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Aeta
Luzon

Pronounced as “ita,” this tribe is one of the most widespread ethnic group in the Philippines. They are mountain people who are dark skinned, short, small of frame, kinky haired, snub nosed, and have big black eyes.

Various Aeta groups have been differentiated in curious ways. For example, one group in northern Luzon is known as "Pugut" or "Pugot," a name designated by their Ilocano-speaking neighbors, and which is the colloquial term for anyone with dark skin. In Ilocano dialect, the word also means "goblin" or "forest spirit."

An Aeta group may resent a name coined by non-Aeta groups or neighbors, especially when they consider the given names insulting. Because the majority of Filipinos look down on their dark color, some groups resent being called "Aeta."

On the other hand, the term "baluga" is acceptable to some Aeta groups since it means "hybrid," akin to the positive connotation of "mestizo" for lowlanders.

The history of the Aeta continues to confound anthropologists and archaeologists. One theory suggests that the Aeta are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines who arrived through land bridges that linked the country with the Asian mainland about 30,000 years ago. These migrations may have occurred when the Malay peninsula was still connected with Sumatra and other Sunda Islands. At that time, the islands of the Philippines may have been connected and may be the reason behind the Aetas’ wide population distribution.

The Aetas have shown resistance to change. The attempts of the Spaniards to settle them in reservations all throughout Spanish rule failed.

While resisting change from the other society for hundreds of years, the Aetas have adjusted to social, economic, cultural, and political pressures with remarkable resilience; they have created systems and structures within their culture to cushion the sudden impact of change.

Since the latter half of the 20th century, however, the Aetas have been declining in number. Their very existence has been threatened by problems brought about by other people and by nature. Poverty-stricken lowlanders, seeking food, have encroached on forest lands, displacing the Aeta. The flora and fauna needed for Aeta survival are no longer available due to forest depletion. Disasters like the Pinatubo eruption destroyed and buried most of the Aeta ancestral lands.

There are different views on the dominant character of the Aeta religion. Those who believe they are monotheistic argue that various Aeta tribes believe in a supreme being who rule over lesser spirits or deities. The Mamanua believe in the supreme “Magbabaya” while the Pinatubo Aeta worship “Apo Namalyari.”

The Aetas are also animists. For example, the Pinatubo Aeta believe in environmental spirits such as anito and kamana. They believe that good and evil spirits inhabit the environment, such as the spirits of the river, sea, sky, mountain, hill, valley, and other places. The Ati of Negros island call their environmental spirits taglugar or tagapuyo, which literally means "inhabiting a place." They also believe in spirits of disease and comfort.

No special occasion is needed for the Aeta to pray, although there is a clear link between prayer and economic activities. The Aeta dance before and after a pig hunt. The night before Aeta women gather shellfish, they perform a dance which is half an apology to the fish and half a charm to ensure the catch. Similarly, the men hold a bee dance before and after the expeditions for honey.

The Aetas are also skillful in weaving and plaiting. For example, the Mamanuas produce excellent winnowing baskets, rattan hammocks, and other household containers.

Women exclusively weave winnows and mats. Only men make armlets. They also produce raincoats made of palm leaves whose bases surround the neck of the wearer, and whose topmost part spreads like a fan all around the body.

Their traditional clothing is very simple. The young women wear wraparound skirts. Elder women wear bark cloth, while elder men loincloths. The old women of the Agta wear a bark cloth strip which passes between the legs, and is attached to a string around the waist. Today most Aeta who have been in contact with lowlanders have adopted the T-shirts, pants and rubber sandals commonly used by the latter.

A traditional form of visual art is body scarification. The Aetas intentionally wound the skins on their back, arms, breast, legs, hands, calves and abdomen, and then they irritate the wounds with fire, lime and other means to form scars.

Other "decorative disfigurements" include the chipping of the teeth. With the use of a file, the Dumagat – another sub-tribe who belong to the Aeta family - mutilate their teeth during late puberty. The teeth are dyed black a few years afterwards.

The Aetas generally use ornaments typical of people living in subsistence economies. Flowers and leaves are used as earplugs for certain occasions. Girdles, necklaces, and neckbands of braided rattan incorporated with wild pig bristles are frequently worn.

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Agta
Luzon

Agta is the generic term used in Bikol to refer to its 40,000 natives with dark-colored skins, short stature and kinky hair.

Though some Agtas now live in permanent settlements, there are still some in Camarines Norte who are semi-nomadic and who build temporary elevated shelters called “Butukan.” The Butukan is made from tree branches and leaves. An area is believed to be ideal for building a butukan if six tagbac tubers planted there will grow or where decayed organic matter is present or where the desired spot for the Butukan can be reached by reflected light from a river. The light is believed to prevent evil spirits from having access to the shelter and bringing death to its occupants.

The traditional attire of the Agta is the tapis/skirt for females and bahag/breech cloth for males. Their clothing is made from the bark of the Gumihan tree. A number of them now wears casual and modern urban attires, although they still adorn their heads, however, with a multi-purpose container called “Takupis” made from the Kalagimay plant where they keep their lime from burnt seashells, nganga/betel nut and pepper leaves called “ikmo” or “lukmoy.”

To take the place of body ornaments, the natives scar/“asde” their bodies with designs bequeathed to them by their ancestors. Asde is supposed to rid the body of “dirty blood” and protect it from different illnesses. To carry her baby, a breastfeeding native wears the “uban,” a piece of cloth slung from the shoulders.

The Agtas grow root crops, rice and vegetables in their farms. Rice takes time to harvest, so they substitute it with a boiled root crop called “dugma,” which gives them a shorter harvest time.

Hunting is another means of subsistence for the Agtas. They catch running game by spearing them with pointed sticks called “galud” or by means of pit-traps. Birds are caught by using slingshots locally known as “labtik” and traps made from a glue-like sap called “dikit.”

To achieve a successful hunt for animals, the Agtas perform a ritual at the grave of a skilful hunter. The process includes scattering of banana stalks – used as substitute for meat - around the grave as offering. They also erect arched bamboos to symbolize traps for a big game.

Fishing and catching crabs are other means of livelihood for the Agtas. Their instruments include the: “baslay,” a bow and arrow used for fishing; “banwit,” a set of fishing instrument that includes the “boro,” a slender bamboo with a few meters of nylon at one end that has a hook where bait is placed; “sulo,” a small torch used to attract the fishes and crabs during night-time fishing; “agahid,” a net used for catching fishes and crabs; “kawit,” a hooked wire used to dislodge crabs from their hiding places; “sagad,” a rattan basket where the catch is placed; “bobo,” a trap made from split bamboo fastened together with rattan; and “alawa,” a fishnet for shallow waters during low tide. Mollusks are also caught to augment the Agtas' diet. Some of these are the bivalves, finger-like mollusks called “sihi,” and the slender-bodied mollusks called “bagisara.”

Many Agtas have also engaged into other income generating jobs, such as copra making, charcoal making, and gold panning.

In their hierarchy, the father and the elder sons usually hunt. The mothers and daughters are left behind to do the household chores. The mother is always the one who takes care of the children.

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Apayao
Luzon

They are considered as one of the most lighthearted among the indigenous tribes in the Philippines. The Apayaos are a river people. Their tribe’s name was derived from the warm waters of the Apayao River. They live in the Northwestern end of the island of Luzon from Abulog up to the Apayao River. Their mountainous territory is rich in flora and fauna – typical of the rainforests in Asia.

These virile people are said to have come to this region in two waves, a few thousand years ago; the Indonesians by way of Southeastern Asia, and the Mongolians by way of Central Asia. These two waves found a home in the northern end of the Cordillera Central Mountains. Their cultures fused into a new one. Physically, the Indonesian strain dominated, males stand an average height of five feet and four inches, while the average height for females is five feet.

The Apayaos are kind, hospitable and generous. They are highly aesthetic in temperament, self-reliant, and honest. If by some ill fate you drop something, even money, a member of the tribe will return it to you. They believe that if a man steals, his wife will leave him; or, if they acquire money unfairly and buy rice with it, the rice will not give them strength.

They like a practical jokes. In fact, even accidents are taken as a laughing matter and the one who has been injured is the one who laughs the hardest!

The Apayaos are courageous and freedom loving. The Spaniards never conquered them, even the Americans had a difficult time establishing their government.

The Common Law enjoins that man must not steal, tell false stories about others, court the wife of others, nor make trouble at a feast. It further enjoins that man must respect the rights of individuals, give food to visitors, and parents shall teach the children the old legends and customs, as well as correct them that they could grow up properly. The Apayaos have a very complete system of social etiquette.

They have no words meaning "thank you" in their dialect. When one goes on journey, there is no word meaning "goodbye". One just walks away. When he returns, even after a long absence, there are no words of greeting, of welcome. The Apayaos are very modest about their persons. A woman must not allow her legs to spread when squatting to a sitting position, nor allow her tapis to go above her knees. Even when there are no women around, while the men are bathing and swimming together, they keep their private parts covered with one hand while they are out of the water.

They have a very simple government. In each family the man rules supreme and orders his woman what to do. A group of 15 to 30 families is headed by one leader. They build their houses close to each other.

Community spirit in a barangay is strong. They have common interests and often work together in exchange of labor. When one builds a home, all the neighbors come to help.

Each barangay is surrounded by a bamboo picket fence. The bamboos are filled with little stones so that they cannot be easily cut. A peace pact called “budong” is often made with other tribes. Peace pact holders are appointed and held personally responsible to make sure that it is not broken. Each barangay is held accountable for the acts of any of its members.

During the first part of the Japanese occupation, Apayao was a place of refuge for fleeing Americans, and after the fall of Corregidor, Cabugao was made the headquarters of the USAFFE of Northern Luzon. The Japanese were not able to establish themselves in these mountains until March, 1943, but the tribesmen hardly cooperated, so they left on August, 1944. When the Americans returned, almost every Apayao volunteered to help in defeating the Japanese.

The Apayaos depend a lot on the rivers and streams, even if they live on sides of a mountain for safety. Many of their communities are named after the names of the streams nearest to them. The rivers are their source of food and water to drink.

The men are excellent in constructing boats and other wooden crafts.

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Arumamen-Manuvu
Mindanao

The Arumanen-Manuvu had its origin from a village settled place called Banubu near the mouth of Pulangi River.

A god named Apo Tabunawai rules the village. He is acclaimed as the “Timuay” or the convenor of the village elders. According to legends, Timuay Apo Tabunawai was a skillful forest food gatherer such of wild ubi, sago palm, various roots crops nuts and fruits.

Issues are tackled by the Council of Elders are the review and reconstitution of community policies for the coming seasons. To bring omens of good tidings, abundance and societal well-being, marriages of young people are arranged and undertaken on the post-festival evenings.

By foot and with the use of basket types of traps, the hunters bring home large fowls, fish, lizards, pythons and lesser wild games.

The villagers acknowledge that the abundance brought home from a hunt comes from the favor of Elemental Beings whose compassion is anchored upon Apo Tabunawai.

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Badjao
Mindanao

The exact or scientific origin of the Badjaos are uncertain. According to a legend, they came from the shores of Johore, Indonesia, where they had already been living in clusters of houseboats.

There are other theories that claim the Badjaos were originally from the land-based Samal group but branched off into boat dwellers as a result of their occupation. Another theory claims the Badjaos were originally boat dwellers that eventually built stilt houses near fertile fishing grounds.

The Spanish and American colonizers failed to influence the Badjaos because they live in the territory of the Muslim Filipinos, although they are also the least influenced by Islam.

The Badjaos are itinerant travelers.

Their paintings and carvings are integral to their life cycle. In wedding ceremonies, the wedding beautician must be adept at applying the special makeup on the bride and groom. With a razor blade tied with thread to a split bamboo twig, the beautician shapes the bride’s eyebrows into a triangle and carves tiny bangs on her forehead. Lampblack is used to outline a rectangle on her forehead and is emphasized by a yellow ginger juice. Black dots are outlined horizontally above the eyebrows and/or beneath the eyes with the pointed end of a coconut midrib. Another beautician attends to the groom and his face is made up the same way.

The traditional attire of a Badjao is the “patadjong.” It has many uses. They are made large enough to fit any person and is worn by both men and women as a skirt or gown tucked at the chest level. It can serve as head cover, waistband, sash, blanket, hammock, shoulder bag, cradle, pouch, hood, or pillow.

The women’s “sablay” is a loosed sleeved blouse reaching down to the hips. A “simpay” (band) forms the front opening and extends to the back from a small collar. A woman’s typical accessories are jewelry and colored combs. The bracelet is the most popular ornament. Other pieces of jewelry are the pendant, earring, ring, necklace, and anklet.

Metal craft designs can be classified into three kinds: the repousse, relief hammered from the reverse side; arabesque, incision of interlocking curves; and filigree, tracing with thin gild, silver, or brass wires.

The Badjaos have five types of songs: the leleng, binoa, tenes, panulkin, and lugu. Except for the last two, the lyrics are improvised and sung to a traditional tune. The “leleng” is sung in most occasions. Anyone can sing the leleng.

The “binoa” is similarly chanted as the leleng. The “tenes-tenes” is a ballad whose tune changes with the lyrics. It may be sung for any occasion and by anyone. The melody of a known tenes may be used for a different set of lyrics. Most tenes have a subject of courtship and love. The tenes is also a song addressed to the sharks.

A woman sings the “lugu” at a wedding as the “imam” or “panglima” walks with the groom to the bride’s side. The lugu’s lyrics are verses from the Koran; it has a traditional and melancholy tune. The panulkin is sung only by the imam and has traditional tune and lyrics. It is sung during the vigil of the dead, from 7am to 1am. It is a way of keeping awake and of making the community aware that somebody has died.

The Badjao’s dance traditions are similar with the other ethnic groups of Sulu, particularly the tribes in Samal. The basic traditional dance movement is the igal or pangalay performed by the female. The dancer’s hair is preferably pulled back in a bun, although it may also be allowed to hang loose. Either a drum or a gabbang accompanies the dance.

Except for the “kata-kata” or narrative forms and riddles, Badjao literature is meant to be sung. It attributes its oral forms of literature such as animal tales, trickster tales, magical tales, and novelistic tales from the tribes in Samal.

There are two tales about the origin of the tribe. The first story involves the Princess Ayesha of Johore and the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu. She preferred the Brunei sultan, but was engaged to the Sulu sultan instead. Escorted by a fleet of war boats, she was sailing towards Sulu when a Brunei fleet, led by their Sultan, intercepted them and took the princess away. The princess’ entourage, fearing to go on to Sulu or return to Johore, stayed on the sea, mooring only at uninhabited islands. Some turned to piracy and established pirate dens along North Borneo coasts.

The other Badjao tale says that the ancestors of the Samal ha Laud came from a fishing clan in Johore, Indonesia. A group of boats sailed in search of richer fishing grounds. One night, a typhoon came and they had to anchor by a sandbar. As they were about to rest for the night, their boats suddenly started bucking up and down. They realized they had tied their boats to the nose of a giant manta ray, which had begun to swim round and round in a frantic attempt to unloosen the ropes tied to its nose. The fishers managed to untie their boats, but by then, they had been flung in an island that is unfamiliar to them.

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Bago
Luzon

The Bago is a tribe composed of medium built and sturdy individuals. Their group is a product of intermarriage between the Ilocanos of the lowlands and different indigenous cultural communities of the Cordillera Region. They are settled between the mountain ranges of Ilocos and the borders of the Ilocos Provinces, La Union and Pangasinan.

Being of Iloco-Cordillera descent, they practice simple, ordinary methods of agriculture. Tobacco drying barns, harvests of garlic and onion are integrated in their houses. Their farming methods and practices include a system to initiate farm workers at harvest time through a working relationship known as gamal, ammuy, and bunggoy.

Prominent members of Bago indigenous group are former Governor Lupo Biteng of Ilocos Sur and his son Jonathan Biteng who also rose to become the Municipal Mayor of the same town.

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Bagobo
Mindanao

The Bagobo is a tribe that traces its origin from the people who brought Hinduism to Mindanao during the Sri Vijayan and Majapahit invasion. When the people inter-married with the locals, they formed a new society and came up with the name Bagobo.

The word “Bagobo” is derived from the root word “bago,” which means “new” or “recent” while the “obo” suffix means “grow” in the tribe’s dialect.

The Bagobos have a light brown complexion. Their hair is brown or brownish black, ranging from wavy to curly. The men have an average height of five feet and three inches, while the women’s height average is five feet.

Although their faces are wide, their cheekbones are not too prominent. Their eyes are dark and widely set, while the eye slits are slanting. The males and females deliberately shave their eyebrows to a thin line. The root of their nose is low, while the ridge is broad. Their lips are full and their chins are round.

The Manuvu tribe is different, because they live in the upland areas northwest, north, and northeast of Mt. Apo in interior Mindanao.

In a population survey conducted in 1988, their population was around 80,000.

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Balangao
Luzon

The Balangaos main source of food and income is from farming. They make quality bamboo and rattan crafts. They occasionally hunt wild games in forests.

Oral historians of the tribe claim that in 17th century when the Gaddangs of Cagayan revolted and lost against the Spanish colonizers, the Gaddangs fled to the mountains and established their settlements there.

The tribes intermarried to the original inhabitants of the mountain slopes and riverbanks where the Ifugaos, Kalingas and Bontocs lived. Culture blending for centuries resulted in the present Balangao/Boliwon ethno linguistic group or tribe.

The Balangao dialect has dominant "ch", "r," and "f" sounds.

The tribesmen who migrated to the cities to seek greener pastures, still go back to their tribe to meet their obligations.

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Batak
Luzon

The word "Batak" is said to be an old Cuyunon term that means "mountain people." They have a very small population, and are feared to become extinct after a few years. Their population progressively decreased over the years.In the early 1900s, they numbered around 600, but a head count conducted in 1970 showed that there were only 393 tribesmen left.

The Batak live mainly in small settlements near Puerto Princesa, close to the coastal villages of Babuyan, Tinitian, and Malcampo. Some of them have lived in several river valleys of Babuyan, Maoyon, Tanabag, Tarabanan, Laingogan, Tagnipa, Caramay and Buayan.

Because of their physical characteristics, the Batak have been classified under the Aeta group, or as having Aeta affinities. An early account described the Batak as resembling somewhat the Aeta in other parts of the Philippines. Scientists believe they have more physical resemblances with the Semang and Sakai of the Malay peninsula, because of their long and kinky hair, hirsute faces and bodies, small stature and muscular built.

The exact origin of the Batak had not been determined. Based on their Aeta characteristics, scientists assumed they comprise the remnants of a formerly numerous group of Aetas who settled in Palawan more than 10, 000 years ago.

The Bataks are a nomadic group that roam on vast areas in the north, settling in a place where there’s enough supply of food, then will move on to other places to continue hunting and gathering.

Despite constant interaction with other Palawan groups and settlers from other islands, their culture has not changed from its seminomadic character.

Their tribe has been severely affected by a number of communicable diseases and malnutrition due to poverty. The arrival of urban settlers from Luzon and Visayas made the Batak’s natural habitat smaller. Their problems were aggravated when the forests of Palawan’s mountainous regions were opened to logging investors.

As pointed out in the a recent study of Batak society, they, like all the other Philippine Aeta groups have been critically influenced and affected by contact with the outside world. The effect has been noted in their subsistence economy, socio-territorial organization, and ritual life. As a consequence, the tribe failed to reproduce successfully. Their tribal distinctiveness is slowly crumbling, because of urban influences. The Batak tribe, together with their unique traditional culture is on the brink of extinction.

Their traditional costume is simple. It consists mainly of bark cloth that they derive from a mulberry tree.

One of the Batak folklores claim that woman did not come from man but man come from woman. The story is about an old man with two sons. He sent them out to the fields to watch over his trees, warning them not to eat the fruits of those trees. But the younger son disobeyed. He ate some of the fruits, and after a while, his breasts became bigger. The older son became curious, and ironically, fell in love with his younger brother. Rhe wedding marked the beginning of the Batak society.

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Bontoc
Luzon

"Bontoc" is derived from the term "bun," which is the equivalent of heap in English and "tuk," which means top. When combined, the two words mean “mountain,” or “Bontoc,” when translated on the tribe’s dialect.

They are the people who live in the mountainous areas of Benguet, Ifugao, Mounatin Province and Kalinga-Apayao.

Their population is distributed in 10 municipalities and 137 barrios.

Although there is a common language called Bontoc, each village may have its own dialect and phonetic peculiarities. Population estimate in 1988 was 148,000. Physical types are a mix of Filipino, ancient Ainu and Mongol.

The tribesmen’s God is Lumawig. Religious practices, rituals and cañoas attend to their cycle of life, death, and agricultural activities. There are many kinds of cañoa. The chao-es is the feast for the manerwap, which is the ritual requesting for rain from Lumawig. A cho-es is also held when a person's name needs to be changed because of an incurable ailment that is believed to be caused by an ancestral spirit. The “fosog” is the feast for fertility rites.

The tribe’s traditional clothing leaves males and females bare above the waist. But because of modern influence, younger members of the tribe wear trousers, shirts, dresses and shoes that lowland Filipinos usually wear.

The tattoo used to be a prestige symbol, worn only by the headhunter. However, it is now purely ornamental. There are three types of tattoos: the “chaklag,” the breast tattoo of the headhunter; the “pongo,” the arm tattoo of both sexes or the woman's tattoo; and the “fatek” which is used as thegeneric term and refers to all other tattoos.

The tattoo used to be a prestige symbol, worn only by the headhunter. However, it is now purely ornamental.

The woman's tattoo is on the back of the hands and encircles the arms beginning from the wrists to above the elbows. On the upper arm, the figure of a man with extended arms and legs may be etched. The man's tattoo has a simpler pattern and uses longer lines; the woman's tattoo uses cross-hatched lines and patchwork designs. Disfigurement such as swellings, are used deliberately as part of the tattoo designs.

Bontoc literature is transferred through word of mouth only. It is either sung or recited. Its primary purpose is to communicate ideas and attitudes to others at certain social occasions. It also reflects the tribe’s collective history. Their literature includes riddles, proverbs, aphorism, songs, tales, legends, and myths.

Ritual literature is addressed to the deities or “anito” during ceremonies. Examples of ritual literature are the “ayyeng,” “annako,” “kapya,” “manayeng/manaing,” “orakyo,” and “achog.”

The most important of the tribe’s mythology is the “oggood.” The narrative concerning Lumawig, the Bontoc god and culture hero. He chose to marry the beautiful and industrious lady Fukan after rejecting one lady whose hair was too short, another lady who lived in a village that was too short, and another who “tittered like a bird.” Many stories about Lumawig pertain to the beginning of the Bontoc society. He rewarded good and punished evil. He wanted peace and prosperity. He established the institution of the ato. He established the rituals. He performed wonders to teach ethical norms. He changed his own selfish father-in-law into a rock with water gushing forth from its anus.

On Mt Kal-lat is a huge stone said to have been set down by Lumawig. When bad weather threatens the people, the men gather around the stone and perform a ritual called “kapya.”

The myths are also an integral part of the ritual. In the traditional wedding ceremony, the narrative of Lumawig's wedding is recited. Part of the planting rites to have an abundant harvest is the recitation of the myth about how the gods multiplied and increased the size of the crops.

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Bugkalots
Luzon

The Bugkalots are found in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino and Aurora. They inhabit the easterly central part of the Caraballo and Sierra Madre Mountain ranges. There are about 5,000 Bugkalot families. Although they live far apart from each other, their glaring similarities, customs and arts show that they belong to one distinct group.

The Bugkalots are known for their colorful attire, musical instruments and beautiful artifacts.

The Bugkalots manage to survive on the “kaingin” or slash and burn system of agriculture. Root crops are their main product. They also hunt wild game in the forest and Conwap rivers head stream of the Cagayan river.

The Bugkalots have a regular built and inherited some Mongolian features such as narrow slanting eyes and aquiline nose. The Bugkalots found along the rivers of Bua and Tubo speak the Ilocano dialect.

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Mangyan
Luzon

Mangyan is the general name for the indigenous tribes who live in the province of Mindoro. Ten percent of the total population of the people who live in Mindoro are Mangyans.

Before Spain conquered the Philippines, the Mangyans were already practicing the "barter trade" to the Chinese, who traveled to the shores of Mindoro using their ancient boats. The Mangyans traded their local products of cotton, root crops, medicinal plants and bees-wax for beads, gongs, plates and jars.

Anthropological studies revealed that the Mangyans have eight tribes that may look the same but have different cultures and traditions.

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Tasaday
Mindanao

One of the smallest tribes in the Philippines, there were only 61 individuals in a census conducted in 1987. They were originally called “Linat Batang."

Up to this day, they continue to hunt and gather food, dwell in caves, use stone tools and wear garments of “curcoligo” - a kind of fern plant - along side practices acquired through long contact and exchange with neighboring people. They are socially and geographically distant, though not completely isolated. Linguistic studies show Tasadays belong under the ethno linguistic category.

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Tiboli
Mindanao

The Tibolis live in "long-houses" that are built on six-foot stilts. Their houses are about 50 feet long and nearly 30 feet wide. The materials are predominantly made of bamboo, wood, and palm fronds. Their houses are situated far apart from each other.

The distinctive and colorful clothing characterizes Tiboli men and women. It is a major source of ethnic pride. Nearly all clothing is made of t'nalak, a cloth that has a brown background, lightened by red and beige designs. Women wear ornamental combs, earrings, bracelets, and rings. The Tibolis usually cover their heads with turbans or large circular hats.

They speak a Malayo-Polynesian language called Tiboli. In addition to their native language, many of the Tibolis also speak Ilonggo or Bilaan.

The families usually arrange marriages after lengthy negotiations. Wedding celebrations often require months of preparation. Monogamy is always practiced. However, the rich may sometimes have multiple wives as a symbol of prestige.

The Tibolis believe that aspects of nature have spirits. If the spirits are not appeased, they can cause harm to people.

Although the Tiboli believe in a number of gods, the two most important are Kadaw la Sambad and Bulon la Mogow. They supposedly gave birth to the lesser gods, who either bestow benefits on people or afflict them with bad luck or ailments. The Tibolis place large wooden statues of the gods in their homes and fields. They frequently offer food and liquor to the gods for appeasement.

Television and radio are not yet available in the tribe.

They practice the slash and burn method of agriculture. This involves cutting the forest growth, burning the debris, and planting in the clearing. Rice is their primary crop, though yams and cassava are also grown. Their other sources food are through hunting, gathering forest crops, and fishing. To supplement their incomes, they sell bananas and other forest products in nearby markets.

Food is also provided through hunting, gathering forest produce, and fishing. To supplement their incomes, a Tiboli sometimes sell bananas and other forest produce in nearby markets.

Many Tibolis have little or no access to medical care. Education is inadequate, and at least 80% of the adults are illiterate. Running water and modern sanitation systems are virtually non-existent. Electrical power can only be found in a few villages.

Their methods of transportation and communication are extremely primitive. The arrival of logging and mining operations in Tiboli territory became a threat to their culture and way of life.

A typical Tiboli family of 8 – 10 members are usually malnourished. They only eat two meals a day of staple root crop like camote and taro. The average annual income of a breadwinner is only P6, 000.

Some of them even suffer from major diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, intestinal parasites, amoebic dysentry and upper respiratory tract infections. Some of their illnesses are believed to be the consequence of lack of access to safe potable water.

http://www.globalpinoy.com/ch/images/ch_tribes/ch_tribe_bontoc.jpg

Bontoc
Luzon


The tribesmen’s God is Lumawig.

Actually, the elders are trying to correct this one. Kabunian is the supreme deity(of the Ifontoc/Kankanai/Ibaloi), Lumawig is his son.


Religious practices, rituals and cañoas attend to their cycle of life, death, and agricultural activities



Tapos cañao siya. Mauuna yung a sa o

by Joel Velasquez[/B]


"Mandaya" derives from "man" meaning "first," and "daya" meaning "upstream" or "upper portion of a river," and therefore means "the first people upstream". It refers to a number of groups found along the mountain ranges of Davao Oriental, as well as to their customs, language, and beliefs. The Mandaya are also found in Compostela and New Bataan in Davao del Norte.
Scholars have identified five principal groups of Mandaya: the Mansaka or those who live in the mountain clearings; the Manwaga or those who lived in the forested mountain areas; the Pagsupan or those who make a living in the swampy banks of the Tagum and Hijo rivers; the Managusan or those who live near the water; and the Divavaogan who are found in the southern and western parts of the Compostela (Bagani 1980:30; Cole 1913:165).
The Mandaya generally have high foreheads, prominent cheekbones, broad noses, thick lips and angular features. They are generally fair (Valderrama 1987:6-7). Population estimate in 1988 was about 22,000 for the Mandaya found in Davao Oriental, and about 33,000 for the whole country (Peralta 1988:8).



Mandaya Warrior



http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/5558/man1cj5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)




History

Valderrama (1987:5-6) hypothesizes that the Indonesians, who came to the Philippines in a series of immigration waves from 3000 to 500 BC, intermarried with the native women and begot the Manobo of eastern Mindanao. The Malays, who migrated to the Philippines between 300 to 200 BC through Palawan and Mindoro, intermarried with the Manobo and begot the Mandaya. The Chinese came in the 13th century and through intermarriage contributed further the racial development of the Mandaya.

The Spanish conquest brought about Christianity and an inducement for the Mandaya to settle in villages. The Christianized Mandaya who have resettled intermarried with Visayan and other emigrants. Because of frequent Muslim raids, however these Christianized Mandaya were forced to return to the mountains and their old way of life.
Americans brought with them a form of political participation that was inaugurated by the Christian political leaders when Davao was made into a regular province in 1922. American planters in the Davao area did encourage the Mandaya to work in the coastal plantations and adopt the lifestyle of Christianized natives. Many of the Mandaya who did so eventually returned to the mountains armed with new ideas and technology. This led to further changes in the lifestyle of many Mandaya districts (Gagelonia 1967:259-260).

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Religious Beliefs and Practices

Many Mandaya have been Christianized by the Spaniards. The Christianity that they profess, however, is a mix of traditional Catholicism with their own indigenous beliefs and practices. According to the Spanish missionaries, the Mandaya consented to be converted only if their beliefs and customs would not be interfered (Bagani 1980:24). Thus, the Mandaya's attachment to animism was the problem of the missionaries. Their idols called the Manauag are made of wood from the bayog tree; the eyes are taken from the fruit of the magobahay. The idols are painted from chest up with some kind of sap. These wooden figures have no arms; the male manauag is distinguished from the female in that the latter is adorned with a comb. These idols are set in canopied altars in the Mandaya house (Bagani 1980:21).
They are also influenced by the bailana. This is true especially during the months of famine when nightly ceremonies are held. The bailana dances three or four times around the manauag while supper is being prepared. This repeated until supper is served (Bagani 1980:21-22).
The pagcayag is a ritual performed to ward off sickness. A bobo or fish trap together with seven buyo, and a pitcher of tuba in which are placed seven crabs, are covered with leaves. These are left in the middle of the house for three days. On the fourth morning, amid shouts, these items are hacked into pieces and kicked out of the house (Bagani 1980:22).
The Mandaya believe that the limoken is a bird of omen. If it sings to the left of the person, this is a good omen. However, if it sings to the right, the person must prepare for a possible attack from enemies. If it sings right in front, there is danger ahead. If it sings while a person is between trees, an ambush is waiting. If a person encounters a dead animal, death could befall him or her; the person should return at once to where he/she started. Stomping one's right foot on a pile of ashes may neutralize these bad omens. It is believed that a serpent eating the heavens causes eclipse. The Mandaya gods include Mansilatant and Daty, father and son, who are good gods, and Pudaugson and Malimbong, husband and wife, who are evil gods (Bagani 1980:22-23).


Visual Arts and Craft

The clothes of Mandaya are considered by many as among the most beautiful in Mindanao. In general, the Mandaya costume motifs are characterized by block designs, line patterns, rickracks, scrolls, curvilinear motifs, and diamonds and crosses (De Los Reyes 1975:62,65). Another popular motif is the crocodile done at various levels of abstraction (De La Cruz 1982:60).

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9041/man2wx9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Present day Mandaya lass with a flower on her hair deftly weaves Dagmay, an abaca cloth with pale decorated stripes. Davao, ca 1990. (Cultural Center of the Philippines Library Collection).




The dagum nang usog or man' blue collar less shirt has sleeves which may be long or three fourths in length and embroidered with lenama. The front of the dagum is open to the hipline and the edges are trimmed with contrasting colors. Men's trousers are either long or short. The pantot trousers are usually 5-7.5 cm above the knee. The long trousers are loose on the hipline but tight from the thighs to the ankles.
Mandaya women wear cotton blouses called dagum. These are usually red, blue, and black and decorated with animal and geometric designs at the back, front and sleeves. Mandaya women also wear blue gingham blouses. Old women and Christianized bailana wear black blouses. The bado nang bubay (woman's dress) is as ornately designed as the blouses and betrays Chinese influence (Valderrama 1987:7-8).
Traditional skirts are usually made of dagmay, adored in an almost A-style and pleated on one side. The waist is held by small piece of coco negra. Some old women wear the patadyong (tubular shirt) and younger girls, the cooton skirt. Poki or women's underwear is made of coconut shell, which is finely cut to prevent injury. Strings are inserted through the corner holes and tied to the waistband (Valderrama 1987:8).
Mention must be made of the Mandaya hat made of guinit.the designs are turned into the concave shape hat. In some cases, colored feathers are found at the back of the hat. When worn, thongs are attached to keep the hat in place.
The Mandaya metal craft includes the fashioning of weaponry. Among these are the balladaw (steel dagger), kakala (bolo), likod-likod (single bladed kakana) and wasay (ax for cutting wood or for self-defense).
Mandaya jewelry may be made at home when materials are available. Jewelry measures the social and economic status of the Mandaya women, no young Mandaya woman, whether single or married, goes out without donning a piece of jewelry (Valderrama 1987:8). Silver is used often for jewelry and brass casting is copied from the Muslims.
Metal jewelry includes the sampad or earrings with a silver covering and carved round with a intricate design in the center; the balyug which a type of necklace which covers the breast, and made of tiny glass beads sewn in several rounds with silver coins or crocodile teeth serving as ornaments; the patina which is an heirloom made of round gold attached to the necklace; the sangisag or metal bracelet worn by both men and women; and the tungkaling or brass trinklets worn by women on the waistband to notify people of their presence (Valderrama 1987:8-12).
Example of nonmetal jewelry include the suwat or wooden combs; the balikog or earrings made of balatinaw wood; laog or earrings made out of glass beads; pamullang or ivory and black colored necklaces; the linangaw or male necklaces representing his battle with the crocodile; and the timusug or bracelet made of rare vines and rubber (De Los Reyes 1975:66).
The Mandaya are known to carve wooden idols. An example is the Manauag, a 12.5 cm idol made of palm wood. The asho-asho is a larger Mandaya idol that represents a cock or bird, and is kept in the house together with crocodile's teeth, roots and other charms and offerings.
A practice among the Mandaya is the filing and blackening the teeth of the young. Between the ages of 10 and 12, Mandaya children pass through an initiation in which their upper and lower sets of teeth are filed evenly. Instead of brushing their teeth, the Mandaya habitually chew tobacco pellets moistened with juice of am-mong vine. This practice has strengthened their teeth (Valderrama 1987:12).


Performing Arts

Some example of Mandaya musical instruments are the kobeng or slender piece of bamboo resembling a Jew's harp, and played while dancing the gandang; the kudlong or a two stringed instrument similar to the kudyapi of the Maranao; the gimbal or native drum made of tree trunk or deer skin, and played to accompany a dancing bailana; the nakuyag or instrument resembling a Spanish tambourine, played to accompany the gimbal; the bonabon or instrument resembling a flute (Valderrama 1987:51-53).
Like the riddles and proverbs, Mandaya folk' songs reflect the people's collective attitude towards life and the world. Two types of folk songs have remained within the native repertoire - the oyog-oyog (lullaby) and the bayok (love and adventure songs). The former deals with childhood and parental love; the lyrics and poetic and often center on maternal love and aspirations. The music is soothing (Fuentes and De la Cruz 1980:25).

Oyog-oyog, mag oyog-oyog . . .
Masinga nang Bullawan
Diyanay yagadadallawon
Baan sumngaw makawong
Dumallaw makagwa
Walla kaw sa pangubsa
Walla kaw sa pangkawasa,
Nang mallugon diabongan mo
Magaon na siollambodan mo;
Malaygon sa gigiba
Pugtok sa llollumpasi.

Walla sa pangungubsa
Wa sa pangawasa;

Awson pagpaka-indo
Ubson magpakagawa.

La - la - la- la - larin - larin . . .

Among the protodramas found among the Mandaya are the ritual balilig and the one called "the making of a Mandaya Datu". The former is one of the highest forms of Mandaya worship performed by a bailana to cure illness believed to be caused by the busaw or blood thirsty spirits. It is believed that the busaw has taken the sick person's soul and has hidden it inside the sun. The balilig is performed to appease the busaw. In the course of ceremony, the bailana stares at the sun waiting for it to open and release the sick person's soul. The performance of the balilig is announced to the temporal and spiritual worlds the night before. At about eight in the evening, a deer hide drum is played. At sunrise, an altar is erected on which a pig is laid facing the rising sun. a branch of sallapaw tree, decorated with mama-on (betel nut) flowers, is placed beside the altar bending to the east of the pig (Nabayra 1979:45).
When people gather, the drummer starts with the basal beat and the women begin to dance. The beating gets faster and the dancing get more hypnotic. The bailana present each calls upon her favorite kallbas or mugbong to suck the blood of the sacrificial pig (Nabayra 1979:45-46). The ancient chant goes thus:
O Mugbong, pangayon ka
Kallbas, kagomon kaw;
Sang amabalik na balyan
Amawaon na danginan.

The climax of the ceremony involves the stabbing of the sacrificial pig at the right armpit. All the bailana present, even those who did not dance, take turns in sucking the blood and partaking of the raw flesh of the pig. It is believed that the bailana are only acting as the medium of the blood - thirsty busaw. After this, the chief bailana dips a brunch of the bagaybay or flower of the betel nut in the blood of the pig and anoints the right palm of the sick person with the line from the middle of the palm towards the middle finger.
Another ceremonial rite is the one called "the making of a Mandaya Datu". Before a candidate is proclaimed a datu, he dances about brandishing his kampilan (large sword). The climax is reached when the priest, carrying a sprig of betel nut flower, dances in front of a candidate and sprinkles water on his forehead.
Orosa-Goquingco (1980:139) mentions the "Courting Dance" which is described as having the fiercely beautiful movements of a mountain hawk. The dancers' feet make rapid movements, creating circular patterns around each other, as their arms spread out like wings of eagles. A similar dance is the kinabua performed by a man and a girl or two girls. The dance portrays the hawks' use of sweet songs to lure out the hen and the chicks that are then made into a meal.
Sampak is a war dance of the Mandaya. It requires great skill in the handling of a spear, a sword, and a shield. The sayaw is a dance performed originally by the bailana; nowadays, children may imitate the dance. Like the bailana, two young dancers are dressed completely in native attire. The tungkaling is fastened to the dagmay skirt, and a neckerchief is held on the right hand. The dance starts with a prelude called the basal wherein the gimbal is played slowly. Following the beat, the dance proceeds to the sinakay-sakay or slow swaying of the bottoms. As the beat becomes faster, the movement progress accordingly (Valderrama 1987:53).
Another Mandaya dance is the gandang, accompany by the kudlong or kobeng. It is a free dance for all and usually starts when the elderly get tipsy with wine during a tribal celebration. The dancers may create their own actions that usually follow the rhythm and mood of the music (Valderrama 1987:54).


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References:

Bagani. Man of Dignity. Metro-Manila: the Presidential Commission for the
Rehabilitation and Development of Southern Philippines, 1980.
Cole, Fay - Cooper. The Wild Tribes of Dava District, Mindanao. Field Museum of
Natural History Publication 170. Anthropological Series, Vol XII, No 2. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1913.
Cuasay, Pablo. Kalinangan ng Ating mga Katutubo. Quezon City: Manlapaz Publishing,
1975.
De los Reyes, Roberto A. An Ethno-Artological Catalogue of the Philippine Traditional
Design Motifs. Design Monograph No 3. Manila: The Design Center, Philippine College of Arts and Trading, 1973.
De los Reyes, Roberto A. Traditional Handicraft Art of the Philippines. Manila:
Casalinda, 1975.
Fuentes, Vilma May A. and Edito T. De la Cruz, (eds). A Treasury of Mandaya and
Mansaka Folk Literature. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1980.
Gagelonia, Pedro A. The Filipinos of Yesteryears. Manila: The Star Book Store, 1967.
Jose-De la Cruz, Mercedita. Sourcebook of the Philippine Traditional Art Motifs and
Craft Processes. Manila: Philippine Committee for International Fund for the Promotion of Culture, 1982.
Landor, A. Henry Savage. The Gems of the East. New York: Harper,1904.
Montano, Jose. "Voyage Aux Philippines". Le Tour du Monde. Eduoard Charton (ed).
Paris: Librairie Hatchette et Cie, 1884.
Nabayra Jr, Emmanuel. "The Balilig." Papers in Mindanao Ethnography. Data Papers
No 2, Ethnographic Series. Marawi: Mindanao State University, 1979.
Orosa-Goquingco, Leonor. The Dances of the Emerald Isles. Quezon City: Ben-Lor
Publications, 1980.
Pegrega, Raimundo. "Breve Narracion Sobre la Tribu Mandaya." Cultura Social, Vol X,
No 116, (Aug 1922), No 117, (Sept 1922).
Peralta, Jesus T. "Briefs on the Major Ethnic Categories." Workshop Paper on Philippine
Ethno-Linguistic Groups. International Festival and Conference on Indigenous and Traditional Cultures. Manila, (22-27 Nov 1988).

Regional Map of the Philippines - XI. Manila: Edmundo R. Abigan Jr. 1988.
Rubinstein, Donald H. Fabric Treasures of the Philippines. Guam: ISLA Center for the
Arts at the University of Guam, 1989.
Valderrama, Ursula C. The Colorful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental. Davao
City: Ursula Valderrama, 1987.
Yengoyen, Aram A. "Mandaya." Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia. Vol II:
Philippines and Formosa. Frank M. Lebar (ed). New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, 1975.

The Manobo (Philippines)

There is an ancient Manobo legend which tells of how a god created man to be immortal. The legend says that immortality was lost when a bird exchanged man's "life breath" for a mere peice of kemp string. For generations the Manobo have learned from childhood that no one has been raised to heaven. Still they hope to leave this world of poverty, sickness, hunger and death for the bliss of heaven. Today some villages are experiencing the joy of knowing Jesus who was raised to heaven by the power of the true and living God.

Ethnicity
There are about 25 tribal groups, linguistically grouped under the "Manobo" family.

Language
The Manobo have 24 main dialects. The following six groups are more closely related than others since their dialects are related. They include the Ata or Langilan Manobo, Tala Ingod, Matig-Salug, Tigwa, Dibabawon and Umayamnon.

Population
The population of the combined groups totals over 100,000.

Location
The island of Mindanao is the second largest of the Philippines archipelago with a land area of 36,505 square miles and the most recent of the major islands to be developed. It is often referred to as the "Land of Promise." The majority of the Manobo are located in the Central Mountains of the island and are seldom found in lowland towns except for going there to trade. Recently, however, many young people have made their way to the urban centers in search of work.

Culture
For hundreds of years these tribes roamed the valleys and mountains, doing slash-and-burn agriculture and having little or no contact with the outside world. From birth they have heard the oral traditions, myths and ballads, and have practiced the ways that made them distinctly Manobo - different from the lowland Filipino and neighboring tribal groups. Perhaps the strongest of their beliefs is that a person cannto leave the traditional spirits and ways and still be a true Manobo.

Livelihood
Physically, the lives of Manobos have been catastrophically altered by the rape of the environment by logging companies. Since the 1960s almost all of the native rain forest has been destroyed. This has rendered the Manobo slash-and-burn agriculture ineffective and no longer viable. Also many Manobo found pleasure in the new way the lowlanders brought, not realizing that the urge for materialism has made them poorer because of their unique lifestyle. Up to 90% of the land that belonged to Manobo has been sold - and is still being sold - to lowlanders. Up to this point in time many Manobo remain subsistence farmers and food gatherers instead of producers but this lifestyle has become increasingly hard without a good rain forest.

Political
Generally speaking, the tribes have been left to govern themselves because the economy is too poor for a tax base. Sadly many Manobo have left the once effective self-governing lifestyle and have become workers for the lowlanders. From the 1970s until the present, the national government has formed agencies to remedy wrongs and upgrade the lives of these minority people. For the most part, these projects have not yet been completed.

Religion
Animism, the fear of evil spirits, is the mainspring of tribal religion. Every village will have at least one spirit priest, usually a man. Animal sacrifices are required to appease the offended spirit in times of illness. All of the tribal groups believe in one great spirit who created everything but then left and turned over the daily affairs of running the world to the spirits.

