My Take on the Situation in Mindanao

I would like to give my point of view on the situation in Mindanao. I cannot claim that my opinion is of much value because I have not thoroughly researched this issue or spent time in the area. For those that are unaware there has been an almost continuous civil war between the Muslim area of Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines. The organizations that represent and fight for the people in the area are known as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the infamous Abu Sayyaf. My knowledge of all these organizations is limited but I have an idea about them.

The people of that region have been fighting for autonomy ever since they were included in the Republic of the Philippines under the American occupation. During the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines the Spanish government never had significant control of Mindanao and the Sultanates that existed before the arrival of the Spanish continued to exist separate from the rest of the Philippines. They were culturally connected with other Muslims states originating from what is today Indonesia and Malaysia. After the Philippine Revolution and the Spanish were kicked out the United States government sought to impose itself as a the new “benevolent” colonizer of the Philippines. The Philippine-American war is one that is not well known by Americans today but it really is one of the tragedies of world history. The American military ventured into Mindanao to bring it also under the auspices of the Republic of the Philippines. There were numerous war crimes committed by American troops and after years of fighting they forced the communities of Mindanao into submission. This was the first time that the land area of what we know as the Philippines today was united. I am not sure of the extent of American control over that area but I am going to imagine that it was patchy at best. The focus was and has been on Manila which has been the seat of power since the beginning.

The next stage in the development was following the Second World War and the liberation of the Philippines. At that time, all the Filipinos shared a common enemy and thus were united but this quickly changed following the end of the war. The Moros have been fighting for the autonomy since the beginning of American colonialism. After the WW2 the the fighting started to pick up more and more. Following the war there was increased migration of Christian Filipinos to Mindanao and once homogenous Muslim population was becoming more diverse. As the fighting increased in the 60's and 70's order was hard to maintain and there numerous armed gangs taking advantage of the lack of authority. This caused a schism between the Christian and Muslim populations and increased social tension. The people of Moro resistance coalesced into the MNLF in the early 1970s and they used guerrilla tactics that were so successful that they finally held proper negotiations with the Filipino government. The first significant peace treaty known as the Tripoli Agreement was done under the Marcos government and this agreement drew some lines based on religious make-up of the population and they set up the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. They agreement was brokered by the recently popular ruler of Libya, Gaddafi. Interestingly the wife of Marcos, Imelda, was a friend of Colonel Gaddafi to the point that after this agreement Imelda had the Golden Mosque built in the Muslim area of Manila to honor the visit of Gaddafi to the Philippines. Except that he never came. Anyway, this agreement was short-lived and the government of this new autonomous region accused the Philippine government of only granted autonomy in name and not in practice. The fighting increased as there was simultaneously a growing communist insurgency in northern Philippines and Marcos used this as an excuse to call martial law and center the power to himself. There is a lot of controversy over this decision and I have heard varied opinions on the situation but in my opinion Marcos exploited this crisis to empower and enrich himself. Of course, martial law did nothing to assuage the grievances of the Moros living in Mindanao and the failure of the MNLF to broker a real concession from the national government caused the more radical MILF to splinter from the MNLF. The MILF represented a more radical uncompromising part of the movement. Before I go on anymore with this general history I would like to insert my analysis.

Some would look at this conflict as one grounded in religion. Perhaps an American or European would naturally assume that the Muslims of Mindanao could not possible co-exist with the majority Catholic Filipino population. They might imagine that what if the same thing occurred in the UK or the US. They would not tolerate that of course and would perhaps sympathize with the heavy handed government's approach to crush the rebellion militarily. Only neoconservatives should believe that kind of crap. In reality the problem is not the religious difference, it is a contributing factor, but the underlying causes lie in economic disparities and political mismanagement of the situation. The northern islands and especially Manila depend on Mindanao for the amount of fruits, rice, and other foodstuffs that it produces. Mindanao really is the bread-basket of the Philippines and with the expansion and development of the Philippine economy investors began to set their sights on Mindanao. The problem for the native people of Mindanao is that although they have been living in that land for centuries, they have no land deeds. It was not a priority for the Republic of the Philippines government to legitimize these people's claims to the land, in reality it was more of the opposite. Land grabbing in Mindanao was and still is common practice. It isn't only Filipino big business that is buying up large scores of land while simultaneously forcibly relocating the locals but foreign corporations as well; all with complacent nod by the Philippine government. It is very easy to demonize corporations and I think people can be too fast to blame everything wrong with the world on greedy multinationals. Business opportunities will attract investors regardless of the ethics involved and that's why you need some government protection. In the case of Mindanao I don't believe the government of the Philippines protected the rights of the people living there and they were systematically marginalized. They were treated as second-class citizens and their livelihood was a secondary concern at best. Allowing northern Filipinos with government connections to appropriate their lands, understandably, provoked resentment among the people. The Philippine treated other tribal people in northern Luzon in a similar way and so is it any wonder that the New People's Army (NPA), communist insurgency, appealed to a large number of them. I am not condoning terrorist activity against the state but I am just saying that there are going to inevitable consequences to political and economic repercussions.

