Moslems vs. Christians in the Philippines
STANLEY, PETER W.
ANOTHER SHAKY CEASE-FIRE Moslems vs. Christians in The Philippines BY PETER w. STANLEY Halfway around the world from Lebanon, Moslems and Christians are maintaining a shaky cease-fire in...
...Then, in a bold move that could be seen either as rank cynicism or an inspired way of showing its good will, the regime offered high government positions in Mindanao to several key leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front...
...They are divided on many issues but united in the fight for independence and against genocide...
...As was true of its New World counterpart, there is a kernel of historical truth to this image...
...When Marcos imposed martial law in September 1972, suspending Congress and ordering the surrender of privately-owned firearms, the Moros faced the prospect of becoming dependent on the central government for defense...
...Once the battle has begun, they counterattack with concentrated forces and heavy air and sea bombardment...
...But, their longstanding suspicion of the central government remains, and it is too soon to know whether the revolt will indeed be brought to a permanent and peaceful conclusion...
...The Moslem combatants, numbering no more than 10,000-20,000 at any time, have conducted an extremely effective guerrilla war...
...They rebelled...
...War expenditures have strained his budget, contributing to a staggering inflation that punishes and angers the poor and middle class...
...Listless, homesick soldiers have often performed poorly, alienating local people with wanton violence and occasional atrocities...
...Several times before the government has declared a general amnesty, produced some converted former rebels, and pledged to respect Moslem culture, only to see the fighting break out again...
...Of little international concern compared to events in the Levant, the costly and brutal three-year-old conflict has nevertheless posed a severe challenge to the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos...
...A considerable number of Christian Filipinos from the Visayan islands started to occupy the public lands there, attracted by soil and climate suitable for profitable cash crops like fruits, rubber, coffee, and hemp...
...Fiercely proud of their group identity, they have fought for centuries against both foreign imperialists and Christian Filipino nationalists to avoid absorption...
...But by the '50s, Moro control of Mindanao was already being threatened...
...The Moros refused to sign the agreement...
...Besides creating a de facto sanctuary, this led to the election of Moro local officials as well as a bloc of representatives to the national Congress in Manila...
...Armed with modern weapons smuggled in through the Malaysian territory of Sabah, they have moved freely in their own districts...
...And indirectly at least the United States is involved...
...In addition Philippine industry, dependent on Middle Eastern oil, has been endangered...
...He was fearful that a more liberal proposal would encourage his opponents and weaken the loyalty of the Army and other conservative groups...
...Again, seeming to follow the pattern of our own early frontiersmen, the new settlers pushed back the original occupants of Mindanao by indulging in a great deal of deceit, land-stealing, corruption, and random murder...
...In Manila prior to the ban on private arms, one could still observe lonely, Peter W STANLEY a new NL contributor, leaches history at Harvard...
...They are still in the jungles and hills of Mindanao—watching and waiting...
...In August a cease-fire was arranged through these officials, who promptly flew to Manila...
...This was a far cry from what the Moros wanted, and as long as the Philippines remains a one-man dictatorship not even the influence of the largest Arab oil producer could guarantee Moslems real security...
...The rebellious forces appear to be an alliance of many small, regional groups—the largest being the Moro National Liberation Front...
...In Cotabato, Zam-boanga and Sulu, the civilian economy has ground to a standstill...
...Moreover, some guerrilla groups did not agree to the August ceasefire...
...The strategy is extremely destructive...
...By January 1975 it had become inescapably clear that Marcos needed to end the rebellion quickly...
...In February 1974, Jolo, a city of 40,000 in the Sulu archipelago, was nearly leveled as Manila's troops pounded the rebels...
...At a meeting that month in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, his representative offered leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front a package including limited home rule, preservation and encouragement of their culture, economic aid for development and reconstruction, and what Americans would call an affirmative action program to increase Moslem representation in the Armed Forces and the civilian administration...
...for it is American military aid, extracted in exchange for our use of the Subic Bay and Clark Field bases, that Marcos has been using in this struggle...
...They were anxious, they said, to "test the sincerity" of Marcos, whom they now considered "also a revolutionary...
...To date, the fighting has produced over 7,000 government casualties and more than a million refugees, among them thousands of settlers from the Visayas who have given up and returned north...
...The Moslems fought back, politically in Manila and sometimes violently on the spot...
...The Moros are tough...
...Moslems—or Moros, as they are called in the Philippines—are a minority of roughly 3 million in a basically Christian total population of almost 45 million...
...Arab officials have declared their sympathies for the Moslems and suggested that they may be willing to cut off oil supplies...
...The migration grew rapidly, until today Christians form a majority on the island as a whole and in many places where Moslems dominated a dozen years ago...
...Although conquered by the Americans, then integrated into the independent republic, they have until recently managed to remain separate socially and culturally...
...In the months following the conference, while renewed fighting raged in Cotabato, Marcos sweetened the package by promising additional unspecified "modalities of autonomy...
...Foreign investors, necessary to finance development programs, have been questioning the country's "stability...
...In fact, no more than a handful of Maoists have ever been seen in Mindanao...
...The struggle has also cost Marcos dearly...
...But it was as far as Marcos felt he could go...
...The Philippine Army is small and until recently never committed more than about 20,000 troops to quelling the revolt...
...Asked about the role of NPA advisers, captured Moslem leaders usually blink in bewilderment...
...rather lost-looking Moslems bent under the weight of backpacks filled with possessions and small arsenals of guns and knives...
...The tenacity of the guerrillas and the breadth of their support among the people stems from this elemental conception of a life-and-death struggle...
...As late as the 1960s most Moslems lived in localities on isolated Mindanao and the lesser islands of the Sulu archipelago, where they were the overwhelming majority...
...Christians in The Philippines BY PETER w. STANLEY Halfway around the world from Lebanon, Moslems and Christians are maintaining a shaky cease-fire in another civil war, this one on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines...
...In much the way European pioneers viewed American Indians, the new arrivals tend to look upon the natives as terrifying, bizarre savages standing in the path of civilization...
...The Marcos regime, eager to play down the intensity of Moro feelings, claims the rebels are being supplied and manipulated by Maoist cadres from the Luzon-based New People's Army (NPA...
...Unable to mount offensive search-and-destroy forays, they have waited in defensive positions, permitting the Moros to choose when and where to fight...
...During the '60s ambushes, shoot-outs and organized raids by both sides proliferated, with the Army and the Constabulary generally protecting the immigrants' "rights...
...The arrangement softened the hostility of many Moslems toward the rest of the country...
...The Moros may well be sufficiently tired of attacks by Sabre jets and warships to give Marcos a chance to prove himself...
...Their 19th-century raiding parties terrorized shipping and coastal communities throughout the southern islands...
Vol. 59 • April 1976 • No. 9