Openness to Christianity
There is usually a welcome for foreign missionaries although travel may be restricted in some areas. Most of Mindanao tends to be "sensitive" but many people are open to change - especially where their old values and faith are disintegrating under the clash of cultures and the secularizing influence of the cities. Initially, the Manobo are receptive, especially among the developing tribes. Among the more traditional groups, it is more difficult. Many tribal leaders are keen to invite people to come and teach them the Bible for varying reasons, usually because of the resources the outsider brings.

Missions
Over the years various missions and churches have played a part in evangelism among the tribes. This has usually been an offshoot of their main work - church planting among lowlanders. In recent years, however, some larger denominational groups have focused on tribal work and at least one mission besides OMF is working exclusively with four tribal groups (the Tigwa, Langilan, Tala Ingod and Dibabawon).

OMF Involvement
Since 1978 there have been 36 churches (and 18 outreaches on the way to becoming churches) planted among them belonging to the Manobo Bible Church Association of Mindanao. Most churches are closer to the lowlands, while the more remote villages remain without churches. Ministries: Pioneer evangelism, assistance in church planting, medical work, Bible teaching/training of church leaders, agriculture, adult literacy/education, video and radio ministry and mobilizing and training Filipino Christians for cross-cultural ministry.

OMF is working among the Langilan, Talaingod, Tigwa, Dibabawon, Umayamnon and Pulangion Manobo with the MABCAM being the church association of these churches. OMF is also involved with the video ministry among the Manguangan, Kamayo and Teduray. There we work together with already existing church organizations.

Two other tribes that OMF is hoping to start work in soon, are the Rajah Kabunsuwan and Cinamiguin tribes.

Dear Jhaelnis,

The photo of the Badjao kids on a small canoe was taken in the village of Cabukan, Jolo, Sulu. I stayed there for a while in 1999 when the elders asked us to look at the possibility of filing for an ancestral waters claim similar to the one secured by the Tagbanwa in of Coron Island in the Calamianes.

I am just curious, how did you manage to get a hold of that picture which I took way back in 99? I'm pretty sure I did not publish it or put it in any public access/domain portal.

Why do Atis beg?

Jun Ariolo N. Aguirre
2007-03-05

KALIBO, Aklan – Ever wonder why Atis beg for your hard-earned money to buy liquor instead of food?

This is natural for the first inhabitants of Panay, according to Fr. Hermiginio ‘Jun Jun’ Felipe, an Aklanon priest who is studying the Ati’s way of life.

Felipe is currently in the second year of his three-year Cultural Heritage masteral course at the University of Santo Tomas.

Fr. Felipe is among the first five Filipino priests who enrolled in the said course in the country.

The Diocese of Kalibo under Bishop Jose Romeo Lazo commissioned his study.

“In my interviews with the Atis of Western Visayas, I realized that unconsciously their forefathers taught them that they need to demand for money in keeping with an unwritten agreement between the Atis and the Visayans,” Felipe said.

Felipe is referring to the so-called Barter of Panay which has been dismissed by some Filipino historians as a mere legend with no historical basis.

It is said that 10 Bornean datus arrived in Panay in the 13th century AD to escape their cruel king.

The Borneans led by Datu Puti brokered a trade with the Atis who agreed to sell the plains in exchange for a golden saduk and pearl necklace.

The Atis then lived in the mountains as part of the bargain.

The barter and other accounts on the pre-Hispanic history of Panay and Western Visayas were popularized by a historian from Miag-ao, Iloilo.

“After several years, they (Atis) went back to the plains to continuously ask the present Visayan inhabitants for their dowry in exchange for the Panay land they once owned,” he said.

Thus, the Atis believe they are not beggars but collectors of a land deal brokered several centuries ago.

Along this line, this indigenous people also believe they can do whatever they want with the money people give them. They can even taunt as kuripot or tightfisted those who refuse to spare them some coins.

One of the evidence presented by advocates to prove the historicity of the Barter and the 10 Bornean datus is the Ati-Atihan festival which is the modern day presentation of the festivities that followed after the 13th century land deal was consummated.

Fr. Felipe said he is eyeing the possibility of recommending to the Commission on Culture and Arts of the Diocese of Kalibo led by Fr. Boy Quan a new Ati-atihan perspective that will concretize the festival based on available evidence on Panay’s history.

“Right now, I am gathering solid evidence that instead of focusing the festival on the arrival of the 10 Bornean datus and the alleged purchase of Panay, I am planning to shift the focus on more concrete history of Kalibo which historians agree as the origin of the Ati-Atihan and other festivals with a similar theme,” he said.

According to historians, Kalibo came from the word ‘one thousand’ (sanglibo) in memory of the first 1,000 Christian converts in Aklan after the Spaniards arrived in the 18th century.

“Is it possible that the future ati-atihan festival will give emphasis on the first Christian converts of Kalibo and the manner of celebration is giving glory to the Child Jesus (Sto. Niño) for saving Panay by baptizing its inhabitants in the name of Christ?”

“In this way, the history of the Ati-atihan festival will not be anymore questioned by tourists and historians because it will now have a solid historical foundation based on facts and available archeological evidences,” Fr. Felipe added.

Source: The Daily Guardian Iloilo

Dear Jhaelnis,

The photo of the Badjao kids on a small canoe was taken in the village of Cabukan, Jolo, Sulu. I stayed there for a while in 1999 when the elders asked us to look at the possibility of filing for an ancestral waters claim similar to the one secured by the Tagbanwa in of Coron Island in the Calamianes.

I am just curious, how did you manage to get a hold of that picture which I took way back in 99? I'm pretty sure I did not publish it or put it in any public access/domain portal.

Here: http://www.globalpinoy.com/ch/ch_tribes_sub.php?name=Badjao

just asking, did phillipines have any kingdoms, empire besides spain?

The Vanishing Batak Tribe (http://www.bulatlat.com/news/7-11/7-11-batak.htm)

The end of the Batak had come and gone. Their culture was already gone. The language was all that remained. Do you doom yourself and your children to lives of abject poverty, ridden with disease and living with hunger on a daily basis just to preserve a language?

Lorenzo Batak stands about five feet tall, and wears the traditional loin cloth, made from bark. At fifty-four years of age he is one of the most respected tribal elders. His face is lined. His curly black hair has gone completely gray, and his teeth are disappearing, making him look much older than he really is. Of late, he has been plagued by a constant cough and shortness of breath. Lung infections are rampant among the tribal people, living in their jungle community. The homes are lean-tos composed of leaves and bamboo, centered around a fire pit. The makeshift dwellings are suitable for the Batak, a nomadic people, accustomed to abandoning their village, and relocating. In the past, their relocations were conducted in a rhythm with the natural ecosystem. They would move, so as not to deplete the forest resources, which have sustained their people for centuries. Lately, most of their relocations have been a reaction to forced incursions by lowlanders.

Today, the entire community has turned out to greet the outreach mission from Tag Balay, an NGO, lead by Marifi Nitor-Pablico of Tag Balay Foundation. Lorenzo recognizes me from a previous visit to another Batak village and he smiles broadly, slapping me on the chest. The tribe is much more excited to see Marifi and her team of volunteers who are bringing food and medicine. Perhaps the most important member of the team is Dr. Richard LaGuardia, an American Filipino doctor, living in Puerto Princesa, who donated his time and medical assistance. The young students from Palawan State University follow behind, carrying crates of donated medicines.

Batak women, wearing sarongs, bare-breasted squat in a line, at the long tribal drums, made from hollowed out tree trunks. They pound out a joyful rhythm with heavy club-like drum sticks.

The Batak, believed to be the oldest inhabitants of the Philippines, are one of three principal tribes, located in Puerto Princesa City, on Palawan Island. In the far south of the island is the Palawan tribe, who still live as cave dwellers, hunting in the forest with blowguns. Inside the limits of Puerto Princesa City are the Batak and Tagbanua. The Tagbanua are by far the largest of the Palawan tribes. Population estimates range from 15-25,000 persons. The Tagbanua are largely integrated, living in communities, raising rice crops, and sending their children to church and school, much as their Filipino neighbors. (Note: all tribes in the Philippines are more or less indigenous and are entitled to Philippine citizenship. The term Filipino here refers to the modern, non-tribal, majority of Filipinos.) The Batak still live largely as they have for centuries, as semi-nomadic hunter gatherers. They are by far the smallest tribe, both in stature and in numbers. The average Batak man barely stands five feet tall. The tribal population is estimated at 360 members.

The Batak are a negrito people, with kinky (curly) hair and dark skin. Their mother-tongue is called Binatak and is related to other regional languages of Malayic origin. While the Palawan and the Tagbanua tribes developed a unique alphabet, the Batak have never had a writing system. Anthropologists believe the Batak to be related to the Aeta people, found in other parts of the Philippines. The Batak also bare a resemblance to the Semang and Sakai tribes of the Malay Peninsula. As the Batak do not have a written history, much of the explanation of their origin is based on guess work. Dr. Carlos Fernandez, a retired professor of anthropology in Puerto Princesa and a leading authority on the Palawan tribes, explained that a commonly held theory is that Borneo was once connected to Palawan by a land bridge. The Batak and other tribes are believed to have migrated from Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, centuries ago. The theory goes on to suggest that the ultimate origin of these tribes may be from Madagascar.

In her book on the tribe, Bakas (an ethnographic documentation of the Batak indigenous people in Sitio Kayasan, Barangay Tagabenit, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Philippines) Marifi Nitor-Pablico recounts the legend which the Batak use to explain their own origin.

Long ago while a mother was sleeping, her four sons came in the house. The eldest son lifted her skirt and laughed at his mother's nakedness. The second son also laughed but not as much. The third son did not laugh at all.

The fourth son covered his mother with cloth. The father stepped in the room, and told the children this had been a test, and they had each won an award. To the oldest son he gave a stick used to beat bark for making cloth. To the second son, he gave a piece of torn cloth. To the third son he gave a piece of new cloth. And to the youngest he gave a piece of iron. From the oldest son came the Batak people. From the second, the Tagbanua. From the third, the Moro (rich Muslim traders). And from the fourth came the Spaniards.

Batak language

Binatak, the dialect of the Batak, is classified as an Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Meso-Philippine Palawano language. Due to contact with outsiders the Batak language has become the recipient of many loan words from Tagbanua, Tagalog/Filipino, Spanish, and English. Although illiteracy is extremely high, nearly 100 percent of Batak speak Filipino, the lingua-franca of the Philippines. The distance to the primary school is identified as primary reason why illiteracy can't be combated among the Batak.

"Violence is not part of their code of ethos" explained Dr. Fernandez, "They deal with conflict by running away. They avoided contact with foreigners. Historically, their only means of defense was moving deeper into the forest."

Aside from the fact that it was historically easy for lowlanders to steal Batak land, simply by driving them into the jungle, Marifi explained that as the Batak push deeper and deeper into inaccessible jungle, they moved further and further away from schools and medical aid stations. Even if they lived closer to a school, however, Batak families are extremely poor and would be unable to pay tuition fees.

Unlike tribal people in other countries, Batak enjoy full rights of citizenship, including land ownership. Under the Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP) the Batak are gaining land rights. But they are still extremely shy about dealing with outsiders and run from confrontation. As a result, sending them medical supplies, teaching them agriculture, or giving them land rights are nearly ineffective in helping to preserve this vanishing race of people.

Lack of access to doctors adds to their staggering rate of infant mortality. Several Batak women confirmed that the average number of babies born per family was eight, but normally only two would live.

The Batak are hunter gatherers, so their diet consisted largely of forest products and meat. In the last thirty years, the forest cover of the Philippines has decreased from 70 percent to 3 percent. Only three percent of the Philippine Islands are covered in old growth forest. Thanks to the efforts of the environmentally-minded Mayor Edward Hagedorn, Puerto Princesa City, with 49 percent old growth forest coverage, is referred to as "the cleanest and greenest" city in the Philippines, and possibly in the world. Even with the protectionist measures, the environment of the Batak is shrinking. Today, there is very little large game left on Palawan Island. The largest animal they could hope to kill in the forest is a wild pig, and they are now becoming rare.

The Batak have made some changes to their diet, adapting the eating of rice to supplement the diminishing forest products. They buy additional foods from lowlanders when they have money. This has forced them into a market economy which they have very little understanding of. Batak are often cheated by the middlemen, whether they be Muslim, Chinese, or Filipino. They sell their products to local buyers at a fraction of their fair market value, because they have no direct access to the end-user markets in the city.

First contact

My first contact with the Batak was at Kalakwasa Village, a one hour walk from the paved road. When I met Lorenzo, an elder, I just assumed he would be the headman, and my point of contact. Instead, however, I was introduced to a much younger man, Eliseo, age 42, who claimed he was headman. Elisio claimed the village had been in its present location for 32 years. Nomads don't normally stay in one place for 32 years. I had trouble believing this and many others of his answers. "Before, we moved a lot. But now, we have settled here because no one came to help us when we lived deep in the forest." The Batak were living in houses, with woven walls, raised up non stilts. Elisio explained that these were not traditional Batak houses. "Before, our houses were made of natural materials. Now, we use wooden prefab materials provided by government." The new, permanent houses meant the tribe could no longer move.

Noticing that one of the buildings had a cross on the roof, I asked if it was a church. "Yes, we converted to Christianity (not Catholicism) ten years ago."

That single statement of fact explained the Disney like look of the village. Typical Filipino houses on stilts with woven walls were not typical for nomads. The fact that a young man was the leader also made no sense. But then Elisio explained.

"I worked with the missionaries. They taught me to speak Tagalog and to read. So, now I am the leader."

It would later turn out that not only was Elicio not the headman, but he was not even a Batak. He was a Tagbanua who had set himself up in business as guide and interpreter for foreign visitors to the tribe.

Dr. Fernandez explained that historically, the main outside influence on the Batak were the Muslim merchants who the Batak traded with when they were living in coastal regions. For the most part, however, the Batak were and are xenophobic, which is why the Spanish language and Catholicism never
caught on. Traditionally, the Batak followed an animist religion. They believed in spirits that lived in the forest, trees, rivers, and animals. Their value system was based on this belief system.

Recently, however, foreign missionaries, generally from Protestant sects, had been successfully converting villages. Once a village converts, every aspect of tribal identity disappears. In asking further questions about tribal customs and beliefs, Elisio either didn't know, didn't want to say, or just outright lied, so that he could provide us with the standard Christian answers which would have been no different than if we had remained in town and interviewed any Filipino working in a bank in Puerto Princesa.

Example: "What is the average marriage age of the tribe?” "Eighteen," answered Elisio.

This answer is a clear fabrication. Rural Filipinos don't even wait till eighteen to marry. For tribal people, the answer should be closer to twelve. Dr. Fernandez would later confirm that the onset of puberty is the signal that the child is ready for marriage.

"How many children do most families have?" "Two"

This was a near lie. The correct answer, as I would learn from Marifi and Dr. Fernandez later, was that the average family had eight children, but on average only two would live.

"How many wives do the tribal people have?" "Only one," answered Elisio, dutifully lying.

Polygamy

The Batak traditionally allowed polygamy, but it didn't come up very often because the man had to be wealthy enough to support the additional wives and children. After Christian conversion, this practice became taboo.

Tribal people, nearly everywhere, live in harmony with nature. Their existence is one of delicate balance. If any element is taken from the equation, if any changes are made to the eco system, they could go extinct.
If researched and studied deeply, every aspect of their cultural belief system is normally found to have practical and positive applications. Said another way, all that they do, they do in order that the tribe may continue to exist.

In choosing a mate, women will choose the man who is the best provider. If asked, she knows that this increases the chances of survival of her children. But modern researchers will also see a kind of social Darwinism in this practice. The best provider will probably be the biggest, the strongest, the healthiest or the cleverest man. By marrying and fathering children, these desirable genes are perpetuated. And the tribe as a whole becomes stronger. If the feeblest men married the feeblest women, they would produce feeble children who would not survive. Polygamy could really only be practiced by men who were super providers. There is an implication that they were carrying genes for unusually desirable traits, and so, polygamy gave them the opportunity to produce as many offspring as possible.

Another important function of polygamy is that the tribal people know that siblings shouldn't marry. Most tribes also discourage first cousins from marrying, but if there are no other spouses available even first cousins will marry. Polygamy would increase the marriage pool, so that men who were already married wouldn't be off the list of potential husbands.

Once the tribe converted to Christianity, they stopped practicing polygamy. The marriage pool decreased in size and women were often forced to marry "undesirable" men.

"Do cousins marry?" "Never," said Elicio, "We go to the other village to find a wife if none is available here."

This was again a near lie. Cousins did marry, because of the ever shrinking gene pool. If 30 families live in a village, and each have only two children, it doesn't take long for everyone to be related. As for finding a wife in another village, Marifi explained that this often meant marrying a Tagbanua. Because of so many intermarriages, the Batak are being slowly bred out of existence.

Dr. Fernandez said that as a result of poor diet and disease, Batak men have become very small. "In Asia," He said. "Women can marry up or they can marry at the same level, but they cannot marry down. Batak men are becoming undesirable candidates for marriage, so many of the Batak women are marrying Tagbanua."

The Tagbanua just looked healthier and stronger than Batak men. They were also richer. A large percentage of them farmed rice and lived in or near the city. Some even had regular jobs.

Marifi confirmed, "It is getting harder and harder for Batak men to marry."

"What do you do with your dead?" I asked Elicio. "We bury them in a coffin."

Superstitions and rituals

Once again, the Christian answer was given. In reality, tribal people usually have a number of superstitions and rituals associated with death. Some tribes actually relocate the entire village if one person dies. According to Dr. Fernandez, the Batak would burn the house where the dead person had lived, and no one would live in that house again. This superstition had the practical function of preventing the spread of communicable diseases. Now that they lived in pre-fab houses bought in the city, I wondered how quick they would be to burn them. And would not burning the home of the deceased result in more deaths?

The part of his story that was believable was that the pastor hadn't been to the village in ages. This was so common and frustrating among tribal people. Missionaries convert them, destroy the culture, and then leave.

Elisio told me that the church also served as a school for the Batak children. The teacher only came on Mondays and Tuesdays and taught first and second grade. As a result, although the church/school had been there for ten years, nearly everyone was still illiterate.

In most tribes babies are delivered at home, by midwives, as is the custom of the Batak. In many tribes it is customary to cut the umbilical cord with bamboo, a practice which leads to infection and threatens the life of the mother and infant. When I asked Elicio about this, he answered.

"The midwife uses scissors and she boils them for thirty minutes to sterilize them first."

This was one more answer that had been programmed into him by the missionaries. And of course, it turned out to be untrue. In questioning Batak women in another village, I found out that they use bamboo to cut the umbilical cord.

According to Elicio there were 33 families, 140 people living in the village. Dr. Fernandez explained that the political organization of the Batak was very loose, much simpler than the organization of say the Native Americans. Native Americans had chiefs and councils. They had political units and sub units. But with the Batak there isn't even a chief, just a village headman, who is consulted and whose opinion weighs more than that of the others, but he is not the boss. This type of structure can only work for about 90 people. Native Americans, on the other hand, were able to organize thousands and even tens of thousands of members in their nations. For the Batak, when the limit, of about 90, is reached, they would split off and form a new village.

According to this information, Elicio's village was way past being due for a split. Once again, this was putting unusual pressure on the forest resources to sustain this unnaturally large group of people.

Elicio was wearing basketball shorts and a T-shirt. Only the very old men seemed to be wearing a loin cloth. Many of the adolescents and even up to their thirties were wearing jeans. I asked if the missionaries had introduced the wearing of clothes. But Elicio answered, "No, we want to look like city people." Whether this was the case of not, the tribal culture was clearly dying out.

"Do you still hunt in the jungle with bows and arrows?" I asked. Elicio assured me that they did. Always interested in primitive weaponry I asked to see them.

Elicio turned to Lorenzo and, ostensibly, asked in Batak language, for the bows.

"Our bows are already at the museum." answered Lorenzo.

A diet of tuber

Elicio said the tribe ate a diet of fruits, vegetables, and meat they hunted. The lack of bows suggested they weren't doing any hunting. And fruits and vegetables don't grow so readily in the wild. Even if they did, they would be depleted by the tribe's lack of mobility. I would later find out that the Batak ate a diet which consisted almost exclusively of a tuber called kudot. It looks like a white root, which is so tough that it should be inedible. But the Batak would pound it and boil it for hours, till it had a consistency of mashed-potatoes mixed with saw dust. The resultant glue was absolutely tasteless, which was probably a good thing. If there was any nutritional value at all in kudot, it was most likely a source of carbohydrates but nothing else.

While Elicio and I did our interview on the porch of the main house, the elders sat inside talking. Across the way, a group of women huddled around a fire, with a number of children clinging to their bodies. All of them, the men, women, and children looked extremely unhealthy. And they looked unbelievably poor.

I didn't believe a word that Elicio was telling me, but his presence, his attitude, the presence of the church, and the artificiality of the whole situation signaled that this was the end of the Batak. Or even more accurately, the end of the Batak had come and gone. I was looking at the last few hold outs. And what was it exactly they were holding out for? Were they trying to preserve their culture? Their culture was already gone. The language was all that remained. Do you doom yourself and your children to lives of abject poverty, ridden with disease and living with hunger on a daily basis just to preserve a language?

Catching a moment alone with Lorenzo, I asked him what the worst problem was that tribe was facing. "The worst problem is that we get sick and there is no doctor. And sometimes we don't have food." He smiled and added, "But that is why foreigners are fat you have a lot of food, so your bodies are good."

Three Filipino teenagers entered the village with sports bags full of digital watches. "We trade watches to the Batak for chickens," explained one of the boys.

Why did the Batak need watches? They had no concept of time? Time was measured by seasons, each associated with a particular activity. For example, Tagpulot (honey season) is the time when they gather honey.

Besides not understanding hours and minutes, it isn't like their social calendars were full and they needed expert chronography.

I asked Elisio why the Batak needed watches. His answer was a bit strange. "Because they think the city people are rich."

I assume he meant that wearing a watch made them more like city people and thus made them appear rich.

I ducked around the house, to see what the Filipino boys were up to. Somehow I suspected they would be laundering money, dealing arms, trafficking narcotics, anything but selling watches. But there they were, with huge handfuls of watches, showing off their wares to a crowd of wide-eyed Batak. Behind the house, I found an old bolt-action rifle under a shed which had been converted into a muzzle loader

"We fill it with five packs of matches and BOOM!" explained one of the Filipino boys.

Pig bomb

Dr. Fernandez told me the tribal people also had a new invention called a pig bomb. They cut the heads off of several packs of matches and wrapped them in tape with broken glass. The lethal bundle was then inserted into a piece of fruit and left in the jungle. When an animal bites it, his head explodes.

The village had recently enacted a program of collecting a nominal entrance fee from guests, which we gladly paid. We had also brought several kilos of rice, coffee, and sugar as gifts. Additionally, we had to pay Elicio 300 pesos for the interview. I also paid one old man for sitting for a portrait. As we were leaving Elicio informed me that we were expected to pay 100 pesos per photo we shot in the village. There were four of us with digital cameras, snapping away. I am all in favor of tribes earning money, but this was outrageous. I made a donation of several hundred pesos to the community coffers, and signaled that this was the end of the interview. As we drove back to town, I wondered if the Batak would get any of that money or if Elicio was raiding the cash register.

My second contact with the Batak was more positive. The Tag Balay volunteers set up a make-shift medical aid station, for Dr. La Guardia, another station for gifts, and a third for food. After Lorenzo and I said our hellos, the next person I talked to was Burt, a Tagbanua. He wore a blousy shirt, like a pirate, and loose trousers, with a huge bolo knife on his belt. Burt was noticeably taller than the Batak. In addition to being literate in Tagalog, he spoke excellent English.

"I was born in a tribal village like this one." He told me, with a kind of nostalgia. The tone of his voice, and the fact that he was hanging around the Batak village, suggested that he missed some aspects of the wild,
natural days of his youth. "I had no shirt and no pants until I went to the Catholic school. They taught me to read and write and to wear clothes."

Now Burt is a farmer, with his own house, in the Tagbanua village, near the highway. "The Batak still live in the jungle, but the Tagbanua moved to town because we want to live like everyone else."

Lorenzo and some other old men were doing their war dance, waving their wooden bolos, dancing around the drumming women. As a martial artist, it was interesting to me that the postures and positions of the war dance, done with two large bolos, one in each hand, looked like the Filipino stick-fighting martial art of Arnis (also called Kali or Escrima). What was interesting, however, was that the dance was only ceremonial, and the men would never practice striking with the bolo. In fact, the martial art, if they had ever known it, had been lost long ago, and only this vestige remained.

"Mayor Hagedorn is a good man, he does everything for the people. I am glad Tag Balay comes here to help them," said Burt. "Last time I came here they were all passed out on the floor, sick with malaria."

The farmer's life was obviously healthier than living in the jungle. Burt looked to be half as old as Lorenzo, but in actuality, they were probably about the same age. He told me he had 14 children by five wives. "They are all grown now. Some live in Manila, and some in Canada. We live exactly like city people now."

Toys

Marifi's team of volunteers were handing out toys to the Batak children and cookies to everyone. Very interesting was that as soon as they saw the toys, the children knew these were for them. But, coming from a society that had absolutely nothing, the kids had no clue how to play with toys. Action Rangers, cars, baby dolls, yo-yos and balls had no place in the jungle. The children were walking around holding them and looking at them. In most of the lean-tos the entire family was gathered around staring at the new toys,
in their decorative packages. There were also rattles and shaking and grasping toys for the infants. But no one knew which ones were for babies and they would just as likely be played with by a middle-aged head of a family. Or more accurately, they would be held and stared at by a middle-aged head of a family.

The bright colors were such a stark contrast to the green and brown of the forest. One boy had a ball but didn't know to play catch. He just carried it around from family to family, showing it off. One of the Tag Balay college kids took the ball and threw it to the boy. But the boy had no concept of catching. The ball just hit him, bounced off his chest and fell on the ground. A little girl had a baby doll, which she tried to play with, in spite of it still being in the plastic bag. It made crinkling noises when she hugged it. The same was true of the toy cars which were never removed from their packages.

One of the Tag Balay guys told me. "I brought some toys to a village two years ago. When we came back, a year later, the toys were still new. They were still in the original packages and the family just displayed them, like a decoration in their lean-to."

I took the Power Ranger from one boy and made it fly, making "Woosh! Woosh!" noises. The whole family laughed hysterically and then the boy tried to imitate me. Soon the whole troupe of children were trying it. I decided they thought flying, with "woosh" noises was the only game that could be played with a Power Ranger. Maybe two years later, they would still be doing the "woosh." Maybe they would call it the Antonio Game. Perhaps it would become a cult, and I could be the leader of a movement….My imagination tends to run away from me when I am in the jungle for more than ten minutes.

Marifi told me a lesson she learned from the Batak. "In a nomadic society, possessions are a burden."

On some level, wasn't this true for all of us? The things you own end up owning you. You become a slave to your car or house, working to make payments. A monk once taught me that possessions were a chain that prevented your soul from reaching the next level.

A lesson I learned from the Batak children was that it didn't occur to them to make Power Rangers fight. Dr. Fernandez words rang true. "Violence is just not a part of their ethos."

While the Tag Balay guys tried to teach the children to play yo-yo, most of the Batak adults lined up to be examined by Dr. LaGuardia.

"The most common problems in communal living situations like these are infectious diseases like TB, and then disease specific to living in the jungle like malaria." explained Dr. LaGuardia. "Internal and external parasites are also to be expected. They all have skin diseases, but we didn't receive a donation of skin medicines." The doctor confided in me, only half jokingly. "I am afraid to leave the Batak with ointments and pills because they may forget my instructions and start eating the ointment."

Vitamin deficient

All the children had a runny nose and most adults had a cough. "They are vitamin deficient from their poor diet," diagnosed Dr. LaGuardia. He estimated the average weight of the Batak men to be about 40 kgs which was less than all but the smallest Filipina women in our party. It was less than half of my own body weight.

Lorenzo was running a fever and complained of difficulty breathing. Most patients turned out to have lung infections. Dr. LaGuardia said, "It could be from the environment. It could be from the smoky fire. Many of these diseases would disappear if they would learn to wash with soap and water."

Not to be insulting, but most of the tribal people smelled as if they didn't bath often, if at all. When it didn't rain, the river was completely dry, so obtaining water just for drinking must already have been a hardship. Bathing would have been out of the question. And of course a lack of water brings up the questions of where were they getting their drinking water? And, was it clean?

Dr. LaGuardia was dispensing a lot of multi vitamins and antibiotics. "They all seem to have lung infections. We don't have a field test kit for TB, but we can treat it with antibiotics."

The Batak must also chew a lot of beetle nut because they had terrible teeth, black, red, and missing.

In the end, the doctor estimated that 80 percent of the patients were severely anemic. Dr. LaGuardia peeled back the lower eye-lid of one man and showed me. "The tissue here should be red." Instead, the man's tissue was completely white. "This is a sign of anemia." The man, Willis, was a muscular guy, who looked like the healthiest person in the village. But in actuality, he was one of the sickest.

When asked about his diet Willis said, "I wish I could eat more meat, but I can't afford it."

"We can treat the anemia with courses of multivitamins," said Dr. LaGuardia, explaining to the Batak patients how many pills they should take and for how many days. "But how can we be sure they will take them once we leave?"

"In prescribing medicines for tribal people you have to be careful about dosages. First, they are very small in stature. And second, they have never taken any medicine in their life. Luckily, with multivitamins we don't have to worry about vitamin toxicity. It would be different, however, if we were giving them A or E by itself because it accumulates in the body."

Trying to discover the source of the anemia, we quizzed the Batak about their diet. The story from all of them was the same. Kudot was the staple of the diet. The only meat they got was from small animals. Squirrels were often trapped in holes in hollow tree trunks and killed with a stick.

Francis, 21 years old, a Tagbanua working for the Tag Balay foundation told me he had lived his whole life in a Filipino style village. He even went to university for several years but had to stop because of financial constraints. Now, he was helping the tribes and doing translation. Francis had a gentle, kind spirit and seemed so at home in the village talking to everyone.

"I feel very happy to come here," said Francis, "I have more in common with these people than I do with city people."

Dr. LaGuardia suggested that someone should teach the Batak to domesticate chickens. "Chickens are easy to keep and feed. And that would eliminate the problem with anemia."

But Marifi said "No, they are nomadic. They can't domesticate animals and continue to live as nomads."

Migratory habits

Dr. Fernandez explained further about the migratory habits of the tribe. "The Batak can replant forest foods closer to the village but they do very little actual agriculture. Nomadic is perhaps not the right word. They do move if they deplete the resources in a particular part of the forest. In recent years moving has been a means of dealing with encroachment from lowlanders. The Tagbanua are more sophisticated. They have had contact with Muslims since the early 1900's. They traded with Muslim seaborne traders who exploited them. They also had contact with Muslim pirates who committed raids." The Tagbanua were able to embrace the outsiders, or at least, deal with them in a constructive fashion. "Tagbanua women marry Muslim men. There have been attempts made to convert them to Islam, but it hasn't taken hold, although you do find some Muslim goods in their homes."

"The Batak, on the other hand, engage in conflict resolution by fission, moving away from trouble. This behavior is very common among hunter gatherers."

As for the acquisition of Muslim goods or houses among the Batak, Dr. Fernandez reiterated, "Material wealth is a burden to hunter gatherers."

As a rule, the Batak, unlike other ethnic minorities, don't make any attempt to go to the city and find jobs.

"They know they are always welcome at Tag Balay," explained Marifi, "And they sometimes walk all the way into the city when they have a problem. We keep beds for them in the back of the office, so they can sleep if they need to, but we don't encourage them to move into town."

Other than a few of the children, the youngest man wearing traditional garments was in his late thirties. The rest of the men were wearing jeans. Even in the most traditional of Batak villages, the culture was dying.

A little Batak boy named Jonus had just traded his loin cloth for basketball shorts and was trying to master his new yo-yo. He looked so much like a city kid, Marifi asked him, "Do you want to go to school?"

"No," he answered, without even a moment's hesitation. "Why not?" asked Marifi. "My family is too poor. We can't pay for school." "What if someone paid for you?" "No, I am too old for school, now."

Jonus looked like he was nine, but actually he was 13.

My experiences with the tribes in Thailand and Burma told me that tribal kids like being tribal kids. They like playing in the wilderness and hunting and gathering. They have no chores, or duties, or schedules apart from what is necessary to live. Also the apprenticeship for a hunter gatherer is much shorter than for a city dweller. Where it takes us 25 years to complete an education, and be able to support ourselves, and live as adults, tribal kids can learn all they need to know, and get married by their mid teens.

Time to go

When it was time for us to go, Lorenzo stood before the entire assembly and in a very dignified manner, befitting a polished statesman, made a lengthy speech of thanks to Marifi, Tag Balay, and Mayor Hagedorn.

The Batak women banged the drum as we made our way back to our vehicles.

Both Marifi and Dr. Fernandez agreed that the Batak were on their last leg. As proof, they both cited the book, The Road to Extinction, by James Eder. Mr. Eder outlines several causes why the tribal people, all over the world, are dying out: Deterioration of resources, loss of land or forced relocation, diet, diminished fertility, infant mortality, and mal nutrition. The lack of preferred spouses forces them to marry undesirable husbands and promote undesirable genes. Finally, the long term stress of foraging and worrying about food destroys the health of the hunter gatherers. Additional stress comes from worrying about being eaten by animals and stress caused by the threat of encroachment by outsiders.

As the tribe disappeared in the rearview mirror, I realized that soon they would disappear forever. Did that mean little Jonus would die, never having attended school? Lorenzo would surely be one of the first to go. Then who would be the leader of the tiny enclave that would be left? Would people like Elicio come and exploit them further?

just asking, did phillipines have any kingdoms, empire besides spain?

The ones I know off...

-Karajahan/Kaharian ng Maynilad Kingdom of Manila
Ruled by the three last known kings of Manila
-Raja Suleyman
-Raja Matanda
-Lakan Dula

Covered parts of Metro Manila, but most of its population lived where Intramuros is today.

Laguna Copperplate reveals people have lived in the area as early as 900 AD.

Status : Dead but some people claim to be descendants of Raja Suleyman. I forgot the guy's name.

-The Makati City website claims a kingdom was once in its vicinity.

-Kasultanan ng Magindanaw Sultanate of Maguindanao
Still going... I don't know who its current sultans are.

-Kasultanan ng Sulu Sultanate of Sulu
Still going. Current sultan is disputed. Jamalul Kiram III, who claims to be the current sultan, is a member of GMA's Team Unity.

-There is speculation that the SriVijaya Empire, which covered parts of SE Asia, controlled parts of the Philippines. Not enough evidence proves this to be true, however.

I thought SriVijaya really covered the Philippine archipelago. Cos it's from them that the Visayas islands were named; and where we got our influences of Sanskrit in our language and old literature, not to mention Hindu practices and old Java customs.

Here's an article I found in a database. The article is dated 1883. Say, does Tagals = Tagalogs?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v198/louman84/Pilipinos/Tagal01.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v198/louman84/Pilipinos/Tagal02.jpg

I noticed that we are quite mainstream-centric when we discuss heritage and culture, obviously because of Western culture that we have embraced as Filipinos.

In this thread, lets talk about the people and culture of the Muslim Filipinos (especially in Mindanao & Sulu area), the traditions and their issues, the art and architecture and beliefs and the concept of "Bangsamoro".

about architecture... I hope a big mosque be build somewhere in the Mindanao.. a mosque that can be a tourism icon of the south... or is there already one iconic Mindanaoan mosque already?

I'll start off with my favorite Muslim ethnic group, the Maranaos.
http://class.csueastbay.edu/anthropologymuseum/virtmus/Philippines/Peoples/Maranao.htm

The Maranao are famed for their sophisticated weaving and wood and metal craft. Maranao means "People of the Lake," after their traditional territory in the area surrounding Lake Lanao in the Bukidnon-Lanao Plateau, which is some 2,200 feet above sea level. They are one of the largest Islamic groups in the Philippines. Core areas as Marawi City, Lumba-a-bayabao, and Bayang. The Maranao are a splinter group of the Magindanao who took up Islam; all families trace their religious origin to Sharif Kabunsuan, who introduced the religion in the area. Communities are clustered around a mosque and a torogan, a royal house belonging to the leading economic household in the area. The Maranao are widely distributed and play an important role in market trade. Besides exotic textiles, metalwork, and woodcraft, the torogan building is perhaps the most spectacular example of Filipino secular architecture. The awang, or dugout boat used in Lake Lanao, is possibly the most unique and ornate of dugouts. Maranao textiles, which indicate the status of the wearer, are known for their very ornate designs and colors. The design motifs which form the basis for the okil are highly systematized. NOtable among them are the sari-manok and naga, abstract animate forms of the cock, and dragon or snake, respectively. They also utilize a unique tube skirt, the malong.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t279/crazyhart/lanao_maranao_singkil.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t279/crazyhart/Maranao1.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t279/crazyhart/maranao.jpg

Some nice Kulintang (originating in Moro Mindanao) music performed by Fil-Ams. This piece is called Binalig.

F8xcGgSFvHU

Danongan Sibay Kalanduyan

NATIONAL HERITAGE FELLOW
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT OF THE ARTS

Danongan Kalanduyan is a master of all aspects of the Maguindanao tribal style of kulintang music and has been a central artistic figure in virtually all major Filipino-American communities for nearly two decades. Born in the fishing village of Datu Piang in the Cotabato area of Mindanao, he was raised in a strongly traditional musical environment. "If you were born in my village you'd hear no Western music, just traditional music," he says. "The music was everywhere and for everyone, not just as entertainment, but also as an accompaniment to rituals and ceremonies. I didn't need a tutor; it just automatically came to my head, day and night. I learned it through exposure, through listening." Like many kulintang musicians, he began by steadying the large agung gongs when they swayed back and forth as the older musicians struck them. At the age of seven, he began to study the other instruments--the kulintang the dabakan goblet-shaped drum, the small babandir "timekeeper" gong, and the gandingan four-gong set--from his grandmother, father, uncles, and cousins. As a young man, he won island-wide competitions on the gandingan and became widely recognized as a master musician. In 1971, he toured the Far East with the Darangan Cultural Troupe.

In 1976, a Rockefeller grant brought Kalanduyan to the University of Washington in Seattle as an artist-in-residence in the ethnomusicology program headed by Dr. Robert Garfias. He has resided in the U.S. ever since. Word of his presence spread among Filipino communities, and he was soon very much in demand as a performer and as a guro, or "teacher." He has taught and performed with virtually all of the American kulintang ensembles. His missionary zeal and endless patience have brought success in his efforts to make his cherished musical tradition a respected part of American life. In the words of Los Angeles-based World Kulintang Institute director Eleanor Academia-Magda, "he can pride himself in exposing kulintang to the masses in America, which he has quietly done almost single-handedly." It is ironic to some that kulintang music, almost entirely confined to a small Muslim minority in the Philippines, has been enthusiastically embraced by scores of young Christian Filipino-Americans for whom, through its pre-Hispanic, pre-Muslim roots, it now serves as a cultural icon of pan-Filipino-American unity.

Danongan Kalanduyan has been a featured artist in performances at major venues such as the Hollywood Bowl (with the Los Angeles Philharmonic) the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Kennedy Center, as well as in countless concerts and festivals throughout the United States. In 1990, he served as a master artist in the California state apprenticeship program. In his own view, passing on the tradition is his foremost goal. "I feel that transmitting the knowledge I possess is important for Filipino Americans everywhere, not only to preserve what may be the only authentic Filipino musical form, but also to encourage Filipino Americans to maintain contact with their cultural heritage."

9I5F3nqygIM

about architecture... I hope a big mosque be build somewhere in the Mindanao.. a mosque that can be a tourism icon of the south... or is there already one iconic Mindanaoan mosque already?

there are already so many mosques... many are small and some are large and iconic... they're not given publicity however so almost nobody know the exist...

other public buildings in mindanao are built in islamic architecture too... try the thread about ARMM in mindanao forum dude...

KRIS-CROSSING MINDANAO
Here we go profiling again

By Antonio J. Montalvan II
Inquirer
Last updated 01:53am (Mla time) 06/11/2007

MANILA, Philippines - There was cheating in Maguindanao and Lanao. Ergo, all voters in Maguindanao and Lanao are cheats. It goes without saying that Filipino Muslims are cheats.

That seems to be what Manila analysts and Manila-based media are all saying, not realizing the gravity of their armchair analysis. If I were a Filipino Muslim, I would consider that a provocation. These are dangerous statements which our Manila-centric culture is so easily predisposed that we hear them over and over on television talk shows and media interviews. The script is sensational and it certainly sells. There is commerce behind it.

These are times that may remind us of another profile we have of Filipino Muslims, that they were the pirates and marauders of history, looting many Christian settlements, kidnapping the women and children to sell as slaves.

While there indeed was piracy, what we know about it is only a part of it. In truth, the piracy that happened during the Hispanic times was part of the world of Southeast Asian mercantilism whose dominant players were largely outsiders and, who for the most part, held the reins of the slave industry.

It was the Dutch stationed in what was then Batavia, today's Jakarta, who encouraged the slave trade of Southeast Asia. The buck certainly and literally stopped with them. But the dirty job was not theirs. To let the slave trade flourish from the hub that was the Dutch East Indies, there was a need for middlemen to handle the piracy part. That was the role they gave to the southern Moro people of the Philippine archipelago.

Perhaps, this "middleman role" fitted the early Moro well. Pre-Hispanic Moro communities were largely mercantile societies then, even as the rest of the archipelago was still basically pastoral. Trading around the Southeast Asian islands was a thriving activity. That is why there is so much congruence of cultural materials among our regional cultures because of the opportunities for exchange that were woven into their daily lives; which included language.

But in that slave trade, the Filipino Moro was neither the brains nor the moneymaker. He was simply used.

Much of the Filipino Christian's contempt for the Moro is veiled in our historical texts. Perhaps, it has become ingrained, an unconscious desire, perhaps, to see the Moro literally go down in history. Our present-day pronouncements are not much of a difference.

If the Muslim Manila of Rajah Soliman and the Muslim Tondo of Rajah Lakandula were eliminated by Spanish conquest and colonization, in almost the same way do we treat our Moro brethren, as though they will forever be the vanquished and we Christians the victors. It is so very Hispanic. It is so very outdated.

A former senator from a prominent Cebu family, who now counts among the also-rans in the last elections, thank God!, was almost seething with disdain when the Maguindanao topic was brought up by a talk show anchor: "Sultanates are not part of democracy!" he roiled. It may be true, but so is ethnocentrism.

The problem Manila has with the Moro south will always be there if it insists on understanding the Moro only from its own point of view of governance. This nation was built along a system of governance that conforms only to the interests and nuances of the largely lowland Christian population. Worse, it is Americanized.

I grew up in a family where the favorite bogeyman was the Moro. When we misbehaved, it was easy to scare us out of our wits by simply telling us that the next Moro will come to "pirate" us to Marawi. But I had thought that was only during our generation. I was thus astonished to find out from my Christian students that today that is the same "mind control" their parents use on them.

The script of today has not changed: there is cheating in the ARMM elections; ergo, Filipino Muslims are cheats; so watch out for the ARMM elections, because that is where the bogeyman is.

Many of our pundits, analysts and so-called sages still live in medieval times. A lot of them are in Manila. In fact, the bogeyman is everywhere, and is mostly in Manila.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=70566

^^ hear , hear...

and he raises a good point, I just wish these so-called analysts would hear his words,.. we tend to demonize our muslim brethren just because they chose to obey the words of their leaders,... it's their culture, it's a part of what they are to heed these people, and in the end , really it was their choice to follow,... they weren't whipped to do it...

KRIS-CROSSING MINDANAO
Here we go profiling again

By Antonio J. Montalvan II
Inquirer
Last updated 01:53am (Mla time) 06/11/2007

MANILA, Philippines - There was cheating in Maguindanao and Lanao. Ergo, all voters in Maguindanao and Lanao are cheats. It goes without saying that Filipino Muslims are cheats.

That seems to be what Manila analysts and Manila-based media are all saying, not realizing the gravity of their armchair analysis. If I were a Filipino Muslim, I would consider that a provocation. These are dangerous statements which our Manila-centric culture is so easily predisposed that we hear them over and over on television talk shows and media interviews. The script is sensational and it certainly sells. There is commerce behind it.

These are times that may remind us of another profile we have of Filipino Muslims, that they were the pirates and marauders of history, looting many Christian settlements, kidnapping the women and children to sell as slaves.

Many of our pundits, analysts and so-called sages still live in medieval times. A lot of them are in Manila. In fact, the bogeyman is everywhere, and is mostly in Manila.[/B]

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=70566

If there were election cheatings in Mindanao .... then all of the masterminds were
Christian Filipinos ...... mostly the administration people were the masterminds eversince
the time of President Roxas... :)

sabi nga ng iba sa manila .... pa weather ... weather lang yaon... :)

KRIS-CROSSING MINDANAO
Here we go profiling again

By Antonio J. Montalvan II
Inquirer
Last updated 01:53am (Mla time) 06/11/2007

MANILA, Philippines - There was cheating in Maguindanao and Lanao. Ergo, all voters in Maguindanao and Lanao are cheats. It goes without saying that Filipino Muslims are cheats.

