Moro people

Etymology

The recently coined term Bangsamoro, derived from the old Malay word "bangsa", meaning "race" or "nation" with the "Moro" as "people", is now used to describe both the Filipino Muslims and their homeland. The term Bangsamoro carries the aspiration of the Filipino Muslims to have an Islamic (Moro) country or state (bangsa).

The word Moro itself was a pseudonym which had been used before in the 16th century by Spanish colonisers in reference to a Muslim group of "Moors", which originating from "Mauru", a Latin word that referred to the inhabitants of the ancient Roman province of Mauritania in northwest Africa, which today comprises the modern Muslim states of Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco. With the rise of Mauritania as part of the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate, Muslim armies conquered and ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1492, for about a total of 781 years in which the term was revived when the Christian-majority Spanish became involved in a war with them and started to call the Muslims as "Moors".

The term was then used again by the Spanish when they arriving in the Philippine archipelago and found a similar Muslim community who rebelled against them. Despite opposition from the modern Muslim community in the Philippines who objected to the term's origin by Spanish colonialist, the name has evolved to become seen as a unitary force especially by the Philippine government. Marvic Leonen, who was the Chief Peace Negotiator for Philippine government with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, has said:

There is Bangsamoro, the place; there is Bangsamoro, the identity.

Since the 19th century, by the Treaty of Paris on which Spain without authority turned over to America the lands the Moros successfully defended for 333 years, many of the Moros preferred to be separated from the American successor mainstream Philippine society. The established historical, social and political factors of the Moro communities made them a separate country unethically annexed to the emerging Philippine Republic.

It was later adopted as a name for separatist organisations such as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Rashid Lucman's Bangsa Moro Liberation Organisation (BMLO) as well the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro recognises "Bangsamoro" as an identity and calls for the creation of a new autonomous political entity called Bangsamoro. The native Moro Communities of Mindanao and Sulu are termed considered as Filipino Muslim by the Philippine government.

Ethnic divisions

Thirteen Philippine ethnic groups also referred to as indigenous peoples are as follows:

Region

The majority of the Moro people historically reside in the area they now call the Bangsamoro region which was commonly called Muslim Mindanao. That land is located in the provinces of Basilan, Cotabato, Compostela Valley, Davao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Palawan, Sarangani, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sulu, Tawi-Tawi. It includes the cities of Cotabato, Dapitan, Dipolog, General Santos, Iligan, Marawi. The eastern part of a territory of the former British protectorate in North Borneo (now in the eastern Sabah) which have since became part of the federation of Malaysia also claimed by the Moro National Liberation Front for the proposed state of Bangsamoro Republik, but the idea has since failed with the MNLF founding leader Misuari self-exile himself after an encounter with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), as he protested the further unilateral changes by the government on the mutually signed 1996 Final Peace Agreement, so after he was labelled as a "terrorist" during the siege.

On 5 August 2008, after neatly 10 years of negotiation, with the International bodies all ready to witness a supposed historic event, an attempt by the Philippine government's Peace Negotiating Panel to sign a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front through a petition by Settler politicians in Mindanao like Governor Manny Pinol and Governor Lobregat, was then declared unconstitutional by the Philippine Supreme Court. Conflict immediately broke out on the ground following the decision, with nearly half a million people displaced and hundreds killed. Observers now concur that two Moro commanders — Kumander Umbra Kato and Kumander Bravo — did launch attacks in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato as a response to the non signing that has shaken the peace process in the region.

The Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro defines the Bangsamoro to be "[t]hose who at the time of conquest and colonisation were considered natives or original inhabitants of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago and its adjacent islands including Palawan, and their descendants whether of mixed or of full blood". This definition of the moro people by the bangsamoro is purely owned by the bangsamoro and not fully accepted by the people of Mindanao or the Philippines. Moro by definition still means Muslim who are still the minority population of Mindanao.