This reminds of a Republican primary debate between Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani in which Ron Paul commented that American foreign intervention was a partial cause to 9/11. Giuliani was disgusted that Ron Paul could somehow imply that 9/11 was America's fault. I think the causes of 9/11 are complicated but I give Ron Paul credit to pointing out something that is politically dangerous but blatantly obvious: people around the world, particularly Muslims with there strong sense of identity, resent it when foreign militaries and spies intervene their countries. The term they use is blowback and I think it holds a lot of water.

In the context of Mindanao, when you combine a strong sense of an independent Muslim identity with political disenfranchisement, obscene and disproportional poverty compared to the rest of the Philippines, and heavy handed military presence, I see a pretty potent mix to inspire an insurgency. With the apparent failure of the MNLF deal and the increasingly radicalized and more militant MILF the situation became even more unstable. I do not know the inner workings of the MNLF and MILF leadership but from the outside it looks chaotic and those that suffer the most are the innocent people stuck in the middle. By the 1990's the MNLF and MILF seemed to finally make a deal to cooperate but that still seems tenuous at best and an even more ugly organization has appeared more recently: Abu Sayyaf. They apparently have connections to Al Qaeda but whether they do or they don't, their message is the same. These guys are honestly just a bunch of thugs. They kidnap and behead foreigners and Christian Filipinos alike. They represent the absolute worst side of this struggle. I believe they are exploiting the deteriorated security situation in Mindanao to profit from kidnapping foreigners and recruit more impoverished Muslims. What most Americans are probably not aware of is that since 2001 under the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and USA there are a few thousand US Special Forces fighting Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao.

The government ARMM seems to be a basket case and they don't seem to hold real authority or stymie the economic exploitation of the big business on the agricultural sector of Mindanao. The Philippine government is probably a bit reluctant to invest in big development projects in the volatile area and has instead chosen to boost its military budget and presence to solve the issue. The irresponsibility and stupidity of those in the upper echelon of the Philippine government is astounding. The two top priorities of the Republic of the Philippines lies in #1: government worker's salaries and #2: paying the interest on their massive foreign debt. I am pretty sure that the military follows that and that education and the scant resources paid for social services falls much lower on the list. As they increase the budget of the military, it only makes sense to increase the tuition of the biggest public run university in the country, University of the Philippines, by 300% making it largely unaffordable. UP is known for attracting the best students in the country from whatever economic background but probably won't be able to anymore. The bloated salaries of the bureaucrats in the government are ridiculous and the fact that university students should take the brunt of the budget offsetting is absurd.

So how does this connect to the people of Mindanao and what solutions could there be to this issue? First of all, allowing the American military to operate and do the Filipino military's dirty work is not acceptable. To be honest, I don't see any military solution that makes any sense. As long as there is such a large amount of poverty and a lack of educational infrastructure you cannot be surprised that some people will be attracted to radicalism. The arbitrary and sloppy carving of the ARMM doesn't make a lot of sense either. You cannot give the ARMM the right to practice Sharia law while at the same time bolstering the foreign control of their agricultural industry and expect that they will be satisfied. First and foremost, the government must fully convince the Muslim population of Mindanao that will be respected as Filipinos. They won't do this through rhetoric but actions on the ground. What is bolder? Sending battalions of young men to Mindanao to fight scattered guerrilla groups or sending construction teams to set up schools and other infrastructure for the locals. I believe that is the answer for winning them over. You cannot crush a rebellion like that with mere brute force. You might ask why should the Filipinos give any concessions to the Moros in Mindanao? The MNLF, MILF, and Abu Sayyaf are responsible for numerous terrorist attacks. Well if they don't want anything to do with the Muslim people then fine withdraw and leave the area but they must take respect the sovereignty of the ARMM and let that government have control of issuing land deeds. That government must have the authority to right the wrongs of land grabbing that has plagued that region. The status quo where the Moros have vague political freedom without any economic freedom is unacceptable. If the Philippine government wants to maintain their access to the fertile agriculture of the region they should accept the concessions that are in tune with basic human rights. Muslim Filipinos and Islam should be respected in the Philippines because they are integral part of this nation.