...

I grew up in a family where the favorite bogeyman was the Moro. When we misbehaved, it was easy to scare us out of our wits by simply telling us that the next Moro will come to "pirate" us to Marawi. But I had thought that was only during our generation. I was thus astonished to find out from my Christian students that today that is the same "mind control" their parents use on them.

The script of today has not changed: there is cheating in the ARMM elections; ergo, Filipino Muslims are cheats; so watch out for the ARMM elections, because that is where the bogeyman is.

Many of our pundits, analysts and so-called sages still live in medieval times. A lot of them are in Manila. In fact, the bogeyman is everywhere, and is mostly in Manila.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=70566


Seems like the writer of his opinion might be from Lanao. Reminds me of my mother's favorite bogeyman. :lol:

And I hate stereotyping Filipino Muslims.

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/agusanon.jpg
Agusanon Woman

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/bagobo.jpg
Bagobo Man

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/bagobo2.jpg
Bagobo Woman

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/kalinga.jpg
Kalinga Man

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/kalingawoman.jpg
Kalinga Woman

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/subuanon.jpg
Sugbuanon Woman

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/igorota.jpg
Igorot Woman

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/ilongot.jpg
Ilongot Woman

http://www.tribo.org/history/oldphil/ilongot2.jpg
Ilongot Man

Long before the coming of the Spaniards, Muslims in Mindanao and Sulu were known by their ethnic names – Magindanaw, Maranao, Tausug, etc., interestingly, even in their indigenous or generic terms. The Spaniards called them all Moro. After the expulsion of the Spaniards – almost 50 years under America and a quarter of a century of the Second Philippine Republic – they were Muslim Filipino. In the 1970s emerged the Bangsamoro.
This is the metamorphosis of Bangsamoro. Each period of transformation was an interesting era. The metamorphosis is the transformation of a people seeking their rightful place in the present and the future anchored in Islam and the past they ever hold as glorious.

A Struggle

Every period was a struggle. The “Moro”, deemed contemptuous in the past, transformed into an identity, the byword of an aspiration, hence “Bangsamoro”; then “Muslim Filipino” became disfavored – even despised. The metamorphosis is a story of generations.

In the first period, generations built proud and prosperous sultanates; in the second, they fought the Spaniards who despised them as Moro, reminiscent of the Moors who had occupied Spain for more than 700 years; in the third, ambivalent, they tried reconciling the Muslim and the Filipino; in the fourth, they asserted their aspirations -- to regain their homeland and identity.

The fourth period emerged with the generation born around 1940, now in their 60s and 70s. To this generation belonged Datu Alunan C. Glang, a descendant of the Kabuntalan sultans, who died last August 4. At the beginning, he was ambivalent about the Muslim Filipino; in the end, he devoted the rest of his life to the Bangsamoro. May he rest in the bosom of Allah.

A Pioneer

Datu Michael O. Mastura, one of the leaders of this generation, referred to him as a “pioneer Moro journalist, historian and envoy”. Under the Aquino administration, he was ambassador of the Philippines to Kuwait. A Ph. D. in History and a history professor at the University of the East, it was as journalist and historian that he espoused the Moro cause best.

When we were students at Notre Dame College (now, University) in Cotabato City in early 1950s, we would occasionally meet over coffee table. With pride, he would extol the Muslims as the “unconquered people,” a belief as dominant as religion.

Once, I retorted. “Yes, Al, but you were unable to conquer the wilderness, disease, ignorance, poverty.” He just smiled. He knew this to be a fact. He knew that parts of Mindanao had been conquered by the Spaniards and the Americans had subjugated Mindanao and Sulu. He knew I did not understand him.

Even today many could not understand what Muslims mean by “unconquered people.” He explained that “unconquered people” referred not just to centuries of valiant defense of the Muslims of their homeland but to the unbent Muslim spirit, the same spirit resurging in the Bangsmoro liberation movement.

Ambivalence

Al’s generation was born during the ascendancy of the Muslim Filipino, the period when Muslim leaders were trying to reconcile the Muslim and the Filipino. Two or three decades earlier, the last of the Moro had tried in vain to petition the U.S. President and Congress to separate Mindanao and Sulu from Luzon and the Visayas preferring to be under America.

The Moro leaders asserted the Muslims were not Filipinos, warning that the cultural, social and religious chasm between them would spell a troubled union. The Muslim Filipino leaders did not ignore history and the warnings of their elders. While they deplored in the strongest terms the plight of the Muslim, they had to play politics with the powers in Manila to stay in power.

In the mid-1950, the Philippine Congress created the Commission on National Integration. The Commission implemented a 20-year National Integration program that included a broad range of assistance to Muslims and other Cultural Minorities among which was the grant of college scholarship. At about the same time, the Muslim-Christian Brotherhood was born.

Manila had already seen the brewing Mindanao problem. They must have convinced the Muslim Filipino leaders that integration was the solution to the Mindanao and Muslim problems. But by the end of the 1960s, ironically, Muslim CNI scholars were questioning the integration program. Whether they were aware of it or not, the Bangsamoro was emerging.

By the end of this decade, Muslim-Christian Brotherhood – more of an alliance for political convenience – ended with the breakout of the disastrous Ilaga-Blackshirt war of attrition. In reality, this ushered in the Moro rebellion – from National Integration to Moro Liberation.

The Muslim Filipino ambivalence Dr. Alunan C. Glang articulated in his book Secession or Integration? The ideas he expounded in the book, he expanded in many of his magazine articles and in his column “Imaman Kano” [Wake Up or Beware] for almost a decade in The Mindanao Cross, a weekly in Cotabato City.

Negativism

Negativism is a state of mind that has set the Muslims apart from the Christians in Mindanao. About the mid-1900, many Muslims did not consider themselves Filipino and referred to the Philippine government as gobirno a sariwang a tao or government of foreign people. Al Glang dwelt lengthily on this in his works.

In 1971, writing in Solidarity, a monthly magazine, he said: “Even today and more so as a result of perennial government neglect, as in the case of outlying localities, they have continued to live almost untouched by the changes brought about by modern urban life.”

He attributed this negativism also to government laws and policies the Muslims felt to be unjust and oppressive and to their way of life in Islam they wanted to preserve. And more, to the datus and Muslim political leaders “who exploited the indifference and ignorance of their own people”, as a result of which, “the Muslims suffer a double dose of neglect from their own leaders and from the national government”.

Muslim Filipino

Despite his criticism of the Muslim traditional and political leadership and of the government, blaming them for the miserable conditions of the Muslims, Al Glang at that time was Muslim Filipino, a moderate, trapped in ambivalence. He temporized that the “negative attitude is more an expression of a desire for national recognition of their economic, political and social plight” not “a concerted action toward eventual secession from the Philippines”.

And continued: “This is borne by the fact that the Muslims have recognized the unchangeable verities; that, whether they like it or not, they are part of the Philippines and that they belong to it ethnologically and politically, chained forever to historical, geographical and political bonds, and perforce must share with the rest of the nation the same fate and the same destiny."
This he reasoned while echoing the belief of Moro leaders in the 1920s and 1930s that “the Moros are not with the Christian Filipinos in their asking for independence”; their wish for “our Moro-country to be segregated from Luzon and the Visayan Islands”; and that “the Muslims … were never historically, never part of the Philippines, and never at anytime did they consider themselves to be so”.

The ambivalence might be explained by the hope that he, like the Muslim Filipino leaders, saw for the Muslims at that time halfway into the implementation of the National Integration program. He said: “With the attention that the government has given the plight of the Muslim Filipinos now, it is probable that this outspoken attitude of negativism would soon die out.

Among the most concrete show of government sincerity was the creation of the Commission on National Integration which looks after the ethnic minorities in the country.”

(Source (http://mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3051&Itemid=68))

^^ nice thread @kiretoce :okay:

^^ Thanks @dinabaw, it'd be nice if we can have a healthy discussion about our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, and their plight for the rights and equality that they are also deserving of without it turning into an "us against them" situation.

Oh yeah, is there a difference between a "Moslem" and a "Muslim?" :dunno:

^^ Thanks @dinabaw, it'd be nice if we can have a healthy discussion about our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, and their plight for the rights and equality that they are also deserving of without it turning into an "us against them" situation.

Oh yeah, is there a difference between a "Moslem" and a "Muslim?" :dunno:

well we've been discussing this topic in other threads ,yes this is the right venue i might say for understanding our Filipino Muslim brothers

I think the difference between Moslem & Muslim is orientation , Moslem are frequently used in Middle East and other asian country but here and in Southeast Asia it's more on Muslim .




here's a little understanding of "Assalamu Alaikum" , i like this wiriter Moslemen Macarambon Jr. he speaks well of his roots and his friendship to his non -muslim borthers :)


Assalamu Alaikum
Published by Jun | Filed under Islam

This is the common greetings of Muslim around the globe. Here in the Philippines, non-muslim thought its just a local language but its not. This greeting is an Arabic language.

As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم) is an Arabic language greeting used in both Muslim and Christian cultures. It means “Peace be upon you.” It is also transliterated as Assalamu ‘Alaikum or As-salaamu Alaikum. The traditional response is “wa `Alaykum As-Salām“, meaning “and on you be peace.”

This type of greeting is common in the Middle East; it is similar to the Hebrew greeting of shalom aleichem. (Wikipedia)

Did you know that Assalamu Alaikum is a simple prayer?

Everytime you greet somebody, you are wishing that his day will turn out the best in every way.

To all my blog readers - Assalamu Alaikum!


http://moslemenjr.macarambon.com/assalamu-alaikum/

I was even shocked to see a mosque amidst the small houses in Basak Lapu-Lapu City. I thought there were no Muslim communities in Lapu-Lapu

Ignorant Filipinos especially fom the North has always associated that every people in Mindanao is a Muslim, and Muslim is savage. :lol:

Anyway, this thread will surely educate the Filipinos of the North to think that they are even more savage than Muslims. :lol:

Thanks a lot to the person who made this thread. I really love to post here anytime. :) :cheers:

The Bates Treaty had promised to uphold mutual respect between the U.S. and the Sultanate of Sulu, to respect Moro autonomy, and to not give or sell Sulu or any part of it to any other nation.


The Bates Treaty
by Madge Kho br> http://www.philippineupdate.com/Bates.htm

A relatively unknown but significant detail in Philippine history is the Bates Treaty, signed between the U.S. and the Sultanate of Sulu on August 20, 1899. This article looks into the background of that treaty and its consequences.

You may read further on below web link :

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=22

Source : The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School

The United States of America and Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of her august son Don Alfonso XIII, desiring to end the state of war now existing between the two countries, have for that purpose appointed as plenipotentiaries:

you may read further on the below link :

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=21

. History books in the Philippines tend to lay emphasis on events in other islands and glorify national heroes from such areas, as if the history of the Philippines is only that of people who had been conquered while the history of the unconquered ones do not merit a share in the history of the Philippines. Possibly, with greater tolerance, intensive scholarship on all levels, deeper and wider moral perspectives, and a greater appreciation of the concept and implications of a pluralistic society, a future generation of Filipinos would consider the struggle of the Muslim South as part of the struggle of the entire nation-and the epic exploits of its heroes may well be the nation's heritage.2

you may read further at the below link :

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=32

The Tripoli Agreement

You may read at the below link:

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=27

I was even shocked to see a mosque amidst the small houses in Basak Lapu-Lapu City. I thought there were no Muslim communities in Lapu-Lapu

Rajah Soliman is a muslim ruled Manlia and maybe Lapu-Lapu too :D

@avenger pls. don't kill this thread LOL i mean from being bland let's discuss it w/ our personal view :)

^^ I agree, instead of flooding it with lengthy posts (that the majority of readers will just skip over anyway), just give us your opinions on the matter, or if you need some references to back up your position, provide us with the links. Thank you very much! :okay:

re Moslem or Muslim:

In the Arabic language where the word "Muslim" originally came from has no equivalent for "O" and "E" so "Muslim" has always been the correct word which means the one who practices Islam. The words ISLAM - the religion, MUSLIM, and SALAM - peace, have the same root word which is from the Arabic word SILM.

^^ Thanks for the clarification! :okay:

@avenger pls. don't kill this thread LOL i mean from being bland let's discuss it w/ our personal view :)

Ok I alread edited and just put the web link.

Btw Lapu Lapu is a Muslim, a Tausug.

The battle of Mactan should be commemorated every year and our Muslim brothers should be proud that the first hero of the Filipino people is a Muslim – a Tausug – the famous fierce defender of freedom and sovereignty

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/lapulapu.jpg

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=33

re Moslem or Muslim:

In the Arabic language where the word "Muslim" originally came from has no equivalent for "O" and "E" so "Muslim" has always been the correct word which means the one who practices Islam. The words ISLAM - the religion, MUSLIM, and SALAM - peace, have the same root word which is from the Arabic word SILM.

thanks sir abs so why the word Moslem is used in other region?

ok maybe thta's why the Moslem is being use moslty by western people ?

a net-find... an 18th century picture of tribes living in the northern part of mindanao, i suppose they weren't moslems but rather domesticated savages ... :cheers:


http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h129/rajah_soliman/8888%20SSC/cottabatonatives_25_0001_1880s.jpg

Rajah Soliman is a muslim ruled Manlia and maybe Lapu-Lapu too :D

i'm planning to become datu bago in the near future .... :lol:

^^ what's the pic about thats' porn yan noong alaw :D

^^ i don't understand what you mean :lol:

^^ what's the pic about thats' porn yan noong alaw :D


if i am not mistaken even today the photos and cultural film of indigenous people is not considered porn. that's why few years ago some bold stars can bare everything without being censored by in cultural films. parang ganoon ang nabasa ko dati.

Ok I alread edited and just put the web link.

Btw Lapu Lapu is a Muslim, a Tausug.

The battle of Mactan should be commemorated every year and our Muslim brothers should be proud that the first hero of the Filipino people is a Muslim – a Tausug – the famous fierce defender of freedom and sovereignty

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/lapulapu.jpg

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=33

according to many researchers lapulapu as a tausug is only a claim without strong factual basis because local traditions would point to borneo as the origin of lapulapu and borneo is inhabited by tribes that practice the tradition of tattooing their body and based on local traditions, lapulapu believed in nature spirits and not in an allah. that is also the reason why the spanish friars reportedly saw the natives worshipping anitos. if they found a muslim they would be able to identify them because they are familiar with the moors who ruled southern spain for centuries.

and many researchers don't think the tausug claim is true because it is also human nature and in the culture of many race to take credit for the achievements of someone who is famous and known to be great and lapulapu at that time was famous throughout the southern achipelago because he succeeded in killing a white man.

the story about rajah soliman could be found in the site you posted about limahong.

http://www.elaput.org/portslam.htm

Nuong 1570, pagkaraan lamang ng 50 taon, si Rajah Soliman at si Rajah Laja (ang tinawag na Rajah Matanda) ang dinatnan ng mga Espanyol na haghahari sa Manila. Ang mag-tio ay kapwa anak-anak (descendants) ni Dayang Kalangitan, ang babaing pinuno ng Bitukan Manok (lungsod ng Pasig ngayon) at asawa ni Gat Lontok, nuong bandang 1450. Na babae ang pinuno, at dayang at gat ang mga parangal, - lahat ay patunay na galing sila sa mga unang tao sa Sumatra, tinawag na mga Minang kabau, at lumikas sila sa Pilipinas halos 2,000 taon sa nakaraan - bago ginamit ang mga parangal na datu at rajah sa Sumatra.

according to their research manila was conquered by the sultanate of brunei, but they were later replaced by a group that is led by rajah matanda believed to be decendants of minangkerbau of indonesia who settled in the philippines years before the minangkerbau were islamized in indonesia.

pag sumama ako sa Balik Islam ang gagawin kong bagong pangalan ay
jibrael bin sulaiman


By Johnna Villaviray, Senior Reporter

(First of Three Parts)

When the television reporter Richard Rivera stepped onto the Sulu pier, one thing was on his mind: send stories to Manila about efforts to recover the Abu Sayyaf’s 19 Sipadan hostages.

By the end of the six-week assignment, Rivera brought home not just war stories but a new faith as well.

Now answering to the name Abdurahman Ismail, Rivera has resigned from the network and is now helping to organize rallies to raise civic awareness. He says he doesn’t miss his fast life as a reporter and its perks—booze, payola and girls.

“Before I became a Muslim, the focus was on money, how to get ahead in life. But now, I ask myself, ‘What’s all that for? Isn’t salvation what’s important?’” Rivera said.

Rivera is one of the thousands of former Christians who “reverted” to Islam since the 1990s. The Office of Muslim Affairs estimates that at least 20,000 Balik Islam, or “reverts” as they like to be called, live in traditionally Catholic Luzon. They call themselves “reverts” rather than converts on the premise that everyone was born a Muslim.

You may read further on below web link :


http://www.manilatimes.net/others/special/2003/nov/17/20031117spe1.html

The Office of Muslim Affairs estimates that at least 20,000 Balik Islam, or “reverts” as they like to be called, live in traditionally Catholic Luzon. They call themselves “reverts” rather than converts on the premise that everyone was born a Muslim.

I think this is entirely false. Taking Mindanao as an example alone, only the Sulu archipelago and the west-central portions fell to Islam. Cos like the Manobos, Bagobos, Samals, and the rest of the tribes that still occupy the majority of Mindanao, we were all animist. We converted to Christianity and they didn't. Neither did they embrace the Sultan's religion. They remained lumad. The Muslims were prevented from extending further from what ARMM is today. We're no different from the Pacific islanders who believed in anitos until the cross came.

^^ Thanks for the clarification! :okay:

your most welcome bro:)

thanks sir abs so why the word Moslem is used in other region?

ok maybe thta's why the Moslem is being use moslty by western people ?

Its just corruptions of the correct word sir ambie...Parang Davao gud, usahay Dabaw, usahay Dabao....:)

^^ yes i also got an answer today from Jun(moslemen) it's only the spelling its all the same . thanks ,

OT:btw don't forget our amul2x tomorrow

I think this is entirely false. Taking Mindanao as an example alone, only the Sulu archipelago and the west-central portions fell to Islam. Cos like the Manobos, Bagobos, Samals, and the rest of the tribes that still occupy the majority of Mindanao, we were all animist. We converted to Christianity and they didn't. Neither did they embrace the Sultan's religion. They remained lumad. The Muslims were prevented from extending further from what ARMM is today. We're no different from the Pacific islanders who believed in anitos until the cross came.

You have misunderstood completelly the postings from the Office of the Muslim Affairs... this is about the Balik-Islam movement or the "Reverts" ... these were the Filipino Christians from Luzon and the Visayan who work in the Middle East as OFW for many years and they returned to our country no longer a Christians but a Muslims. Later their families here who was left behind later converted to Muslim too.

Balik-Islam movement is the by product of our OFW and Pinoy Diaspora... btw there is nothing wrong for a Christian to became a Muslim. The God of the Jew, Christian, and Muslim were the same God. El Shaddai ,,,, Jehovah... and Allah were the same " God the father " of the Christians. Jesus is the son.

Abraham of the Christian Bible and Jew Torah is Ibrahim in Islam Koran.
Joseph of the Jew and Christian is the Yusof of the Muslim, etc.

Robin Padilla also converted to Muslim, there was one Millionaire in Greenhills San Juan who converted also to Muslim, Major Dolorfino of the NCR command is a former Catholic who converted to Islam religion.

I think this is entirely false. Taking Mindanao as an example alone, only the Sulu archipelago and the west-central portions fell to Islam. Cos like the Manobos, Bagobos, Samals, and the rest of the tribes that still occupy the majority of Mindanao, we were all animist. We converted to Christianity and they didn't. Neither did they embrace the Sultan's religion. They remained lumad. The Muslims were prevented from extending further from what ARMM is today. We're no different from the Pacific islanders who believed in anitos until the cross came.


What the Office of the Muslim Affairs is saying is that the Tagalog region, Kapampangan, and other parts of Central Luzon and or Northern Luzon was of Islamic faith before the Spaniards controlled Manila in about 1574. And it was a documented fact.

Even the Batanggenyo is still saying " Allah eh " . Also the great-great-granfather of former
Senator Doy Laurel is a Muslim Datu from Brunei.. It was mentioned in the book of Francia Rumualdes re Marcos Dictatorship.

So those people from Luzon when they converted to Islam religion is called Balik Islam or Reverts since their ancestors were former Muslim.

Of course the Lumads ( non-Christian tribes) if they converted to Islam religion, they cannot be called a Balik Islam or Reverts because they were former pagans or animist.... they shall be called "Converts"

.

^^ yes i also got an answer today from Jun(moslemen) it's only the spelling its all the same . thanks ,

OT:btw don't forget our amul2x tomorrow

saan pala venue natin sir ambie?

Say, are there any openly Muslim people on national TV (as broadcasted from Manila, not from a specific region) wearing a hijab or the cap men usually wear? I know they're only 5-10 % of the nation. I'm sure ABS CBN doesn't have any judging from what is shown on TFC (unless I'm missing something here...) and I don't know much about GMA since I don't have GMA Pinoy TV yet.

What the Office of the Muslim Affairs is saying is that the Tagalog region, Kapampangan, and other parts of Central Luzon and or Northern Luzon was of Islamic faith before the Spaniards controlled Manila in about 1574. And it was a documented fact.

Even the Batanggenyo is still saying " Allah eh " . Also the great-great-granfather of former
Senator Doy Laurel is a Muslim Datu from Brunei.. It was mentioned in the book of Francia Rumualdes re Marcos Dictatorship.

So those people from Luzon when they converted to Islam religion is called Balik Islam or Reverts since their ancestors were former Muslim.

Of course the Lumads ( non-Christian tribes) if they converted to Islam religion, they cannot be called a Balik Islam or Reverts because they were former pagans or animist.... they shall be called "Converts"

.

Some research also discovered that manila was conquered at one time by the sultanate of brunei but the whole island of luzon didn't become islamized and even those conquerors sent to conquer manila were of different origin and some were thought to be hindu mercenaries. traces of the tattoo culture from the visayas to luzon is proof that islam was not able to penetrate these areas because islam prohibits tattooing the body.

Muslim call it "balik islam" because they believe Adam was muslim and so everyone is born a muslim because the first man was a muslim.

By the way, if the ancestors of the people who live in luzon were muslims (practicing muslims and not by association with adam), that would mean that muslims all over the world are duty-bound by their religion to take it back for islam and it's not just by convincing everyone to become muslim. it's to install a muslim government because in islam, religion and politics are one. you cannot separate them.

So that would be like inviting radical muslims to send suicide bombers to manila and luzon to take it back by force because convincing manilans and luzonians to "revert" to islam would be difficult and even if they succeed, that would still take centuries.

saan pala venue natin sir ambie?

OT: sa Torres pero la pang definite place txt txt lang ta

Some research also discovered that manila was conquered at one time by the sultanate of brunei but the whole island of luzon didn't become islamized and even those conquerors sent to conquer manila were of different origin and some were thought to be hindu mercenaries. traces of the tattoo culture from the visayas to luzon is proof that islam was not able to penetrate these areas because islam prohibits tattooing the body.

Muslim call it "balik islam" because they believe Adam was muslim and so everyone is born a muslim because the first man was a muslim.

By the way, if the ancestors of the people who live in luzon were muslims (practicing muslims and not by association with adam), that would mean that muslims all over the world are duty-bound by their religion to take it back for islam and it's not just by convincing everyone to become muslim. it's to install a muslim government because in islam, religion and politics are one. you cannot separate them.

So that would be like inviting radical muslims to send suicide bombers to manila and luzon to take it back by force because convincing manilans and luzonians to "revert" to islam would be difficult and even if they succeed, that would still take centuries.


well that is your view .... and you are free to say your view.

about radical muslim .... radicalism of Islams started in the Arab world because of Western imperialism. Almost all Palestinians were displaced in their land which they occupy for a thousand years....when the British and the Americans have influenced the United Nation to give Palestine to the so-called Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. Those Jews who settled Palestine which was renamed Israel were the descendants of the Wandering Jews who left Israel more than 2,000 years ago. And since their Jew ancestors left Palestine 2,000 years ago and intermarried with Europeans (mainly Germans and Russians) the Jews who came back to established the State of Israel cannot be called Jew as defined by blood. So this Jewish problems plus the British colonial rule in the Arab word was the root of the radicalism of the Muslim Arabs.

While the radicalism of our Muslim Filipinos can be traced in their histories of sufferings and injustices under the hands of the Spaniards and American colonizer. The other reasons for the radicalim of our brother Filipino Muslim was the lost of their ancestral lands to the Christians settlers from Luzon and the Visayas. The Americans started this transmigration of Christian settlers from Luzon and Visayas to MIndanao and after the Japanese War (WW II) the Philippine government embarked on grandscale transmigration of Christians to Mindanao backed by our Armed Forces.


[QUOTE] So that would be like inviting radical muslims to send suicide bombers to manila and luzon to take it back by force because convincing manilans and luzonians to "revert" to islam would be difficult and even if they succeed, that would still take centuries [QUOTE]

how can you arrive on that conclusion that because of the Balik Islam movement, it will invite radical muslims to send suicide bombers to Manila and Luzon. that is like parroting the American propaganda about muslims since the terrorist who bombed the Twin Tower in New York were muslim Arabs.

there is no points of sayings this statement " convincing manilans and luzonians to "revert" to islam would be difficult and even if they succeed, that would still take centuries "
when Muslim from Mindanao or Sulu does not even started proselytizing their religions in Luzon, they were more interested in selling DVDs and carpets :) from Manila to Baguio and perhaps till Aparri Cagayan.

Those Christians from some part of Luzon became a Muslim "Revert" after their stint of a couple of years in the Middle East as OFW.

--------------------------------------------------------

Pls note that my arguments that Tagalogs and Kapampangans (and perhaps some part of Northern Luzon) were of Muslim religion before and related to the Sultanate of Sulu as per documentted history, was to rebutt the points of MILF that Bangsa Moro nation is of different culture from the Christian Filipino hence they have to established a sepate nation.

^^ the conflict in the middle east is centuries old. and if we are only to go back to the claim for those land. we can also say that the land do not really belong to the arabs because they took it, grab it from the jews when they conquered the place. and the jews took it from the canaanites. and whether those jews are just halfbreed jews or pure breed jews. their ancestors would not have migrated to other places if they were not driven out of their land. we must also take note that even mecca have had jewish settlements but they were driven out of their land when islam took root.

as for muslim filipinos, according to our NCCA, there were only 3 sultanates in the philippines and they are only found in the west of mindanao. the subanon lumads as well as the lumad bajao and many more were the original settlers of some of those places but were driven out of their land because of muslim expansion. the stronger muslim tribes took away what was their ancestral land. so some of them just migrated to the east of mindanao. and that is where you would now find the concentration of lumads who practice the religion of the anitos. the people who really lost so much are the lumads because their land are being taken away from them both by the christians and the muslims, until now they are still fighting for their ancestral domain because the muslims want the entire mindanao as part of bangsamoro and the christians on the other are encroaching on their ancestral land.

you can even research on the history of the 3 philippine sultanate and the dates of their existence, the extent of their domain when they became muslim sultanates and the history of western colonization in those areas. and also look into the history of the lumads of mindanao because that's not just my view, it is taken from the views of people who study our history and you can check it at this site:

http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about_cultarts/comarticle_lists.php?committee_Id=20

the writer i presume is muslim, but it is also good to look for other cross references and sources. see if they match. again, it's not my view, i based it from what our own NCCA and people who had research into our history and i just studied the dates, the maps, the circumstances and the culture of the people and post it here because i can see that it match all the other information in the other credible sources.

as for the suicide bombers, i'm not speaking of radical filipinos but the radical non-filipino muslims who believe that they should retake all the lands that had once been ruled by muslims and put them under shariah rule.

i remember watching one television show that talks about these radical muslims. i can't remember if it was Discovery channel or CNN or ANC. but that was what they were discussing as to why arabs wants jews out of the land israel. it is because they claim that it is a muslim land.

and since you says "perhaps some part of luzon". it only show that we are not sure. because even china can say that the spratly is part of their empire because their annals mentioned about chinese fishermen fishing in the spratlys.

in the same manner the sultanate of sulu can claim any parts that is beyond their domain and say that it is also their domain even if they don't really have an actual sovereignty over it. even the northern part of palawan had already been settled by lumads when the sultanate of brunei lay claim to it.

by the way, i tried to read about radical islam, and i discovered that radical islam had been there even before the british colonial rule in the arab world. muslims were already terrorizing and killing each other from the time of the first caliph till the present. the shia-sunni war had been going on for centuries. if they were not fighting a common non-muslim enemy, they'd be fighting each other.

If we go back farther in the history you will know that the Hebrew which later were called Jew originally came from Ur in the ancient kingdom of Mesopotamia which is located in the eastern part of Iraq. Abraham the father of the hebrew/Jew and Arabs came from Ur.
And when the clan of Abraham arrived in Philistine (the original name of Palestine) there were people there who were called Canaanite.

Who were the Palestinians ? they originally came from the kingdom of Phoencian in North Africa, they were of Caucasian race and believed originated from the Greeks. These Phoenicians settled in Philitistine and intermarried with the Canaanite and later became the Philistine. The Palestinians were the descendants of the Philistine. So during the time of the
arrival of the Hebrew in Palestine from Ur the Philistine were already there living in Palestina.

The Hebrew lived side by side with the Philistine.Then some Hebrew migrated to Egypt and there Moses the Hebrew was born. Then when the Hebrew together with Moses cross the Red Sea and return to Palestine they called their land Israel and they build the kingdom of Israel and Judah, the word Jew came from the word Judah. When the Jew arrived in Palestine from Egypt the Philistine were still there

IN some point in History the Philistine were called Palestinian. And these Palestinian were of Phoenician / Greek origin and not Arabs. They still remain there in Palestine and lived side by side with newly arrived Jew from Egypt.

After the death of Jesus Christ, the Romans burned Jerusalem and the Jews scattered to all places in Europe. The Palestinian still lived there. In some point in history, some of these Palestinian became Muslim and some intermarried with the Arabs, so they have Arab blood now but their main blood were of Phoenician origins.

Later Palestine come under the control of the Turks who were of Muslim faith.
This time Western Europe were already Christian, then the Cristians from Europe established a Crusade to recover Palestine from the Turks who were Muslim. Many of these Crusaders intermarried with the Palestinians and some of these Palestinian became Christians. So in Palestine lived Palestinian Christians and Paletinian Muslims. The Crusaders also intermarried with the Arabs so their offsprings became the Christian Arabs of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. You can see now that the Arabs in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq have Caucasians features which they inherited from the Cruisaders.

So while the Jews were living in Europe for 2,000 years, the Palestinians were living in Palestine for 2,000 years also. Of course some Jews were left behind in Palestine during the Jews Diaspora.

Then came the 2nd World War and the Jews in Germany were systematically burn in the oven of Dachau, Treblinka, etc. About 6 millions Jews perished in the Jewish holocaust by the German Nazi. The Jews who survived the holocaust managed to go to Palestine which the Jew called Israel. In 1946 through the sponsorsip of the British and US govt. the United Nations gave the land of Palestine to the Jewish survivor and they renamed it Israel.

But there Palestinian living there. The Israli managed to evict the Palestinians, and these Palestinian became refugees in Lebanon and many Arab countries. Later these Palestinians who lived in the refugee camp in Leban and Jordan were radicalize and became guerillas / freedom fighters with aims to regain their lost land of Palestine which became the State of Israel. These Palestinian freedom fighters were lated called Terrorist by the British and the Americans.

Because the Arabs helps the Palestinians in their struggles to regain Palestine from the Jew/Israeli, so Israel and Arabs fought many wars.


Sources :

Microsoft Encarta 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian

http://kinoko.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~duraid/stolen_science/The_Origin_of_Palestinians_and_Their_Genetic_Relatedness_With_Other_Mediterranean_Populations.pdf

If we go back farther in the history you will know that the Hebrew which later were called Jew originally came from Ur in the ancient kingdom of Mesopotamia which is located in the eastern part of Iraq. Abraham the father of the hebrew/Jew and Arabs came from Ur.
And when the clan of Abraham arrived in Philistine (the original name of Palestine) there were people there who were called Canaanite.

Who were the Palestinians ? they originally came from the kingdom of Phoencian in North Africa, they were of Caucasian race and believed originated from the Greeks. These Phoenicians settled in Philitistine and intermarried with the Canaanite and later became the Philistine. The Palestinians were the descendants of the Philistine. So during the time of the
arrival of the Hebrew in Palestine from Ur the Philistine were already there living in Palestina.

The Hebrew lived side by side with the Philistine.Then some Hebrew migrated to Egypt and there Moses the Hebrew was born. Then when the Hebrew together with Moses cross the Red Sea and return to Palestine they called their land Israel and they build the kingdom of Israel and Judah, the word Jew came from the word Judah. When the Jew arrived in Palestine from Egypt the Philistine were still there

IN some point in History the Philistine were called Palestinian. And these Palestinian were of Phoenician / Greek origin and not Arabs. They still remain there in Palestine and lived side by side with newly arrived Jew from Egypt.

After the death of Jesus Christ, the Romans burned Jerusalem and the Jews scattered to all places in Europe. The Palestinian still lived there. In some point in history, some of these Palestinian became Muslim and some intermarried with the Arabs, so they have Arab blood now but their main blood were of Phoenician origins.

Later Palestine come under the control of the Turks who were of Muslim faith.
This time Western Europe were already Christian, then the Cristians from Europe established a Crusade to recover Palestine from the Turks who were Muslim. Many of these Crusaders intermarried with the Palestinians and some of these Palestinian became Christians. So in Palestine lived Palestinian Christians and Paletinian Muslims. The Crusaders also intermarried with the Arabs so their offsprings became the Christian Arabs of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. You can see now that the Arabs in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq have Caucasians features which they inherited from the Cruisaders.

So while the Jews were living in Europe for 2,000 years, the Palestinians were living in Palestine for 2,000 years also. Of course some Jews were left behind in Palestine during the Jews Diaspora.

Then came the 2nd World War and the Jews in Germany were systematically burn in the oven of Dachau, Treblinka, etc. About 6 millions Jews perished in the Jewish holocaust by the German Nazi. The Jews who survived the holocaust managed to go to Palestine which the Jew called Israel. In 1946 through the sponsorsip of the British and US govt. the United Nations gave the land of Palestine to the Jewish survivor and they renamed it Israel.

But there Palestinian living there. The Israli managed to evict the Palestinians, and these Palestinian became refugees in Lebanon and many Arab countries. Later these Palestinians who lived in the refugee camp in Leban and Jordan were radicalize and became guerillas / freedom fighters with aims to regain their lost land of Palestine which became the State of Israel. These Palestinian freedom fighters were lated called Terrorist by the British and the Americans.

Because the Arabs helps the Palestinians in their struggles to regain Palestine from the Jew/Israeli, so Israel and Arabs fought many wars.


Sources :

Microsoft Encarta 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian

http://kinoko.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~duraid/stolen_science/The_Origin_of_Palestinians_and_Their_Genetic_Relatedness_With_Other_Mediterranean_Populations.pdf

Thanks this very valuable info bro :)

a net-find... an 18th century picture of tribes living in the northern part of mindanao, i suppose they weren't moslems but rather domesticated savages ... :cheers:


http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h129/rajah_soliman/8888%20SSC/cottabatonatives_25_0001_1880s.jpg



Ok "humanoid" Rajah, go back to where you belong. :lol:

If we go back farther in the history you will know that the Hebrew which later were called Jew originally came from Ur in the ancient kingdom of Mesopotamia which is located in the eastern part of Iraq. Abraham the father of the hebrew/Jew and Arabs came from Ur.
And when the clan of Abraham arrived in Philistine (the original name of Palestine) there were people there who were called Canaanite.

Who were the Palestinians ? they originally came from the kingdom of Phoencian in North Africa, they were of Caucasian race and believed originated from the Greeks. These Phoenicians settled in Philitistine and intermarried with the Canaanite and later became the Philistine. The Palestinians were the descendants of the Philistine. So during the time of the
arrival of the Hebrew in Palestine from Ur the Philistine were already there living in Palestina.

The Hebrew lived side by side with the Philistine.Then some Hebrew migrated to Egypt and there Moses the Hebrew was born. Then when the Hebrew together with Moses cross the Red Sea and return to Palestine they called their land Israel and they build the kingdom of Israel and Judah, the word Jew came from the word Judah. When the Jew arrived in Palestine from Egypt the Philistine were still there

IN some point in History the Philistine were called Palestinian. And these Palestinian were of Phoenician / Greek origin and not Arabs. They still remain there in Palestine and lived side by side with newly arrived Jew from Egypt.

After the death of Jesus Christ, the Romans burned Jerusalem and the Jews scattered to all places in Europe. The Palestinian still lived there. In some point in history, some of these Palestinian became Muslim and some intermarried with the Arabs, so they have Arab blood now but their main blood were of Phoenician origins.

Later Palestine come under the control of the Turks who were of Muslim faith.
This time Western Europe were already Christian, then the Cristians from Europe established a Crusade to recover Palestine from the Turks who were Muslim. Many of these Crusaders intermarried with the Palestinians and some of these Palestinian became Christians. So in Palestine lived Palestinian Christians and Paletinian Muslims. The Crusaders also intermarried with the Arabs so their offsprings became the Christian Arabs of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. You can see now that the Arabs in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq have Caucasians features which they inherited from the Cruisaders.

So while the Jews were living in Europe for 2,000 years, the Palestinians were living in Palestine for 2,000 years also. Of course some Jews were left behind in Palestine during the Jews Diaspora.

Then came the 2nd World War and the Jews in Germany were systematically burn in the oven of Dachau, Treblinka, etc. About 6 millions Jews perished in the Jewish holocaust by the German Nazi. The Jews who survived the holocaust managed to go to Palestine which the Jew called Israel. In 1946 through the sponsorsip of the British and US govt. the United Nations gave the land of Palestine to the Jewish survivor and they renamed it Israel.

But there Palestinian living there. The Israli managed to evict the Palestinians, and these Palestinian became refugees in Lebanon and many Arab countries. Later these Palestinians who lived in the refugee camp in Leban and Jordan were radicalize and became guerillas / freedom fighters with aims to regain their lost land of Palestine which became the State of Israel. These Palestinian freedom fighters were lated called Terrorist by the British and the Americans.

Because the Arabs helps the Palestinians in their struggles to regain Palestine from the Jew/Israeli, so Israel and Arabs fought many wars.


Sources :

Microsoft Encarta 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian

http://kinoko.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~duraid/stolen_science/The_Origin_of_Palestinians_and_Their_Genetic_Relatedness_With_Other_Mediterranean_Populations.pdf

The words “Palestine” and “Palestinians” have become household terms referring to the Arab population of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Gaza Strip. This meaning is planned to be codified in the name of the possible future Arab state discussed between the PLO and Israel. The adoption of this terminology as official, however, would be a mistake contradicting history and perpetuating dangerous falsehoods. This argument is based upon well-known facts that have long been textbook material.

The term “Palestine” was introduced by the Romans in the 2nd century CE in their attempt to eradicate all traces of the Jewish existence in Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel. The name was derived from the Hebrew name of Philistines (plishtim), long since defeated and extinct enemies of the Jews, who 3200 years ago occupied a small piece of land between Tel Aviv and Gaza. “Palestine” (Syria Palaestina) was to replace the name “Judaea,” after the last Judean war where the Roman troops, vastly superior in number and weapons, had been repeatedly defeated until all the resources of the Jews were exhausted. The name of Jerusalem was to be replaced by “Aelia Capitolina,” which, fortunately, has never become part of common language. The term “Palestine,” whose official use ceased after Romans, would, however, be revived to designate the area mandated to Great Britain by the League of Nations as a consequence of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Mandatory Palestine included the territory both to the east and to the west of the Jordan River—contemporary Jordan (formerly Transjordan) and Israel. The British were charged with “placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home.”

After the British had decided to create the emirate of Transjordan—the Arab state in Palestine “across the Jordan river,” —they reneged on the promise to the Jews that was contained in the original mandate where “recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”

http://www.pitt.edu/~mmv/israel.htm#misnomer

take note: it's called the Arab State of Palestine. The ones who now claims to be palestinians are actually arabs.

http://www.imninalu.net/myths-pals.htm

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill noted the Arab influx. Churchill, a veteran of the early years of the British mandate in the Holy Land, noted in 1939 that “far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied.”

http://www.geocities.com/harrymandelbaum/

^^ ^^ ^^

A few years ago or not more than 5 years ago the US Times ago posted a long a long articles about the Palestinians, and the cover of the Time Magazine was also Palestinian.

As per the researcher of the Time Magazine, the Palestinians of today were the descendants of the ancient Philistine.

Of course Israel and some European countries publications and books were denying that the Palestinians were the descendants of the ancient Philistine.

But the Jew and Israeli cannot deny that they originated from IRAQ, in the ancient city of UR in the ancient Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia is located in the Eastern part of the present Iraq.

^^ So should we handover Iraq to the jews?

Even presuming they were philistines, the philistines were invaders from crete and the greek islands. while the canaanites were the original settlers intermarrying with the jews. but we all know that those people who now call themselves palestinians are really arabs.

the region was in the hands of the europeans and not the americans. and they have the historical documents in their archives. the history of the land is connected to their european history from the phoenicians to the greeks to the romans to the turks and then the british. of course somewhere along the line there were the persians, assyrians and babylonians...

^^ So should we handover Iraq to the jews?

Even presuming they were philistines, the philistines were invaders from crete and the greek islands. while the canaanites were the original settlers intermarrying with the jews. but we all know that those people who now call themselves palestinians are really arabs.

the region was in the hands of the europeans and not the americans. and they have the historical documents in their archives. the history of the land is connected to their european history from the phoenicians to the greeks to the romans to the turks and then the british. of course somewhere along the line there were the persians, assyrians and babylonians...


Or perhaps the UN should turn-over Israel/Palestine to Iraq since the original Jew came from Irag. That is a Solomonic principle which you neither give in or support any party, and a wise decision on this case of the Palestinian and the Jews who said Palestine belong to "him" only and not the other one.

The Jew /Israeli (the Squatter in Palestine which is now called Israel) versus the Palestinian who never left the land Palestine till 1945 when they were tortured, beaten, chased-out, abused, humiliated, fired, etc

Verdict : Israel to be turn-over to Iraq. :)

^^ that won't be a problem since you said it is their land. so handover iraq to the jews and let them set up a jewish government there. :)

or we maybe we should also return the arabs in egypt back to arabia. and give the country back to the copts of which majority are christians who preserved the coptic language of their ancestors through their coptic liturgy.

The "palestinians" were not tortured, beaten, chased-out, abused, humiliated, fired, etc because they were arabs and the arabs are muslims and the rulers who were turks were also muslims. and muslims hate jews. the koran even call jews apes and pigs. and told muslims not to be friends with the jews and if i am right it even includes the christians unless they allow themselves to be subdued and pay the jizya tax.

bump.... bakit jews and palestine ang topic dito :lol: :cheers:

^^ that won't be a problem since you said it is their land. so handover iraq to the jews and let them set up a jewish government there. :)

or we maybe we should also return the arabs in egypt back to arabia. and give the country back to the copts of which majority are christians who preserved the coptic language of their ancestors through their coptic liturgy.

The "palestinians" were not tortured, beaten, chased-out, abused, humiliated, fired, etc because they were arabs and the arabs are muslims and the rulers who were turks were also muslims. and muslims hate jews. the koran even call jews apes and pigs. and told muslims not to be friends with the jews and if i am right it even includes the christians unless they allow themselves to be subdued and pay the jizya tax.


The "palestinians" were not tortured, beaten, chased-out, abused, humiliated, fired, etc because they were arabs
just because they were Arabs they were not tortured etc ? where it the logic there .suppose they were of british or spanish descent ?

btw palestinian were descendants of Canaanite who were miixed with the bloods of arabs, and European Christian Crusaders.

turks were also muslims - how can you be so sure that all Turks were all muslims. Istanbul located on the European side of the Strait of Bosporus was the former name of Constantinople which is the seat of the Catholic Orthodox Church.... unbelievable that no descendants of those
Christians in Constantinople were left in Turkey. It is like sayings Filipinos were Christian which is wrong since we have also Filipinos professing Islamic religions, and possibly Bhudist and Hindus also.

arabs are muslims - how can you say that? how about the Arab Christians in Lebanon who were almost half of the population of Lebanon? and how about the Arab Christians in Syria and Iraq ?
It is also like sayings that all Indonesians were all Muslims.

muslims hate jews the koran even call jews apes and pigs. and told muslims not to be friends with the jews

- this is entirely wrong ... and a propaganda. in the Koran it was written that Muslims should respect the "People of the Book" which is the Jew.
and to also respect the Christians since they were the people of the Prophet Jesus. Muslims during the time of Mohamed believe Jesus is a Prophet.