Culture

Moro culture is very Malay-influenced. The Bangsamoro share similarities with the Malay people of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and southern Thailand, while being distinct from them. The Bangsamoro cultures represent the only living examples of the larger historic lowland cultures of groups who were once also Moro in the coastal and central Luzon before the Spanish colonization forced converted them to Catholicism, such as the precolonial Tagalogs, Kapampangan or Visayan.

Islam is the most dominant influence on the Moro cultures since the era of the Sultanate of Maguindanao and Sulu. Large and small mosques can be found all over the region. In accordance with Islamic Law, alcohol and fornication are prohibited. Pork and pork byproducts are not permissible. Another practice is fasting during Ramadan and providing charity for the poor. The Hajj is also a major requirement as it is one of the five pillars of Islam. Moro women cover themselves using a veil (tudong) just as in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and southern Thailand. Moro men, especially the elderly, can always be seen wearing a black Muslim skull cap called the songkok or the white one called the taqiyah. Differentiating from their Malay relatives in neighbouring countries, the only main problems associated with Moro groups is that they are not always united and lack a sense of solidarity. Each Moro community are proud of their prowess and wealth as well as with their ethnic tradition, culture and identity.

Music

The culture of the Moro revolves around the music of the kulintang, a type of gong instrument, akin to the drum instrument, yet wholly made of bronze or brass found in the southern Philippines. This creats a unique sound that varies in the speed it is hit which includes the Binalig, Tagonggo and the Kapanirong plus others more also normally heard in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Ethnic groups

There are at least thirteen ethnic groups comprising the Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines; all descended from the same Austronesian people (Malayo-Polynesian) that migrated from Taiwan and populated the regions of the Philippines, Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands and Madagascar. Three of these groups make up the majority of these tribes. They are the Maguindanaon of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao provinces, the Maranao of the Lanao provinces and the Tausūg of the Sulu Archipelago. Smaller groups include the Banguingui, Samal and the Bajau of the Sulu Archipelago; the Yakan of Basilan and Zamboanga del Sur, the Illanun of Lanao provinces and Davao and Sangir of Davao, the Molbog of southern Palawan and the Jama Mapuns of Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi Island. These indigenous people from the south mostly converted to the religion of Islam making them Muslims or Moros, some of them converted over to Christianity and other religions.

Languages

The Indigenous people are mostly speakers of a variety of Austronesian languages. The most-spoken native languages of the Indigenous peoples of Mindanao are Maguindanaon, Tausūg and Maranao. The Maguindanao language is spoken in the Maguindanao Province, the Maranao language is predominant in the Lanao region, and is the majority spoken in Lanao del Sur and the Tausug language is spoken in the Sulu Archipelago with speakers in the Zamboanga Peninsula and the Malaysian state of Sabah. Other Austronesian languages spoken by their respective tribes are the Sama-Bajau languages(although the banguingui,the samal and badjao share the same language,there ends the similarity,they are different in all aspect specially when it comes to religion).Yakan and Kalagan. Also spoken among the indigenous peoples of Mindanao and Sulu is Tagalog, for the sake of living in the Philippines and being a national language of the Philippines. There also exists a native Tagalog Muslim community in the Quiapo District of Metro Manila. Because of the mass influx of Cebuano migrants to Mindanao, many of the indigenous of Mindanao tend to be exposed to the Cebuano language from Visayan easily enough to be able to speak it, especially with the Tausūg since the language belongs to the Visayan family.

