were probably the most successful group
from Spain’s side in that they were able to settle in some parts of Mindanao, but even
so, the Spanish government was arrogant enough to claim that all of Mindanao already
belonged to the Philippines.

This is what colonialism is. It’s incredibly arrogant; it insists to the rest of the world that a
country is shaped in this way or that way, even without consulting the people who are
from that country. Even today, we have separatist groups in Mindanao because the
ancestors of these people were never asked in the first place if they wanted to be part of
the Philippines.

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

When the next colonial period began, the Americans simply tried to continue the
mindset of the Spanish when it came to Mindanao. They eventually learned to leave
most Muslim regions of Mindanao alone, but not without first causing damage and
bloodshed there. In the parts of Muslim Mindanao that they did get to control, they
implemented some of the pillars of state-building we discussed in Module 5, like the
Torrens land titling system, so that natives could not own a piece of land in the eyes of
the national government unless they had the paper to prove it. They implemented the
American public education system, so that they could “tame” the enemy. To make
things easier on their end, the Americans also co-opted traditional leaders, meaning they
encouraged existing datus and sultans to surrender to colonial rule by promising them
the same amount of political power, just with different labels: mayor, governor, etc.

The Americans’ most strategic move, however, was when they encouraged Christian
settlers to migrate to Mindanao and strengthen the presence of American-ruled
mainstream Filipinos here. So the people in Muslim Mindanao were neither Christianized
nor colonized, but through these small ways, they slowly absorbed the Filipino national
identity, and the rest of the country slowly absorbed them as part of the Filipino nation.

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

On the occasions that Muslims are mentioned in mainstream Philippine history, they are
rarely depicted in a positive way, and always from the perspective of mainstream
Filipinos. Let’s look at the Post-War era. You might be familiar with the Moro National
Liberation Front, a separatist group which was formed around 1972. After 15 years of
conflict with the Philippine government (who is considered to be on the right side of
history), in 1987, the MNLF signed an agreement to accept the government’s offer of
autonomy. Autonomy meant that people in their area would be given some leeway in
terms of how things would be run, but the area would officially still be part of the
Philippines. The agreement did not sit well with some members of the MNLF, who broke
away to form the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or MILF.

Peace talks between the MNLF and the Philippine government eventually led to the
creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in 1989, through Republic Act
6734 signed by President Cory Aquino. The ARMM then was made up of the provinces
of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. In 2001, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo signed R.A. 9054, which added Basilan and the Islamic City of Marawi
to the ARMM.

What effect did all these political moves have on the people actually living in Muslim
Mindanao? Most of us in this class might never fully understand because again, we are
studying this topic from the perspective of the mainstream. After this lecture video,
though, please watch this iWitness documentary entitled Haring Walang Kaharian, to
give you an idea.

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

Regrettably, we do not have enough materials on Muslim Filipinos, we do not have

access to stories that are told from their point of view — but we can hope that this will
change as we transition to a new political structure, that of the Bangsamoro nation.

How did the name Bangsamoro come into the picture? In 2018, President Rodrigo
Duterte signed R.A. 11054, or the Bangsamoro Organic law. Through this law, the
ARMM was dissolved and replaced with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao. How was the BARMM different from ARMM? Bangsamoro is made up of the
words Bangsa and Moro: “Bangsa” means nation, while “Moro” was the derogatory
name once given to Muslims during the Spanish era. Back then, Moros were associated
with barbarians, pirates, enemies. However, by embracing the name “Moro,” it sounds
like our Muslim fellowmen have decided that they refuse to be trapped by the negative
perception we inherited from the Spaniards.

The new Bangsamoro has a parliamentary government, and a justice system that is
based on Shariah or Islamic law. For the first time (in forever), the people have some
degree of self-governance, because this is how the powers of government are divided: 9
powers are reserved for the national government in Luzon, but 57 powers are exclusively
granted to the Bangsamoro, while 14 powers will be held concurrently by both national
and Bangsamoro government.

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HIST 01. MODULE SIX.
Lesson 6.2. Muslim Mindanao in PH History

That is the history of Muslim Mindanao as we in the mainstream know it, but we always
have to go back to the fact that the mainstream narrative is not the only narrative there
is. Cesar Majul wrote that there are actually 3 possible ways to include Muslim Mindanao
in Philippine history: first, we can go with “insignificant but interesting,” meaning we can
treat the narrative as cool, interesting trivia, but with no real impact on Philippine history.
Second, we can treat the Muslim Mindanao narrative as “integral to Philippine history,”
meaning it is both interesting and a major part of Philippine history. Third, we can think
of the Muslim Mindanao narrative as “separate but parallel” to Philippine history. This
third way means that the history of Muslim Mindanao would be treated as something
distinct and different from the history of the Philippines, but moving in the same
direction.

What do you think? How should we incorporate the story of our Muslim fellowmen into
mainstream Philippine history? Should we even incorporate it at all? We also have to
consider how to talk about recent events that took place in their region, and whether to
include these events in the story at all: for example, we have the Maguindanao massacre
that took place in 2009, the SAF 44 / Mamasapano encounter in 2015, and the siege of
Marawi in 2017. You see, if we don’t think about these things, if we don’t think about
how we think of these things, we’re doing exactly what Majul warned us against. We’re
limiting whose stories are told and we’re learning a stagnant history.

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