Please note that even before the Internet became common I always read books... any kind of books or magazines... I even received free subscription of Pravda magazine and I read it all.... when I was a kid I even read " ang diyaryo na pinagbalutan ng tinapa :)





Arab Christians of Lebanon

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/arabchristian.jpg

http://phoenicia.org/christiansmea.html





Arab Christian in Syria

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/arabcjhristiansyria.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1313724.stm





Christian Damascus

Syria to most foreigners appears to be a purely Muslim country. Few realised that this is a country with 1.2 million Christians, about 10% of the population. Christianity came early to Damascus. This was where according to the Bible Acts 9:1, Ananias, an early Christian disciple, was asked to “go to the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus (St Paul) so that he might be able to touch him and restore Saul’s sight.” Thereupon, Saul, a persecutor of the Christian

http://weecheng.com/mideast/syria/dama2.htm





Turkish Christian

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/turkishchristiabs-1.jpg




http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/esberofturkey.jpg





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/esberyagmurdeli.jpg

Photo of Esber Yagmurdereli.
The feature of my father and my great-grandfather was the same as Esber Yagmurdereli of Turkey.
perhaps we have Turkish blood. But my father said they were of German-Jew descent. :)




http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR440741997?open&of=ENG-316

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^^ this is already OT.

but i'll be brief.

the turks are muslims, those who are christians in the byzantine period are greeks or romano-greco. the turks invaded constantinople (now renamed istanbul) subdued the greeks and there was even the extermination of the armenians. i also read history and i read them page by page. :) before i study a nation's language, i read its history first. that is why those who are real egyptians and descendants of the people of the pharaohs of egypt are really those who are called copts and belonging to the coptic christian churches. majority of those who are muslim are of arab stock while some may have a mixture of other blood including coptic.

you may have read books but i also have read books and there are many resources in the internet. all you can do is google it and check the facts. you can also google the koran. i saw one with both arabic and english translation. and i read it too.

so let's just google for it and let's go back to the topic. :)

by the way, the maronites and the lebanese are not arabs. that is why they didn't place the word "arab" in the official name of their country.

bump.... bakit jews and palestine ang topic dito :lol: :cheers:

sa susunod magiging chinese ang topic...

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/sultaninshandung.jpg

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/myalbum/



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/tombinchina.jpg





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/suluandchina.jpg

http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e2004/e200404/p56.htm







http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/xoopspoll/pollresults.php?poll_id=1


still not completed .... will continue soon phtobucket problem is resolved

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/yakans3.jpg




http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/yakans2.jpg




http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/yakans.jpg



http://www.univie.ac.at/voelkerkunde/apsis/aufi/yakan/yakan.htm

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Muslim Mindanao

Aside from the colorful contributions of its regional tribes, Mindanao is home to the largest cultural minority in the Philippines - the Muslims. Brought by Javanese and Middle Eastern traders, Islam is the religion of approximately 20 percent of the Philippine population.



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/muslimdance.jpg



They are known for their mysticism, royalty, and beauty which are evident in their music and dances. Accompanied by the agong and kulintang, Filipino Muslim dance is marked by intricate hand and arm movement along with shimmering costumes.




Pangalay

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/badjaopangalay1.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/badjaopangalay2.jpg


Pangalay
Tribe: Badjao
Origin: Zamboanga del Sur

A pangalay native to the Badjao, sometimes known as the "Sea Gypsies." Pangalay is a dance that emphasizes the agility of the upper body. The rhythmic bounce of the shoulder with simultaneous alternating waving of arms are the basic movement of this dance. The pangalay is commonly performed at weddings and other social gatherings.




Singkil

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranaosingkil1.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranaosingkil2.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranosingkil3.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranaosingkil4.jpg


(Singkil)
Tribe:Maranao
Origin: Lanao, Mindanao

Sinkil dance takes its name from the bells worn on the ankles of the Muslim princess. Perhaps one of the oldest of truly Filipino dances, the Singkil recounts the epic legend of the "Darangan" of the Maranao people of Mindanao. This epic, written sometime in the 14th century, tells the fateful story of Princess Gandingan, who was caught in the middle of a forest during an earthquake caused by the diwatas, or fairies or nymph of the forest.

The rhythmic clapping of criss-crossed bamboo poles represent the trees that were falling, which she gracefully avoids. Her slave loyally accompanies her throughout her ordeal. Finally, she is saved by the prince. Dancers wearing solemn faces and maintaining a dignified pose being dancing at a slow pace which soon progresses to a faster tempo skillfully manipulate apir, or fans which represent the winds that prove to be auspicious. The dancers weave expertly through criss-crossed bamboos.

When performed by ladies of the royalty of Lanao, the dancer is usually accompanied by a waiting lady, who holds a beautifully decorated umbrella over the Princess' head wherever she goes. Royal princesses to this day in the Sulu Archipelago are required to learn this most difficult and noble dance.




Pangsak

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/yakanpangsat1.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/yakanpangsat2.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/ykanpangsat3.jpg


Pangsak
Tribe: Yakan
Origin: Basilan

The Yakan are a Muslim ethnic group in the highlands of Mindanao. They wear elaborately woven costumes tightly on their bodies. Their dances involve complicated hand and foot movements. In this dance, a man unties a wrap from his wife-to-be's waist to wrap around her body and dance with. Both of their faces are dotted with white paint, to hide their identity from evil spirits.




Pangalay ha Pattong

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/badjaopangalayhapatong.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/badjaopangalyhapatong2.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/badjaopangalayhapatong3.jpg


Pangalay ha Pattong
Tribe: Badjao

A royal couple balance perilously on top of bamboo poles imitating the movements of the picturesque southern boat (the vinta) with colorful sails gliding across the Sulu Sea.




Pagapir


http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranaopagapir.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranaopagapir2.jpg


Pagapir
Tribe: Maranao
Origin: Lanao del Sur

Pagaper depicts a royal manner of "walking" among the Maranao people who live mainly around Lake Lanao. Ladies of the royal court perform this stately dance in preparation for an important event. The ladies gracefully manipulate the Aper (apir) or fan, while emphasizing their small steps, or "kini-kini", which is a sign of good upbringing.




Sagayan

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maguindanaosagayan1.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maguindanaosagayan2.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maguindanaoagayan3.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maguindanaosagayan4.jpg


Sagayan
Tribe: Maguindanao
Origin: Cotabato

Performed by very fierce warriors carrying a shield elaborately painted with curlicues, rounds, twirls and mirrors which are attached with shell noisemakers. In their other hand, they carry a double-bladed sword (kampilan) of metal or wood. Sagayan dancers are dressed in three tiered skirts, brightly colored topper and headgear embellished with all the imaginable colors of twine trimmings formed into flowers, balls, sunbursts etc. Long, yellow playful tassels almost hiding the face surround the headgear.

The dance involves leaping, turning, jumping, kicking and the rolling movements of a warrior ready to defend his master in battle. Kamanyang fumes inhaled by the sagayan moves him to perform in a magic-like trance. On most occasions, this dance is performed before any celebration or gathering to drive away evil spirits (tunong) and to welcome good fortunes or omen.




Kapa Malong Malong

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranaokapamalong.jpg



http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranaokapamalong2.jpg


Also called Sambi sa Malong, this Maranao dance shows the
many ways of wearing a malong, a simple tubular yet highly
functional piece of cloth. The traditional women’s version shows this cloth of countless colorful designs; used mostly as a skirt, woven in many different ways, depending on the purpose of the wearer. Other ways the women wear malong is as a shawl, a mantle, or a head-piece.

During more recent dance documentation, a men’s version was derived. This version shows in masculine rendition, how men don the malong—displaying its use as a sash or waist-band, shorts or bahag, and a head-gear that can be either functional while working in the fields, or decorative as a turban.


http://www.seasite.niu.edu/TAGALog/Cynthia/dances/muslim_mindanao_dances.htm

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Very nice report and pictures Avenger. I remember seing some of these while I was in the Philippines. Very spectacular I must say....

Very nice report and pictures Avenger. I remember seing some of these while I was in the Philippines. Very spectacular I must say....

Thanks..........I planned to post here cultural matters about our Muslims kababayan and the war freak news and stories I will post in other threads :)

^^ We can do without the war freak news. :okay:

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/kulintang.jpg

DESCRIPTION/BACKGROUND OF PHILIPPINE KULINTANG MUSIC:
Percussion ensemble music is found throughout Southeast Asia, from Kalinga to Sumatra to Myanmar to Irian Jaya. Today, in the Philippines, suspended gong ensemble music is found only where indigenous groups were able to maintain this ancient cultural heritage, despite Western colonialism. In the highlands of northern Luzon Island, "gansa" (flat gong) ensemble music is commonly played, while "kulintang" (knobbed gong) ensemble music is played in the south, throughout Mindanao Island and the Sulu Archipelago. The term "kulintang" refers to (1) the many types of traditional music ensembles of the Southern Philippines, (2) the many different musical instruments of those ensembles, in general, and (3) to the main melody instrument of the kulintang music ensemble.

http://www.pusod-us.org/kulintang.html

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posting some stories which directly one cause of Muslims Filipinos desire to established a separate Republic. After their ancestor's sufferings from the injustices and genocidal campaign of the Spanish and American colonizers, now our present generations of Filipinos in the mainstream society still have prejudices on them.

[QUOTE] EDSA AND THE MOROS
By Ayesah Abubakar

PENANG, Malaysia -- Remembering the importance of EDSA1, others may not approve of EDSA 2 as comparable to the former's legacy. However, in the event of EDSA 2, several young Moros in Manila made history by joining the protesters at the EDSA Shrine.

I was one of those who campaigned for EDSA 2 because I condemned the Estrada administration's "all-out-war" actions towards the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) -despite a positive development in their negotiations. During the Estrada administration, most yuppies in Manila had become apathetic towards national issues.

At the height of the defections of (Defense) Secretary (Orlando) Mercado and (Armed Forces Chief of Staff) Gen. (Angelo) Reyes in EDSA 2, I dragged my whole staff including my boss to the EDSA flyover. On the other hand, they may have various reasons for joining the protest. We were there for days and nights up until we finally went to Malacanang - although I didn't march but drove all the way there.

I also remember my friends from the Muslim-Christian Human Rights group who were up onstage at EDSA 2 crying out for a stop to the military offensives in Mindanao ... sadly, the speaker, a Moro activist was ridiculed and booed.. Perhaps, because the crowd couldn't relate to the angst and sufferings of the Moros in Mindanao.

It was at that moment that I realized that in spite of our wanting to share with the Philippine's history, the Moro part of history cannot find acceptance among the Filipinos in Manila.

This discouraging attitude is reflected in how the rest of the country views the Mindanao conflict in general.

In hindsight, the armed conflict and violence that the Moros and other people like the Lumads and the Christians experience in Mindanao is just one part of the consequence of this intractable conflict.

The more vicious aspect is the mindset of the people outside of Mindanao who can easily opt to choose the military solution to end it all. Worse, at the height of the "all-out-war," many folks in Manila accepted that solution!

We have a long way to go in bringing a "culture of peace" in the Philippines....the government and MILF may sign an agreement...but granting that we stay with the Philippines, the ball will always be in the court of the majority of Filipinos. It's all up to them really. Hopefully they change their mindsets that peace is possible and that they can make it happen.

Perhaps the next momentous legacy in the Philippines after EDSA 1 would be Bangsamoro Mindanao--the day when the Philippines gives freedom to the Moro constituency in Mindanao--could be within or outside the Philippine State, but not this existing autonomy.

We hope so. (“In the Neighborhood” is Ayesah Abubakar’s column for MindaViews, the opinion section of MindaNews. Ayesah is the coordinator of the Mindanao Peace Program at the Research & Education for Peace Universiti Sains Malaysia or REPUSM in Penang, Malaysia.

For comments and suggestions, please email ayesah@bangsamoro.com [QUOTE]

http://www.maranao.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=44

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In our view, peace and stability would be possible only when the people, especially in the grassroots, are deeply and completely healed of their hurts, prejudices and biases. The process will take a long time, perhaps a generation. Our government must take the lead in the healing process, for Muslim and Christian to trust each other and live together, in order to prevent the dismemberment of our country and to have a strong and united Republic.

All the people of Mindanao and Sulu especially our Muslim brothers and sisters should also learn to accept that their beloved island is now a shared land and our heritage, beliefs, and land tie us all together.

One of the steps in the healing proces is for our people to learn the history and cultures of our kababayan Muslim Filipinos.


http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/morolandnet.jpg





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/maranaoonline.jpg





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http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/gallery2.jpg





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/tugayalanaodelsur.jpg

The home of the Tugayan artist in Lanao del Sur.





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/tugaya2.jpg





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/tugaya3.jpg





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/tugaya4.jpg



Maranao Online :

http://www.maranao.com/

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http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/misurari-1.jpg





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/viewofzamboanga-1.jpg

City of Zamboanga





http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb244/jibrael865/muslimssinzamboanga-1.jpg

Muslims praying outside a Mosque in the military's Southwest Command Headquarter in Zamboanga

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By Jerry E. Esplanada
Inquirer
Last updated 06:03pm (Mla time) 08/24/2007


MANILA, Philippines -- The Department of Education (DepEd) is stepping up its efforts to provide high-quality education in Muslim public schools through the madrasah program.

The program, which includes the implementation of a Muslim-friendly school curriculum, will require at least P2 billion in the next four years, according to a DepEd report furnished the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The Libyan government has pledged at least P200 million worth of textbooks for the DepEd initiative.

Madrasah, the Arabic word for school, aims to "positively contribute to the ongoing peace process, make the public education system more intensive and seek to improve the quality of life of Muslim school children through education," Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said.

The program is part of the department's ambitious Muslim Basic Education Road Map "in line with the government's Medium-Term Development Plan and its peace agreement with the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front."

"This is the department's modest yet significant contribution to the peace-building efforts by government and non-government agencies," Lapus said.

Lapus said the department recognizes the critical role of education in peace-building. "The school is where minds are formed and values are enhanced."

Three years ago, the DepEd started implementing a Muslim-friendly curriculum in selected public schools serving Muslim communities in Metro Manila.

In addition to Filipino, English, mathematics, science and makabayan, (nationalism) the Arabic language and Islamic values have been added to the elementary school curriculum.

According to Manaros Boransing, DepEd Undersecretary for Muslim Affairs, "this is to prove the sincerity of the department in providing free, quality education to all public school children regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation."

The DepEd also plans to put up what it calls "Fund for Assistance to Muslim Education" or FAME. The project will require at least P500 million in seed money from the government.

The initiative, another component of the seven-point road map for upgrading basic education of Muslim Filipinos, will be created "by an Act of Congress," said Boransing.

FAME is similar to the existing Fund for Assistance to Private Education or FAPE.

Under the program, the government will solicit "matching donations" from Malaysia and Brunei, its "partners in Southeast Asia for improving the quality of Muslim education in the country."

Other road map components are: upgrading secular education in elementary and secondary schools serving Muslims; development of livelihood-skills education for Muslim out-of-school youth; provision of quality education for Muslim pre-school children; improvement of the health and nutritional status of Muslim students, especially those in public elementary schools; and development of a special alternative learning system Muslim out-of-school youth and adults.

This year, the DepEd has allocated P100 million for the alternative learning system for out-of-school youth, said Boransing. "They are the product of extreme poverty and the continuing armed conflict in Mindanao. Their problems are the most urgent."

The program's main objectives are "to be able to positively contribute to the peace process between the government and our Muslim brothers and improve the quality of their life through education," he said.

Compared to the whole of Mindanao, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM registers the highest incidence of poor families and malnutrition, as well as maternal and child mortality rates.

A Congressional Planning and Budget Department report disclosed that the region has a "very low percentage of students in primary and secondary schools."

"Certainly, the region has the lowest level of human development in the country... More than 60 percent of the children younger than seven and up to 16 years old live in poor households," the report said.

Boransing said that the conflict in Mindanao has driven Muslims to other parts of the country where Muslim children have no access to the state-run education system.

According to him, the alternative learning program will first target Muslim out of school children in urban areas because in five to 10 years, they may become part of the peace and order problem.

The Libyan government has pledged at least P200 million worth of textbooks, all to be supplied by local publishers.

In 2004, DepEd Order No. 51 formally integrated the madrasah into the mainstream education system.

The DepEd currently has 459 public schools nationwide implementing the madrasah program, "excluding those in the ARMM," which is supposedly autonomous, said Boransing.

Like many of the other public schools, Muslim schools have apparently failed to deliver quality education "because of insufficient or irrelevant textbooks and instructional materials, lack of academically qualified teachers and lack of funds," said a DepEd report in the early 1990s (titled Making Education Work: An Agenda for Reform).

Boransing said "it's only during the Arroyo administration where the DepEd came up with an Islamic-friendly school curriculum for local Muslims. For public schools, we now have Arabic language and values education being taught alongside English, Filipino, Science and Makabayan subjects. For Muslim private schools, the Koran and two other Islamic religion subjects have been added. So they are now similar to Christian schools."

The DepEd started implementing these initiatives in school year 2005-2006.

The department has proposed to Congress a P260 million budget for this year's alternative learning and madrasah program "but we're only given P100 million."

"But we're working within the department that certain items will be realigned so we can get the budget we asked for. For 2008, we're asking for P520 million. For 2009, it's P700 million and for 2010, P967 million," Boransing added.


http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=84523

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Great thread peoples!

Beware: Good old Ranting ahead! :rant:
I'm sick and tired of some ignorant people claiming "Muslim" = Ethnic group. I once asked this guy who i struck a conversation with whether he was a Muslim because of the Allah ring he wore. He gallantly raised his head up and said "No no no! I'm not Muslim!! 100% full-blooded Pilipino ako!".. What sorta answer is THAT?! As if a Muslim cannot equal a Filipino! The term Muslim denotes someone who follows the Islamic Faith, as the term Christian denotes someone who follows Christian faith. All sorts of people are Muslims, not just the Arabs and the "Moro". Lapu-Lapu the first Filipino hero, was a Muslim Bisaya! Alot of ignorant people hide behind "oh the Muslims (in the Philippines) originate from Indonesia/Malaysia, they arent really from the Philippines" which is the BIGGEST BS I've ever heard! Bahasa Sug (Tausug language), as well as Samal, are all classified as a VISAYAN language by linguists. Its related closely to Butuanon! The ONLY difference between the groups is that the Tausug weren't colonized by the Spanish and the Bisaya were! In contrast, in Indonesia there are also Christians living around Manado, Sulawesi, Kalimantan and parts of Flores; the criteria for being an Indonesian though according to my friends, has NOTHING to do with religious identity, but pretty much which flag you pledge your allegiance to. Whereas in Pinas, its not stated, but its an unwritten "rule" to be hispanized and Christian if not Catholic! Well its a stupid backward unwritten code!! When will people stop putting barriers up and realise we are all more similar than different?? Just because of what your name for "God" is?? This is why some (unfortunate) Muslim Filipinos feel such hatred towards Christian Filipinos: not because of religious difference: but due to their general ignorance ethnocentric views. We need to educate the masses more, reform the education system, integrate more Muslims and Christians. Full stop!

Rant over

Phew! Nice thread! Remember that Dayangdayang song that was a song craze back in 98? You can watch it and other versions on youtube :lol: A friend told me. Its the new-techno version of the pangalay dance :)

dOHXEPD7aq4

Mindanao expressions by the leyte dance theater

ByZecbzoPuI

Sangki appointed head of Office on Muslims Affairs (http://www.mb.com.ph/MAIN20070828101405.html)

President Arroyo has appointed a scion of a Moro royalty of Maguindanao, Datu Ali Balayman Sangki who is a 56-year-old technocrat and management expert, as executive director of the Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA).

Arroyo signed Sangki’s appointment last Aug. 13. OMA is under the Office of the President.

Sangki will replace Sultan Yahya "Jerry" Tomawis, a businessman from Lanao del Sur and OMA head for the last two years.

Sangki has advised the OMA that he intends to assume office in simple rites today after taking his oath of office.

The Chief Executive also appointed last Aug. 9 Datu Aladdin Ampatuan, another Moro royalty clan member, as presidential assistant for Muslim Concerns at the Office of the President.

Ampatuan was the former head of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Sangki, who finished a management course at the University of Manchester in Manchester, England, through the British Council, is closely related to Moro royal families from Maguindanao’s Muslim communities, being the son of Datu Sangki Dilangalen Ampatuan and Hadja Sophia "Pinanogod" Balayman.

Sangki and Ampatuan expressed gratitude to the President for giving them the opportunity to serve their countrymen and contribute in bringing Muslim Filipinos closer to the government.

Sangki is married to Hadja Tita Lim-Sangki of Buluan, Maguindanao. Their children are Mariam, Al-Iskandar, and Sheryl Yasmin.

Sangki said he would continue Tomawis’ programs and sustain them in cooperation with other government agencies.

OMA is mandated by Executive Order No. 122-A to preserve, promote and enhance the country’s Muslim heritage and help the President address the Moro people’s concerns.

"As far as I know, Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo asked me to head OMA after knowing what I have done with the Al-Amanah Islamic Bank of the Philippines as chairman," said Sangki.

"The charter of the bank provides that my qualified successor shall be nominated by the President and properly installed during the scheduled stockholders’ meeting this coming Oct. 22," he said.

"There will be a review of the mandate of the OMA and all its existing programs and focused them on the programs of the President for a closer cooperation with the Executive," he said.

Sangki, a former OMA deputy executive director, is a member of the Technical Working Group of the government-Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace process, former Maguindanao board member, and erstwhile manager of Southern Philippines Development Authority among other positions he has held.

Sangki’s appointment lauded by Christian and Muslim solons

Christian and Muslim members of the House of Representatives lauded yesterday the appoinment by President Arroyo of Datu Ali B. Sangki, chairman and executive officer of Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines, as executive director of the Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA).

"Sangki’s profound background as a technocrat, management expertise and deep involvement in Muslim affairs that helped uplift their economic conditions through the operation of Al-Amanah Bank will give strong direction and dynamism to the missions and visions of OMA," Christian and Muslim solons said.

The solons are led by Reps. Annie Rosa L. Susano of the second district of Quezon City, Francisco T. Matugas of Surigao del Norte, and Datu Pax S. Mangudadatu of Sultan Kudarat.

They said with Sangki at the helm of OMA, the relations between Muslim and Christian communities are expected to improve vastly as he is known for promoting brotherhood, cooperation and harmony between all Filipinos as chairman and CEO of the only Muslim bank in the Philippines.

Susano, chairwoman of the House Special Committee on Metro Manila Development, said Sangki’s deep understanding of the human nature will be very useful in running OMA, one of the most sensitive government agencies in the country today.

A management graduate of Manchester University in England, Sangki was instrumental in laying a strong foundation of AlAmanah Bank despite its problems when he was appointed its chairman and CEO.

Islam values to be taught in Lapu-lapu (http://www.mb.com.ph/PROV20070906102212.html)

LAPU-LAPU CITY — Arabic language and Islam values will soon be taught in public elementary schools here.

The Department of Education (DepED) Lapu–Lapu City Division endorsed the offering of the Arabic Language and Islam Values (ALIVE) in the city’s public schools.

The proposal is based on the memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the Madrasah Education, DEpEd-Lapu-Lapu Division and the city government to jointly organize, implement, and sustain the ALIVE programs.

The MoA states that both parties support the DepEd National Muslim Education Roadmap not only as an affirmative action for the Muslim community but also as a peace-building strategy.

It further states the role of DepEd in identifying prospective ALIVE students, and in organizing classes, monitoring and evaluation of the program and to avail of the LGU’s honoraria.

The MoA states that the ALIVE teachers will receive P3,000 monthly..

ALIVE classes are to be conducted in Basak, Pajo, and Poblacion Primary schools and in the Lapu-Lapu City Elementary School. (Danny Fajardo)

so many years back, i heard of some mindanaoan commented that muslims (from mindanao or maybe worldwide) were losing so much of it's local colours and culture due the arabization of islam.

^^ I've heard of something like that happening in Malaysia too. Apparently the culture minister or something like that was noticing some kind of Arabization of Malaysian culture. I can't remember where I saw this so maybe someone from the Malaysian forum could clear this up for us.

Kurdishaspect.com - BY Aland Mizell
University of Texas at Dallas school of social science

The Philippine nation is a pluralistic society and culture compared to other South East Asian countries in the region. The direction the Philippines has taken since her colonial days has been toward the integration of small, more diverse tribal communities into a more developing nation with the nation’s desired goal being to bring about a cohesive society under the unifying umbrella of institutional processes. There are many tribal languages spoken in the Philippines , especially among the Muslim minority. For example, a member of the Maranao tribe speaks Maranao, and one belonging to the Tausog tribe speaks the Tausug tribal language. The Philippine government never forced minorities to speak Tagalog, the Philippine national language. Of the 175 languages, 171 are living and only 4 are extinct, making a very diversified and rich linguistic map (Ethnologue 2007). The pluralistic nature of the Philippine society is very interesting to study in the areas of ethnic, racial, and religious relations compared to Turkey, because the Turkish nation is also a pluralistic society and culture populated by many ethnic minorities, like the Kurds, Armenians, Jews, Central Asians, and those from the Balkans; however, the direction the Turkish government has taken is not toward integration into a more diverse, tolerant society or a more educated and developing nation, but rather the direction the Turkish government has taken is to continue to deny differences, a denial based on a more racist and nationalistic approach.

Like the Turkish government, the Philippine government constitutionally remains a secular state, but unlike the Turkish government, it neither supports nor discriminates against any religious group, institution, or people according to the constitutional principles. In the Philippines , most people classify themselves along sectarian lines. However, religious fanatic groups in the Philippines are trying to divide the social structure of the nation instead of trying to unify it into a common homeland under the Philippine government. They use the drug of religion to combat against governmental efforts. Instead of fighting against poverty and illiteracy and of maintaining security and building the economy, the fanatics create problems, so that investments do not go to the rural areas. As a consequence of the violence, Muslims pay the price. Even though in the past the government discriminated against minorities, now it has recognized these past mistakes and has compensated through a program of reconciliation and autonomy. However, the Turkish government has had no reconciliation programs to reconsider the taboos against the Kurds. Just recently, the head of the Turkish Historical Society, TTK, Professor Halacoglu, argued that the Kurds actually are Turkmen and that the Alevi Kurds are Armenian. Indeed, this is the history that the Turkish government teaches to young generations with misinformation about Kurdish history. The history professor lays no claims to having foresight or pre-science, and he has studied history just enough to know that he does not know enough to risk predicting what the future holds for the Kurds. He has eyes, though, and so he is in a position to ask readers to gaze in a certain direction and determine whether they also see what he sees. This kind of professor needs to wear glasses because his eyes suffer from myopia, and, therefore, it is entirely possible that his claim rests on evidence that either results from not seeing all there is to see or from being based on what he thinks he sees. Also, a few years ago Bogazici University in Istanbul held an international conference, but the TTK pulled its funding and support when it learned that a paper on the Kurds and another on the Armenians were to be presented. The Turkish government has held this kind of groundless history for decades. However, Turkey is preparing to join the world class, so I wonder if Turkey will relinquish her narrow ideas based on a nationalistic view that denies minorities’ right to exist or if it will follow the path of Europeans who strongly believe that respect for human rights is one of the most fundamental and universal values of our world. According to Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Human Rights Commissioner for External Relations in the European Neighborhood Policy, “All of us, in our official capacity have an obligation to promote and protect the rights of our fellow members of the human family, be that at home or elsewhere in the world” (2005).

By contrast to Turkey with its land mass being contiguous, the territorial setting of the Philippines is comprised of more than seven thousands islands, a reality that creates problems because of isolation and communication gaps. Yet, in spite of these natural difficulties arising out of its being an archipelago, the Philippines government is committed to overcoming these complexities and to narrowing the gaps. However, it is true to say that the Philippine government in the past has neglected the southern part of country, or consistently has used assimilation and discrimination policies against the Muslim minorities in that region. Proselytizing the indigenous tribes with their religions based primarily on animism, Islam was introduced to Mindanao and the Sulu Islands in the 15th century, and affected not only the religious order but the political and social system as well, establishing sultanates and bringing the barangays or kinship groups under the control of powerful datus or chieftains.. After this period of Islamic proselytism, Muslims in the southern Philippines consider themselves native since they preceded the Spaniard colonization that began with the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Today, however, the Philippine government has admitted that the government’s past policy was wrong and unjust. The government has given a large degree of freedom in the area ranging from education to autonomous self-rule. It has created a special Muslim curriculum, Muslim institutions, and scholarship programs exclusively for the Muslim minorities. For example, Mindanao State University (MSU) is located in Marawi City , where the majority of the population is Muslim. The tuition is very inexpensive compared to other universities in the region.

When I interviewed, Dr. Tamano, a prominent Muslim, who is highly educated and enjoys a high profile, he was Secretary of the Autonomous Region in the Muslim Mindanao, Muslim advisor to the regional Department of Education, and acting Vice- President of Mindanao State University (2007). He also ran for governor but lost because of election fraud. He is now Chancellor of Mindanao State University. I asked him, “What is the Moro question?” If Muslims have their own autonomous region, their self rule, education, language, and culture, what do Muslims want? Why are they still fighting for? He told me that when the Spaniards came for three Gs--GOD, Glory and Gold. “They tried to take our land from us and to force us to believe their God. That’s why Muslims resisted them until today. That was a just war, and that’s why we won.” He explained the difference now, “But today we are fighting the wrong war, because the government now recognizes her past mistake and has given us all opportunities to catch up with the rest of society, in terms of education and economics.” Muslims have a higher illiteracy rate than the Catholic Christians. There is such a disparity between the Catholic majority and the Muslim minority in terms of poverty. He continued, “That is what Muslim leaders in the Philippines should be fighting for. They are supposed to unify to eliminate poverty, narrow the educational gaps, and create peace so that people can have jobs, but sometimes Muslims fight among themselves, especially when an election comes. Some of the leaders want the Muslim candidates to use religion as a scapegoat to gain political power for themselves.” Also, a lack of Muslim leadership among the Muslim minority perpetuates the problems. He told me to look at his university as a good example. The government has given every opportunity for Muslims to be educated and to have skills as well as good jobs. He referred to education as “the right education,” one that teaches Islam but an Islam that is compatible with science. In his view, Muslims should learn science and skills as well as their religion.

Also, I visited the Mayor of Davao City, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who is well known for making the city safe and free from the corruption of drug-dealing. He has a zero tolerance against drugs and other illegal activity. Today there is only one city in the Mindanao region that is safe, and it is Davao . When I asked him, “How did you do that?” Mayor Duterte told me that the Philippine government policy had been wrong in the past. He did not have any intention to follow the wrong policy of the government. The mayor said that the state is not a moral agent; people are, and as such, they can impose moral principles on powerful institutions. He said that he talked to everybody especially the rebels and implemented equal representation in his administration. He explained that he gave an equal voice and an equal role to every tribe to make sure each person was represented fairly and equally, and then he said he told them that there would be no more assassinations, kidnappings, or killings. That is why the city is safer today than before his coming to office. Mayor Duterte does not believe that using the military is a good solution to ethnic and religious conflict in his country. He believes we are all human beings, and as such, we all have rights inherent to that status. We all have dignity and worth that exist prior to law. That is a system in which words can change the whole structure of government, and words can prove stronger than numerous military divisions. That is why today Davao City is the safest city in the Philippines ; it is because of a good and strong mayor.

Good administration and politics emphasize rights, the superiority of law, duty, and the placement of responsible people in difficult jobs. According to the mayor, government means justice and public order. One cannot speak where those two do not exist. For Duterte, laws should be effective all the time, everywhere, and for everybody. This unity of feeling, thought, and culture are essential to the development of a strong nation because disintegration of moral unity causes that same nation to weaken.


Like more recently in the Philippines , in the 1960s America called for national integration to solve the problem of racism, and it implemented new policies to overcome the attitudes and practices that discriminated against the Blacks. Since it is hard to change what happened in the past, a society has to start at the present, so Turkey can change her attitude toward ethnic discrimination. To begin, the current leaders must realize Turkey’s guilt, get rid of their arrogance, seed humility, and exchange love, humility, kindness, and forgiveness for hate to make the present more comfortable and the future more hopeful. Peace will begin in the Kurdish region when oppression, cruelty, injustice and hunger end.

However, today the Turkish government lags behind the Philippine government in terms of its treatment of the minorities. An inquirer must ask why the law enforcement that serve in the Kurdish region are not Kurdish or at least speak Kurdish. Why are there no educational institutions that study Kurdology or that establish Kurdish institutes? Why can the Turkish government not create some kind of program like affirmative action that will allow for a narrowing of the educational gap between Kurdish minorities and the Turkish majority because illiteracy rates among the Kurds is higher than among the Turks. Why can the Turkish government not give some incentives to encourage economic progress? Kurds should be more organized and should educate themselves to realize that they would be better off if they made education a priority because education is mightier than the sword. The Kurdish culture and history should be allowed to exist in the open and also preserved, such as Kurdish names, and the Kurdish language. Why can the Turkish government not put forth some effort to foster civic engagement about the Kurdish question? Why can the Kurdish question not be discussed in the academic community? Why can the Turkish government not have some kind of scholarship program exclusively for the Kurdish minority to give them incentives to go to school? Why can the Kurds not have the same kind of autonomy that the Muslim minorities do in the Philippines ? The problem of the Kurds being subjected to objective analysis is that it necessarily requires assessment of the government’s adopted measures to effectively solve such problems. If the government denies the existence of the ethnic group, how can any kind of governmental analysis occur? Good government produces opportunities for each generation to have a developed faith, innovative technology and science, and a cultivated consciousness about their identity and their cultural values. If, by contrast, the people see the government as tyrannical or oppressive, then the nation has lost its purpose to serve the common good.

Further, in Turkey the government program still uses a military solution to achieve their policy of integration rather than an academic one. For a long time the integration policy was always interpreted as assimilation or acculturation, which means that the Turkish government tries to reconcile diverse cultures with one culture and to deny the minorities’ culture. By contrast, in the Philippines the varied Muslim tribes have their own language, dances, crafts, and customs. Yet, when Ferdinand Magellan came to the Philippines in early 1521, he conquered the archipelago by sword and cross, and for long time the Spaniards fought with Muslims in a bloody struggle and war. However, later on, the governor as well as Catholic and other denominations’ missionaries organized a politico –a military for the minorities’ group, so that they would be able to control the minorities’ affairs and supervise them. Dr. Tamano points out that the Spanish were successful in Luzon and Visayas, so the Spanish began to assimilate non-Christians into an already growing Christian society. In Dr. Tamano’s view, the Spaniards made the integration policy successful in the north because the Spaniard considered that if the number of Filipinos converted to Christianity could be measured, the numbers would show a fully successful integration. However, in the southern regions like Sulu and Maguindanao, the Sultanates of the Muslims resisted the Spaniard forces and the problem of assimilating these non-Catholic and Catholics failed to bring them to work together to bring about peace. If a traveler crosses the region, he or she will see how that policy has affected people’s life conditions there. Now the Philippine government recognizes these differences and has implemented policies to recognize the ethnic and religious differences.

Like Magellan, the Turkish government first under the Ataturk regime and then subsequent ones used force and denial as part of its assimilation policy. “Kurds are mountain Turks.” Turkey was effective with this assimilation, but they were not successful in the south; however, later on, the Turkish regime’s generals and Agah or Sheik organized a politico –the military for the minorities’ group, so that they could control the minorities’ affairs and supervised them through corrupt religious groups. The Agha in the south and in the eastern part of Turkey accomplished a successful integration policy because if the number of the Kurds who denied their identity or who believed that they were mountain Turks could be considered a criterion of national integration, then we could say that the Turkish government proved successful in her integration or assimilation policy. It is fair to say that the Turkish regime’s integration policy in the east was successful, but that it failed in the south. Last week, the mayor of the Diyarbakir challenged the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AP), saying that Diyarbakir is our [the Kurds’] “stronghold,” and we are ready to fight. However, Mayor Osman Baydemir used this word as a illustration to mean that we will not give up our culture, we will not bow down to injustice, we will not let the military burn our villages, we live here, and we will fight you not in the sense of taking up arms but a civilized way.. In the recent case, however, a member of the Fetullahci group, Fetullah Gülen’s closest assistant wrote in the Zaman newspaper criticizing Baydemir’s comments by saying that Mayor Baydemir cannot challenge the Prime Minister and that Baydemir is creating terror. But Huseyin Gulerce and his followers put the blinders on when the Democratic Social Party (DPT) leader Ahmet Turk criticized Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government by saying, “There is no mention about the Kurdish problem during the parliamentary talks over the new government plan.” However, Erdogan replied to Ahmet, “You first outlaw the Kurdish Worker Party [PKK} in the region.” Gulerce and his followers failed to see what kind of language the Prime Minister was using. What kind of leadership is it that wants to punish a majority of people because a minority of the people supports the PKK? If the Prime Minister were a mature enough leader, he would never point out differences of thought and opinion to produce conflict. It is true that no one should refuse to tolerate views that separate people into camps and destroy the community and society, but neither should they go out of their way to use them to enflame opposition. If the Prime Minister and others who think like him believe in tolerance, then why do they oppose every idea that seem contradictory to theirs and scare them off instead of seeking ways to benefit from their opinions and ideas, of trying to understand them and to build a bridge, and of beginning a dialogue with them? In other words, why do they not try to learn how to listen to what the Kurds say they really want and what they really mean? Otherwise, those who are kept at a distance and are led into dissatisfaction because they think that the government is biased will unit the masses and will resist the Turkish government. It is important that the Prime Minister and his government learn how to benefit from other people’s knowledge and views because that knowledge will help them understand how to approach the Kurdish problem.

Also, Erdogan still believes that there is no Kurdish problem and that there has never been one. By answering Baydemir, Erdogan was saying that people should produce projects not words. I wonder what Erdogan has been doing in southeastern Turkey . How many families have been compensated because the military forced them to leave their villages? How many families whose village has been burned have homes being rebuilt? How many new schools and new roads are being built in southeastern Turkey ? How many job has he created? How much has he reduced the size of the military instead of increasing it, as he actually has? A just government implies that there is a policy for everything: a policy for renewing a nation’s joy until the whole nation feel the joys and likewise feels the sorrow and pain of others in the same nation. Instead, now there is a new campaign that goes against Kurds, saying that Kurds are betrayers and have taken the side of the Christians like those in America . But, the government has never realized that Americans are the ones who freed the Kurds, not their fellow Muslim brothers. Also, it has failed to understand that those who have been oppressing the Kurds for centuries are neither Christians nor Americans, but they are their fellow Muslim brothers. Iran , for example, for a long time has oppressed the Kurds and is killing them even today; it is not a Christian nation but rather a Muslim nation. Turkey has oppressed, killed, tortured, raped, and burned houses and villages, not a Christian nation but a Muslim one. Syria committed genocide against the Kurds; it is not a Christen nation but a Muslim nation. Iraq ’s Saddam gassed Kurds not as a Christian nation but a Muslim one. Those who study politics and see politics as a propaganda struggle for power are mistaken. Politics is like an art of management based on diverse perspectives of the contemporary world and on a future that will seek the people’s satisfaction and justice. Erdogan and some others should never forget that power and dominance are transitory, while justice, equality, and truth are eternal. Even if they do not exist in Turkish politics today, some day they will. Therefore, especially those who claim to be Muslims should align themselves and their policies with equality and justice; and treat everybody the same regardless of their religion, skin color, race, ethnicity, or gender. The Prime Minister and Huseyin Gulerce should never forget when they were discriminated against by the military and the Secularists, or when they were not welcome in the presidential palace or at a meeting. How did they feel in their own country? That is exactly how the Kurds feel now. If religion is truly interpreted, it can promote democracy, understanding of others, human rights, equality, as well as justice, and those values can be guaranteed via religion. Because religion should teach that all people are created equal, it should not discriminate based on race, color, age, or nationality. Religion should declare that power lies in truth; religion should teach that justice and rule of law are essential; religion should teach freedom of belief, open ideas, and the right to life, personal name, and personal property. Everyone should be able to speak her or his language and maintain culture that God-gave to them; no one should take that away, and their rights should be violated. Religion is a relationship between men and God. It results in a commitment between God and the individual as he or she submits to His divine system in which all creatures obey Him. To abuse it is very sad in that today many people try to use religion to gain power and as a method of controlling another person’s life. If a government is virtuous and the state is chosen because of their humble ideas and justice, then that government will be strong and peace as well as reconciliation are possible, but if the government is run by officials who still have prejudice in their hearts and minds, not justice and equality, and thus they lack those high qualities, sooner or later it will collapse. Erdogan and others should remember that extreme harshness causes unexpected explosions that are waiting for the spark to ignite them. As long as his government protects people from cruelty and defends them from injustice and oppression, it will be a successful government; however, if Erdogan’s government does not do so, then he will cause more hatred, more prejudice, and more turmoil.

The majority of Muslims in the southern Philippines (the Moros), like the Kurds, are not rebellious and do not want to fight or be rebellious against their government. Even though a majority of the Moros sympathize with the Moros’ struggle against, oppression, injustice, and cruelty that the rebels represent, most Muslims like the Kurds wish for nothing more than to live in peace, pursue their livelihood, have a family, raise their kids, live in dignity, and die in a bed. The Kurds seek above all their survival as a Kurdish people. They are now convinced that their survival demands freedom from the domination of Turks in those matters which most impinge on their identity and selfhood as Kurds; those are such matters as education, community organizations, non-government organizations (NGO’s), family , law and order, an end to military rule, and economic resources. This is the kind of experience that has been telling us that there can be no real freedom for Kurds until there is fundamental change in the structures of their relationship to the Turkish government. This change must give them power, that is affective reserved powers, to order their affairs in their regions. However, those objectives should be accomplished by Turkish political systems using all of the legal constitutional means available, including publication of their ideas; organizing pressure groups and lobbies, and participating in government efforts to find the right, just solution to the Kurdish problem.


The number of Moros, like the Kurds, have acted on their belief that the only way to respond to the government’s wrong policy is to fight even though they are a comparably small entity. However, some Kurdish leaders like Baydemir, a moderate, have often eloquently articulated the legitimate and understandable grievances the Kurdish people put forth and voice sound recommendations for the government, but presently the government and the people are not ready yet to discuss openly the Kurdish question. Mayor Baydemir speaks on behalf of his people pleading for understanding and justice. Former Senator Mamintal Tamano and former dean, Cesar Majul of the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Philippines systems, have sets of recommendations for the Philippine government to implement. Some of the recommendations are being implemented by the government: 1) a moratorium on new settlers should be imposed, 2) law enforcement agents in the Moros areas should be Muslims, 3) more educational institutions should be established, 4) governments should encourage economic progress, 5) Muslim Filipinos should be better Muslims, 6) important elements of Islamic law should be allowed for Muslims, and 7) the national government should enable greater Moros’ participation. These are the major recommendations that two moderate Filipino Muslims have put together for the government, and many of those recommendations have already been granted and implemented.

Now more Moros have been appointed to national services. A code of Philippine Muslims’ personal law has been promulgated. Muslim holidays have legal status in the Moros region. The government has set up a Bank of the Philippines, Amana Bank, to capitalize on the Moro requirements for economic development. The Minister of Educational Culture has been making a conscious effort to meet the educational needs and religious feeling of the Muslims. Moreover, the Philippine government granted autonomy to the Muslims making them internally independent and externally dependent on the Manila government. According to Dr. Tamano, The Autonomous Region of Muslims Mindano (ARMM) was created in August 1989 and inaugurated in 1990 under the President, Corazon Aquino at the Cotabato City . This led to the Moro National Front laying down their arms and converting to the Philippine national army. The question is why can’t Turkey be like the Philippines ?




References

Duterte, Rodrigo. Mayor, Davao City . Personal Interview. 10 July 2007.

Ethnologue.com

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PH

Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy. “Promotion of Human Rights and Democratisation in the European Union's External Relations.” European Commission for External Relations. (10 December 2005). http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/human_rights/intro/index.htm

Gulerce, Huseyin. “ Diyarbakýr 'ýn mesajý doðru okunmalý .” Zaman.

http://www.zaman.com.tr/webapp-tr/yazar.do?yazino=584759

Tamano, Salipado S.

Acting Vice President, Office of the Vice President for Planning and Development, the Philippines-Australia Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao, RELC XII Compound ARMS Complex, ORC Cotabato City, Muslim Education Advisor, The Autonomous Region in Muslim

Mindanao, Cotabato City , Regional Secretary Regional Department of Education, Culture and Sports. Personal Interview. 7 March 2007.

http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc091907AM.html

Office on Muslim Affairs marks 21st year today (http://www.mb.com.ph/MAIN20080130115703.html)

Officials and rank-and- file personnel of the Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) headed by Executive Director Datu Ali B. Sangki will celebrate today, Jan. 30, the 21st year milestone of OMA, an agency created by then President Corazon Aquino in 1987.