A sizeable minority speaks Malay, also an Austronesian language which was once the lingua franca of maritime Southeast Asia prior to contact with the European colonial powers. Today, many Moro merchants use Malay to converse with citizens of the neighbouring Malay-speaking nations of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Most of the Malay-speaking Muslims of the Philippines are those in the southern parts of the Zamboanga Peninsula, the Sulu Archipelago and the southern predominantly Muslim-inhabited municipalities of Bataraza and Balabac in Palawan. They likely speak a form of Malay creole. Many of the Tausūg in Malaysia and Indonesia (known there as Suluks) tend to lose their proficiency in both Tausūg and Chavacano, as well on Tagalog, as they became assimilated into the Malay-speaking majority of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Chavacano (sometimes spelled as Chabacano or Chabakano) is a Philippine Spanish creole, that gained popularity as a Philippine major language during the short-lived Republic of Zamboanga. Most of the indigenous people have also attained the ability to speak this language, specifically the Zamboanga dialect known as Zamboangueño especially those that live in Zamboanga and Basilan. Chavacano is popular with both Muslims and Christians (mostly Roman Catholics) in Mindanao and Sulu. A minority of the indigenous people in Sulu and Tawi-tawi speak Chavacano as these areas were partially ruled by the Spanish. Tausūgs have fluency of speaking it, as Chavacano contains Visayan words. Chavacano also contains communities of speakers in Semporna, Sabah.

Arabic is also spoken by a minority of the Moro people, being the liturgical language of Islam. Most Muslim indigenous people however, do not know Arabic beyond its religious uses. Most of the languages of the indigenous people are written in the Latin script. However, an Arabic script known as Jawi is used to write Tausūg language. Attempts are being made to make Jawi an official script in the future Bangsamoro entity.

Education

Generally, the indigenous people populace are educated. Some of the indigenous people who are Muslims choose Islamic Education and enrolled in Islamic/Arabic Institutions like Jamiatul Mindanao Al-Islamie located in Marawi City and even outside the country like in Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt and Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia through scholarship grants while majority completed English/Western Education. They owe it to Mindanao State University, the second biggest state university in the Philippines next to University of the Philippines, which has several campuses across Mindanao and its Main Campus is located at the heart of Islamic City of Marawi. Mindanao State University has also an Islamic Institute within its campus which is the King Faisal Centre for Islamic Arabic, Asian Studies. Some indigenous people students are enrolled at other institutions both private and government especially in key cities such as Davao, Cebu and Manila.

Early history

In the 13th century, the arrival of Muslim missionaries from Persian Gulf, including one, Makhdum Karim, in Tawi-Tawi initiated the conversion of the native population into Islam. Trade between other sultanates in Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia helped establish the Islamic region in the southern Philippines. In 1457, the introduction of Islam led to the creation of Sultanates. This included the sultanates of Buayan, Maguindanao and the Sultanate of Sulu, which is considered the oldest Muslim government in the region until its annexation by the United States in 1898.

Like Brunei, Sulu and other Muslim sultanates in the Philippines were introduced to Islam by either Chinese Muslims, Persians, and Arabs traders. Chinese Muslim merchants participated in the local commerce, and the Sultanate had diplomatic relations with Ming Dynasty China, being involved in the tribute system, the Sulu leader Paduka Batara and his sons moved to China, where he died and Chinese Muslims brought up his sons. The inhabitants of pre-Hispanic Philippines practised Islam and Animism. The Malay kingdoms interacted, and traded with various tribes throughout the islands, governing several territories ruled by leaders called Rajah, Datu and Sultan. Before the arrival of Islam the Rajahs and Datus governed the territories.

Spanish conquest

The Spaniards arrived in 1521 and the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire in 1565. The Sultanates, however, actively resisted the Spaniards, thus maintaining their independence, enabling them to develop an Islamic culture and identity, different from the rest of the Catholic converted natives which the Spaniards called "Indios" (Indians). With intentions of colonising the islands, the Spaniards made incursions into Moro territory. They also began erecting military stations and garrisons with Catholic missions, which attracted Christianised natives of civilian settlements. The most notable of these are Zamboanga and Cotabato. Spain was under Inquisition which ordered Jews and Muslims to convert to Roman Catholicism or leave or face death penalty, thus Spaniards try to ban and suppress Islam in areas they conquer. Feeling threatened by these actions, the Moros decided to challenge the Spanish government. They began conducting raids on Catholic coastal towns. These Moro raids reached a fevered pitched during the reign of Datu Bantilan in 1754.