Sangki, appointed to OMA by President Arroyo in August, 2007 to "fix and reform OMA," said today’s celebration will be the first for the government agency in 20 years.

The observance, to be held at the OMA central office at Jocfer Bldg. on Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City, will be attended by some Moro political, religious, and traditional leaders.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, in one Senate budget hearing for OMA, had said Aquino issued Executive Order No. 122-A on Jan. 30, 1987 creating OMA for the leadership training of Muslims.

OMA’s mandate is to "preserve and develop the culture, traditions, institutions, and well-being of Muslim Filipinos, in conformity with the country’s laws and in consonance with national unity and development."

It has 822 employees manning the central office (with 208 employees) and its 11 regional offices in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. OMA also has provincial and sub-offices to attend to concerns of Muslims.

Among its mainstream programs are the processing and conduct of the pilgrimage or hajj to Makkah in Saudi Arabia, holding of Qur’anic competitions, development of Shar’ia justice system in Philippine setting, and halal industry promotion.

Sangki denied yesterday an earlier report that the President put OMA under the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) because of issues over the recent pilgrimage and issuance of halal certification. For the record, OMA ceased issuing halal certification after a Supreme Court ruling some years back.

Sangki said a group of "sheikhs" or hajj guides, led by Ustadhz Mohammad Said Mando, from Region 9 who wrote to Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz invoking "the separation of Church and State" was "motivated by personal ulterior motives" to escape the hajj reforms he planned to implement.

Arroyo appointed Sangki to OMA when his predecessor, Sultan Yahya Tomawis, had already signed hajj contracts with Saudi Arabia, leaving little room for him (Sangki) to put his reforms in place.

Sangki said the sheikhs only wanted to evade compliance with the criteria that spell out the rules for accreditation of the hajj guides, which also prescribe assessment report on the sheikhs’ performarce.

The OMA executive director said the hajj guides did not like the reforms he wanted to put in place because he discovered "highly anomalous activities in the hajj operations."

Removing the hajj operations from OMA "will only embolden and further aggravate the already very controversial hajj operations diluted by these sheikhs to perpetuate their activities. These must be corrected by the regulatory powers of the State through OMA," said Sangki.

EO No. 697 received mixed reactions from OMA employees – some apprehensive that OPAPP may re-organize OMA, others indifferent, and others still resigned to it.

OPAPP Undersecretary Nabil Tan allayed these apprehensions, saying "we will only assist, but I think there will be coordination meeting to be called by Secretary Dureza so things can be clarified."

DepEd to boost mainstreaming of Muslim schools (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080130-115827/DepEd-to-boost-mainstreaming-of-Muslim-schools)

MANILA, Philippines -- In a bid to popularize the Standard Curriculum in private madaris, the Department of Education (DepEd) has announced that it will extend assistance to madaris looking for funding as long as they pass the necessary requirements.

DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus said the DepEd was set to provide help to madaris or Arabic schools that integrated the standard curriculum with the Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education (ALIVE) program. He said the initiative was aimed at mainstreaming the private madaris.

"Mainstreaming Madrasah Education in our system of basic education is one of the initiatives we have been undertaking to give our Muslim schoolchildren an education that is culturally sensitive," Lapus said in a statement.

Undersecretary for Muslim Affairs Manaros Boransing said the project would provide comprehensive education to Muslim children.

"While the ALIVE Program is integral to their education, we also recognize the need for them to learn the standard subjects taught in public schools -- Mathematics, English, Science, Filipino, and Makabayan."

The Deped said it would help schools with funding needs and facilitate their grant application to the financial assistance program extended by Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). Under the OIC’s funding program, madaris can avail of funds to cover the improvement of physical facilities such as classrooms, furniture, laboratory equipment, and libraries. DepEd will help schools who pass the requirements.

Part of the assistance is expected to go to capability building, which includes training of Muslim teachers or asatidz, management training for administrators and finance managers, and installation of accounting and financial systems.

Before private madaris can avail of the financial assistance, they must obtain a permit to operate from the DepEd Regional Office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). They should also offer the Standard Curriculum for Private Madaris as prescribed under DepEd Order 51, s. 2004.

Who are the indigenous?
Scholar says Negritos are the "Original Filipinos" (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080212-118459/Who-are-the-indigenous)

BAGUIO CITY – All these years, school teachers have taught Filipino children that Filipinos belong to the Malay stock.

Now comes a language scholar, who has authored influential studies about Cordillera and other Philippine languages for almost 50 years, who says that linguistic, archaeological and anthropological findings collected through the years prove that this assertion may have been wrong.

Based on a comprehensive study of Philippine languages and dialects, Dr. Lawrence Reid, a New Zealand-born researcher emeritus of the University of Hawaii, dates the indigenous and mainstream Filipino to Taiwan about 4,500 years ago.

Reid says the people Filipinos call “indigenous” today are themselves immigrants to the country and have become a minority that has been marginalized by the state.

He says the “original Filipinos” everyone refers to are actually the Negritos who are all but extinct in the country of their birth.

Reid has developed an influential body of work on Philippine languages – with the Ivatan language in the 1960s, a contribution to the Tasaday debate in the 1980s, and recently, with online dictionaries of a Mt. Province dialect that he speaks fluently.

In 2006, he was honored at the 10th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics in Palawan.

Uninformed

In a paper, entitled “Who are the Indigenous? Origins and Transformations,” he presented to the First International Conference on Cordillera Studies held last week at the University of the Philippines Baguio, Reid asked the government to correct websites that contain “uninformed and grossly amateurish statements about the cultural minorities.”

The most prominent site Reid poked fun at belongs to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the agency tasked to administer, supervise and grant ancestral land titles to indigenous Filipinos.

“There we find materials that have apparently been taken from popular descriptions and old, long outdated history books that refer to the multiple migration hypotheses of Dr. H. Otley Beyer, the leading Philippine ethnologist of his day, and which I am told is commonly taught in Philippine schools today,” he says.

He says the NCIP profiles the Ifugao as “descendants of the first wave of Malay immigrants to the country.” The Kalinga are said to be descendants of the second group of Malays who came to the islands.

“The Ibaloi are described as ‘peaceful, hardworking, and hospitable tribesmen. They are generally fair in complexion and have well-developed bodies, usually standing four to five feet above in height, have medium and narrow noses and some have broad flat noses,’” he says.

“Attention to the shape of the nose is also mentioned for the Kallahan (or Ikalahan),” he says, as well as the Bugkalot, the Yogad of Isabela and the Ivatan of Batanes.

“Absurd and completely unscientific descriptions such as these are internationally read, and not only give completely erroneous descriptions of Philippine indigenous groups, but cast a very poor light on the level of Philippine scholarship,” he says.

Who does the indigenous Filipino take after?

Reid says: “It is simply not true that the ancestors of Ifugaos or any Cordilleran peoples or of the Tagalogs or other lowland groups are descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines.”

“When your ancestors first arrived in these islands, they were not unoccupied. They were occupied by maybe hundreds of groups of Negritos, most of who have been completely assimilated or have died out,” he says.

He says scientists have located 25 present-day groups of Negrito stock who still thrive, although they are on the brink of extinction themselves.

Reid says the latest United Nations policy subscribes to the definition that indigenous peoples are “original inhabitants of a country, who inhabited the present territory of a country, at a time when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there.”

Negritos are “the true first Filipinos” who date back to 50,000 years, he says, while the Ifugao ancestors who reputedly built the world heritage enshrined rice terraces appeared to have arrived only 4,000 years ago “as their first colonizers.”

“It is these first Filipinos who are the most downtrodden and socially marginalized of all Filipinos, and most in need of urgent action to enable them to survive in this society,” he says.

The Cordillera no longer hosts Negrito tribes, although Reid says anthropologists have found evidence that Alta Negritos of the Sierra Madre used to thrive in the Ifugao mountains.

Citing the discovery of ancient pottery shards in a cave in Itbayat, Batanes by archaeologist Peter Bellwood of the Australian National University, Reid says strong evidence “marks [the first colonizers] as being part of a Neolithic culture that existed in southwest Taiwan and [who] spread south from there into the Batanes islands and Northern Luzon.”

He says the artifact supports irrefutable linguistic evidence debunking the “pre-scientific myth that Philippine languages are somehow corrupted versions of Malay, as a result of multiple migrations from the south.”

http://www.globalpinoy.com/ch/images/ch_tribes/ch_tribe_arumamen_manuvu.jpg
Arumamen-Manuvu
Mindanao

The Arumanen-Manuvu had its origin from a village settled place called Banubu near the mouth of Pulangi River.

A god named Apo Tabunawai rules the village. He is acclaimed as the “Timuay” or the convenor of the village elders. According to legends, Timuay Apo Tabunawai was a skillful forest food gatherer such of wild ubi, sago palm, various roots crops nuts and fruits.

Issues are tackled by the Council of Elders are the review and reconstitution of community policies for the coming seasons. To bring omens of good tidings, abundance and societal well-being, marriages of young people are arranged and undertaken on the post-festival evenings.

By foot and with the use of basket types of traps, the hunters bring home large fowls, fish, lizards, pythons and lesser wild games.

The villagers acknowledge that the abundance brought home from a hunt comes from the favor of Elemental Beings whose compassion is anchored upon Apo Tabunawai.

The above picture was taken from my website, without giving appropriate credit...
Not a decent way to deal with the intellectual property of other people... :ohno: :down:

Worse than that, the picture is used in a wrong context, as it does not show
Arumanen-Manuvu but Tigwa Manobo from San Fernando, Bukidnon. The Tigwa Manobo would
not like it at all to be sold as Arumanen Manobo...

More accuracy, please...

Here is the link of my website, which is, first of all,
dealing with Mindanao tribal music and culture:

http://brandeis.home.pages.de
http://aedv.cs.tu-berlin.de/~brandeis/ICTM-Abstracts-e.html

::

^^As far as our native culture is concerned, I am very very interested in learning :lol:

just asking, did phillipines have any kingdoms, empire besides spain?

i think wala:lol: but American culture is very strong in our country

Western Mindanao leaders welcome bill creating National Commission for Muslim Filipinos (http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3979&Itemid=50)

Muslim leaders in Western Mindanao welcome the proposed bill creating the National Commission for Muslim Filipinos, an agency that will abolish the Office on Muslim Affairs.

In a public hearing jointly conducted by the House of Representatives’ Committees on Government Reorganization and Muslim Affairs held Thursday in this city, Muslim leaders including top religious scholars from Zamboanga Peninsula including the island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-tawi, expressed support for the immediate passage of the bill into law.

“This would be of great help to the Muslim populace in the country, settling the different issues we Muslims are facing,” said Sheikh Abdulwakil Tanjilil, the deputy Mufti representing Zamboanga Peninsula, Sulu, and Palawan.

“We would like to congratulate the members of the two committees for this laudable move,” added former DepEd superintendent Hadji Abdu Rahim Kenoh.

But former Maguindanao Rep. Datu Michael Mastura said there is a need to look into “what I call cycle of abolition.”

“It is a failed policy. It is a passé unitary colonial formula which keeps Muslims trapped,” he said.

Mastura, a lawyer and historian and a member of the peace negotiating panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said,” the issue is Bangsamoro homeland, not national commission.”

Rep. Erico Basilio Fabian, chair of the Committee on Muslim Reorganization and one of the sponsors of the bill said the hearing is the first public consultation held outside Metro Manila. Their group, he added, will still be conducting similar meetings in the cities of Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

The proposed bill, which is the consolidation of house bills numbers 823, 2347, and 2379, will take over the functions of the would-be abolished Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA).

The proposal states the office will have seven commissioners; five representing different Muslim tribes in the country and two from the women and ulama (religious leaders) sectors.

According to Rep. Pangalian M. Balindong, chair of the Committee on Muslim Affairs, the commission will ensure the “full representation of all the Muslim ethnic tribes as well as sectors in the country, thus ensuring equal services for all.”

The bill will also define respective powers, functions and responsibilities of the commission and appropriate funds.

He added the result of the public consultation will be considered to enhance the bill.

Among the points raised and approved by the body is the power of the commission to nominate and endorse to the President of the Republic of the Philippines highly qualified candidates for posts in the foreign service, especially in the Middle East countries. This will include the positions of ambassadors and other high ranking foreign servicemen.

The commission will also have its different bureaus, particularly focusing on economic affairs, Muslim cultural affairs, Muslim settlement, and pilgrimage and endowment. The committees are also adopting the inclusion of Bureau on Halal Certification.

Other salient features of the bill are the open airline choice for the pilgrims, unlike the present which only allows the use of one airline. The bill also proposes to have a Hajj Attache and Amirul Hajj, who will be helping thousands of Filipino Muslim pilgrims.

Cagayan de Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez, chair of the Technical Working Group working on this bill, said they are now working to fastback its passage into law.

“This bill has been long overdue as Muslims should have already their own commission looking after the Muslim issues and concerns,. This will elevate the present OMA into a national commission” he said, adding that the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) have already their own national commission.

The staff of the two committees said the results of the public consultation will be wrapped up in May or June for endorsement to Senate. The counterpart Senate Bill No. 930 authored by Senator Loren Legarda is also pending in the upper chamber of the Congress.

Islamic Summit calls on two Moro rebel groups to unite

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has called on the two Moro rebel groups to unite for the welfare of the Bangsamoro (Muslim nation) people.

The call was contained in a resolution passed during the 11th session of the Islamic Summit held in Dhakar, Senegal on March 13 to 14.

Both the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were advised "to combine their efforts to work for peace and development of the Bangsamoro people."

Mohagher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator, told BusinessWorld that both groups were invited to attend the summit.

He said for MILF, a "position letter" was sent informing the OIC of the status of the "Bangsamoro in Mindanao" and the current state of the more than 10-year peace talks with the government.

In its statement, the OIC "also took note of the ongoing negotiations between the Philippine government and the MILF, which it "hopes [will have] a positive outcome."

The OIC brokered the peace talks between the MNLF and the government in 1996, and recognized the MNLF as the representative of the Bangsamoro people.

However, the MILF, a breakaway group of the MNLF, has since emerged as the biggest armed Muslim group fighting for a separate Islamic state in Mindanao and is now on the final stage in signing the ancestral domain agreement with the government.

The government has earlier urged the two groups to talk. "The two of them would have to talk because they will represent the Bangsamoro autonomous government. There could not be separate Bangsamoro concepts of the MNLF and MILF," Executive Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita earlier said.

Tighter security

Meanwhile, the military has beefed up security measures in the battled-scarred province of Sulu following a clash with the Abu Sayyaf group on Friday, military officials said.

The Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom), said Marines engaged in a fire fight a band of Abu Sayyaf that led to the killing of Nelson Bin Ricson, an alleged Abu Sayyaf commander in the village of Pansul in Patikul town.

The 15-minute shooting also resulted in the recovery of several firearms and ammunition and some documents. Ricson was believed to be under the command of Radulan Sahiron, who has been on the United States’ wanted terrorists list.

Marine Brig. Gen. Juancho M. Sabban, the new commander of the anti-terrorist Joint Task Force Comet, said there is a standing order that operations against Abu Sayyaf will not be suspended even during special holidays such as Christmas.

Lt. Gen. Nelson N. Allaga, WestMinCom chief, has earlier ordered no let-up in pursuing the Abu Sayyaf even during last week’s observance of the Lenten season that ended yesterday.

Military stations in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi have been ordered to rescue two kidnapped victims from the Abu Sayyaf.

In Tawi-Tawi, a rescue mission was launched for Omar Taup, a teacher of Notre Dame School in Tabawan, South Ubian, who was hostaged by the Abu Sayyaf after the murder of Fr. Jesus Reynaldo A. Roda on Jan. 15.

Troops in Sulu are pursuing a band of Abu Sayyaf holding a Chinese businesswoman, earlier identified as Ma. Rosalie Lao. She was abducted allegedly by the Abu Sayyaf on Jan. 28 while walking outside her house in downtown Jolo.

The rescue attempt for Ms. Lao on Feb. 4 angered Sulu residents after the military allegedly killed seven civilians and an off-duty Army integree in the coastal village of Ipil in Maimbung town.

Survivors claimed there was no Abu Sayyaf member in their area and the incident was a "massacre."

The Commission on Human Rights’ regional office earlier described the incident as an attack against "sleeping residents" and not against the Abu Sayyaf.

The commission also recommended the filing of criminal charges against the soldiers based on its investigation. — Darwin T. Wee www.bworldonline.com

Muslims don’t believe in crucifixion of Christ

By ALI G. MACABALANG

COTABATO CITY — As the Christian world observed the Holy Week last week, Muslims in this Asia’s lone Catholic country acknowledged the sacrifices of Jesus for the good of the humanity.

Muslims revere Jesus, who is mentioned many times in the Koran, which also contains a whole chapter on the story of Eisa Ibnu Mariam or Jesus, the Son of Mary.

While professing peaceful coexistence with Christians and people of other faiths, Muslims do not observe the Holy Week in the way some of them join the Christmas festivities.

The reason is that Muslims do not believe in the death of Jesus on the cross.

The Koran’s Chapter 19 (Su’ratul Mariam or Mary’s Chapter) disputes the Gospels’ crucifixion story about the nailing by the Romans of Jesus to death.

The chapter states: "They said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.’ But they killed Him not, nor crucified Him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts ... for of a surety they killed Him not (Surah 4:157)."

The crucifixion story is also disputed in the succeeding verses (Surah 4:156-159), which say, in part, "They did not slay him, neither crucified him, only a likeness of that was shown to them."

Ulama (Islamic scholars) in the country said that Jesus’ advent in this world taught Muslims and Christians alike to believe in God and in the prophets, and in a day of judgment.

Ustadz Esmael Ebrahim, spokesman of the Assembly of Dharul Ifta of the Philippines (ADIP), said although Muslims do not observe the Christian Holy Week, they respect the practices and traditions of other faiths.

"I think Muslims have, so far, shown respect for other religions," Ebrahim said.

This is evident in the yearly procession of the Cross in and around communities with Muslim residents, such as in Quiapo (Manila), Datu Piang (Maguindanao), Pikit (North Cotabato) and this city, Ebrahim said.

Muslims in Christian-dominated communities do not decorate their houses during Christmas but they do exchange gifts with their neighbors as a gesture of valuing the mutual relationships.

Some of them also join Christian friends during All Souls’ Day in visiting cemeteries for their dead. Islam prescribes visiting of graves especially those of pious people.

Some male Muslims marry Christians, who are described in the Holy Koran as the "People of the Book." www.mb.com.ph

merong naging muslim na dating christian.
Bakit ka nagpa convert? Gusto daw nya maraming asawa.
?????

Hijab: a symbol of liberation and not of oppression (http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4157&Itemid=120)

Some very young Muslim women approached me three weeks ago. They expressed their anxiety over the fact that academic policies have compelled them to take off their hijab, specifically the head veil or khimar. School authorities ordered them as nursing students to take off their head veils while they are on hospital duty in the course of their RLE practicum. Naturally, these veiled Muslimah are apprehensive. School authorities quashed their mild protestations with the following lame, controversial, and debatable reasons: that the veil is dirty (this is either a slanderous or libelous statement); that the veil is just a cultural costume or worse a fashion just because some Muslims wear hijab while others do not (highly fallacious); and that seeing veiled nurses on duty has traumatized hospital patients (are they running out of lucid alibi? Even surgeonshave to be fully clothed in sterilized gowns their masks resemble the niqab except the color of course).

This brought to mind a similar hijab incident at Pilar College whose authorities steadfastly refused to listen to the imploration of Muslim parents on behalf of their veiled daughters. They adamantly reasoned that no one forced them to enroll their children at Pilar College and so they have to conform to school regulations just as non-Muslim OFWs have to conform to Muslim countries' legal compulsion for the former to wear the veil.

Reiterating my pronouncement during the Magna Carta for Women Conference organized by Cong Beng G. Climaco where we lobbied for the rights for equal educational opportunity for Muslim women in the Philippines, I observed that infringement on the Muslim student's right to wear the veil is a result of profound ignorance of its divine merit and significance. Asking a Muslimah to take off her veil is not as ordinary as asking her take off her hat; or as mundane as asking her to take off her coat; or as simple as asking her to take off her shoes.

In Islam, the female body, excepting the face and the hands, is considered "private parts" (awrat or juyyubihinna), and thus, the Qur'an (XXIV: 31; XXXIII:59) and Ahadeeth have so decreed that it must be covered before public eyes and even in private, i.e., home if in the midst of prohibited or restricted males. Thus, the school
authorities are unaware that asking a Muslim student to take off her head veil is tantamount to asking her to strip off her unmentionables, her undergarments, or her underpants! Thus, such action is an encroachment upon her right to privacy; it is synonymous to stripping her nude or to physical transgression.

A Muslimah who wears the veil by choice, in her obedience and worship of Allah as the Supreme Being fundamentally understands the wisdom of being covered. It is a protection of her hayya (modesty or chastity) just as the habit is as vital to a nun. How would a nun feel if one violates her habit? The hijab of a Muslimah is her shield from the penetrating bullet of evil desires of nafs/hawwa just as a knight would cover himself with an armor or a cop protect himself with a bulletproof vest. How would a cop feel if he is deprived of his armor? One Muslimah in the name of Danah Quijano said: It is my life; Islam is my life! Armed with her faith in Allah, rather than disobey Allah and resolute in safeguarding her chastity, she chose to deprive herself of a nursing career and shifted to RadTech. If you take off my veil, you are killing me! I understand Danah's predicament, I resonate her sentiments; and I know many Muslimah empathize with her. How would an astronaut feel if he is deprived of his spacesuit which to him is his lifeline?

Such incidents trigger worst memories in the mid-1990's of students being expelled from schools and by some of them who countered by successfully suing the French government; of one French student who staunchly fought for her Islamic aqeedah and shaved off her hair in defiance of the educational ban. She declared: "My decision to shave my head is dignified than committing sins by taking off my hijab."

When "religious freedom in France was restricted by a law which outlawed religious proselytizing by persons of all faiths," the French Minister of Education severely interpreted such law as banning the wearing of the hijab. Thus, he ordered the expulsion from schools of all female students who wore it. President Jacques Chirac of France was even quoted to have pronounced this statement: "Wearing a veil, whether we want it or not, is a sort of aggression that is difficult for us to accept." The Roman Catholic Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger was alarmed that enacting a law banning the wearing of hijab in public schools would encourage an aggressive anti-religious trend. He commented: "This clumsy law risks reopening...a religious war."

It is clear that the State and International Laws affirm the right to Islam and the right to wear the veil by Muslims is a fundamental right in as much as it is a substantive right; and for these very reasons it is ordained to be inalienable. The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines declares: The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable. (Article II, Section 6), and that, No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights. (Article III, Section 5).

Furthermore, the right to freedom of religion and the exercise of it is entrenched in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights1 (ICCPR). In the Philippines, Islam, as a comprehensive ad-deen or way of life, is also a deeply significant part of the cultural and ethnic identity of the Bangsamoro people. As such the Muslim Filipinos' freedom of religion is protected as both a cultural right by Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and as a right of minority groups by Article 27 of the ICCPR which states: In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language.

^^ in the nursing profession i think it is only proper that hijab is banned because we are dealing with people's health and in a hospital setting everything had to be sterile that is why often times nurses and doctors need a special attire that would enable them to perform their duty without any hindrance.

What's the fuss on this veil? The women Moslem nurses in Indonesia are wearing the prescribed nurse cap and not the veil. In Turkey, the women are not obliged to wear veil.

I herd this place is not safe for us forieners its a shame.

what other universities and colleges ang may MINSUPALA na subject?

Hi everyone,
I'm new here and I want to know if anyone knows anything about indigenous tribes in Central Luzon and their migration patterns. My family is from Pagbilao, Quezon and I was born in Manila. I've been trying to research my roots but I cannot find any info about the people that used to live there. If anyone has any bit of info that will help me please let it all out.
SALAMAT!!!

I thought SriVijaya really covered the Philippine archipelago. Cos it's from them that the Visayas islands were named; and where we got our influences of Sanskrit in our language and old literature, not to mention Hindu practices and old Java customs.

I always held the belief, I could be wrong, that the Sri Vijaya covered most of present day Visayas, hence our name.

I also want to learn more about my Pintado ancestors, the tattooed warriors or the ancestors of Lapulapu et al. What were they like and so on. What manner of Alibata did they use, if at all? Was there only one standard Alibata or did it have variants scattered across 7,100 islands?

The only clue I have is that there is a shrinking tribe in Brunei who also goes by the name Bisaya...

Scholar says Negritos are the ‘original Filipinos’

By Vincent Cabreza (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080212-118459/Who-are-the-indigenous)
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:11:00 02/12/2008

Filed Under: indigenous people, Regional authorities

BAGUIO CITY – All these years, school teachers have taught Filipino children that Filipinos belong to the Malay stock.

Now comes a language scholar, who has authored influential studies about Cordillera and other Philippine languages for almost 50 years, who says that linguistic, archaeological and anthropological findings collected through the years prove that this assertion may have been wrong.

Based on a comprehensive study of Philippine languages and dialects, Dr. Lawrence Reid, a New Zealand-born researcher emeritus of the University of Hawaii, dates the indigenous and mainstream Filipino to Taiwan about 4,500 years ago.

Reid says the people Filipinos call “indigenous” today are themselves immigrants to the country and have become a minority that has been marginalized by the state.

He says the “original Filipinos” everyone refers to are actually the Negritos who are all but extinct in the country of their birth.

Reid has developed an influential body of work on Philippine languages – with the Ivatan language in the 1960s, a contribution to the Tasaday debate in the 1980s, and recently, with online dictionaries of a Mt. Province dialect that he speaks fluently.

In 2006, he was honored at the 10th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics in Palawan.

Uninformed

In a paper, entitled “Who are the Indigenous? Origins and Transformations,” he presented to the First International Conference on Cordillera Studies held last week at the University of the Philippines Baguio, Reid asked the government to correct websites that contain “uninformed and grossly amateurish statements about the cultural minorities.”

The most prominent site Reid poked fun at belongs to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the agency tasked to administer, supervise and grant ancestral land titles to indigenous Filipinos.

“There we find materials that have apparently been taken from popular descriptions and old, long outdated history books that refer to the multiple migration hypotheses of Dr. H. Otley Beyer, the leading Philippine ethnologist of his day, and which I am told is commonly taught in Philippine schools today,” he says.

He says the NCIP profiles the Ifugao as “descendants of the first wave of Malay immigrants to the country.” The Kalinga are said to be descendants of the second group of Malays who came to the islands.

“The Ibaloi are described as ‘peaceful, hardworking, and hospitable tribesmen. They are generally fair in complexion and have well-developed bodies, usually standing four to five feet above in height, have medium and narrow noses and some have broad flat noses,’” he says.

“Attention to the shape of the nose is also mentioned for the Kallahan (or Ikalahan),” he says, as well as the Bugkalot, the Yogad of Isabela and the Ivatan of Batanes.

“Absurd and completely unscientific descriptions such as these are internationally read, and not only give completely erroneous descriptions of Philippine indigenous groups, but cast a very poor light on the level of Philippine scholarship,” he says.

Who does the indigenous Filipino take after?

Reid says: “It is simply not true that the ancestors of Ifugaos or any Cordilleran peoples or of the Tagalogs or other lowland groups are descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines.”

“When your ancestors first arrived in these islands, they were not unoccupied. They were occupied by maybe hundreds of groups of Negritos, most of who have been completely assimilated or have died out,” he says.

He says scientists have located 25 present-day groups of Negrito stock who still thrive, although they are on the brink of extinction themselves.

Reid says the latest United Nations policy subscribes to the definition that indigenous peoples are “original inhabitants of a country, who inhabited the present territory of a country, at a time when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there.”

Negritos are “the true first Filipinos” who date back to 50,000 years, he says, while the Ifugao ancestors who reputedly built the world heritage enshrined rice terraces appeared to have arrived only 4,000 years ago “as their first colonizers.”

“It is these first Filipinos who are the most downtrodden and socially marginalized of all Filipinos, and most in need of urgent action to enable them to survive in this society,” he says.

The Cordillera no longer hosts Negrito tribes, although Reid says anthropologists have found evidence that Alta Negritos of the Sierra Madre used to thrive in the Ifugao mountains.

Citing the discovery of ancient pottery shards in a cave in Itbayat, Batanes by archaeologist Peter Bellwood of the Australian National University, Reid says strong evidence “marks [the first colonizers] as being part of a Neolithic culture that existed in southwest Taiwan and [who] spread south from there into the Batanes islands and Northern Luzon.”

He says the artifact supports irrefutable linguistic evidence debunking the “pre-scientific myth that Philippine languages are somehow corrupted versions of Malay, as a result of multiple migrations from the south.”

The above picture was taken from my website, without giving appropriate credit...
Not a decent way to deal with the intellectual property of other people... :ohno: :down:

Worse than that, the picture is used in a wrong context, as it does not show
Arumanen-Manuvu but Tigwa Manobo from San Fernando, Bukidnon. The Tigwa Manobo would
not like it at all to be sold as Arumanen Manobo...

More accuracy, please...

Here is the link of my website, which is, first of all,
dealing with Mindanao tribal music and culture:

http://brandeis.home.pages.de
http://aedv.cs.tu-berlin.de/~brandeis/ICTM-Abstracts-e.html

::

Wow... and still up to date wala pa ring credit sayo.:ohno:

01uCMrdzHXI&feature=channel_page
credits to mitchlastima :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OzQZJaU2BE&feature=channel_page
1OzQZJaU2BE&feature=channel_page
credits to 3rdworldvoice :)

^ I haven't watched the full video, but take no notice of Mr. Quinto's skin, he looks and sounds like every other probinsyano in Central Luzon.

Of course that may be a bad thing if you want to preserve a unique culture. Then again these people need to live life like normal Filipinos so they have to act like such

The ones I know off...

Laguna Copperplate reveals people have lived in the area as early as 900 AD.



yup. napanood ko ito.. ito ang magpapatunay na may pilipino na nuon pa!

http://www.tingguian.com/

tribe in Abra.

Question: Are the tasadays and mangyans are still surviving? I mean they are still around?

^^ Go look in the mirror, you'll see one. :lol:




:jk: Just kidding! :nocrook: Peace to all mankind! :okay:

Muslims up in arms against discrimination (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/04/07/09/muslims-arms-against-discrimination)

During her junior year at the Universidad de Zamboanga (UZ), nursing student Mirza Guldam was asked to wear a short-sleeved white frock and nurses' cap as she prepared for hands-on training at the hospital owned by her school in Zamboanga City.

This was all seemingly standard procedure, except for what turned out to be a much deeper problem.

Guldam, along with half of her batchmates, were Muslim women and by being asked to wear something "standard", they were in fact being forced to violate the teachings of Islam by exposing more skin than was allowed under their religion. Worse, they were not allowed to wear their sacred veils, the "hijab."

"It is very painful. On my part, it was the first time I removed my veil and every time I go to duty, I feel a burden in my heart, there is also fear, like we are being deprived of our right to use our veil. We cannot perform our skills very well in nursing because we are not used to remove our veils and interact with those patients, so there’s a lot of pain in our hearts," Guldam said, recalling the incident last year.

Now a graduating nursing student, Guldam said the trauma of being forced to take off her hijab is still fresh in her mind.

There are reportedly no mechanisms to penalize discriminatory practices against religious and ethnic groups, and incident reports or complaints are few. "[As for] official documents, we have not received any formal complaints, but there might be some cases that these are not documented," said Datu Tahir Sinsuat Lidasan, Jr., Director of the Bureau of External Relations of the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA).

He added that the closest body monitoring instances of discrimination is the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), which takes formal complaints such as warrantless arrests of Muslims who are automatically suspected to being behind bombings or kidnappings. The OMA, meanwhile, provides legal assistance to Muslims who were victims of human rights violations.

Congress

AMIN Party List Rep. Mujiv Hataman along with his colleagues Algamar Latiph and Raissa Jajurie, drafted the Anti-Discrimination Bill (House Bill No. 3012), which penalizes discriminatory acts such refusing to provide employment, education, delivery of goods and services, as well as accommodation based on religious or ethnic biases.

Should the bill be passed into law, the CHR, OMA and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), will be tasked to prevent or deter acts of discrimination and "to provide the procedures for resolution, settlement, or prosecution of acts of discrimination." It also calls for the creation of an Equal Opportunity Committee to be established in every agency.

The bill punishes those found guilty with jail terms of 30 days to up to six months and fines of P10,000 to P100,000 depending on the gravity of the offense.

House Bill 3012 passed the third reading in Congress on November 17 last year. Sen. Manuel Villar (Senate Bill 2888) and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (Senate Bill 2001) filed these with the Senate Cultural Communities Committee headed by Sen. Jamby Madrigal, who said that a public hearing will be conducted on the three bills "at the soonest possible time" and that the bills will be consolidated.

"There is a need for a policy that will define and criminalize discrimination of persons based on religious belief and ethnic origin. I support the bill. However, as committee chairperson, we will have to hear the opinion of those who oppose the bill as part of the legislative process," she said.

According to Madrigal, strong provisions of the bill include the fact that it defines, specifies, and penalizes discrimination, and that it provides equal opportunities for all, whether Moro, Muslim, or indigenous people.

Jukuy pointed out that the struggle to remove prejudice, a product of ignorance and misinformation, cannot be cured by the Anti-Discrimination Bill alone. "It cannot be done overnight, it cannot be cured by a simple Anti-Discrimination Bill," she said. "But then, if we don't start with [the bill], where will we start?"

Understanding Islam

Warina Jukuy, a peace advocate and member of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), explains that the hijab is an integral part of a Muslim woman's life.

"For Muslims, excepting the face, and the hands, all are considered private. If you compel us to take off our hijab, and expose our hair, it is tantamount to exposing our private parts. To put it bluntly, you are asking us to take off our unmentionables, our panties. That is how grave it is, with the hijab, so I think any reasonable person would really understand if it can only be explained that way, the impact of taking off their veil," she said.

Upon reaching puberty, Muslim women wear veils and clothing that cover all body parts except the face, hands, and feet as an act of virtue and modesty, especially in the presence of other males beyond family members. Islam teachings pervade all aspects of a Muslim's life, and in the case of women, conforming to the Islamic dress code is one of the ways that they can follow Allah's teachings.

However, some of the hospitals reasoned that the veil was dirty and could become a vehicle to transmit microorganisms to patients. It would also not conform to the standard nurse's cap and uniform.

Further, Guldam said that, mostly out of ignorance about their religion than anything else, Clinical Instructors (CI) discouraged the wearing of hijab because patients would allegedly become scared or traumatized when they see some of the nurses wearing veils since they would instantly think of terrorists.

Fearing for their grades or being too shy to question the policy, some Muslim students took to bringing along spare hijabs, just to prove it was clean. Some even dropped out from nursing duty in hospitals that disallowed them from wearing their veils. Gamson Quiano, Vice President of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and a senior Radiologic Technology student, said even Muslim students taking up dentistry, hotel and restaurant management, and medical technology were affected by the no-hijab policy.

Campaign

The MSA, as well as a group of lawyers led by Jukuy, set up a "Hijab Forum" in April 2008 to dispel myths about the hijab like its alleged dirtiness or the idea that patients would be traumatized when seeing the hijab-wearing nurses.

"In fact, Florence Nightingale also wore a veil, and long sleeves, and [a gown] right up to the soles of her feet. So the principle here of nursing is not about the dress code, it is about nurturing. If you can work as efficiently as you can with the hijab, then why take it off?" Jukuy argued.

The forum was attended by various students from the city's schools like Ateneo de Zamboanga, but only a handful of hospital administrators and school officials came. The group made a resolution upholding the right to wear hijab and submitted it to Zamboanga 1st District Rep. Maria Isabelle Climaco, who has yet to respond.

In July last year, the group wrote a flurry of letters to Zamboanga City hospitals and schools decrying fallacies about the hijab and questioning the no-hijab policy. The group feverishly worked to enlighten hospital and school administrations, as well as Muslim students, that the hijab was not simply a fashion choice, but an "inalienable and substantive right" to practice their religion.

On August 26, 2008, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Officer-in-Charge Dr. Nona S. Ricafort issued a memorandum directing all higher education institutions (HEIs) to give "utmost respect and consideration" to concerned Muslim nursing students on wearing the hijab "provided that infection control and aseptic techniques are observed." The memo was circulated by CHED Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) on September 9, 2008.

Universidad de Zamboanga, whose president is a Muslim, immediately allowed nursing students to wear their veils at the school-owned University de Zamboanga Hospital. The Zamboanga City Medical Center (formerly the Zamboanga General Hospital), meanwhile, allowed nurses to wear hijab in certain areas except in the Operating Room and Delivery Room.

However, despite the CHED Memo and pressure from student organizations and concerned groups, most other schools and hospitals in the city still do not allow the wearing of hijab, including the Western Mindanao State University, the Ciudad Medical Center, Camp Navarro General Hospital, Brent Hospital and Colleges, and the Southern Command hospital, among others.

As a small concession, some of these schools allowed nursing students to go on community duty instead of hospital duty, where they are not allowed to wear their veils.

Other forms of discrimination

Professionals like Samira Gutoc, a freelance journalist and co-founder of the Young Moro Professionals Network (YMPN), attest that the hijab prejudice and other biases are not confined to schools, but to the workplace and normal daily routines.

"After college, I wanted to apply for a broadcasting career, so I was wearing my veil, and I applied to all broadcasting companies and other major companies in Metro Manila. Most of them asked if I could remove my veil," Gutoc said.

Even in taking cabs, "Sometimes it takes you longer and I have to ask friends to wave a taxi for me," she continued.

The YMPN, a network of professionals around the world, monitors and collects incident reports of discrimination against members of the Muslim community.

"Most of the incidents that are shared to us are from job applicants in Metro Manila. The incidents are students who cannot get into a dormitory because they are Muslims, and then job applicants who have to change their names.

She added that some Muslims are constrained from practicing their religion in the workplace because they sometimes cannot observe religious holidays and they do not have access to public prayer areas or they cannot pray five times a day, an Islamic practice. They also do not have access to restaurants or places serving halal meals, which consist of meat that should have been cut by a Muslim person invoking the name of God using a knife that should not have touched pork.

Gutoc also said that the slow-moving proposal to construct a mosque in UP Diliman, a center for academic and religious freedom, is another instance where Muslims are alienated.

UP student regent Shahana Abdulwahid, however, clarified that the mosque construction at the Diliman campus was delayed mainly because of the lack of funds and the need to comply with certain legal requirements ordered by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which had issued a document saying that the University cannot prohibit the construction of a mosque since other churches are present in the campus.

She admitted, however, that one of the "incidental concerns" of the university was that "suspicious elements" would enter the campus should the mosque be constructed. Abdulwahid said, however, that the UP Diliman Muslim Students Association is working hard to obtain future funding for the mosque.

Some Muslims also find finding homes difficult at times. Tarhata Sumayan-Mapandi, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director in Lanao del Sur, tried to buy a house in a Cagayan de Oro subdivision on October 6, 2006, but was turned away by a real estate agent from Gran Europa La Buena Vida II allegedly because she was a Muslim. The real estate agent reportedly told her to ask another person, a Christian, to buy the house for her instead. Mapandi asked the management to explain this policy, but was not entertained.

Two years later, on October 23, 2008, Mapandi and her sister, upon inquiring about available Johndorf Ventures units, were told by a sales agent at a housing fair at Limketkai Mall in Cagayan de Oro that units were closed. However, when the two asked their brother-in-law to inquire about the same housing units, he was readily accommodated.

Stereotypes

Media organizations are partly to blame for these prejudices. A telling instance was when a tabloid, Bulgar ran a story in its August 1, 1992 issue implying that Muslims worshipped pigs as their god, the reason why they refused to eat pork and other animals especially during Ramadan.

The issue reached the Supreme Court (SC), but was dismissed in an SC decision dated January 28, 2003, which stated that the report did not constitute libel because it did not name specific persons, clearing publishers of all criminal liability.

However, in his dissenting opinion, SC Justice Antonio Carpio argued that the issue was not libel but rather what constitutes protected speech. The Bulgar report, Carpio said, was humiliating, and disrespected the dignity and constitutionally-protected human rights of the Muslims.

Carpio supported the claim of the private respondents that the newspaper article "which asserts that Muslims worship the pig as their god, was published with intent to humiliate and disparage Muslims and cast insult on Islam as a religion in this country."

The Anak Mindanao Party-List (AMIN) cited a 2005 Pulse Asia survey which showed that 55% of respondents think that Muslims "are more prone to run amok", 47% think that they are terrorists or extremists. The study concluded that "a considerable percentage of Filipinos (33% to 39%) are biased against Muslims."

Four outstanding Filipino Muslims (http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/april/07/yehey/opinion/20090407opi4.html)

Abobacar Tocalo, Musa Sanguila, Dr. Macapado Muslim, and Sultan Ashary Maongco are four men who might not have much else in common except that they are Muslims and Minda-nawans. They are individuals who have excelled not because of power and influence, but due to diligence, discipline, faith and passion, and the support and encouragement of family and friends.

Abobacar Tocalo of Kalilangan, Bukidnon, is the first Muslim student to head the Supreme Student Council of Central Mindanao University (CMU) in Maramag, Bukidnon. Abobacar, taking up civil engineering, was the president of the Young Muslim Student Union and sat in the Supreme Student Council representing his fellow Muslim students. There are only 19 of them at CMU, but the organization has a chapter at the Bukidnon State University in Malaybalay City as well. Petros Bojo, the outgoing president, encouraged Abobakar to seek the position. Neither Petros nor Abobacar were the favorites of the CMU administration, but Abobacar beat his opponents—on a simple platform of student empowerment.

Musa Sanguila of the interfaith non-government organization (NGO) Pakigdait, recently awarded as Outstanding NGO by the Philippine Army for its being a guide and partner of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in peace-building efforts in Lanao del Norte, puts to shame whatever stereotypes one might have of Muslims—and NGO workers for that matter: Passionate about breaking barriers built on prejudice and fear, and a man in a way that makes even battle-tested army officers treat him as a brother rather than simply a partner in Civil-Military Operations. And like most smokers, nagged by his wife to quit this unhealthy habit.

Dr. Macapado Muslim and Sultan Ashary Maongco, both of whom I met during a too brief visit to Marawi City, are heading two of the most important institutions in the area: Dr. Muslim is the acting president of the Mindanao State University (MSU), while Sultan Ashary Maongco is the general manager of the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Lasureco).

During a recent Cabinet meeting held in Mindanao, allegations against Dr. Muslim were presented to President Gloria Arroyo. However, only on March 10, 2009, Commissioner Hadja Luningning Misuarez-Umar of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) expressed the opinion that the seven specific allegations that she, together with two other CHED officials, had looked into “were made simply to harass and discredit the incumbent President. To put stability in the Office of the President of MSU and considering the excellent performance of Dr. Muslim as Acting President of MSU . . . the undersigned is strongly endorsing him to be appointed as a regular President of Mindanao State University with a fixed term.”

While Dr. Muslim had topped the search for president of the university his appointment was downgraded to OIC reportedly to mollify those who were against his appointment.

Dr. Muslim’s parents barely made it to elementary school so the MSU president’s academic and professional accomplishments are little miracles in themselves, especially in Muslim Mindanao where scarcity of opportunities for young people make joining an armed group one of the few career options available.

Low income, low level of education, lack of job and income generating opportunities, settling of conflicts through violent means, and failure of government to address the basic needs of the population are some of the problems plaguing the region.

For Lasureco this means consumers not paying their bills, others making illegal connections, Lasureco personnel being threatened when they try to disconnect, and a P3.8-billion debt that has made it close to impossible to upgrade dilapidated equipment. Yet, GM Maongco—who left a good job in Napocor to join Lasureco—is not deterred. He believes that Lasureco can be turned around and become one of the best performing electric cooperatives in the country—and that Lanao del Sur can become a showcase of Muslim Mindanao.

Stable power supply will improve business opportunities and thus spur economic development. Lasureco’s rehabilitation requires upgrading of human and physical infrastructure, and everybody’s faith in the vision. Professionalism and performance are recognized and rewarded. This is the way ahead not just for Lasureco but for Muslim Min-danao and the entire country.

Abobacar Tocalo, Musa San-guila, Dr. Macapado Muslim and GM Ashary Maongco not only break barriers of prejudice that Christians might have for Muslims, they tell us that Muslim Mindanao can overtake the rest of the country in terms of economic and social development once its people and leaders decide to do so.

Eid al-Adhu national observance boosts Muslim identity in mainstream RP society (http://balita.ph/2009/04/07/eid-al-adhu-national-observance-boosts-muslim-identity-in-mainstream-rp-society/)

Untainted obedience to Allah and supreme sacrifice that beget abundance and enlightenment by undertaking the Islamic pillar of faith –the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

That is the essence of celebrating "Eid al-Adhu," which brings to completion the difficulty-strewn rites of Hajji, known in Indonesia and Malaysia as "Hari Raya Hajj" or the "Feast of Sacrifice."

For the first time in the Philippines, Eid al-Adhu will be commemorated this year by the whole nation with two non-working holidays in November 27 and 28.

This idea of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was conceived in consultation with ambassador Ameen Wali of Saudi Arabia, which is the custodian of Mecca and the Kaaba center around which millions of supplicants perform the 5th pillar of Islamic faith in the annual journey called Hajj.

Saudi Arabia’s Religious Council calculates the dates of observance of all Islamic feasts based on the lunar calendar and translated to the Gregorian. In 2010, the dates for the Feast of Sacrifice are November 16 to 19.

Muslims know by heart that Eid al-Adhu signifies God’s command for the Prophet Abraham/Ibrahim to sacrifice his firstborn son, Ismael, and how his solemn obedience would soon turn the dry deserts of Mecca into oases of prosperity. (Was it oil that spewed out of the sandy soil of Makka into which Ismail thrust his foot while bewailing his fate after his father Abraham left him and his mother Hagar on a mission from God?)

The addition of the Eid al-Adhu to Islamic celebrations in the Philippines strengthens the intention of Republic Act 9177 of 2002 which originally directed only that the now-familiar Feast of Ramadan or "Eidul Fitr" be observed in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and was later updated so that all Philippines would go on holiday and break bread with their Muslim compatriots, even if only in thought, when the fasting month is over.

The President’s latest move reflects her sensitivity to the religious and spiritual concerns of Muslims, and now asks that non-Muslims as well share the act of piety in the spirit of interfaith dialogues that government has been espousing.

With a nationwide observance, the Philippines honors its Islamic heritage and its estimated 10 million Muslims citizens, among the world’s two billion Muslim population.

Ramadan or "sawm", the fourth Islamic pillar of faith, celebrates the time when the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Mohamed, a season for sacrifice, humility and patience for Muslims.

Centuries later, Abraham’s descendants would gather at the Kaaba, Islam’s spiritual center in Mecca, for the rites of Hajj that all Muslims fulfill at least once in their lifetime unless prevented by health or finances.

Through the Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA) funds are appropriated to help finance the Hajj pilgrimage of poor Filipino Muslims, which culminates in a sumptuous Feast of Sacrifice.

About 5,000 Filipino Muslims undertake the Hajj each year, some of them sponsored by the Saudi Arabian government.

The story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Ismael, later to be acknowledged as Islam’s forefather, is both in the Qur’an and the Bible, so Christians must also be familiar with this story in the Old Testament.

Like all spiritual journeys, Eid al-Adhu in the Philippines is observed with regular praying as separated family members reunite for the occasion.

One of the sacrifices to be made by adherents, said "balik-Islam" Cecille Kiram, is to eat just one-third of their meals during the reunions and apportion two-thirds to the poor — which is at the same time an expression of "zakat" or alms-giving, still another pillar of the faith.

A visit to the Maharlika Village in nearby Taguig City during Islamic festivals would show an outsider that Filipino Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adhu a bit differently from their counterparts in fundamentalist Iran or conservative Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, or even modern Malaysia.

Kiram, wife of former senatorial candidate W. Kiram of the Sulu Sultanate, said among Muslims in Mindanao, the men and women can pray together though they must do so in separate corners of the mosque or the house.

Praying or "salat" and "shahada" (profession of the faith) complete the five pillars of Islam.

During the Feast of Sacrifice, Muslims pray for forgiveness as they forgive others and release any feelings of enmity and hatred for others.

To be sure, there are no big differences between Muslims and non-Muslims in the standards and practice of their religion and spirituality, said Kiram.

But the Muslims in Mindanao, she claimed, have not been as articulate as other Filipinos in making themselves understood.

President Macapagal-Arroyo’s desire to put Islamic celebrations in the mainstream of Philippine society is "a good sign," said Kiram, who embraced Islam when she married.

Filipino Muslims in Libya Establish Consultative Council Aiming at Bringing Filipinos Together (http://tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=3159)

The Filipino Muslim Consultative Council (FMCC) held its induction ceremony for its second set of officers on 17 April 2009 at the Al-Sharq Hall, Tripoli.

This occasion marked another important event in the history of Filipinos in this oil-rich and friendly country, the Great Socialist People's Arab Jamahiriyya (GSPLAJ).

Its first induction of officers was on 16 July 2006 by no less than the President of the Republic of the Philippines, H.E. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during her state visit to Libya.

The affair was attended by the Ambassadors of some ASEAN countries in Libya, members of the diplomatic corps, businessmen, World Islamic Call Society (WICS) representatives, Libyan friends, other expatriates, and leaders of the Filipino community in Libya.

Hon. Nasser S. Mustafa, Philippine Labor Attaché was designated representative of the Philippine Ambassador to Libya, H.E. Alejandrino Agustin Vicente, who was then in Morocco to present his credentials as non-resident Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (AEP) to Morocco.

In his message read by Labatt Mustafa, the Ambassador said that "Mindanao is a land of peace-loving people - just like the rest of the Philippines - whose one desire is unity, harmony, peace and progress." He exhorted the officers and members to do their part in helping achieve these ends.

The event showcased the colorful, artistic and diversified culture of Muslims in Mindanao. The attendees were in a festive mood throughout the program, mostly during the cultural presentations. They enjoyed the Filipino delicacies as well.

The new set of officers are: Atty. Haznor L. Mangondaya (Chairman), Dr. Abdelmunir H. Sarail (Vice Chairman), Ustadj Abdul Aziz Ating (Secretary General), Hadja Aisah "Ricon" M. Ampuan (Treasurer) and Mr. Mohammad Tahir Jamail (Auditor).

The tribes' representatives are: Mr. Mohaimen B. Paniorotan, Mr. Abdulkader Dalama, Mr. Ali Diahing, Mr. Sahraman Abdullah, Mr. Numar Usman, Mr. Ammar Abdussalam, Mr. Abdulmubin Dalun and Ms. Maria Alethea R. Nabo.

The advisers are: Mr. Samalio D. Ayaon, Ms. Nadjefah A. Mangondaya, Mr. Hakim Jajimin, Ustadj Awal Ajanti, Mr. Ali Mariwa, Mr. Salongga Ombra and Mr. Mabussin Mariwa. The over-all adviser is Hon. Nasser S. Mustafa.

FMCC was organized by Labatt Mustafa, on instructions from the former Philippine Ambassador to Libya, H.E. Bayani V. Mangibin, who dreamed of putting Mindanao on the world map through a strong and honest Muslim Mindanao monitoring group who will assist in the development of Mindanao and will also help, in case the Libyan government will need support and assistance from the Mindanaoans who are residing in Libya.

The project was dubbed as Multi-Action Program (MAP) for Mindanao, under the slogan "Development through Mutual Consultation."

The council is composed of nine (9) Muslim Filipino tribes and the Balik Islam or new Filipino Muslims. There are thirteen (13) ethno-linguist Muslim tribes in Mindanao, but only nine (9) are represented here in Libya.

Its objectives are: to integrate and unify the Filipino Muslims in Libya regardless of tribal identity; to assist in fostering good relations between the citizens and the government of host country and of the Republic of the Philippines; to promote and foster better relations, mutual understanding, spirit of camaraderie and fellowship among Filipino Muslims and all Filipinos in Libya regardless of tribal identity and religious affiliation; to contribute to the growth and development of Mindanao and the Filipino Muslims residing in Libya; to provide instruments for the career advancement of the Filipino Muslims, especially the graduates of the universities and colleges in Libya; to provide training programs for the Filipino Muslims employed in Libya and their dependents; and to propagate Islamic teachings and Arabic language for Filipino Muslims in Libya and their dependents.

Lessons to end Muslim stereotyping (http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090522-206420/Lessons-to-end-Muslim-stereotyping)

Granada, the last Moorish capital in Spain, was taken by the Catholic monarchs in 1492, the most glorious year of the Reconquista when Granada’s last Muslim ruler, Boabdil, surrendered his kingdom to the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile (supposedly the potent union of the pious Isabel and the Machiavellian Ferdinand). Thus ended seven centuries of Muslim rule over virtually the entire Iberian peninsula, which they called Al-Andalus, with cities that boasted of palaces, mosques, gardens, universities, public baths and bustling markets. Historians have spoken of their “courts of justice, central administration, respect for citizens’ private life” that placed Al-Andalus centuries ahead of the rest of Europe of that time. In 1212, the reigning emir built a palace complex called the Alhambra, “al-kalat al-Hamrá” (or “the castle built of red earth,” after the reddish clay found in the Granada valley), which today stands as a fitting reminder of the sophisticated civilization that thrived in Moorish Spain.

The Alhambra was a government center, fortress, and royal residence combined. Built atop a hill, its walled garden, the Generalife, was intended to be a preview of paradise. Its palaces have been described as “ennobled with sublimity and splendor,” the walls and ceilings covered with Islamic verses and adorned with the most intricate ornamentation. Indeed some modern scientists detect a mathematical complexity in the symmetry of the ceramic tile-work, and it is said that the Dutch artist Maurits Escher’s strange geometric drawings were inspired by the Alhambra’s designs. The columns that lined its courtyards were positioned to serve as markers on a sundial, and the rooms were aligned to make the most of the sun in winter and of the shade in summer.

The most distinctive element in the Alhambra is its use of water in reflective pools and fountains, where it is said, even the sound of falling water was intended to be part of the design. It had baths with hot and cold water. It coursed the cold waters flowing from the mountains underneath the floors for “ambient” cooling. And it had lavatories flushed with water, with separate wash basins and ventilation.

I have just left Granada as I write this and I am still awestruck by what I have seen. The past days have been disorienting. Watching Spanish TV, I saw an advertisement for Agujeros de Filipinos, some sort of a chocolate biscuit. The movies showing in town are “Angeles y Demonios” and “Noche en el Museo 2.” It makes me regret that I don’t remember anything from my 12 units of Spanish in college—and I will definitely watch those movies in their English-language original.

And now I understand better why our Spanish colonizers really had this thing about the Moros in Mindanao. I can imagine them, having triumphed at Granada in 1492 and then colonizing our islands in the mid-1500s. They sailed to the outer edge of the known universe, and who do they find? The local comrades of their Moorish protagonists back home! I suppose, for them, this was no local insurgency. It was not as if they had to subdue merely some troublesome natives. They were replaying the centuries-long Reconquista, and securing their triumph from fresh threats in the New World. Thus the urge not just to put down the recalcitrant Moros but to put down their religion as well. And that latter urge is even more compelling, because the conquistadores were up against a religion, nay an Islamic civilization, that had put much of Europe to shame for all of seven centuries.

But historical perspective can teach us yet other lessons. The triumph of the Reconquista, after the initial flush of magnanimity to Muslims and Jews, actually heightened the Inquisition. At around 1492 and soon after, the Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada expelled 200,000 Jews and persecuted the Muslims through forced baptisms, the burning of Islamic books and a ban on the Arabic language—all this from a faith that taught us to love others as God loved us.

I am convinced that religious wars, deep down, are never really about faith and spirituality. They are about power, plain and simple. Religious causes are merely proxies for the truer, more earthly causes of human strife, and religion just provides the ideological cover and the inspiring call to arms. The sooner we separate the true issues from the false, the better for us all. We could have had a fuller debate on the aborted peace pact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which was struck down as unconstitutional. Sadly, in doing so, we merely replaced the obscurantism of religious debate with the self-righteousness of the local brand of constitutionalism. Either way, we never really cut to the real issues: health, shelter, and education for Mindanao’s youth, by securing for them their just share of Mindanao’s wealth.

Conversely, this should also chastise Muslims here and abroad. Take the Alhambra and what it says about the lofty achievements of Islamic culture. Then contrast that to the dominant news that we encounter today. The worldwide death warrant against the writer Salman Rushdie. The Talibans and their bizarre practices. The terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid, and Bali. And, of late, the Abu Sayyaf as nothing but a kidnap-for-ransom gang. Filipino Muslims, especially, should dissociate themselves publicly and categorically from wayward elements that bring dishonor to an enduring religion that deserves better champions.

First Muslim Filipino named ambassador to Bahrain (http://pakobserver.net/200905/22/news/world05.asp)

Corazon Yap-Bahjin, the first Muslim Filipino to be appointed ambassador, was confirmed as her coun-try’s head of diplomatic mission in Bahrain after her nomination breezed through the Commission on Appoint-ments in Manila. She will succeed former ambassador Eduardo Pablo M. Maglaya, who held the post from May 2003 until March 2009.

Bahjin’s confirmation on Wednesday makes her the fourth woman to lead a diplomatic mission in Bahrain. Tur-key’s Hilal Baskal made history twice in May 2001 by becoming the first woman ambassador in Bahrain and the first Turkish woman appointed as a diplomatic representative to an Arab country. She was followed in July 2001 by France’s Anita Limido, the first Western female ambassador in Manama, who was replaced, three years later, by another woman, Malika Berak.

Bahjin was born to a small and frugal family in Jolo and graduated cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas in 1967, majoring in English and theology. She obtained her Master of Arts from the University of the Philippines in 1974. After a short career in education, she became acting director of the Cultural Division of the Office of Islamic Af-fairs (now the Office on Muslim Affairs) in 1982 and had her first assignment abroad as vice consul in Jeddah in 1986. She went back to Manila in 1998 and in 1990 she served as second secretary and consul in Amman.

In 1991 she moved to Cairo, where a year later she became the chargé d’affaires. She also served in Bangkok and Beijing. She became the first Muslim woman to be appointed ambassador in 2007 and later foreign affairs under-secretary. According to her biography, published by the Manila Times, Bahjin has a strong work ethic and finds it unsettling when Muslims expect special treatment because of their faith. She says that Muslims must prove that prejudice against them is unwarranted. “We must disabuse non-Muslims of their pre-judgments about us and Muslims have to fight negative stereotypes,” she is quoted as saying. Around 45,000 Filipinos work in Bahrain out of a total expatriate population of 570,000 people.

9th ray to RP flag’s sun proposed (http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/news/view/20090529-207748/Ninth-ray-to-RP-flags-sun-proposed)

Senator Richard J. Gordon wants to add a ninth ray to the sun in the Philippine flag to symbolize the Muslims who fought against foreign invaders.

“Our national flag not only represents principles of sovereignty and solidarity of the Philippine nation, but also embodies the ideals and traditions of the Filipino people developed over the course of national history,” he said in a statement.

Gordon said the Philippine flag symbolizes the nation’s struggle for independence and victory against foreign colonizers.

The three stars in the flag represent the three major geographical divisions of the country: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao; while the eight rays of the sun represent the eight provinces that revolted against the Spanish regime: Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Manila, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Tarlac.

Gordon said that behind the stories of the most celebrated names of national heroes who fought for our independence lie the stories of our mostly-forgotten Muslim heroes, including Lapu-Lapu, Sultan Kudarat, and Rajah Sulayman, who displayed courage and integrity.

The senator explained that this is the reason he proposed to add a ninth ray to the sun in the Philippine flag—to acknowledge the courage and integrity of Muslim Filipinos who fought for the nation’s independence.

“Our Muslim heroes left an imprint on national history that, at the very least, must be given due recognition in the most heraldic item of national importance—the Philippine flag,” he said.

Gordon authored Senate Bill 2590, which proposes that the rays of the sun on the Philippine flag be increased from eight to nine, to symbolize the community of Muslim leaders who defended the country from foreign invasion.

“By adding a ninth ray in the sun to represent our Muslim brothers, I think we make ourselves one with them. They are the Filipinos who were very successful in thwarting colonialism in our country,” Gordon said.

Aetas in Pampanga awarded first clean title of ancestral domain (http://www.gmanews.tv/story/163062/Aetas-in-Pampanga-awarded-first-clean-title-of-ancestral-domain)

Some 454 Aeta families in Pampanga are now the owners of a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) to 7,440.10 hectares of land around Mount Pinatubo.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo awarded the title on Wednesday in Floridablanca, Pampanga, together with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in partnership with the Project Development Institute (PDI).

The CADT No. RO3-FLO-1206-057 for the Aetas’ ancestral land comes 12 years after the establishment of the NCIP.

NCIP Region III Director Salong Sunggod said it is the first clean title distributed by the commission.

“All encumbrances on the title have been eliminated and all other claims to the ancestral domain have been segregated and settled. The 454 Aeta families who will benefit will not face any counterclaims after the title is issued to them," he explained.

PDI Executive Director Aurea Miclat-Teves said the approved and declared net land area of 7,440.10 hectares cover the barangays of Mawakat and Nabuklod in Floridablanca, Pampanga, plus a portion of of San Marcelino, Zambales, and a portion of Barangay Batiawan in Subic, Zambales.

Survey work for the CADT started following its approval for processing in December 2006 by the NCIP.

The Project Development Institute, an NGO that has been helping landless farmers and Aeta communities displaced by the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, has been extending full assistance to the Aetas as they underwent the process of securing their entitlement to their ancestral domain.

“Aside from their oral tradition, their actual labor on the land is the enduring proof of the Aetas’ claim over their ancestral domain," said Teves in a press statement. “After acquiring their full rights to their land, the challenge facing the Aetas now is to develop and fully utilize it."

For the Aetas land is the root of their identity and the source of their livelihood. “For them land is life," she added.

The Aetas appreciate the conventional concept of legitimate ownership, which a land title represents. They believe that the most important function of land titles is in providing them security and protection. The recognition of the Floridablanca Aetas’ ancestral domain is a major achievement for indigenous Filipinos.

Lifted from these LINKS:
http://jackcarino.multiply.com/journal/The Cariño Doctrine of Native Title
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=181588925639&ref=mf


Two of my sisters, Joji and Jill, are presently in New York attending a United Nations conference on Indigenous Peoples. Jill just presented an intervention on behalf of the Ibaloi residents of Baguio City. Here is a copy of her presention...

Eighth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Intervention: On the Marginalization of Indigenous Peoples in Urban Areas and the Cariño Doctrine of Native Title

I would like to draw attention to the plight of indigenous peoples whose ancestral lands have been transformed into cities or urban areas, and in particular, my people, the Ibaloy in Baguio City, Philippines.

This year marks 100 years since the charter / designation of our lands into Baguio City, a hill station for the colonial American government, as well as rest and recreation site for colonial soldiers.One mile radius from Mateo Cariño’s house was expropriated to form the city centre, while his pasturelands were transformed into the John Hay Air Base and recreation centre. Vast tracts of lands were declared as government reservations and rapid urbanization displaced the Ibaloy from our ancestral lands and opened the gates for migrant settlers. Today, the Ibaloy are a marginalized minority in Baguio City. The case of the Ibaloy people of Baguio is internationally significant. Mateo Cariño, my great grandfather asserted his ownership over the land taken by the the American colonial administration and filed a case that reached the US Supreme Court. In a landmark decision penned by Oliver Wendell Jones, the US Supreme Court ruled that “Whatever may have been the technical position of Spain, it does not follow that in the view of the United States, he had lost all rights and was a mere trespasser when the present government seized his lands. The argument to that effect seems to amount to a denial of native titles, throughout an important part of the island of Luzon.

It concludes:

“when as far back as testimony or memory goes, that land has been held by individuals under a claim of private ownership, it will be presumed to have been held in the same way from before the Spanish conquest, and never to have been public land.”

The Cariño decision on native title, established a legal doctrine which is in fact, the foundation of the Philippine Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA), passed in 1997.The law recognizes “ancestral domain,” or ownership of land established through collective memories and custom law, and that for indigenous peoples, land ownership is not given by formal titles, but is claimed by use and inheritance since time immemorial.

Sadly, in Baguio City itself, the Cariño doctrine has never been implemented. Camp John Hay Recreation Base is in the hands of private developers, while many Ibaloi lands remain classified as government reservations.

Worse, there are conspicuous irregularities and anomalies in the processing of ancestral land and domain claims by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in the Philippines. One clear example is the recent issuance by the NCIP of a Certificate of Ancestral Land Title over a 69 hectare lot in Baguio City to bogus claimants over the long-standing claim of the Cariño family. This act of the NCIP is a shame and grave injustice to the Ibaloy of Baguio, a serious violation of native title, a sacrilege to the memory of Mateo Cariño, a mockery of the IPRA and of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

On behalf of the Ibaloy of Baguio City, – I appeal to the Special Rapporteur on Fundamental Freedoms and Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Atty. James Anaya, to look into this serious violation of human rights, by the very government agency assigned to protect us. As a follow-up to the earlier visit of the Mr. Rudolfo Stavenhagen, who gave cognizance of the special situation or urban indigenous peoples in the Philippines, we call on the UNSR to investigate and recommend corrective measures to uphold the rights of the indigenous Ibaloy people. We direct the same appeal to the Philippine members of the august body. .

Thank you for your kind attention.


Submitted by: Jacqueline K. Cariño, Cordillera Peoples Alliance
Endorsed by: Asia Pacific Indigenous Youth Network
Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact
Others


http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn18/baguiowriter/IbaloiChuyoRiceChiliDish.jpg

The 69 hectar lot Jill is referring to above is of course part of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) compound in Santo Tomas. It was and still is referred to as Chuyo by the native Ibalois. Chuyo means a bowl to eat from in Nabaloi. How symbolic if Chuyo is transformed into a garbage dump...

Muslims unite in social networking site (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/06/08/09/muslims-unite-social-networking-site)

Although Friendster, Facebook, and Multiply have virtually everything people need for an active cyber-social life, some Muslim users still don't find what they need for a truly "halal" social networking experience.

This was an issue 42-year-old Salim Yusop tried to address when he launched Tausug Network (TN), a social networking site catering mainly to Tausugs in Sulu province.

Born in Jolo, and later resided in Metro Manila in the 1980s, Yusop said he had always dreamed of creating a website custom-fit for Muslim users—one that would reflect Islamic culture and beliefs, especially those of his ethnic group.

"I have an account on Friendster, but I wasn't that active. Personally, maybe it's because it didn't have what I was looking for. I wanted a site that would be used correctly, not [one that is] just full of pictures and posts. I wanted a link, a communication, among Tausug tribes. It was hard because there was no site for Tausugs," he said in Filipino.

Yusop launched TN 6 months ago, striving to create a virtual space where Tausugs—and all Muslims of various ages, locations, and genders—can feel at home.

"I think what makes the site different is that first, users can use their native dialect so they know they are understood and they can express themselves best. Also, most of the members already have a bond. Their relationships were just recharged virtually on TN. There is already a sense of identity, of a common place where you came from," he said.

Islamic content

The website's home page carries Islamic music and albums containing pictures of Muslim food and Mindanao scenery, a favorite among Filipinos overseas who miss home. Discussion forums and chats are rich sources of religious information, straight from members who are "imams" or Islamic religious leaders and Muslim scholars.

There is always healthy political and religious debate on the site's forums, blogs, chatrooms, and profile pages. Muslim youth can share jokes or ask for advice on love and family problems, trusting that they have a sympathetic audience. More than once, users have found distant relatives they did not know existed.

Romance blooms here and there, too. But unlike other relationships borne or nurtured in cyberspace, TN was simply a tool that started a relationship, which progressed in an old-fashioned Muslim way.

"I heard one of the users are getting married in September. I think they met on Tausug Network, but the set-up and their arrangement was done in the proper manner. Their parents coordinated in the province. Because you know how some Muslims are conservative about things like that," Yusop said.

The site even has a "Countdown to Ramadan" digital clock widget that reminds users how much time they have left before the month-long religious observance. Yusop is also thinking of adding other functions on the website, including live streaming of radio broadcasts from Sulu and live video feeds of mosques and municipal halls.

"On the upside, social networking has had a huge impact on our lives because now we have [alternative] means of saying what we feel about issues or events. We used to do this on the ground, among ourselves. Although there will always be differences in opinion, we stick to our goal of unity."

But there is a downside, too. "It's very addicting," Yusop said sheepishly.

Invite a friend

A freelance web designer, Yusop said he toyed with TN's basic concepts. But these stayed as mere ideas for several years. The push finally came when his elder brother, who was then about to request for their alumni homecoming website, nudged him to make good of his dream: a fully-functional and relevant Tausug website.

Yusop searched the Net, then signed up for a premium account on Ning, a California-based online platform that allows users to create social networks.

In his little Internet shop in Dasmarinas, Cavite, he started building the site from scratch. The premium service was expensive, but it allowed Yusop full control of what features to put on the site, blocked out unwanted advertisements, and ensured him large bandwidth and file storage space for pictures, videos, and more.

In time for a Muslim celebration after the "Haj" or religious pilgrimage to Mecca in modern day Saudi Arabia, Yusop formally launched TN. The social networking site was born on December 9, 2008.

Yusop and his brother then sent out text messages and made good use of the site's "Invite a Friend" feature to build the site's network of users.

"I was surprised by the response. I though that my target audience would be teenagers, because I think they are more active in social networking. I didn't count on those in their 40s or 50s and above would join. In fact, older users had the most inflow in the beginning. Those with Friendster accounts advertise TN on the site, so people learned about TN very fast. In a few days, I would see entire families signing up on the website. It was really unexpected," he gushed.

Lively members

Now, TN has 2,000 active members from all over the world (especially Saudi Arabia), and consistently garners an average of 71,000 hits and 100,000 individual page views monthly. Although this is much less than Facebook or Friendster's site traffic statistics, Yusop said that, considering the population of Tausugs, the numbers are pretty good.

About 100 errant users have been kicked out of the site for profanity, harrassing other members, or putting in bogus information on their profiles.

Yusop keeps a strict eye on the website's goings-on, along with a deputy and 4 self-appointed moderators, all of whom are in charge of approving uploaded content. As if guided by an unspoken rule, however, members police their own ranks in perenially active chatrooms and dutifully report users who post vulgar content.

Much as they try to keep things according to Islamic teachings, some issues have proved to be thorny. "There is a debate now on whether we should allow Muslim females to post pictures of themselves without their 'hijab' (or veil). We also don't allow pictures of users wearing sleeveless shirts. But there is really a question of how to implement that," he said.

Apart from their face, hands, and feet, Muslim women consider all other body parts sacred. Though some women choose not to wear their hijab, since Muslim scholars and feminists have pointed out that the Koran does not explicitly state that Muslim women should wear a veil, some Muslims encourage veil-wearing as an act of modesty.

Exclusive?

Although it was originally meant for Tausugs, few non-Muslims who were invited by their Muslim friends or who were simply curious about the website are in the loop, too.

The non-Muslim's "presence" in the network initially raised objections, with some insisting that the site should be exclusive to Tausugs. But Yusop said he hopes there will be more non-Muslim users joining TN so it could evolve as a venue for understanding among cultures and religions.

Yusop said the site has so far been very productive, owing to the exuberance and helpfulness of its members. "Parang gumawa lang ako ng maliit na bubong para sa [kanila], tapos pag wala na [silang] magawa, may tambayan dito. Pero ang nagpapatibay niyan, maski gaano ko gusto pagandahin ang site, kung hindi nila ingatan, mawawala sa objectives ng site," he said.

Some users had organized themselves into geographic clusters, with each group coming up with its own projects. TN Jolo, for example, has an ongoing fund-raising drive to help an Islamic school in the area that was damaged by a typhoon. Users from Saudi Arabia provide constant updates on employment opportunities for unemployed Muslims. Users in need of blood donations can expect immediate answers from other members.

Grand assembly

Tausug Network even held a Grand Assembly last May 9 in Zamboanga, where about 60 website members met each other for the first time. The event was broadcast live on the website via webcam.

Yusop said the gathering was such as smashing success, that other users who failed to attend the assembly are clamoring for a repeat of the event, hopefully on the site's anniversary in December. He hopes that other ethnic communities follow suit and take advantage of existing technology and make meaningful relationships.

"Maybe it's a good idea if, someday, there's a larger social networking site where all the ethnic tribes can unite," he said.

There have been many websites prior to TN that sought to cater to Tausugs, but most folded for lack of funds or site maintenance capabilities. Although TN has the same problems, Yusop said he will try to keep it going for as long as he can, even if it means paying for the site's monthly hosting charges on his own.

"Someone asked me, why doesn't TN make a business to sustain the site for a long time? I answered, TN was not made for business and it will stay that way. As long as TN has use for the Tausug community, it will always be there," he said.

Other websites aimed to create a virtual space for Muslims around the world are Muxlim.com, a highly acclaimed social media and lifestyle website; Muslimsocial.com, which allows users to keep updated with friends; and Muslim Social Network, which provides Islamic videos and other content.

One of my favorites OPM (Original Philippine Musics) is a Tausug Song: "Biraddali" by Den Bisa. (paano mag imbeded?)
jNliNZG5ZwU

^^ There, I fixed it for you. :colgate:

Here's how you post YouTube vidclips:

1. Edit the vidclip's URL from the website by using only the alphanumeric series after v=.

2. Place that series in between the YouTube tags, like this: ABC123xyz.

3. Click on "Post Quick Reply" button when done.

4. There, you've just posted a YouTube vidclip on SSC! :okay:

thanks a lot, mate.

Interesting videos in order to understand all the sides in the conflict.

BRIEF HISTORY OF BANGSAMORO STRUGGLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYP9UYxlnyc

Moro's Grievances Under Philippine Government (Chapter 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZNGwacxxA

Moro's Grievances Under Philippine Government (Chapter 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYA6GWUT1tU

Moro's Grievances Under Philippine Government (Chapter 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WuGisbuzAw



Ancestral Domain for Muslims in Mindanao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zICpqgLFK3A


Mindanao Conflict
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqKMbXEqXDI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kub3hGEo2Ws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9CYLaAmAPw

Islam is one of the oldest organized religions to be established in the Philippines. Islam reached the islands
in the 14th century with the arrival of Indian, Malay and Javanese merchants, and Arab missionaries from
various sultanates in the Malay Archipelago, although the spread of Islam in the Philippines is due to the
strength of Muslim India. India brought Islam to Southeast Asia, specifically Malaysia and Indonesia, and in
turn the latter two brought Islam to the Philippines. Muslims form 5% of the Philippine population, while
the rest of the general population are mostly Roman Catholic (84%) and Protestant (8%).

In 1380, Karim ul' Makhdum, the first Islamic missionary to reach the Sulu Archipelago and Jolo, brought
Islam to what is now the Philippines. The Sheik Karimal Makdum Mosque was the first mosque established
in the Philippines on Simunul. Subsequent visits by Arab Muslim missionaries from the now Islamicized
Malaysia and Indonesia, helped strengthen the Islamic faith in the Philippines, mostly in the south but as
far north as Manila. Vast sultanates were established, comprised of the Sultanate of Maguindanao and the
Sultanate of Sulu. Since the first people who established themselves as sultans in various parts of the
Malay Archipelago—Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines—were usually of Arab descent, most people of
royal lineage claim Arab descent, some going as far as claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_Philippines#History


*********************************************************************************************

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/jibrael_2007/Jibrael%202008/mosquemakhdumindangansimunol.jpg
The mosque of Makhdum, Tubig Indangan, Simunul Island, Tawi-Tawi province, Autonomous Region
of Muslim Mindanao



History of Islam in the Philippines

Ang Islam ay nakilala sa Pilipinas noong 13 siglo sa pamamagitan ng isang Arabong Misyonaryo na si
Sharif Makhdum na lumapag sa Sulu. Ipinagawa niya ang unang Masjid sa Pilipinas sa Tubig-Indangan, Pulo
ng Simunol, Lalawigan ng Tawi-Tawi. Ang natitirang bahagi ng Masjid ay makikita pa rin sa dati niyang
kinalalagyan. Si Makhdum ay namatay sa Pulo ng Sibuto, Lalawigan ng Tawi-Tawi at ang kanyang puntod
ay dinadayo ng mga turista hanggang sa ngayon.

Ng taong 1390, si Rajah Baginda ay dumating sa Bansa at pinagpatuloy ang pagpapalaganap ng Islam
na sinimulan ni Sharif Makhdum. Si Abu Bakr ay dumating sa Jolo noong 1450 at pagkatapos ay
pinakasalan niya ang dalagang anak ni Rajah Baginda na si Putri (Princess) Paramisuli. Si Abu Bakr ang
nagtatag sa tinatawag na Sultanate of Sulu na kung saan silang mag-asawa ang naging unang Sultan
at Sultana.

Pagkatapos maitatag ang Islam sa Sulu, ang mga Muslim ay naglakbay patungong Mindanao sa pamumuno
ni Sharif Kabungsuwan. Siya ay lumapag sa Maguindanao (Cotabato) sa taong 1475 at pagkatapos ay
pinakasalan niya si Putri Tunina. Sila rin ang kauna-unahang Sultan at Sultana sa Maguindanao.


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/jibrael_2007/Jibrael%202008/indangan.jpg
Full view of the mosque in of Makhdum, Tubig Indangan, Simunul Island, Tawi-Tawi


Sa paglipas ng maraming taon, maraming Datu na Muslim ang pumunta sa Pilipinas pagkatapos marinig ang
magandang balita sa magandang pagtanggap sa mga naunang Muslim. Magmula sa Borneo ay dumating
ang sampung Datu na lumapag sa Panay. Ang mga Datung ito ay sina : Datu Puti, Datu Sumakwel,
Datu Bangkaya, Datu Dumalogdog, Datu Paiburong, Datu Paduhinog, Datu Lubay, Datu Dumangsil,
Datu Kalantiaw at si Datu Balensula.

Si Datu Puti ang siyang pinuno ng grupo ng mga Datu. Si Datu Puti ay dalubhasa sa paglalakbay at sila'y
lumapag sa San Joaquin, Iloilo (ang pangalan nito noong una ay Siwaragan). Si Datu Puti at ang mga
kasama niya ay binili ang mababang lupa sa Iloilo na nagmula kay Marikudo, ang pinuno ng mga Ita.
Nagtatag sila ng sarili nilang pamayanan. Nang ang pamilya ng mga taga Borneo ay natatag sa Panay,
si Datu Puti, si Datu Balensula at si Datu Dumangsil ay naglakbay muli at kanilang narating ang Batangas
na sakop ng Luzon.

Si Datu Balensula at si Datu Dumangsil ay nagtatag ng sarili nilang pamayanan at si Datu Puti ay nagbalik
sa Borneo sa daang Mindoro at Palawan. Isinalaysay niya ang kanyang karanasan sa mga Borneans at
dumami ang nabighani para makapunta sa Pilipinas.


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/jibrael_2007/Jibrael%202008/sibuto.jpg
Makhdum memorial, Sibutu, Tawi-Tawi, the Philippines



Nang lumapag si Magellan sa Pulo ng Limasawa noong ika-16 ng Marso 1521, ang Pilipinas ay isa ng Bansa
ng mga Muslim sa kadahilanang ang karamihan ng populasyon ay mga Muslim na. Pinatutunayan din sa
kasaysayan na noong dumating si Legaspi (ang pumalit kay Magellan na napatay ni Lapu-Lapu), ang
kaharian ng mga Muslim ay naitatag na sa Batangas, Pampanga, Mindoro, Panay, Catanduanes, Cebu,
Bohol, Samar, Manila, Palawan, na hindi pa kasali ang solidong mga Pulo ng Mindanao.

Noong ika-13 ng Hunyo 1571, ang mga Kastila ang nagpasimula ng mainit na digmaan laban sa mga Muslim
ng Maynila na pinamumunuan ng huling haring Muslim na si Rajah Soliman (ang pinuno ng mga Sultan sa
Luzon).

Ipinagtangol ni Rajah Soliman ang kanyang kaharian ng buong tatag hanggang sa kahulihulihang hibla ng
kanyang buhay na nangyari sa Bangkusay, (sa dalampasigan ng Tondo). Sa pagkatalo ni Soliman, ang mga
Kastila ay nagdulot ng lagim sa Pulo ng Luzon. Pinatay nila ang mga lalaki at babae, matanda at bata.

Ang mga Muslim sa karatig bayan ay nagtangol sa kanilang mga sarili hanggang sa kanilang huling hininga.
Itak at palaso laban sa baril at kanyon.


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/jibrael_2007/Jibrael%202008/masjidoftandubanak.jpg
The Masjid of Tandubanak in Sibutu island, Tawi-Tawi


Itinatag ng mga Kastila na pangunahing lugar ang Manila at nagplano sila na lusubin ang Visayas. Sa maikling sandali, nalupig nila ang Visayas. Ang mga Muslim na hindi namatay sa digmaan ay napilitang talikdan ang kanilang relihiyon at tanggapin ang Kristiyanismo. Pero ang mga matatapang at bayani ay mas nilubos pa nilang mamatay kaysa sumira sa ALLAH (Subhanahu Wa Taala). Ang mga katutubo na mahihina ang pananampalataya sa kanilang dating relihiyon ay tinangap ang relihiyon ng mga Kastila.

Hindi huminto ang mga Kastila sa pagsakop sa Luzon at Visayas. Di pa sila nakontento, pinangarap pa nilang masakop ang mayamang lupain ng Mindanao. Pero ang mga tribu ng Kalagan, Maguindanao, Iranon, Maranaw, Tausog, Yakan at Sama, nilabanan nila at pinahinto ang pangarap ng mga Kastila.

At doon nagsimula ang tumanyag na digmaan ng mga Muslim at Kastila.

Dalawang bagay ang dahilan kung bakit nagkaroon ng digmaan :

1) Gusto ng mga Kastila na siyang maghari at sakupin ang mga Muslim pero mahal ng mga Muslim ang kanilang kalayaan at mas gugustuhin pa nilang mamatay kaysa maging alipin ng mga Kastila.

1) Nagpahayag ang mga Kastila ng mensahe ng Kristiyanismo sa pamamagitan ng espada kaya't nag-alsa ang mga Muslim at ginamit ang kanilang kris at bolo para ipagtanggol ang Islam hangang sa huling sandali.


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/jibrael_2007/Jibrael%202008/sitangkai.jpg
Masjid Haji Imam, Sitangkai, Tawi-Tawi


Ang mga Datus na nagtangol sa lupain ng Mindanao laban sa kasakiman ng mga manlulupig na Kastila ay ang mga sumusunod :

1) Si Sultan Pangiran na isang Tausog, ipinagtanggol niya ang lugar ng Zamboanga at Sulu.

1) Pinatay nila Datu Sirugan at ang kanyang kapatid na si Datu Ubal ng Maguindanao si Kapitan Figueroa na isang Kastilang mananakop.

1) Sa ginawang paglusob ng mga Kastila sa Mindanao, naghiganti sina Datu Sirugan ng Maguindanao at si Datu Buisan ng Lanao ng isa ring maingat na paglusob. Nilusob nila ang Cebu, Negros at Panay at nabihag nila ang maraming Kristiyano at sila ay kanilang ginawang alipin.

1) Si Datu Tagal ng Cotabato ay nakapatay ng maraming mandirigmang Kastila.

1) Si Sultan Kudarat ng Cotabato, ipinagtanggol niya ang Lamitan hanggang siya'y napilitang lumipat sa Iligan dahil sa napakalakas na puwersa ng mga Kastila.

1) Si Sultan Bungsu ng Zamboanga ay nakipaglaban sa mga mananakop ng buong giting. Nang ang kanyang asawa na si Pangian Tuan Baloca ay nahuli ng mga Kastila, sinikap niyang maging maganda ang kanyang pakikidigma hanggang sa makuha niya ang Jolo noong taong 1645 sa mga kamay ng mga Kastila at iniutos niyang sirain ang kanilang garison na itinayo sa Zamboanga.

1) Si Sultan Jamaluddin Al Alam at si Sultan Badruddin II ang siyang nagpatuloy ng pakikidigma para protektahan ang Mindanao hanggang sa dumating ang mga taga-Britanya. Sa dahilang hindi malupig ng mga Kastila ang mga Muslim, sila ay napilitang lumagda ng kapayapaan at nagbayad ng buwis kay Jamaluddin at Badruddin.

1) Si Datu Udtog ng Cotabato ang siyang pumatay kay Gobernador Emilio Terrero na isang Kastila.

1) Si Datu Ali ng Baloi, Lanao, napatay niya ang Gobernador ng Misamis na si Valeriano Weyler.

1) Pinatay ng mga magigiting na Maranaw si Heneral Ramon Blanco sa huling pagsubok ng mga Kastila na sakupin ang Mindanao.


http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/jibrael_2007/Jibrael%202008/masjidimamsitangkai.jpg
The golden dome of Masjid Haji Imam, Sitangkai, Tawi-Tawi


Ang pagsakop ng mga Kastila sa Pilipinas ay nagwakas noong taong 1898 at ang mga Amerikano ang siyang pumalit sa mga Kastila.

Sa mahigit na tatlong daang taon na sinubukan ng mga Kastila na sakupin ang mga Muslim, ang Espanya ay bumagsak at napahiya dahil ang mga Muslim sa Mindanao ay nagtagumpay na maipagtangol ang Islam sa Mindanao. Ganoon din ang nangyari sa mga Amerikano at Hapon na walang nagawa para sakupin ang mga Muslim. Dito natin makikita ang kapangyarihan at kadakilaan ng ALLAH (Subhanahu Wa Taala) na kapag ginusto Niya, walang makapipigil lalo na't ipinaglalaban ng mga Muslim ang relihiyon ng ALLAH, ang Islam.

Kaya't masugid naming mambabasa, buksan ang kaisipan at damdamin para ang ganap na gabay at liwanag tungo sa Kanya at makamtan.

Manumbalik loob tayo sa dati nating relihiyon, ang Islam, at ang kapayapaan at kapanatagan ay mapapasaatin.

Nawa'y gabayan tayo ng ALLAH (Subhanahu Wa Taala) para makamtan natin ang kaligtasan at kaligayahan tungo sa buhay na walang hanggan - ang PARAISO.

References :

1) Muslim In The Philippines by Prof. Muhammad Kurais

2) Philippine Islamic History by Ustadz Ismael Iljas

3) The Land Of Promise " MINDANAO " by Senator Santanina Tillah Rasul (Al Hadja)

4) Salsila by Ustadz Habib Zain


http://moro.jeeran.com/tagalog13.htm

Muslim Mindanao during the American colonial era.

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Photos from University of Wisconsin Digital Collection.

At the end of 2nd World War in Mindanao.


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Photos from University of Wisconsin Digital Collection.

"They are absolutely fearless, and once committed to combat they count death as a mere incident."

From January-June, the whole Moro ward of Lati with a population of between 6,000 to 10,000, fortified themselves in a cotta in Mt. Bagsak. On June 11, 1913 Gen. John Pershing ordered the attack with the assistance of Charlie Schuck who reported that it was easy to attack The Moro Fort. General Pershing and his American military attacked the Fort at Bud Bagsak. The Muslim led by their Nakil Amil bravely defended their Fort, first with guns and bullets and knives and bolos.


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The four-day battle was personally led by U.S. Brigadier General John "Black Jack" J. Pershing of the 8th Infantry and Philippine Scouts against Moro resistance fighters armed mostly with kris, barongs, spears and few guns. In many other battles in the Morolands, the U.S. Army Colt 0.45 caliber pistol was tested and perfected as an effective "man stopper" against the brave Moro fighters.


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During the battle Pershing came up to the front line and: "Stood so close to the trench, directing operations, that his life was endangered by flying barongs and spears which were being continually hurled from the Moro stronghold." At this point in the battle, Pershing sent American officers into the front lines to lead the attack. But, after four days, the Fort at Bud Bagsak, along with every warrior fell. General Pershing in a letter to his wife, he wrote: "THE FIGHTING WAS THE FIERCEST I HAVE EVER SEEN." The Moros fought like Devils. They justified the observation Pershing had made of them: "They are absolutely fearless, and once committed to combat they count death as a mere incident."


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Sources :

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=2



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The battle of Bagsak had its beginnings several months before the actual assault of the crater. The mountain peak had been for some time the rendezvous of the outlaw element of all of the southern islands, and the big problem the Americans faced was that of getting the women and children off the hill before the final clean-up was made.

So long as the Moros saw that the American troops were inactive and in barracks many of the women and children would be sent down to work in the fields, but at the first suggestion of an American expedition all of the non-combatants would be recalled to the mountain. As General Pershing had stated, when the Moro makes his last stand, he wishes his women and children with him. The Moros kept a very close check on General Pershing, for every visit of the General to Jolo was the signal for a stampede to Bagsak. Pershing soon discovered that the taking of Bagsak without the slaughter of women and children would have to be an undertaking planned with the greatest secrecy. In planning the campaign, Pershing exercised rare judgment.

To begin with, he kept his plans absolutely to himself, not even confiding in his closest officers. On June 5 he sent a telegram to the commanding officer at Jolo calling off all field operations and ordering the troops into barracks. Four days later he announced publicly that he would visit his family at Camp Kiethley in Mindanao and with that apparent plan in mind he sailed from Zamboanga on the evening of June 9. When the transport Wright was well out of sight of Zamboanga the course was changed and the ship picked up the 51st Company of Scouts at Basilan, proceeding on to Siasi to load the 52nd Scout Company.

With lights out and the smokestack muffled, the Wright then crept into Jolo harbor late on the night of June 10. The maneuver was wholly unexpected and the General found the American soldiers at a moving picture show. The call to arms was sounded and in an incredibly short time the troops were en route to Bagsak.