The Spanish–Moro Conflict started at the phase of Castille War (Spanish-Bruneian War) of 1578, which created the war between Spaniards and Moros in areas held by Sultanate of Brunei lasted several hundred years, while Castille War lasted two months. The string of coastal fortifications, military garrisons and forts built by the Spaniards ensured that these raids, although destructive to the Philippine economies of the coastal settlements, were eventually stifled. The advent of steam-powered naval ships finally drove the antiquated Moro navy of colourful proas and vintas to their bases. It took at least two decades of the presence of the Spanish in the Philippines for them to launch an extensive conquest of Mindanao. The Sultanate of Sulu, one of the Sultanate existing, itself soon fell under a concerted naval and ground attack from Spanish forces. In the last quarter of the 19th century Moros in the Sultanate of Sulu allowed Spanish to build Forts, but these areas remained loosely controlled by the Spanish as their sovereignty was limited to military stations and garrisons and pockets of civilian resettlements in Zamboanga and Cotabato (the latter is under Sultanate of Maguindanao), until they had to abandon the region as a consequence of their defeat in the Spanish–American War. Before that Sultanate of Sulu totally gave up its rule over Palawan to Spain in 1705 and Basilan to Spain in 1762, the areas that Sulu Sultanate gave partial rule to Spain are Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

In 1876, the Spaniards launched a campaign to colonise Jolo and made a final bid to establish a government in the southern islands. On 21 February of that year, the Spaniards assembled the largest contingent in Jolo, consisting of 9,000 soldiers in 11 transports, 11 gunboats and 11 steamboats. José Malcampo occupied Jolo and established a Spanish settlement with Pascual Cervera appointed to set up a garrison and serve as military governor. He served from March 1876 to December 1876 and was followed by José Paulin (December 1876-April 1877), Carlos Martínez (September 1877-February 1880), Rafael de Rivera (1880–1881), Isidro G. Soto (1881–1882), Eduardo Bremon, (1882), Julian Parrrado (1882–1884), Francisco Castilla (1884–1886), Juan Arolas (1886-18930, Caésar Mattos (1893), Venancio Hernández (1893–1896) and Luis Huerta (1896–1899).

The Chinese sold small arms like Enfield and Spencer Rifles to the Buayan Sultanate of Datu Uto. They were used to battle the Spanish invasion of the Sultanate of Buayan. The Datu paid for the weapons in slaves.

The population of Chinese in Mindanao in the 1880s was 1,000. The Chinese ran guns across a Spanish blockade to sell to Mindanao Moros. The purchases of these weapons were paid for by the Moros in slaves in addition to other goods. The main group of people selling guns were the Chinese in Sulu. The Chinese took control of the economy and used steamers to ship goods for exporting and importing. Opium, ivory, textiles, and crockery were among the other goods which the Chinese sold. The Chinese on Maimbung sent the weapons to the Sulu Sultanate, who used them to battle the Spanish and resist their attacks. A Chinese-Mestizo was one of the Sultan's brother in laws, the Sultan was married to his sister. He and the Sultan both owned shares in the ship (named the Far East) which helped smuggled the weapons.

The Spanish launched a surprise offensive under Colonel Juan Arolas in April 1887 by attacking the Sultanate's capital at Maimbung in an effort to crush resistance. Weapons were captured and the property of the Chinese were destroyed while the Chinese were deported to Jolo. By 1878, they had fortified Jolo with a perimeter wall and tower gates, built inner forts called Puerta Blockaus, Puerta España and Puerta Alfonso XII, and two outer fortifications named Princesa de Asturias and Torre de la Reina. Troops including a cavalry with its own lieutenant commander were garrisoned within the protective confine of the walls. In 1880, Rafael Gonzales de Rivera, who was appointed the governor, dispatched the 6th Regiment to govern Siasi and Bongao islands.

American colonisation

The United States claimed the territories of the Philippines, including long sovereign Sultanate Mindanao and Sulu, after the Spanish–American War. Since the loss of Spain to the United States, all the colony of Spain within the Philippine archipelago was ceded to the American in the Treaty of Paris which signalled the end of wars between the two. The Moros, who had successfully resisted Spanish colonisation, rejected the handover of their lands to the Americans and continued their struggle. This is the so called Bangsamoro Question which has claimed over a million lives and trillions worth of properties and material. The Moro communities sovereign based conflict that affects the Archipelago even today.