All of the forces were concentrated at Bun Bun on the beach and by five o'clock in the morning the advance on Bagsak had begun.

The mountain crest was defended by formidable cottas crowned by the stone fortress of Bagsak at the summit. Supporting the main cotta were five subsidiary forts admirably located for defensive purposes. These five cottas, namely, Pujacabao, Bunga, Matunkup, Languasan and Pujagan, were grouped about the huge stone fort of Bagsak in such a manner that a simultaneous assault of all of the cottas was necessary in order to prevent a great loss of life on the part of the attackers.

The American force was divided into two wings and very explicit attacking directions were issued. The right wing, consisting of the 8th Infantry and the 40th Company of mountain guns, was under the command of Major Shaw, and its objective was the cottas of Languasan and Matunkup. The left wing, composed of the 51ist and 52nd Companies of Scouts and a mountain gun detachment, was under command of Van Natta, and were ordered to attack the cottas of Pujacabao and Bunga. Pujagan and Bagsak were to be taken after these assaults had been successfully executed.

After a heavy preliminary shelling by the mountain guns, the columns moved to attack. While the attack was in progress, Captain Moylan was ordered with the 24th and 31st Companies of Scouts, to take a position on the south slope of Bagsak to cut off the retreat of the Moros, Captain Nicholls led his company against Matunkup, which fell at noon of the first day's fighting. In taking Matunkup, the attacking force was compelled to climb a sheer cliff one hundred feet high, pulling themselves up the precipice by clinging to vines, while in the face of a heavy fire. There were eight casualties in the American force before the summit was finally gained. Captain Nicholls then led his company on to the cotta of Pujacabao, the men opening up on the Moros at close range and then dropping within the cotta walls to battle hand to hand.

The terrific shelling Pujacabao had received from the mountain battery had eliminated many of the Moro defenders. Amil, the Moro leader, was severely wounded by a shell fragment, whereupon he retreated to Pujagan, where he was killed the following day.

The cotta of Languasan was captured without difficulty with a loss of one man, but the American forces had eight casualties during the period of Moro counter-attacks made in an effort to recover the fortress.

With three of the cottas in American hands, the surviving Moros retreated to Bagsak, Pujagan and Bunga and the first day's operations came to an end.

On Thursday, June 12, the American forces poured a continuous fire from rifles and mountain artillery upon the cottas of Bunga and Pujagan, and there was a great deal of skirmishing. The Moros began a series of rushes upon the American troops holding Languasan. The Mohammedans would rush out in groups of ten to twenty, charging madly across 300 yards of open country in an effort to come hand to hand with the Americans. Amil, his son, and the Data Jami led three of the attacks; in each instance, the charging Moros were accounted for long before they reached the American trenches. It was during one of these charges that Captain Nicholls was killed by a bullet through the heart from a high-powered rifle.

The American forces holding Languasan were subjected all day long to a merciless fire from the cotta of Bunga. Notwithstanding the aid of the mountain artillery, the American forces were unable to capture any of the Moro positions during the fighting of the second day.

On the morning of the third day Captain Moylan was ordered to take the cotta of Bunga. The capture of this fortress was absolutely necessary in order to secure a position from which the tremendous stone cotta of Bagsak could be shelled. Captain Moylan took Bunga after a five-hour attack, which was supported by sharpshooters and artillery. Among his casualties was one man who was cut in two by a barong. The balance of the third day was devoted to hauling the heavy guns up the steep slope of Bunga.

On Saturday morning, the fourth day of the battle, Captain Charleton and Lieutenant Collins were sent with 51st and 52nd Companies and a detachment of cavalry to reconnoiter the rim of the crater and to find a position from which the infantry could launch a final assault on Bagsak cotta. The rest of the day was devoted to digging the troops in, in a position about 600 yards from the Moro fort, while the mountain guns fired constantly into the cotta.

Sunday morning brought preparations for the final assault. The mountain guns opened up for a two-hour barrage into the Moro fort, and at nine o'clock in the morning the troops moved up the ridge for the attack. The heavy American artillery shelled the Moros out of the outer trenches supporting the cotta of Bagsak and the sharpshooters picked them off as they retreated to the fortress. After an hour's hard fighting, the advance reached the top of the hill protected by the fire of the mountain guns, to a point within seventy-five yards of the cotta. To cover that last seventy-five yards required seven hours of terrific fighting. The Moros assaulted the American trenches time after time only to be mowed down by the entrenched attackers.

General Pershing came in person to the firing line early in the attack, exposing himself to the full fire of the cotta. At 4:45 in the afternoon, the American forces were within twenty-five feet of the cotta. The Moros realized that their time on earth was short. They stood upright on the walls and hurled their barongs and krises at the troops beneath them, wounding four of the attacking force.

At five o'clock General Pershing gave the order for the final assault, and standing within twenty-five feet of the walls he watched Captain Charleton take his men over the walls and the battle of Bud Bagsak was won. Thirteen men were lost in the final assault.

About 500 Moros occupied the cottas at the beginning of the battle of Bagsak and with few exceptions they fought to the death.

With this battle, the organized resistance of the Moros was broken and the episode of "Kris versus Krag" came virtually to an end. There were a few more minor battles, but never again did the Moros place a formidable force in the field against the Americans. The Mohammedans fought a grand fight at Bagsak against superior weapons. They showed the Arnercans, as they had showed the Spaniards, that they were not afraid to die.

http://www.bakbakan.org/swishk/swk3-24.html



Other photos :

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A moro warriors


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Moro Datu and American military officers


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A Muslim Princess


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Gen. Bates with Moro leaders.


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Gen. Sumners conference with Moro leaders.

Note :

It is sad to say that the ruthless War of Pacification of the Southern Philippines by the Americans have directly led to the present enmity between the Moro populations and
our Philippine Republic.

That war resulted also to the prejudice and mistrust between the Christians and Muslims in Mindanao taking into note that during the American war of pacification they have recruited Christian from the Visayas and Luzon to fight our Muslim brothers.

After the War of Pacification by the Americans in Mindanao and Sulu they have started the transmigration of Christians from Luzon and the Visayas which resulted to our government's presnt problems with issue of Ancestral domains, the main setback in the present Peace talk between our government and the Moro rebels.

Related links :

Facts and Historicall Documents

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/viewarticles.php?category=8

http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/

http://www.bakbakan.org/swishk/swk3-24.html

Literary Digest 32 ( March 24, 1906 ).

No one, to judge from the press comment, feels much elation over the mountain-top battle in the island of Jolo a few days ago, in which 600 Moro men, women, and children were killed by our troops under the command of Gen. Leonard Wood. The President, it is true, speaks of it as "a most gallant and soldierly feat," performed "in a way that confers added credit on the American army," and one that entitles the soldiers to "the heartiest admiration and praise of all those of their fellow-citizens who are glad to see the honor of the flag upheld by the courage of the men wearing the American uniform." His newspaper defenders, however, do not go further than to consider it a grim but necessary bit of police work. His critics take the other extreme. It was "a frightful atrocity," declares the New Orleans Times-Democrat (Dem.);


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and the Boston Post (Ind. Dem.) exclaims that if this is "imperial expansion," "heaven save us from any more!" A list of the papers that express their horror and disgust at this thoroughgoing victory would include practically every Democratic and "anti-imperialist" paper in the United States. In Congress the Democrats have branded the affair as a "horrible massacre" and an "assassination," and Representative Williams read a satirical poem on "The Charge of the Wood Brigade," containing the following stanzas:

Chased them from everywhere Chased them all onward, Into the crater of death Drove them -- six hundred. "Forward, the Wood Brigade; Spare not a one," he said; "Shoot all six hundred." * * * * * * * Flashed all the sabres there, Flashed as they turned in air, Sabring the women there, Charging the children, while All the world wondered. Stifled by cannons' smoke, Men, women, children choke. Women and children Reeled from the bay'net's stroke, In death not sundered; Families slaughtered there, All of six hundred. * * * * * * * What shall such bloodthirst slake? Go ask Hell Roaring Jake Whether Wood blundered. Honor the charge they made; Honor the Wood Brigade, For that six hundred.


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The battle is represented by General Wood as merely the storming of a Moro bandits' nest in the crater of Mount Dajo, and the extermination of the bandits, who fought fanatically to the death. The crater was almost unassailable, and the artillery had to be hoisted by block and tackle up its well-nigh precipitous sides. The American forces lost 18 killed and 52 wounded, while the Moros lost 600 killed. General Wood says in a despatch to the Secretary of War:

"I was present throughout practically entire action and inspected top of crater after action was finished. Am convinced no man, woman, or child was wantonly killed. A considerable number of women and children were killed in the fight -- number unknown, for the reason that they were actually in the works when assaulted, and were unavoidably killed in the fierce hand-to-hand fighting which took place in the narrow enclosed spaces. Moro women wore trousers and were dressed and armed much like the men and charged with them. The children were in many cases used by the men as shields while charging troops."


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This explanation is accepted as valid by the expansionist press. The extermination of these outlaws "was a necessity, and, in the long run, it was humanity," declares the Philadelphia Press (Rep.), for "it was a question either of subjugating them or of enduring their savage attacks for an indefinite period." "If Aguinaldo himself were ruler of Jolo," says the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph (Rep.) to the anti-imperialists, "he would be compelled to kill off these murdering Malays in order to protect peaceable people from their wild raids." And the Louisville Courier-Journal , one of the leading Democratic papers in the country, declares that "a band of outlaws in the mountains of Kentucky or of Colorado or of Tennessee would have had to contend with the agencies of law and order in the same way -- resistance would have led in similar fashion to the shedding of blood." "Was there no possibility of forcing these Moros to surrender by starving them out?" asks one critic. To this the New York Tribune (Rep.) replies:

"Talk of starving them into submission and thus securing their capitulation simply indicates lack of understanding. The probability is that if Mount Dajo had been surrounded with an army of a hundred thousand men in unbroken ring, in an attempt to starve the outlaws into surrender, at the last moment the men would have come rushing from the crater to hurl themselves in fanatic fury against their besiegers, and the end would have been the same, excepting at much greater cost. On the other hand, the daring and extraordinary achievements of our troops in scaling those heights which had been thought by the natives inaccessible, and in storming a stronghold which had been thought impregnable, must have a most valuable moral effect. The remaining outlaw bands will be panic-striken when they hear of it, they will realize that there is no stronghold or retreat in which they will be secure, and that the new forces for law and order in the islands are irresistable."


Sources :
Bangsa Moro Info
http://www.bangsamoro.info/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=28

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

At present the never ending war we inherited from our colonial past still continues


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During the governorship of General Wood, American sovereignty was extended into isolated districts of Mindanao and Sulu that had never before felt the hand of the white man. Some of the problems encountered by the American administrators were extremely difficult in settlement, as they involved Moro tribal rights which had been in existence for centuries.

Although the Americans were ill-prepared by experience to govern these wild people, the pursuance of a middle course helped to enforce the law without treading too heavily upon traditional Moro rights. As mentioned previously, some facts rebounded not to the credit of America; there was too much bloodshed at times when a more careful diplomacy might have avoided the necessity of military operations.

The Moros, a proud, fierce people, had been almost wholly without law under the Spaniards. The abrupt transition from lawlessness to a condition of law an order was more than could be expected of these savage Mohammedans. The institutions of piracy and slave-trading were ingrained as a part of the Moro character. These institutions were a logical and, to them, perfectly reasonable part of their society.

So also, was the seeming disregard for human life held by the Moros. in the past, the red swish of the kris had sufficed to settle all arguments. For generations the Datus had preserved the privilege of putting inconvenient people out of the way with little formality and no accounting for their acts. The thought of subjecting themselves to an American criminal law which they did not understand was intolerable, as was the payment of the head tax as required by the cedula law.

The hot-heads broke away, in defiance of the law, and Mindanao and Sulu became the hunting ground of small intertribal units who operated in open rebellion against America.

In the latter part of 1905, Pala, one of the Moro malcontents, decreed a Holy War against the authority of America and called upon the Sulu Moros to aid him in rebellion.

While the American campaign against Pala was in the field, two Moro leaders named Sariol and Abdulla conceived a plot to murder the commanding officer of the American post at Siasi and seize the rifles for use in the defense of Pala.

A small force of Moros closed in upon the isolated station. In the jungle edge near the fort, the Moros drew lots with pieces of bejuco vine to determine who should have the honor of killing the American officer.

The privilege fell to Sariol.

Stripping himself to a breech-cloth, the Moro stealthily passed through the sentries and entered the quarters of Captain Hayson in the darkness of the night.

Noiselessly the Moro crossed the room to the mosquito-netted cot of the sleeping victim. One bloody flick of the kris without warning and another American officer had died in the conquest of Sulu.

The next morning, the unsuspecting sentry found his commanding officer tangled in his reddened mosquito netting and the company swiftly took the trail after the murderer.

The plot to seize the rifles went astray, for the Moro members of the dead captain's company remained loyal to the service. Sariol and Abdulla were run to earth at the edge of a swamp and captured and brought to justice by their own countrymen.

Sariol was hanged at Siasi and dawn on November, 20, 1905, and Abdulla died in prison while waiting execution. On the scaffold, Sariol warned others of the Moros not to follow in his footsteps.

"The punishment is just," he said as the noose was adjusted about his neck. "I have violated the Koran by killing without warning in the middle of the night and I am ready to die."

Early in the year 1906, Moro outlaws in the inaccessible mountains of Butig fortified themselves in hill-top strongholds under the leadership of Sultan Mamantun of Maciu. Under Mamantun, a great force of outlaws became established at rancherias and were responsible for terrible depredations throughout the district.

Government launches operating at the mouth of the Malaig river were frequently fired upon, with the result that a camp of men from the 15th Infantry was established at the river.

The Moros were invited in for parleys and many of them came in and abandoned the outlaw life to return peacefully to their homes.

A number of the Moros, however, chose to ignore the American request for conciliation, and after a perty commanded by Lieutenant Furlong was fired upon, an American offensive was undertaken. Sultan Mamantun was killed and his men turned to Uti, a fanatical Mohammedan priest, for guidance.

Uti forwarded a note to the American authorities:

"Do not come in the night, pigs. If you do, I will crush you. Come in the daytime so that the Moros can see the dead Americans. All of you that come I will give as Sungud (marriage portion) to the virgin. the kris that cuts fast is ready."

The priest was mightier with the pen than with the kris, for when the expedition swooped down to be "crushed" he speedily took to the hills. Lieutenant Furlong led several attacks on cottas in the district, killing a great many Moros and losing a few men in the process.

Colonel J. F. Hutton took the field at the head of three columns of troops in the Butig Mountains. The soldiers were fired upon from the cottas but after eight serious engagements all of the outlaws in the district were annihilated.

Upon completion of these operations in Mindanao, a short period of peace ensued, to be broken by rumblings in Jolo.

A large band of Moros fortified Bud Dajo and defied the authorities to subject them to any law. The American garrison at Jolo was reinforced by the addition of two battalions of infantry and preparations were made for a decisive assault on the Moros.

In Zamboanga it was realized that the capture of Bud Dajo would entail serious fighting. At seven o'clock of the evening of March 2, 1906, Colonel J. W. Duncan received a note from General Wood:

"Dear Colonel:
I wish you would get two of your companies together and go to Jolo at once. Nothing but blanket rolls, field mess outfit, 200 rounds per man, seven days field rations, in haste. Regular orders will reach you later.
Yours truly,
Leonard Wood."

American officers attending the weekly dance at the Overseas Club in Zamboanga found their party interrupted as couriers passed through the crowd, ordering them to withdraw to the fort and prepare for field service.

The next morning Colonel Duncan received his orders to command the party and Companies K and M of the 6th Infantry departed for Jolo on the transport Wright.

the causes contributing to the battle of Bud Dajo were resentment over the curtailing of slave-trading, cattle raiding and women-stealing privileges of the Moros of Sulu.

The mountain top fortified by the Moros was a strong position. Bud Dajo, a lava cone of an extinct volcano, has an altitude of 2,100 feet. The crater at the summit is 1,800 yards in circumference and is flanked with rocky promontories which made the approach of troops difficult. One thousand Moros took their stand on the top of this mountain, six miles from Jolo.

Before preparation for the actual battle began, Governor Scott called to him Panglima Bandahala and the Datus Kalbi and Jolkanin and asked them to ascend the mountain and induce the Moros to disband and turn in their weapons.

The three loyal Moros undertook the mission and spent two days on the mountain top orating to their countrymen. On the third day they came into Scott's office to make their report.

"They say that they will never submit to America," said Datu Kalbi, spokesman for the trio. "They say that they will fight until they can no longer raise aloft the kris."

Peace overtures having failed, Governor Scott ordered the mountain to be taken by assault.

The American assault preparations were very complete. Colonel Duncan commanded the attack, supported by Majors Bundy, Wilcox and Ewing. Detachments were commanded by Captains Atkinson, Rivers, Koehler, Chitty, Farmer, Bolles and Ryther. Thirty-one under-officers from all branches of the service led the enlisted men.

The assault units at Bud Dajo were composed of 272 men of the 6th Infantry, 211 men of the 4th Calvary, 68 men of the 28th Artillery Battery, 51 Sulu Constabulary, 110 men of the 19th Infantry and 6 sailors from the gunboat Pampanga. A total number of 790 men and officers was engaged.

The battle began on March 5. Mountain guns were hauled into position and forty rounds of shrapnel were fired into the crater to warn the Moros to remove their women and children.

At daylight on the morning of March 6, American troops formed into three columns and began the march up the mountainside. The crest was approachable by three narrow trails and the advance began from three sides with detachments under the command of Major bundy, Captain Rivers and Captain Lawton.

The movement up the mountainside was very slow and it was not until seven o'clock in the morning that the forces of Major Bundy encountered the first important Moro barricade. Bundy found the trail blocked at a point 500 feet beneath the summit by a strong wall of bamboo supported belatics.

The sharpshooters took positions behind rocks and picked off the Moros showing their heads above the barricade. The position was shelled thoroughly with rifle grenades and then taken by assault with bayonets. The Moros staged a terrific resistance.

Finding themselves in danger of being captured, they left the shelter of the barricade and sallied into the open with kris and spear. The fighting did not cease until the last Moro fell. Two hundred Mohammedans died here before the quick-firing guns and rifles of the attackers. The 6th Infantry suffered heavily, all of the casualties occurring in the last terrible rush of the krismen. Captain White was severely wounded in the knee and in the right shoulder while leading the charge that cleared the walls of the last of the Moros.

On the other side of the mountain, Captain Rivers encountered a similar obstruction, and after several hours of hard fighting he crumbled the walls by storm. Rivers was also seriously wounded by the last rush of a desperate amuk Moro.

The third column of attackers, under Captain Lawton, had meanwhile advanced along a bad trail, continually harassed by the Moros, who hurled huge stones down upon the troops. The hill was so steep that in many places the attackers were forced to crawl on their hands and knees. At regular intervals, they were rushed by krismen.

Lawton's column eventually succeeded in reaching the summit, where they took the trenches on the edge of the crater by assault. The Moros retreated into the crater and continued the resistance until night brought the fighting to a close.

During the night, the artillery was shifted to command the crater. The soldiers worked most of the night hauling the heavy guns up the mountainside. A few hours before dawn, the weary soldiers dropped into their blankets under a triple guard, and went to sleep to the accompaniment of the shouts of the maddened Moros in the crater.

At daylight the assault was resumed. The American troops held their position while the artillery poured a murderous barrage into the crater. The Mohammedans, armed principally with spear and kris, had no answer to this long range bombardment, but they held their position stubbornly and refused to surrender.

In the face of that terrific fire, the Moros had not a chance for life. A few of the more desperate scrambled over the crater edge, kris in hand, to charge the American trenches. They fell, riddled with bullets, before they covered half of the distance.

After the heavy bombardment had accomplished its purpose, the American troops charged the crater with fixed bayonets. The few Moros left alive made hand grenades from sea shells filled with black powder and fought desperately to stem the charge. But the straggling krismen were no match for the tide of bayonets that overwhelmed them and hardly a man survived that last bloody assault.

After the engagement the crater was a shambles. Moros were piled five deep in the trenches where they had been mowed down by the artillery and rifle fire. The American attack had been supported by two quick-firing guns from the gunboat Pampanga and examination of the dead showed that many of the Moros had as many as fifty wounds. Of the 1,000 Moros who opened the battle two days previously, only six men escaped the carnage.

Looking back twenty-eight years to the battle Bud Dajo, an impartial historical observer is struck by the fact that America did not cover herself with glory in this encounter. Perhaps it would be sufficient to remark that severe criticism was directed from the United States upon the military authorities ordering this slaughter.

By no stretch of the imagination could Bud Dajo be termed a "battle." Certainly the engaging of 1,000 Moros armed with krises, spears and a few rifles by a force of 800 Americans armed with every modern weapon was not a matter for publicity. The American troops stromed a high mountatin peak crowned by fortifications to kill 1,000 Moros with a loss to themselves of twenty-one killed and seventy-five wounded! the casualty lists reflect the unequeal nature of the battle.

The Moros had broken the law ans some punishment was necessary if America was to maintain her prestige in the East, but opinion is overwhelming in the belief that there was unnecessary bloodshed at Bud Dajo.

There appears to be no justification for the intensity of the bombardment at Bud Dajo, and many Americans who witnessed the battle concur in this belief.

In fairness to the American forces it must be said, however, that the situation was such that no compromise short of battle was possible. Had the Americans not forced this engagement, the Moro resistance would have been intolerably prolonged and probably a greater loss of life would have been the result in the end.

Certain it is that the Moros were not to be bluffed. War at its best is a grim business, and the strong opposition the United States encountered possibly justifies the horrible loss in human life that was concurrent with the taking of Bud Dajo.

http://www.bakbakan.org/swishk/swk3-19.html

The below article, I copied from the Friendster Blog of my lady friend from Cotobato, a Maranao Princess and a direct descendant of Sultan Kudarat.



THE UNYIELDING MORO

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February 4, 2009, 1:31 am
Filed under: Bangsamoro Cause | Tags: Filipino Muslims


Muslims in Mindanao have always resisted any form of domination whether it sprungs from foreign imperialism or local manipulation of the ruling elite.

This image has not changed in time and it continues to be the basis of non-Muslims stereotyped opinion of the Moros in Mindanao. Owing to the achievements of Moro leaders in the past like Sultan Kudarat and other Muslim Datus who fought against the Spaniards, common opinion revolves around the belief that Muslims will always be unyielding in fighting for their principles.

This image brings a two-prong effect: first, Muslims always adhere to belligerency and second, that Muslims, no matter how noble they pursue a cause will always be typified with all sorts of terroristic acts.

Do I need to mention how the Muslims fought some sectors of the insensitive media for always associating the word “Muslim” with all forms of criminality. Is it because the Moro people are always perceived as “uncompromising”?

This cannot be so for during the Marcos regime, the late President allied with some powerful clans in Lanao. Since then, other Muslim leaders fought hard for the support of Malacanang in their political bid. The struggle for supremacy in their individual turfs needed the blessings of whoever sits in Malacanang

I guess, it was only during the past that “independence” from all forms was alive for there was no power struggle then that was motivated by vested interest.

Before an accusing finger points to the peace hungry people of Mindanao, we need you to understand our predicaments as Muslims before you judge the every individual fiber that runs in our veins.

DO WE NEED TO BE COLONIZED? Was it of the view of the Spanish colonizers then that the reason behind the Mindanao Problem was owing to conquest and colonization? Was it the reason then that the Spanish invaders launched a conquest in Mindanao against the Moros without let-up but failed to subjugate them?

Did the Americans believe that what ails Mindanao was a problem of special administration for the Moros through the concept of “wardship policy for self-rule”?

Was it the motivation of the Americans then to grant the “indirect rule” to the Moros under the so-called Moro Province from 1903 to 1913?

A palliative solution to quench the “perceived” hunger of the Muslims for power? An autonomy granted that is “pseudo-autonomy” in practice for it was still within the supervision of the American colonizers.

Was it really power struggle then and now that moved the Muslims to resist any form of dictation from the government and all its allies?

However, this and subsequent special administrations for the Moros had, one after the other, failed to solve the Moro problem.

The Philippine Commonwealth Government of 1935 initiated series of organized settlement programs in Mindanao since 1936 with the hope that complete amalmagation of Filipinos and Moros in commom communities including their school children , to learn to live as one people, would materialized.

All these anchored on the belief that the Mindanao problem was a problem of backwardness, illiteracy and assimilation. But it failed to address the interfaith problem correctly by not considering that biases against the Muslims was not created by the Moro community but by those outside the Moro populace.

Assimilation of people and culture can not be done overnight or in a short period of time. Years of subliminally recorded biases against the Muslims could not just be deleted by government programs that had been established with the wrong mission.

Extra-constitutional limits adopted by the Philippine government to grant self-rule to Mindanao’s native inhabitants through the establishment of regional autonomy in Muslim Mindanao did not work for it was viewed by the many Muslims as a puppet government and a mere extension of the central government in the south.

As in the past it had failed to solve the problem in Mindanao. But the question is—why did all these solutions fail to solve the Mindanao problem? The answer to this is through study and information by reviewing the struggles of the Muslims, how it originated and how it was sustained.

The Bangsamoro ideology has to be dissected to determine the right solution that should not just be effected through the usual one-sided approach to solving the Mindanao conflict.

The Moro will always be unyielding in his ideology. This is not merely about religion but about principles.

If you are a non-Muslim, please separate your bias from objectivity, for if you do not understand the entire history of the Moro people, then you will not understand the reason why they stood resiliently for their cause.

Lapu-Lapu

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Lapu-Lapu was the king of Mactan, an island in the Visayas, Philippines, who is known as the first native of the archipelago to have resisted Spanish colonization. He is now regarded as the first Filipino hero.

On the morning of April 27, 1521, Lapu-Lapu and the men of Mactan, armed with spears, and kampilan, faced Spanish soldiers led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. In what would later be known as the Battle of Mactan, Magellan and several of his men were killed.

According to Sulu oral tradition, Lapu-Lapu was a Muslim chieftain, and was also known as "Kaliph Pulaka".The people of Bangsamoro, the Islamic homeland in the southern Philippine Islands, consider him to be a Muslim and a member of the Tausug ethnic group. A variant of the name, as written by Carlos Calao, a 17th century Chinese-Spanish poet in his poem "Que Dios Le Perdone" (Spanish, "That God May Forgive Him")
is "Cali Pulacu".

The 1898 Philippine Declaration of Independence refers to Lapu-Lapu as "King Kalipulako de Maktan". In the 19th century, the reformist Mariano Ponce used a variant name, "Kalipulako", as one of his pseudonyms.



Panday Pira

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Panday Pira (1488 - 1576) - was the first Filipino cannon maker. He was born in 1488 in one of the islands in the southern part of the Philippines.

First Filipino cannon-maker. He forged the cannons which Rajah Sulayman used in defending the Muslim Kingdom of Manila against the Spanish invaders. Born in one of the islands in Southern Philippines in 1483. He died in 1576.

He was a popular blacksmith and cannon maker. He was tasked by his fellowmen to make cannons for them, which they used against the foreigners. He learned the craft from the Chinese and Arab traders who were then staying at Lamayan, Sta. Ana, Manila.

Panday Pira moved to Pampanga when Martin de Goiti stormed Manila. He returned to the city because the Spaniards sent for him. They ordered him to make cannons.

He died in 1576 at the age of 88In recognition of the conrlbution of Panday Pira to the country, a place in Tondo was named after him.

http://www.etravelpilipinas.com/about_philippines/panday_pira.htm



Sultan Kudarat

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Sultan Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat (also spelled Qudarat), (1581 - 1671) was a Sultan of Maguindanao. During his reign, he successfully repelled Spanish efforts to conquer his sultanate and hindered the Christianization of Mindanao. He was a direct descendant of Shariff Kabungsuan, a Muslim missionary who propagated the Islamic faith in 14th century Mindanao.

After succeeding his father in 1619, he conquered several datus and made himself the master of the Pulangui area. He also controlled present-day Cagayan de Oro and Caraga territories and made Misamis and Bukidnon his tributaries. He was able to negotiate with the Dutch and the Spaniards so that they recognize his sovereignty over these lands. The Spaniards tried but failed to conquer him in all battles. The Spaniards
were systematically defeated and forced to ransom their soldiers from the sultan.

Governor-General Alonso Fajardo signed a treaty with Kudarat on June 25, 1645 which allowed Spanish missionaries to minister to the needs of the Christians in Mindanao, allowed a church built, and trade was allowed in the sultan’s territories. War once more flared in 1658 when Mindoro, Bohol and Leyte were sacked. Spain was unable to dominate the lands under Sultan Kudarat's rule.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Muhammad_Dipatuan_Kudarat

Municipality of South Ubian, Tawi Tawi Province

Why the municipality is called South Ubian when it is actually located in the easternmost portion of the province of Tawi-Tawi is a mystery to many


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The much older Tabawan settlement now belongs to the new municipality of South Ubian. There is no North or Central Ubian. Why the municipality is called South Ubian when it is actually located in the easternmost portion of the province of Tawi-Tawi is a mystery to many. Speaking of mystery, the island of Tabawan holds the key to the understanding of the mysterium and the fascinans of the Sama peoples.

In this island rest their ancestors and the spirits that guide their destiny. The indigenous rituals widely practiced are known as “pagomboh” and “pagdiwata”. The former is a ritual related to their ancestors – a devotion to their origin, and the latter refers to the spirits or jinns – rituals of offering to please the jinns. These two rituals have become keys to the very soul of the Sama peoples who are the inhabitants of all the islands that form the Municipality of South Ubian.


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The more famous landmark of Tabawan is the ancient well called Boheh Dea. Boheh is the Sama word for water and Dea is the word for forest. Boheh Dea, then would mean water in the forest. There are legends around the well. The more obvious one is the fact that it is the “source of life for the Sama people. As long as the well does not run dry, the Sama peoples live! And popular belief among the old says that at the other end of the Boheh Dea is the Zamzam Well in Makka. The people remember well that by tradition and by belief, the great Zamzam Well is a gift from Allah, precisely to save the lives of Hagar and her child ‘Ismael. Bohed Dea, definitely, is one of the great wonders in the region. It is considered a real miracle to have continued supply of fresh water in a very deep well in a coral reef island.

Tabawan is also the center of the mystical rituals for the Sama omboh (ancestors). They celebrate the omboh devotion twice a year. The first ritual is to appease the ancestors for the “disturbances” created in the community and family. They call this ritual as omboh jabo. The families prepare a ligu (a tray made of bamboo) containing seven plates filled with yellow rice. The local Imam (religious leader) leads the families in prayers that accompany the offering of the ligu. The other omboh rituals mark the Sama peoples’ departure and arrival – asking for the ancestors’ blessing before departure and thanksgiving on safe arrival.


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Courtesy of KSA Blogger
http://minsupala.blogspot.com/

http://article.melayuonline.com/?a=Rm1tL1U5bWh1MGY%3D=


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http://article.melayuonline.com/?a=Rm1tL1U5bWh1MGY%3D=
:joy:

http://www.webalice.it/paopadd/FLAGS_AND_SYMBOLS_OF_THE_ISLAMIC_ROYAL_KINGDOMS_OF_LUZON.html


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Rajah Soliman was the ruler of Maynila, a Muslim Kingdom of the Pasig River. He was considered as the "greatest king of Manila".when Martin de Goiti and Juan de Salcedo landed there in 1570. Spanish sources refer to him as Rajamora or Raja Mura. The Spanish transcription of Rajang Mura is Young Raja. He was related by marriage to the Sultan of Brunei. His wife was a daughter of a close relative of the Brunei Sultan. He ruled Manila jointly with his uncle Rajah Matanda.

Soliman and his warriors learned to use gunpowder and manufacture weapons. They learned how to use cannons and lantakas from the Chinese who came to the shores of Maynila centuries ago.

When the first Spanish expedition headed by Martin de Goiti reached Manila in 1570, Rajah Soliman would not allow them inland. He gave instruction that he would meet the Spaniards on shore. He came bearing himself haughtily, and his words sounded as warning to the Spaniards. He was willing to make peace with the Spaniards, but they must remember that his people were not like the pintados - referring to the Visayans who were subservient. He further stated that his people would not tolerate any abuse and they would repay with death the least thing that touched their honor. Then Soliman left without inviting the Spaniards into the town.

Rajah Soliman's behavior showed that he was no friend to the Spaniards. In the afternoon of the first meeting on June 4,1570, Soliman's men, armed and holding ropes, conducted bold inspection of the Spaniards on shore. The Spaniards got irritated, but kept their cool for the sake of peace.

The mission of peace spoken by de Goiti in his conferences with Rajah Soliman implied recognition by the Maynilad rulers of their vassalage to the king of Spain and payment of tribute as a token of that vassalage. But Rajah Soliman would not accept peace on that basis. He let it be known to de Goiti that he would never pay tribute. He considered the implication of de Goiti's proposition as an affront to his honor and dignity.

On the morning of the second day - June 5, Soliman sent an envoy with a message to Goiti that no Spaniard could bring their ships into the river. So de Goiti asked for another meeting and immediately went ashore and entered the fort. In the meeting held with the Maynila rulers, terms of peace were discussed.

They agreed that the Spaniards would be allowed settlement in Manila and no tribute would be exacted. In the afternoon of the drawing up of the peace pact, the Spaniards became anxious at the news they received that Rajah Soliman was mustering all his warriors for a military review, but the shots would be directed in the air. Causing more suspicion to the Spaniards was the rumor that Soliman was just waiting for the rain to pour, a condition wherein the Spaniards' muskets could not be fired. And then he would attack the Spaniards.

Caused by misunderstanding, hostilities ensued the next day. As a result, the Spaniards, superiorly armed, attacked and burned Maynila. Many of its inhabitants perished and the large house of Soliman with its valuables turned into ashes.

Some of those captured by the Spaniards stated that Rajah Soliman ordered the attack on the Spaniards and had fired the first shot which pierced the side of de Goiti's ship.

In 1571, the Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi became the head of the second Spanish expedition to Maynilad. It was in pursuance of the order of the King of Spain to colonize the Philippines. Rajah Soliman did not welcome him. But through the prodding and intercession of his uncles, Rajah Matanda and Lakandula, who were convinced by Legazpi's honeyed words of goodwill, Soliman reluctantly went with them and concluded a pact with the Adelantado.

According to their terms of the agreement, the Spaniards were allowed to settle in the old site of the burned town of Maynilad and would have the right to collect tributes from the other inhabitants. The Maynilad rulers and their descendants were granted exemption from paying tributes.

The native rulers remained faithful to their pledge of friendship to Legazpi when he finally ruled Maynila.

Shortly, Rajah Matanda died and Legazpi formally declared Rajah Soliman as the successor of his deceased uncle. Rajah Soliman received the senorio of Maynila with Spanish approval in April of 1572.

Two years after the death of Legazpi in 1574 Rajah Soliman and Lakandula headed a local revolt in towns north of Maynila. It arose over the system of government apportionment of encomiendas to the Spanish officials. Certain lands of Soliman and Lakandula were given and assigned to encomenderos in utter disregard of their patrimonial rights.

Initial conciliatory talks between Fray Geronimo Marian and the two leaders held in Pagaga were unacceptable to Rajah Soliman so he took his men to another village. He was the greatest problem of Marian, because he did not act fairly in whatever the Spaniards were concerned, nor did he regard them with friendly eyes. Capitan Juan de Salcedo, the conciliator, effected peace first with Lakandula. Later, Soliman yielded to the assurance that the rebels' complaints would be given due attendance by the Spanish government.


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Rajah Kalamayin was the ruler of Namayan
( Santa Ana area ).

According to some historians and scholars , the high point of Namayan history was the marriage, sometime in the 13th century, of Namayan princess (later Empress) Sasaban to Madjapahit Empire crown prince (later Emperor) Soledan (orAnka Widyaya). They ruled Indonesia.

The imperial couple had a son, Prince Balagtas. Because he was to become King of Namayan, he married Banginoan. Banginoan was the daughter of Lontok and Kalangitan, princess of Pasig. Her grandfather was Araw.

One of King Balagtas’ descendants was Lakan Takhan who had an illegitimate son named Pasay. Takhan bequeathed to his son the kingdom we now know as Pasay City.

After Takhan, Namayan was ruled by his son Palaba, who was in turn succeeded by his son Laboy. Laboy was succeeded on the throne by his son Kalamayin. It was Kalamayin’s sad fortune to be the sovereign when the palefaces arrived. When Kalamayin’s son was baptized a Christian, prince Martin, the Kingdom of Namayan was extinct.

http://www.webalice.it/paopadd/FLAGS_AND_SYMBOLS_OF_THE_ISLAMIC_ROYAL_KINGDOMS_OF_LUZON.html

Pls read below from Maranao website :

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/jibrael_2007/Jibrael%202008/iamamoro.jpg

http://www.maranao.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=232&Itemid=44


I Am A Moro



y: Tommy Pangcoga (05-Jan-2009)

(Addressed to the Filipinos of Luzon, Visayas, and even Mindanao who do not know and do not care to know because they think they already know. What a pity.)

I am a Moro. I was born that way. I have Moro blood, Moro flesh, and Moro heritage. It is not wrong to be this way. I am different from you. I do not need to be judged or looked down upon. I do not need to be converted to the ways and beliefs of the mainstream majority. I do not need to follow your ways, because I do not want to. What I need and what all of those who are like me need is your understanding and your respect for our differences.

We have not started this conflict in any way. And yet you scorn us and attack us. Perhaps it is because you have read our history from the eyes and the pens of your historians. Our history is older, much older than yours. And if you could only see it through our own eyes, you would understand. But you do not, and perhaps you never will.

Before your nation was born, we already had our own sovereignty in Mindanao. We had lived peacefully with honor, prosperity and dignity and we had lived in peaceful coexistence with others of different cultures and beliefs within this land. This was before the Spaniards came to colonize you. This was before the Spaniards sold you – and us too, though without our knowledge and consent – to the Americans.

When your people finally gained your independence from the Americans, we had already been doubtful that you would treat us and our ways with respect. Because for over three hundred years, the colonizers had not only converted you to their faith and their western ways, they had also used you as shock troops against us. Where before their arrival, we had shared relations of amity and commerce and perhaps some history as well, now after over three hundred years of fighting one another, you with all your hate and enmity against my people, had been given the opportunity to govern us against our will.

And what have you done since that independence? You continued what the colonizers had done to us. You claim us to be part of your citizenry, yet you mock our ways, thinking our ways are backward and wrong and that yours are right. You forced us to follow your laws. You treated us as second class citizens. Even as savages. You claimed your prize for the three hundred years of servitude as shock troops of your colonizers and, through your laws, divested us of our ancestral lands. And when we became fed up and our braver brethren took up arms to make our point, you were contemptuous and assaulted us at every opportunity given to you. You knew that if you could force us to surrender, you could take all the natural riches underneath our ancestral lands for your own, in addition to the lands you have already taken away from us, either by force, deceit, or stealth. Because you have already needlessly wasted and squandered what little resources your lands have had before.

You are up in arms when only one of you is injured or killed by one of us. It is sensationalized on television. Yet you remain silent after millions of us have been displaced, tens of thousands left dying of disease and hunger, and hundreds killed by your army, your police and your vigilantees. We are lucky if we find an article about this on the last page of one of your little known tabloids. You have harmed our old folk, our women, and our children. You have not only marginalized us, you have also disenfranchised us and displaced us, socially, politically, culturally and economically. You have made us poor and weak. All this because we are different.

What we do is no different from what you do. We talk and laugh. We complain about work. We bleed when we are injured. And we wonder about growing old. We talk about our families and we worry about the future. And we cry with each other when things seem hopeless. All of the things you do with each other, that is also what we do. And for that we are called deviants, criminals, secessionists, even terrorists, and then are made to suffer.

What right do you have to make us suffer like this? What right do you have to change us? What makes you think you can dictate how we live our lives?

I and my people desire no rancor against you or anyone. We only aspire to live in peace, dignity, honor, and prosperity within our homeland - The Bangsamoro Homeland – or what little remains of it we can genuinely reclaim from you, anyway. We only seek to regain the things that your people and your governments, past and present, have taken away from us. We only seek to enjoy our right to self-determination and to live our way of life according to our beliefs, not according to yours. That is our rightful due.

You are the stronger "other". If you wish to talk of peace, look through the lense of justice and of our history. If you wish to talk of peace, do not play double-talk, semantics, or word calisthenics. And if you wish to talk of peace, do not hold a sword behind your back. That simply will not do. We were not born yesterday.

I am a Moro. And I am proud to be a Moro. Deal with it, or leave me alone.

http://www.maranao.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=232&Itemid=44

http://www.maranao.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=57


History of the Muslims in the Philippines
"A NATION UNDER ENDLESS TYRANNY"
2nd Edition, By Salah Jubair
CHAPTER I - ONCE UPON A TIME


Islam Moves North

In many instances, global politics affected directly or indirectly the turn of events even in faraway places. Had not the Moors been defeated by the Spaniards in 1492. the Spaniards could not have come in 1521 and conquered the Philippines. Or had the Spaniards delayed their coming to the Philippines for just half a century there would be no such thing as the "only Christian country" in Asia. There could have been an entirely different story to tell regarding the spread of Islam in Luzon and the Visayas.

There is evidence that as early as the last years of the fifteenth century, Islam was already gaining headway in many places in the Philippines. It was carried directly from or via Sulu or Mindanao by preachers, traders or voyagers from Borneo who settled among the inhabitants of the islands. In the words of one popular writer:

... It is hard to believe that Manila was once firmly under Muslim heel, Muslims controlled the seat of government, the wealth and the trade up and down the Pasig and around Bai lake and Batangas as well as the sea lanes to Mindanao and Borneo.

The Muslims were the ruling class in Luzon, the rich traders, cultural leaders and missionaries, the ones with the knowhow and the right connections, the literacy and what's more, the right religion.

Aside from Manila, then known as Selurong, Islam had already gained ground in Batangas, Pampanga, Cagayan, Mindoro, Palawan, Catanduanes, Bonbon, Cebu, Oton, Laguna and other districts. Preachers of Islam, all reportedly coming from Borneo, came to teach the natives the rudiments of the new religion. Such Islamic practices as circumcision, reading the Qur'an, avoidance of pork, and the use of Muslim names were already noted among the natives of these districts.

What is Metropolitan Manila today was formerly the bastion of Islam. Manila was ruled by Rajah Sulaiman Mahmud, jointly or assisted by Rajah Matanda, his uncle and Tondo under the rule of Rajah Lakandula. Manila was not only the commercial center but a powerful fort (cotta) was built near the mouth of the Pasig River in defense of the realm.

It was to the islamized natives of Manila that the word Moro was first applied by the Spaniards in 1570 to denote those who professed Islam. Indio first denoted the pagan natives, but was later to include even the christianized. It was only in later years, more specifically in 1578 and after, that the name Moro was generally applied to the Muslims of Mindanao and Sulu.

http://www.maranao.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=57

Our Muslim conflict started when Magellan arrived in the Philippines, so
I will post here the details of Magellan death.


http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/magellan.htm

From "Eyewitness to History.com


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http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/magellan.htm







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VIDEOS OF THE BATTLE OF MACTAN

(some funny and hilarious story)



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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PHLa9XpkcI



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Lapu-Lapu - Philippine Warrior

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qllv8-vU350



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Battle of Mactan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iylc-YNMW_I



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First Wave - Battle of Mactan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwxvO2VHeCg



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Lapu Lapu - The Movie (1 of 13)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6D4K0pxY44



Lapu Lapu - The Movie (2 of 12)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N1SgbIyrbo

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u157/jibrael_2007/jibrael_2009/awomansjourney.jpg

http://www.kellscraft.com/WomansJourneyPhilippines/WomansJourneyPhilippinesContentPage.html

VIDEOS OF SULU AND TAWI-TAWI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHwktxJKNDk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mqhy5t9gRw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_xuzpm7qRw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNBVTObgr1o

Tawi-Tawi - Land of baleleng and beauty



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r_WNpkb7xQ

Sibuto


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzT4u8oE5Vc

Simunol



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwqQC9oW6PA

SUSULAN TAWiTAWi - CHRiSTiAN BAUTiSTA



BRIEF HISTORY OF BANGSAMORO STRUGGLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHSGLs0J5mQ

Please read also the below Blog :


http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t218/jibrael_2008/mindanaoconflict.jpg

http://jibrael.blogspot.com/2007/05/mindanao-conflict.html

^^ good article, still strange though our south east asian neigbhors were also colonized by europeans how come only us ended up as christianized same with east timor, are the iberians really fueled by such strong religious fervor compared to other europeans?

^^ good article, still strange though our south east asian neigbhors were also colonized by europeans how come only us ended up as christianized same with east timor, are the iberians really fueled by such strong religious fervor compared to other europeans?

Most of them are only in Asia for trade but the Iberians are mostly the immigration type and conversion/assimilation colonizers.