Japanese occupation

The Moros fought against the Japanese occupation of Mindanao and Sulu during World War II and eventually drove them out. Also when the Japanese occupied the northern Borneo area, they also helped their relatives there in a struggle to fight off the Japanese where many of them, including women and children, were massacred after their revolt with the Chinese been foiled by the Japanese.

In the modern day Philippines

Philippine government policies

After gaining independence from the United States, the Moro population, which was isolated from the mainstream and experienced discrimination by the Philippine government, added to the fact that they were now governed by what they view as the former foot soldiers of Spain, their ancestral lands given away to settlers and corporations by land-tenure Laws, arming the settlers as militia in Mindanao, Filipinisation was a government policy which eventually gave rise to armed secession movements. Thus, the struggle for independence has been in existence for several centuries, starting from the Spanish period, the Moro rebellion during the United States occupation and up to the present day. Modern day Moro conflict began in the 1960s. During the period, the Philippine government envisioned a new country in which Christian and Moro would be assimilated into the dominant culture. This vision, however, was generally rejected by both groups, the Christian looking still hearing stories from Spanish foot soldiers of how fierce the Moro was, and the Moro remembering the Christian as aiding its hated Spanish enemy for 300 years. The two just outlooks do not easily mix. Because of this, the National government realised that there was a need for a specialised agency to deal with the Moro community, so it set up the Commission for National Integration (CNI) in the 1960s, which was later replaced by the Office of Muslim Affairs, and Cultural Communities (OMACC) and later on as OMA.

As they thought, concessions were made to the Moro after the creation of these agencies, with the Moro population receiving exemptions from national laws prohibiting polygamy and divorce which the Moro has already been exercising. In 1977, the Philippine government another palliative attempt is to move a step further by harmonising Moro customary law with the national law which has no bearing at all for the Moro. Naturally, most of these achievements were seen as superficial. The Moro, still dissatisfied with the past Philippine governments' policies and misunderstanding established a first separatist group known as the MNLF led by Nur Misuari with the intention of creating an independent country. This initiated the modern Moro conflict in the Philippines, which is still going on up to the present, and has since created fractures between Muslims, Christians, and people of other religions. The MNLF is the only recognised representative organisation for the Muslims of the Philippines by the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC). By the 1970s, a paramilitary organisation created by settler mayors in collusion with the Philippine Constabulary, mainly of armed Hiligaynon-speaking Christian residents of mainland Mindanao, called the Ilagas began operating in Cotabato originating from settler communities. In response, Moro volunteers with minimal weapons also group themselves with much old traditional weapons like the kris, spears and barong, such as the Blackshirts of Cotabato and the Barracudas of Lanao, began to appear and engage the Ilagas. The Armed Forces of the Philippines were also deployed; however, their presence only seemed to create more violence and reports that the Army and the settler militia are helping each other. A Zamboangan version of the Ilagas, the Mundo Oscuro (Spanish for Dark World), was also organised in Zamboanga and Basilan.

In 1981, internal divisions within the MNLF caused the establishment of an Islamic paramilitary breakaway organisation called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The group continued the conflict when the MNLF signed a Peace Deal with the Philippine Government in 1994. It has now become the biggest and most organised Moro armed group in Mindanao and Sulu. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is now on the final stages of the required annexe for the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro that has a set time-frame for full implementation in 2016.

Autonomy

Although initialled in a 1976 ceasefire, come 1987 as a fall out of the EDSA revolution, peace talks with the MNLF picked up pace with the intention of establishing an autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao. On 1 August 1989, through Republic Act No. 6734, known as the Organic Act, a 1989 plebiscite was held in 18 provinces in Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago and Palawan without considering the effects of continuous migration by settlers from Luzón and the Visayas. This was said to determine if the residents would still want to be part of an Autonomous Region. Out of all the Provinces and cities participating in the plebiscite, only four provinces opted to join, namely: Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. Even its regional capital, Cotabato City, rejected joining the autonomous region as the settlers has now greatly outnumbered the Moro and Lumad. When before they are a majority, they have now become a minority. This still led to the creation of the ARMM, however. A second plebiscite, held a year more in 2001, managed to include Basilan (except its capital, Isabela City) and Marawi City in the autonomous region. Of the original 13 provinces agreed on the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the MNLF, only 5 has now been included in the present day ARMM due to the continuous settler program of the Republic of the Philippines that started in the earnest of 1901.

The ARMM is headed by a regional governor as the outcome of the Final Peace Agreement between the MNLF and the Philippine government in 1996 under President Fidel Ramos. The regional governor, with the regional-vice governor, act as the executive branch and are served by a Regional Cabinet, composed of regional secretaries, mirroring national government agencies of the Philippines. The ARMM has a unicameral Regional Assembly headed by a speaker. This acts as the legislative branch for the region and is responsible for regional ordinances. It is composed of three members for every congressional district. The current membership is twenty-four. Some of the Regional Assembly's acts have since been nullified by the Supreme Court on grounds that they are "unconstitutional". An example is the nullification of the creation of the Province of Shariff Kabungsuwan by the Regional Legislative Assembly (RLA) as this will create an extra seat in the Philippines Congress' House of Representatives, a power reserved solely for the Philippine Congress — Senate and House jointly — to decide on. Some would say, that this proves in itself the fallacy of its Autonomy granted by the Central Government during the Peace Process.

Current situation

The Moros had a history of resistance against Spanish, American, and Japanese rule for over 400 years. The armed struggle against the Spanish, Americans, Japanese and Filipinos is considered by present Moro leaders as part of the four centuries long "sovereign based conflict" of the Bangsamoro (Moro Nation). The 400-year-long resistance against the Japanese, Americans, and Spanish by the Moro persisted and morphed into their current war for independence against the Philippine state. Some Moros have formed their own separatist organisations such as the MNLF, MILF and become a members of more extreme groups such as the Abu Sayyaf (ASG) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the latest formed is Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter ( BIFF). Now, even the armed Communist Party has gained its foothold in Mindanao with large Lumad adherents.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front boycotted the original referendum formed by the Organic Act referendum and continued their armed struggle until present. However, it remains a partner to the peace process, with the Philippines unwilling to brand MILF as a "terrorist" group. Today, the Moro people had become marginalises and a minority in Mindanao, they are also disadvantaged than majority Christians in terms of employment and housing; they are also discriminated. Due to this, it has established escalating tensions that have contributed to the ongoing conflict between the Philippine government and the Moro people. In addition, there has been a large exodus of Moro peoples comprising the Tausūg, Samal, Bajau, Illanun and Maguindanao to Malaysia (Sabah) and Indonesia (North Kalimantan) since the 1970s, due to the illegal annexation of their land by the Catholic majority, and armed Settler militias such as the Ilaga which has destroyed the trust between Mindanao Settlers and Moro communities. Further, Land Tenure Laws has changed the population statistics of the Bangsamoro to a significant degree, and has caused the gradual displacement of the Moros from their traditional lands.

2014 Draft Bangsamoro Basic Law

The office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process has posted a set of frequently asked questions about the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the draft of which President Benigno Aquino III submitted to Congress leaders. The Bangsamoro Basic Law abolishes the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and establishes the new Bangsamoro political identity in its place. The law is based on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro signed by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in March 2014. It is still to be Implemented by the Government by Congressional mandate.

In Malaysia

Due to their conflict in the southern Philippines, many Moros have emigrated to the Malaysian state of Sabah since the 1970s in search of better lives because of the close proximity between Sulu islands and the state of Sabah. Most of them are illegal immigrants and lived in squalor, thus the Sabah state government are working to relocate them into a proper settlement to ease management.