Most of them are only in Asia for trade but the Iberians are mostly the immigration type and conversion/assimilation colonizers.

The Dutch were just after trade / business while the British were after territories for immigration (like in North America, Australia and New Zealand)

The Iberian people of Spain and Portugal were perhaps really for spreading christianity and for immigration like Brazil - a former Portuguese colony.

^^ good article, still strange though our south east asian neigbhors were also colonized by europeans how come only us ended up as christianized same with east timor, are the iberians really fueled by such strong religious fervor compared to other europeans?

You also have to factor in the fact that before 1975, the Philippine was actually the only country in Southeast Asia that had a Roman Catholic population of more than 80% of the country. East Timor after gaining independence in 1975 and then being invaded by Indonesia had a large Catholic population but also had a large animist population. In fact it was Indonesia that helped the Roman Catholic Church to convert people to Roman Catholicism. This was in line with Indonesia's state philosophy of Pancasilla at that time which required its population to be members of organized religion. Sadly, it was done after Indonesia successfully committed genocide in the area with US aid. Of course that fact was overshadowed and neglected by Western media since they were busy covering the other genocide in Cambodia by Pol Pot.

During the reign of King Philip II (whom the Philippines was named after), Spain was Vatican's champion of catholicism. So it follows that all tributary colonies to Spain must convert to catholicism or face death.

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For 179 days in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf Group, International Committee Red Cross (ICRC) Italian worker Eugenio Vagni is freed on July 12, 2009, Sunday, 12:35 a.m., at the remote jungle of Barangay Lagasan Higad, Parang, Sulu to the honorable Vice Governor Hja. Nur-Ana “Lady Ann” Sahidulla.

Hesitant Negotiator

Seeing the thinning hope for his countryman’s freedom and safety in the hands of ASG, Mr. Andy De Rossi of 3Ps Foundation, who donated a great number of humanitarian projects in the province of Sulu, contacted Joint Task Force Comet head Major General Juancho M. Sabban for his willingness to help for Vagni’s freedom.

MGen. Sabban, after talking to Mr. De Rossi, went to the Vice Governor and appealed to her if she can involve herself again in the negotiation. Vice Governor Sahidulla reiterated that she was hesitant to again involve herself join the negotiation for the release of Vagni due to the traumatic experience she felt earlier regarding the release of Ms. Jeanne Lacaba who was also kidnapped by the ASG with Vagni and Notter.

Last April 2,after more than 70 days in captivity, Ms. Lacaba was freed by ASG without ransom to Sahidulla as a gesture of commitment in peace conciliation with the Philippine Government so to be heard in its demand of community livelihood and developments for Sulu. According to the rebel group, Sahidulla was chosen to get Lacaba because of her dedication in helping the forgotten majority of Sulu and to deliver the ASG’s sentiments to the Government.

With the successful liberty of Lacaba, Political critics and some government figures suspected that Vice Governor Sahidulla is in cahoots with the ASG. Well in fact unknown to the public, all series of negotiations by Sahidulla to ASG is approved by the Task Force ICRC, the official crisis management team who works for the safe release of the kidnapped ICRC victims.

With the insistent request of MGen. Sabban and Mr. De Rossi, Sahidulla eventually accepted it for the sake of Vagni & his family and for peace & harmony in Sulu. Mr. De Rossi in return committed to help address the community development programs for the Tausugs.

Negotiation Breakthrough

Prior to the release of Vagni, The negotiation did not go smooth as expected, but Sahidulla did a breakthrough to convince the ASG Leader Albader Parad to free Vagni. Earlier, Parad’s two wives Rowena “Honey” Aksan and Nursima “Simang” Annuddin, and 4 other companions was invited for questioning by the Philippine Marines in the Municipality of Indanan.

According to Major General Sabban – Head of the Joint Task Force Comet, The arrest of the wives of Parad made him uneasy and distressed. By seeing the weakness of Parad in this manner, MGen. Sabban took the opportunity bank on his weak point and applied psychological pressure on him and utilize his wives to release Vagni through the Vice Governor.

Vice Governor Sahidulla in her effort talked to the wives of Parad that some people are willing to help their family to have a better and peaceful life if Vagni is released unharmed. Convinced by Sahidulla, Parad’s wives called up their husband and persuaded to release Vagni. Sahidulla enlighten Parad that his family and the Tausug community had suffered long enough in this apparent unending war and many lives have already been lost in the encounters between his group and the military.

Sahidulla assures Parad that his wives and companions will be given due process of law and will be out in due time. Sahidulla also clearly said that no ransom will be given to ASG and ransom demand is out of the negotiating terms. In return, she will exert effort to help undertake the livelihood programs and developments unreached by the Government especially the “Tau Gimba” since this is the demand of the ASG.

The Encounters

Parad, convinced by his wives and Sahidulla then agreed to free Vagni. Around 3 O’Clock in the afternoon of Saturday 11th of July, Sahidulla with her staffs and police escorts went to Barangay Marang, Municipality of Indanan to pick up Vagni as agreed. Parad and his group arrived but unfortunately Vagni was not yet in their hands. Parad informed Sahidulla that Vagni is still in the jungles of Talipao Municipality.

While Sahidulla and Parad were discussing, alleged MNLF combatants in the area fired at them and alerted the group. The tensed situation prompted them to move out from the area and meet again in Talipao.

But before arriving at the area in Talipao wherein to meet Parad again. An unidentified group of fully armed Civilian Volunteers Organization fired at Sahidulla’s convoy while crossing the area of Bilaan, Talipao. Sahidulla’s police securities though armed did not return fire so to not jeopardize the mission to get Vagni. Again, the supposed turn-over of the kidnap victim did not materialize because of this unfortunate incident.

Sahidulla, exhausted but still hopeful and determined to get Vagni waited for Parad’s call and instruction. True enough, in the evening, Parad called and apologized to Sahidulla for the untoward incidents. According to him, there are people who wanted to sabotage their meeting. Parad told Sahidulla that they again meet in the Municipality of Parang.

Past 11 before midnight, Parad called up again to Sahidulla and instructed her to proceed to Barangay Lagasan in the Municipality of Parang and also to bring with her his wife Honey who helped in the negotiation to free Vagni.

Successful Release

At 12:35 a.m, finally Vagni was release to Sahidulla in the said barangay. As gratitude, Sahidulla heartily gave fifty thousand pesos (php50, 000.00) as “sadakka” to the caretakers of Vagni. Vagni was released without any ransom demand.

After the release, Sahidulla immediately brought Vagni to the 3rd Marine BrigadeTrauma Hospital in Jolo for Medical Check Up. Welcoming Vagni at the 3rd Marine Brigade are MGen. Juancho M. Sabban, BGen. Eugene Clemen, BGen. Celestino Pereyra of the 2nd marine Brigade, Mr. Andy De Rossi, Governor Abdusakur Tan, Mayor Abdurajak of Panamao Sulu, and Mayor Hussin Ahajan of Indanan.

Looking weak and thin but relieved, Vagni, ate noodles and rested for a while. Vagni expressed his gratefulness to the people behind his successful release and to all those who sacrificed their lives for their freedom.

Early in the morning of Sunday around 7 O’ clock a.m. Vagni, Sahidulla, Mr. Andy De Rossi, MGen Sabban boarded a private plane RP2296 and departed immediately to Zamboanga City. They then proceeded to Manila to finally meet the Wife and daughter of Vagni.

http://www.vicegovladyann.com/Jul1309.html


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Maimbung, Sulu



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Panglima Estino



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Panglima Estino



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Patikul, Sulu



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Patikul, Sulu



http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/eme_esber/Solo_picture_007.jpg



http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss360/eme_esber/walk4peace05.jpg

Walk for Peace.



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Walk for Peace


Web link for Vice Gov. Lady Ann's website :

http://www.vicegovladyann.com/Jul1309.html

BRIEF HISTORY OF BANGSAMORO STRUGGLE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHSGLs0J5mQ


I just posted this here so that everyone will know all the sides of the mindanao conflict
but I am neutral on the issue of politics.

The below poignant story is from a lady-friend's blog. She is a Maranao Princess and a descendant of Sultan Kudarat.


ONE DARK NIGHT IN A SHANTY


August 7, 2009

Up to this day, there is still a memory that still haunts me deep inside.

There was one very touching life experience that I have had in the past during my early years in college.

I took my primary years in college in an exclusive school for women here in the Philippines, in the city of Quezon, Metro Manila. Most of my education was outside my hometown and almost half of my life was spent in Metro Manila.

This happened when I joined an immersion program for one of my subjects, which aimed to make us experience the life of a fisherman’s family living below the poverty line.

The immersion site was in Navotas, known to be an enclave of indigent fisherfolk.These are Filipino families who could hardly afford to eat one meal a day.

It was difficult for me at first for I was always dependent on our house helpers then.

Sad to say, but I couldn’t even wash my own underwear then. Please don’t laugh..that was then.I am a different person now.

My classmates and I were assigned in one of the shanties in Navotas, owned by a fisherman’s family. They had two small kids and two teenagers then.



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The younger ones were left with the care of their mother while the elder ones help their father catch fish to sell in the wet market and proceeds of that will be used to buy food for all of them.The father was relying mainly on this kind of livelihood for his family’s subsistence.

Our college instructor told us not to bring any food nor money,and just live according to the means of the family who volunteered to be our foster parents.

So when I entered their shanty, the smallest child of the family held my hand and asked for food.The mother got mad at her son for disturbing me and told him that I would be their visitor for a week and should be considered a part of their family.

I could feel how the mother wanted to make me feel at home and even borrowed money to buy food for me. I explained to her not to do that because I was there to immerse myself in their situation–meaning,to live like them.



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Hunger should not be my main focus for myself for I was there to be a part of their family and to understand all matters relative to their plight.I was not in the position to question nor demand anything.The best thing I could do was inspire them with stories on hope and faith in God and in themselves.

Poverty hurts the heart of a caring mother. It squeezes her breath to hear her hungry son crying and starving for food but there was no other source of food for even the neighbors have nothing to spare.

Not even a grain of rice.

One very dark night inside the shanty, I could hear the mother and her son whispering with each other.Speaking in a very low voice to avoid disturbing me while I was “asleep” (I pretended to be asleep because I couldn’t help but cry),the mother told her son in tagalog:”Bukas baka may pagkain na anak…dala ni tatay.” (Tomorrow son,maybe your father will have some food to bring).I could hear her sob but I could not see her for we were enveloped by complete darkness.

NO candles nor matches.No money for these things.

I was lying down on a thin plywood above the ground with dilapidated tents above my head just to protect me from the rain. No pillows but I used my bags for my head.

The crying hungry child and the helpless mother was a painful sight.Wow! That cuts me deep inside..deepest cut.

It was only a week of in-depth exposure but it changed my views on life radically. I was already sympathetic with the plight of poor families but this personal credo was intensified by my immersion with the fisherman’s family… hence,realizing further that sometimes we need to consider looking at the lives of those living in desperate conditions and try to count our blessings.

The “spirit” of the mother and child embedded in my mind and heart truly seeped into my soul..something that I could never let go.

Sometimes I still wonder how they are now.After a week of exposure with them, I and some of my classmates went back to share plenty of foods with the needy families.

Indeed it was an enlightening and soulful experience for until now the memory still haunts me like an echo that refuses to be silenced…REMINDING me most especially when my life is under pressure..whispering in my ears that there are more unfortunate people all around me needing help.

These are poor families who fail to give their loved ones decent lives despite of all the efforts they do by genuinely working very hard to makeboth ends meet.

But at the end of the day..they could not help their own starving child for they have no money to buy food to fill his empty stomach.


http://princessmaleihabcandao.blog.friendster.com/2009/08/one-dark-night-in-a-shanty/

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From Bai Maleiha B. Candao Blog

Posted at 10:02 PM on September 10, 2009

Everytime the peace talks are stalled in Mindanao between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), I could not help but deduce that these would have serious repercussion on the peace process. In a nascent, it would negate all what have been started by the government to effect its efforts to balance economic equity for Mindanao.

Not only are time and efforts wasted on the part of the government and the leaders of the MILF, time will also lessen the physical efficiency of the Moro leaders, who have exhausted their time and efforts in dedicating their lives for peace, and will certainly die for peace, which they have always firmly stood for.


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The late leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Chairman Hashim Salamat, died with unfinished mission. The generation of peace workers will continue but the sad fact is, as new minds fill up the space of the old and dead, different approaches will start anew, though the past idealism stays, but the strategy will vary from one man's mind to another.

Mindanao, despite its being the gold mine and breadbasket of the country, oftentimes has lagged behind in terms of socio-economic development. As such ,much of its indigenous inhabitants have been a devitalized people. Their economic conditions remain stagnant, their social and culture in jeopardy and their laws and customs endanger of disintegrating, due to perceived neglect and apathy from their so-called leaders.

Whilst it is acknowledged that the national government has worked extensively to make peace possible, it is the means of that goal that has always been questioned by many Muslim leaders not allied with the government. Many political analysts and peace workers from the private sector opined that in order for peace to truly take place, there should be less of military intervention employed.


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The fear of "Muslim terrorism" has displaced many Muslim peace workers, labeling them negatively for it has put their works for justice and peace in jeopardy. While they work hard to settle disputes in their respective hometowns, other non-Muslim groups unite to form vigilantes who will use arms to counter the alleged "terrorism" that is a product of an anti-Muslim myopia against the Muslims in general.

Shared misery and resentment against a militarization scheme, this situation became serious for the past many decades which has continuously pushed Muslims to the edges of rebellion.

As far as Mindanao is concerned, the word development is one of the most abused terms in the context of "development programs" for blindly copying a foreign brand of development and modernism, in most cases, such development is found to be incompatible with the traditions, cultures and idiosyncracies or norms of the Mindanaoans.


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Development, in the definition given by Professor Michael P. Todaro, means a multi-dimensional process involving changes in structures, attitudes, and institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and eradication of absolute poverty.

Contemporary experience, however, shows that it is the opposite of what the people expect. For oftentimes, development program and projects have displaced and deprived the MIndanao people of the gains and benefits due them.

The whole episode points to the Mindanao development framework that pledges to build the region into a prosperous place. But still the Moro insurgency problem continues to haunt succeeding Philippine administration to the present. This despite the claimed of massive development programs being poured into the region to answer the cry of national discrimination in terms of economic inequity according to past and present leaders of the government.


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I agree with the view that if ever development is to be designed for Mindanao, the architect must consider on the road map of development plan one which is drawn with a highly motivated, self-reliant, culturally diverse but unified communities. In such way, we are confident that the development programs will ensure ample and equitable opportunities for self-fulfillment in the region within the framework of a balance economy and sustainable development.

Essentially, what the people want is the kind of development where they are at the centerpiece. Literally means, it is the kind of development they will defined, enjoy and live for.

But the continued fighting in Mindanao will drain the resources of the government. By financing the war, necessary funds for the area of education and health services will be diverted to sustain war in this already embattled island of Muslim unrest.

Today there are no more wide tract of land being left. Thus development programs usually sit on an ancestral domains which belong to the people.

The most affected are the indigenous peoples who are forced to sell their ancestral and traditional landholdings to pave the entry of the multinational and politico-economic bourgeois capitalists. Without their participation in the planning and the whole implementation process, naturally the people would express doubts over the logic of the development projects . The people will never understand development if they miss out the opportunity to experience the benefits and privileges derived from it.

If the approach to solving the Mindanao problem remains a lip service, the unending saga will continue from generation to generation.

http://baimaleiha.webs.com/apps/blog/categories/show/24013-muslim-culture




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Thursday, September 17, 2009


Add a ninth ray–honoring
Muslims–to our flag
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/sept/17/yehey/opinion/20090917opi7.html

By Emmanuel Libre Osorio

“A republic for a ray in the Philippine sun,” wrote Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, then chairman of the National Historical Institute, when the Ninth Ray Movement (NRM) was launched at the University of the Philippines in 1969.

The Manila Times, then the country’s most widely circulated daily, editorialized the movement’s manifesto, describing it as eloquent.

In the light of a more comprehensive research on the struggle for freedom of the Filipino Muslims and the other cultural communities, it is imperative that the full text of the 1969 Ninth Ray Manifesto is printed again. The idea is to stress the philosophy of history guiding those who passed the 1969 manifesto and at the same time point to the widening scope of the second freedom this philosophy of history seeks to recognize.

For a people of diverse faith, religion, and culture to be united into one nation, there should be a history for them which could reconcile their varied and even conflicting experiences into one national history.

The 1969 manifesto mentioned only the struggle for freedom of the Filipino Muslims and was silent on the other cultural communities.

Thus, the 1969 ninth ray resolution:

“Symbols carry the essence of our being and are the landmarks for our memories and aspirations. They are the vessels for our values; they determine our actions. They are our interpretations of ourselves, for us and for others. It is in this context that we regard the Philippine flag.

“Red: courage.

“Blue: nobility.

“White: purity.

“Sun: liberty.

“3 stars: Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao.

“The Philippine flag is as real and near for us as our bones and blood and mind and heart and the flesh that lends the coordinating power, enabling bones and blood and mind and heart to arrive at an achievement. The Philippine flag is also bigger and relatively more permanent than us because it registers for us the widening dimensions of our consciousness, as individuals and as a people.

“The eight rays of the sun in the Philippine flag are a happy testament of our dazzling recognition of the desire for freedom. We acknowledge those who first manifested a sustained and conscious struggle to be free from foreign domination.

“But something is wrong with the Philippine flag: there are only eight rays, when in fact there should be nine.

“We believe that if we would only interpret our history with candor and the spirit of fair play, we would not anymore deny recognition to the more than 300 years of continued resistance the Muslims put up against the Spanish colonizers: the ninth ray would mean that we are finally willing to record the whole national experience and not only that of the more numerous segments of the population.

“Surely we must begin to be concerned with the uneasiness of the Muslims each time they salute the Philippine flag. Surely it is time we desisted from flaunting at them a symbol of our stubbornness to take into consideration the one achievement the Muslims take pride in—the preservation of their freedom for which they had to pay the price of backwardness and bear the painful duty of fighting not only the Spaniards but their Christian brothers as well.

“No wonder moves to integrate the Muslims into the mainstream of the body politic are met with resistance. The Muslims want their brothers in faith and the nation to appreciate the implications of their history because this and the willingness to recognize the role of the other cultural groups in the Philippines constitute their credentials in the formation of a Filipino nation, but it seems we are still unwilling to truly build a Filipino nation.

During the reign of King Philip II (whom the Philippines was named after), Spain was Vatican's champion of catholicism. So it follows that all tributary colonies to Spain must convert to catholicism or face death.

I was actually thinking that Filipinos could be Muslims if Spain did not colonize the country, just like our neighbors in the south....but our neighbors in the north are mainly Buddhists...so, it's still a puzzle for me.

http://www.mb.com.ph/sites/default/files/images/PHILIPPINE-FLAG_HOME.jpg
Bicam OKs 9th ray to sun in RP flag
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/221893/bicam-oks-9th-ray-sun-rp-flag
By MARIO CASAYURAN
September 23, 2009, 6:15pm

The bicameral conference committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives approved Tuesday the addition of a ninth ray to the sun in the Philippine flag.

This came after the two panels reconciled the disagreeing provisions of the two versions of the bill amending the Flag and Heraldic Code.

Sen. Richard J. Gordon, chairman of the Senate panel and principal author of Senate Bill (SB) 3307, said the approval of the measure would foster greater unity among Filipinos regardless of religion.

‘’We are a country that has had a conflict with our Muslim brothers for the last so many decades. I think this is a bid step towards reuniting our country, recognizing the contributions of our fellow countrymen, Muslim Filipinos. We should recognize their deeds in our country,’’ Gordon said.

Included in the Senate bill was Gordon’s proposal to add a ninth ray to the sun in the Philippine flag to acknowledge the courage, bravery and integrity of Muslim Filipinos who fought for the nation’s independence.

SB 3307 proposed amendments to Republic Act 8491, or ‘’An Act Prescribing the Code of the National Flag, Anthem, Motto, Coat-of-Arms and Other Heraldic Items and Devices of the Philippines.’’

‘’This is a great step in recognizing the fact that we had Muslims such as Lapu-Lapu, Sultan Kudarat, Amai Pakpak and Sorongan who kept fighting the Spaniards long before this country thought of a revolution against Spain. This would foster unity, making sure that nobody is excluded. If we are to have national unity in this country it must begin with our flag, it must be symbolized in our flag,’’ Gordon said...

...now let us talk about the adding of the 10th or the 11th ray of the sun in our Flag,
to recognize the contribution of the Visayan in our fight for independence...



:horse:

http://www.mb.com.ph/sites/default/files/images/PHILIPPINE-FLAG_HOME.jpg


...now let us talk about the adding of the 10th or the 11th ray of the sun in our Flag,
to recognize the contribution of the Visayan in our fight for independence...



:horse:

why not? as long as our flag won't grow bigger. mahihirapan na kaming itaas ang bandila:D j/k

I don't see the point in adding more rays. If people are so concerned with giving representation where it is due, they can always change the meaning of the rays from the current eight provinces to something else. Changing a flag's meaning is much less costly than redesigning it.

September 26, 2009 01:38:00
Ryan Rosauro
Philippine Daily Inquirer

(Second of four parts)

MARAWI CITY, Philippines — AT A RALLY OF thousands of Maranao people demanding resumption of peace talks, a man in his mid-50s came forward and urged the mostly young crowd to “be prepared to fight to win back our homeland.”

“I have warned you before: This government is only toying with our aspiration for self-determination,” the man cried out. His two sons had died as warriors in the Moro rebellion.

The scene was a plaza in Marawi and the rally was in 2006 soon after the peace talks between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) hit a snag over the issue of territory.

The impasse in the talks spurred a reemergence of extremist thinking in Lanao del Sur, according to an MILF member who translated the man’s thundering speech in Maranao for the Inquirer.

Thus, the crafting of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) two years later, in 2008, was seen in predominantly Muslim communities, including Marawi, as a historic breakthrough in the peace effort.

The accord marked the boldest attempt yet to redraw the country’s sociopolitical landscape and accommodate the hopes of a minority people.

Ironically, the MOA-AD also became a great source of peril for the peace process.

Opposed in many non-Muslim communities, it sparked renewed fighting in several Mindanao provinces. Amid the uproar, the Supreme Court struck down the accord as unconstitutional “in its present form.”

Mindanao State University Prof. Rudy Rodil, former vice chair of the government peace panel, said the MOA-AD could have paved the way for a comprehensive settlement because it embodied a “totality of solutions” to the Bangsamoro problem.

‘Mother agreement’

An earlier accord signed in Libya in 2001 under the auspices of the Gadhafi charitable foundation set out the framework for a political solution.

Called the “mother agreement,” the Tripoli accord cited ancestral domain as one of the three key issues the government and the MILF needed to reach a consensus on. The others were security and rehabilitation of war-torn communities.

The three issues were considered necessary to make self-determination a reality for the Moro people. A consensus on ancestral domain would correct “historical injustices” against the Moros, experts on Moro affairs said.

Bangsamoro (Moro nation) refers to the collective identity—equal to nationhood—of 13 ethnolinguistic tribes in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan bonded by Islamic faith. Owing to its historical roots, it is an identity distinct from being Filipino.

As a political entity, the Bangsamoro predates Philippine statehood.

3 states, not 1

Rodil, a historian, said that when the Treaty of Paris between the United States and Spain was signed in 1898, there were formal three states existing in the archipelago—the sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao, and the Philippines.

The Sulu sultanate was established in 1450, around 70 years after the Islamic faith was introduced in the region, while the Maguindanao sultanate arose in 1619, a little over a century after Islam reached the Mindanao mainland. Philippine independence was declared in 1898.

With the American pacification campaigns, the Moros and Filipinos became intertwined in a similar political fate, Rodil stressed.

Torrens title

Rodil said the Americans watered down the political strengths of the traditional leaders. With relatively effective control of the islands, they also introduced the alien Torrens titling system.

This meant invalidating the land rights granted by the traditional leaders in favor of state-sanctioned rights.

Rodil said major public land laws passed in 1919 and 1936 went against the Moros and leaned toward homesteaders who were primarily Christian migrants from the Visayas and Luzon, and to corporations.

These accelerated migration into Mindanao, driving away the Moros and indigenous peoples from their “untitled” lands.

Referendum after 50 years

In 1924, Moro leaders issued the Zamboanga Declaration asking the United States to declare Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan as “unorganized territories.”

They also called for a referendum to be held 50 years later to determine the peoples’ political future—much like the US protectorate state arrangements in Guam, Saipan and Puerto Rico.

The declaration was issued in light of a US plan to hand over rule of the islands to Filipinos, starting with a Commonwealth setup.

Moro liberation advocates considered immoral the “annexation” of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan into Philippine territory through the 1935 Constitution and the 1946 independence grant.

Thus, the structures of subjugation persisted, the experts on Moro affairs said.

National identity

Datu Michael Mastura, a senior member of the MILF panel, said the Moro people were only demanding to secure “what is left of us now” by seeking to reverse “lopsided” policies in the state’s current legal framework.

These historical tidbits explain the discomfort of Moro rebel leaders when discussions touch on the Constitution.

“They are very sensitive to that word,” Rodil said.

If the Moro rebels acquiesce to the Constitution, they will be seen as bowing to the terms of colonial subjugation, instead of defending the Moros’ national identity.

Even then, they are Philippine citizens by legal reality, Moro lawyer Musib Buat said.

DATU PIANG, MAGUINDANAO — Sometime in mid-June, just days after the new school year opened, classes at Datu Gumbay Piang Central Elementary School broke up as cannons boomed from an Army firebase 25 meters away.

Teacher Noime Pua said that with every volley, “our pupils would go out of the classroom, some would go home to the evacuation center, others were fetched by their parents.”

“Those left behind could no longer concentrate on our lessons,” Pua told a group of peace advocates, humanitarian workers and journalists.

School officials asked the soldiers to move their two 105-mm and one 155-mm howitzers elsewhere but the Army was not inclined to give up its strategic position. One officer instead advised the school to look for a new location.

The incident seemed to illustrate the supremacy of military objectives over any other considerations after fighting broke out with Moro rebels last year following the collapse of the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

Today, both sides are trying to revive the stalled negotiations brokered by Malaysia. Hopes are that with the end of the Muslim fasting season of Ramadan, talks could begin anew in the next few weeks.

Sharing the blame

The aborted deal on ancestral domain called for an expanded Bangsamoro homeland in parts of Mindanao and Palawan, to be governed by Muslims or by a so-called Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

It was the symbol of a generations-old hope among Moros for self-rule, nourishing countless revolts that have bedeviled every government in the fractious archipelago.

Blame for the renewed fighting fell on everyone.

Angry at the aborted signing of the accord, guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked Kolambugan and Kauswagan towns in Lanao del Norte in August last year, reigniting large-scale clashes after five years of relative lull.

The MOA-AD crowned talks on the sensitive issue of ancestral domain. Both government and the MILF regarded it as the biggest gain of the 11-year peace negotiations aimed at ending an insurgency that has claimed some 150,000 lives, by some estimates.

Mea culpa

Tension boiled after local officials warned of a political backlash from communities that would be covered by the Moro homeland. Critics slammed what they called “juicy” concessions to the rebels.

Weeks before the August attacks on civilian areas in Lanao del Norte, smaller skirmishes had erupted in Midsayap town in North Cotabato. The military used bomber planes in the fighting.

By Aug. 18, the battleground had widened to include Maasim town in Sarangani.

“We are man enough to acknowledge that we started the fighting in Lanao del Norte,” MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told reporters.

Fighting escalates

But while conceding that “we violated the ceasefire, especially in Lanao del Norte,” Iqbal also pointed out that the later clashes were “worse than what was started.”

Iqbal denied accusations that the MILF had bombed major localities, killing civilians. He said the MILF was open to an investigation, preferably by the International Monitoring Team (IMT), and urged the Armed Forces to submit to the same process.

The IMT, formed in 2004 and headed by Malaysia, monitors compliance with the 1997 ceasefire agreement. From 2004 to July 2008, encounters had drastically gone down. The biggest number (16) occurred in 2004.

In mid-2007, both sides also edged close to a full-scale fighting after Moro rebels beheaded 10 Marines in an encounter in Albarka, Basilan. The Joint Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities (JCCCH), where both sides are represented, defused the tension.

Self-defense

With the resurgence of fighting in August last year, the military launched a manhunt for three “rogue” MILF commanders blamed for the atrocities in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato.

The search for the three commanders—Ameril Ombra Kato, Abdullah Macapaar, alias “Commander Bravo,” and Aleem Sulaiman Pangalian—took the Armed Forces beyond Lanao del Norte to the Liguasan Marsh towns in Maguindanao and North Cotabato.

In its pursuit, the government unilaterally lifted the ceasefire in three of 19 areas in Mindanao where the MILF has armed units.

At one point, the government went to the extent of disbanding its peace panel to show disgust at MILF strikes. As usual, the MILF said it was merely exercising its “right to self-defense.”

Children in midst of war

The humanitarian tragedy that has befallen civilians, who fled their homes to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, has put into question all justifications for waging war.

Teacher Noime Pua’s schoolchildren may be too young to understand the horror of the war but they certainly felt it that June day in their classrooms as the Army guns thundered around them.

This town is now a major evacuation site and Pua’s wards are among the nearly 600,000 civilians displaced by the conflict. For nearly a year since the resurgence of fighting, the frightening sound of artillery guns was almost a daily fare for them.

Last July, the government and the MILF finally agreed to cease hostilities.

It may be another of those shaky truces in the long running war but for now Datu Gumbay Piang’s schoolchildren can study their lessons in relative peace. (To be continued)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090925-226809/Cannon-fire-brings-wars-horrors-to-Mindanao-schools

MANILA, Philippines—So contentious were the talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on the issue of ancestral domain that the two sides took nearly four months to agree on the meaning of the word “freedom.”

The Malaysia-brokered talks kicked off in April 2005. It took the negotiators more than three years to craft a deal, called the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD).

Ready for signing, it collapsed to the sound of gunfire.

Maulana Alonto, a member of the MILF panel, recalled the haggling “started with a compromise: That the government stop invoking its Constitution and the MILF drop its independence bid.”

The compromise allowed the panels to reach a consensus beyond the strictures of the Constitution, which they agreed was not designed to accommodate the “legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro,” according to former Mindanao State University Prof. Rudy Rodil, then vice chair of the government panel.

“It took three months and 23 days to discuss the word ‘freedom,’ making sure that the provisions using such word should not sound like independence,” Rodil said.

When asked to describe the language of the agreement, Rodil said: “It is constructive ambiguity.”

“What is written is not necessarily understandable to the layman, but it reflects the sense and substance of the negotiation with sensitivity to the feelings of the groups involved,” he said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo highlighted that sensitivity in a letter to then Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on May 6, 2008.

Ms Arroyo told Badawi that “the principle of self-determination for the Bangsamoro shall preclude any future interpretation to include independence, even as parallel strategies are explored on how these commitments can be fulfilled, either through the existing legal framework or under efforts to amend it…”

The discussion on territory was the longest, taking 14 months, with the MILF originally demanding that a proposed Bangsamoro homeland cover 3,978 barangays.

It was such a ticklish issue that it was not discussed frontally, Rodil said. Position papers had to be coursed through the Malaysian facilitator.

Homeland area

Using a mix of parameters, the two parties pared down the list to the final figure of 735 barangays. They were to be added to the core homeland area comprising six Lanao del Norte towns that voted for inclusion into the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in a 2001 plebiscite and the present ARMM.

A “special intervention area” was identified comprising 1,459 villages.

One parameter is the historical geographic expanse of the sultanates using maps developed from studies on the subject. This explains the inclusion, among others, of villages in Iligan and Zamboanga cities.

Another parameter is the predominance of the Moro population in a given village.

Plebiscite required

Rodil emphasized that a plebiscite was to be held for 735 villages within 12 months from the signing of the MOA-AD, and within 25 years for 1,459 villages.

The plebiscite would determine if the residents would like to be included in the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE), the expanded self-governing territory.

“It was still unthinkable for me why the MILF agreed on a plebiscite, which is a constitutional process, when it has consistently refused to use or refer to such word,” Rodil said.

He said the MILF’s approval hastened the deal.

“We had so many moments of darkness … The big step that we were looking for was having the MILF sign [the MOA-AD],” Rodil said.

Rodil said mutual trust enabled the two sides to hurdle the thorny issues.

But the success came to naught when sensitive provisions of the MOA-AD—previously undisclosed—were published, sparking a political uproar, re-igniting socio-cultural tensions and resurrecting supposedly forgotten biases.

The claim of the Bangsamoro people for respect of what remains of their ancestral homeland is distinctly political. But the issue has split not only the people of Mindanao but the nation as well along religious lines, principally between Christians and Muslims.

Rodil said that historically, “religion was just an accident to the division; it was more of colonialism, the Christian Spaniards, and later Americans, colonizing and the Moros resisting.”

Little understanding of Mindanao

Peace activist Gus Miclat said biased views were largely borne by a lack of understanding of Mindanao’s social dynamics owing to poor knowledge of its history.

The constituency of those opposed to the MOA-AD was so huge that Ms Arroyo was apparently shaken.

A strong anti-Arroyo lobby also militated against Charter change before 2010, which supporters of the deal said could have been an opportunity to carry out a “constitutional correction” to accommodate the peace process consensus.

In an unexpected reaction to the upheaval against the accord, Malacañang went to the extent of seemingly disowning involvement in producing the fruit of a laborious process.

Palace washes hands

Rodil recalled that during the oral argument in the Supreme Court on the MOA-AD, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera told the magistrates that the government panel had no authority to sign the proposed homeland deal.

“There was nothing that we committed in Malaysia that did not pass through a battery of lawyers [or was] not considered by the Palace,” Rodil stressed. (Conclusion tomorrow)


http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090927-227084/Meaning-of-freedom-shows-deep-rift-in-Moro-issue


Youtube Video :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNERBV5wb0Y


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H5kher6mes


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYP9UYxlnyc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv1UglhkjYA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0RzzAMNm9Q


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRvlZET-vE4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRq3JwkuUYU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsq-OFDQjfU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm65BFE5kzY

Lifted from these LINKS:
http://jackcarino.multiply.com/journal/The Cariño Doctrine of Native Title
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=181588925639&ref=mf


Two of my sisters, Joji and Jill, are presently in New York attending a United Nations conference on Indigenous Peoples. Jill just presented an intervention on behalf of the Ibaloi residents of Baguio City. Here is a copy of her presention...

Eighth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Intervention: On the Marginalization of Indigenous Peoples in Urban Areas and the Cariño Doctrine of Native Title

I would like to draw attention to the plight of indigenous peoples whose ancestral lands have been transformed into cities or urban areas, and in particular, my people, the Ibaloy in Baguio City, Philippines.

This year marks 100 years since the charter / designation of our lands into Baguio City, a hill station for the colonial American government, as well as rest and recreation site for colonial soldiers.One mile radius from Mateo Cariño’s house was expropriated to form the city centre, while his pasturelands were transformed into the John Hay Air Base and recreation centre. Vast tracts of lands were declared as government reservations and rapid urbanization displaced the Ibaloy from our ancestral lands and opened the gates for migrant settlers. Today, the Ibaloy are a marginalized minority in Baguio City. The case of the Ibaloy people of Baguio is internationally significant. Mateo Cariño, my great grandfather asserted his ownership over the land taken by the the American colonial administration and filed a case that reached the US Supreme Court. In a landmark decision penned by Oliver Wendell Jones, the US Supreme Court ruled that “Whatever may have been the technical position of Spain, it does not follow that in the view of the United States, he had lost all rights and was a mere trespasser when the present government seized his lands. The argument to that effect seems to amount to a denial of native titles, throughout an important part of the island of Luzon.

It concludes:

“when as far back as testimony or memory goes, that land has been held by individuals under a claim of private ownership, it will be presumed to have been held in the same way from before the Spanish conquest, and never to have been public land.”

The Cariño decision on native title, established a legal doctrine which is in fact, the foundation of the Philippine Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA), passed in 1997.The law recognizes “ancestral domain,” or ownership of land established through collective memories and custom law, and that for indigenous peoples, land ownership is not given by formal titles, but is claimed by use and inheritance since time immemorial.

Sadly, in Baguio City itself, the Cariño doctrine has never been implemented. Camp John Hay Recreation Base is in the hands of private developers, while many Ibaloi lands remain classified as government reservations.

Worse, there are conspicuous irregularities and anomalies in the processing of ancestral land and domain claims by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in the Philippines. One clear example is the recent issuance by the NCIP of a Certificate of Ancestral Land Title over a 69 hectare lot in Baguio City to bogus claimants over the long-standing claim of the Cariño family. This act of the NCIP is a shame and grave injustice to the Ibaloy of Baguio, a serious violation of native title, a sacrilege to the memory of Mateo Cariño, a mockery of the IPRA and of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

On behalf of the Ibaloy of Baguio City, – I appeal to the Special Rapporteur on Fundamental Freedoms and Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Atty. James Anaya, to look into this serious violation of human rights, by the very government agency assigned to protect us. As a follow-up to the earlier visit of the Mr. Rudolfo Stavenhagen, who gave cognizance of the special situation or urban indigenous peoples in the Philippines, we call on the UNSR to investigate and recommend corrective measures to uphold the rights of the indigenous Ibaloy people. We direct the same appeal to the Philippine members of the august body. .

Thank you for your kind attention.


Submitted by: Jacqueline K. Cariño, Cordillera Peoples Alliance
Endorsed by: Asia Pacific Indigenous Youth Network
Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact
Others


http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn18/baguiowriter/IbaloiChuyoRiceChiliDish.jpg

The 69 hectar lot Jill is referring to above is of course part of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) compound in Santo Tomas. It was and still is referred to as Chuyo by the native Ibalois. Chuyo means a bowl to eat from in Nabaloi. How symbolic if Chuyo is transformed into a garbage dump...

Perosnally, I think the Carino doctrine falls mroe on the violation of eminent domain. Even the US Supreme court said to the Colonial government that the land they took was not public but a private property.

In the past, Mateo Carino tried to register the land through the 'formal way of the government' yet he was denied his right to.

Even more appalling is that, despite the order of the US Supreme court to return the lands, the Colonial and Internal government and even the Philippine Reupblic failed to do so. Clearly a violation of the eminent domain. If a private property should be converted in to public property, the government MUST JUSTLY compensate the affected people. In the case of the people labeled as 'IPs', this does not happen. They are thrown away by the government whom this people pay their taxes to! People affected by the dams were not even given alternatve livelihood. Some Ibalois, during the Marcos era, were forcefully shipped to Palawan

The loophole with the IPR law on ancestral domain, some "IPs" an take advantage of it. It's hard and even funny to imagine non-Ibalois Igorots claiming their 'ancestral land' in the city of Baguio. Baguio lands were Ibaloi owned; how come suddently a non-Ibaloi Igorot claims to ancestral land? I am speaking of the case of Loacan and Busol. Worse is, the ignorant government is giving the lands to the inauthentic heirs!

THE NEXUS BETWEEN DISCRIMINATION AND THE MINDANAO CONFLICT: THE 2005 PHILIPPINE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

By: Atty. Zainudin S. Malang*

First, I would like to thank the organizers – the Ateneo de Davao University Research and Publication Office - for inviting me to be a reactor in today’s presentation of the 2005 Philippine Human Development Report. Second, allow me to congratulate the Human Development Network team that prepared this Report on behalf of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). I sincerely believe that through this Report, you have made a substantial contribution towards an accurate understanding of the nature and roots of the Mindanao conflict and, potentially, to its resolution as well.

I. The 2005 PHDR: An Emerging But More Nuanced Understanding of the Moro Insurgency

These past few years, I have noticed a shift in outlook on the roots of the Mindanao Conflict, particularly that which is between the Bangsamoro and the Philippine State. Earlier, there was the World Bank’s Social Assessment of Conflict Affected Areas in Mindanao which, although primarily delving on the socio-economic costs of the war, also partly looked into the nexus between the land issue and the conflict (2002). This was followed by a yet to be released study commissioned by the World Bank on the causal link between land tenure problems besetting the Bangsamoro and the war.

The conventional belief among policy-makers and public institutions is that the Moro insurgency was brought about by economic reasons. With this premise, it was therefore convenient to conclude that with massive infusion of funds into the Bangsamoro areas, the clamor for independence and, by extension, the conflict would peter out. But we have seen so many administrations do just that since the outbreak of the 20th century phase of the Moro Wars and yet the insurgency is still there as well as the sense of Moro nationalism that feeds it, stronger than it ever was before. Now, we are beginning to see the fallacy of this shallow and condescending view. And hopefully, studies such as those contained in the 2005 PHDR will cause decision-makers as well as the general public to re-examine how they view the Moro Wars.

Anti-Muslim Prejudice and the Roots of the War

Back when I was still studying at the Ateneo de Manila School of Law, I was explaining the Bangsamoro perspective on the Mindanao conflict to a classmate who is also a good friend and she, quite matter of factly, told me that I have a persecution complex. Well, now at least, we have the 2005 PHDR which tells us that “anti-Muslim bias are not imagined nor random”. Maybe now is a good time for me to get in touch with her and give her a copy of this report.

Now, we know that every time a Muslim like me walks the streets of Metro Manila or other Christian-populated cities, almost 5 out of every 10 people on the same street thinks that I am a “terrorist”. Ditto for every Maguindanon student who has to attend school, a Maranao applicant for a job, a Tausug who has to face a policeman or soldier. For Muslims in this country, there is no escape from that prejudice even when one is merely reading the mainstream papers wherein a columnist can unabashedly object to the building of Mosques in Metro Manila, a sentiment purportedly shared by his wife who is ironically related to the UNESCO, or wherein pictures of Muslims protesting indiscriminate arrests are captioned as protests against the detention of “allegedly innocent” Muslims. For Muslims in this country, it is their innocence that must be alleged and not their guilt because the latter is already presumed. So much for Muslims enjoying the right to be presumed innocent under the Bill of Rights of the Philippine Constitution.
The relevance of this bias to the conflict is far more important than studies commissioned by credible international public institutions before the 2005 PHDR cared to attach to it. Pro-independence sentiments arise out of a lack of feeling of belonging, of being outcasts, of being second class citizens to whom concessions are only made grudgingly. Prejudice by the largely Christian body-politic rears its ugly face in the government, in the media, and other sectors of civil society. Going over the history of relations between the Bangsamoro and that Christian body-politic shows that there is no lacuna for reasons to feel that Muslims are outcasts even in their own homeland.

Starting from the early 1900s, the national government engaged in a policy of changing the demography of Mindanao by repopulating it with settlers from Visayas and Luzon. Strategies included providing financial assistance and land titles to the new inhabitants (e.g. Agricultural Colonization Act) to outright forcible land-grabbing by providing weapons to para-military groups (e.g. Ilagas in the 1960s) to granting timber concessions over thousands of hectares of Moro ancestral lands. Muslims, on the other hand, received no such assistance. Worse, the land titling system was not only alien to them but actually clashed with their own indigenous system of landholding. And when they fought back against the forcible-landgrabbing, the national government and the media were quick to label them as terrorists. Is it any wonder how the Muslims ended up being reduced from 76% to a mere 18% of Mindanao’s total population? And yet when they venture out of Mindanao to Luzon and Visayas, they are denied jobs, not allowed to build their mosques, subjected to humiliation in schools and workplace, and told to leave and go back to where they came from. Go back to what? Their lands have already been taken away from them.
We might as well face the reality of Christian-Muslim relations in this country, as Muslims perceive it. The resources of Mindanao are all-too welcome in this country, but Muslims themselves are not. Should we then wonder why pro-independence sentiments, expressed through armed struggle, is still strong notwithstanding many efforts, military and economic by the government? And if we need more convincing about the nexus between violence and exclusionary practices of the majority against the minority, we only need to look at what is going on in France for the past week. There, the majority even in a highly developed Western European country has to face the ugly consequences of their prejudice.

This is not to ignore the valiant efforts of those in Christian communities who view the roots of the conflict differently from the majority but as the survey attached to the PHDR itself has shown, there is an uphill battle to be waged in changing the present sad state of relations.


The Democratic Deficit of the Philippine State Vis-à-vis the Bangsamoro

Maybe now is the time for the largely Christian body-politic to ask themselves whether they truly want Muslims to be part of a pluralistic multicultural country. More importantly, maybe its about time to let the Bangsamoro themselves decide their political future. To put it more succinctly, recognize their “freedom of choice” as the UNDP itself defines human security.

Months ago, I was interviewed by a group of professors from the University of the Philippines who were conducting a democracy audit in the Moro areas. Among the indicators that they were looking at were government’s ability to provide for the basic services for Muslims, e.g. health, housing, education, etc.. It occurred to me during the interview that if they were truly interested in conducting a democracy audit, then they need to go back to the fundamental premise of democracy – the consent of a people to be subject to the sovereignty of a particular state.

For decades since the inception of the Philippine Republic, the largely Christian body-politic has failed to see the moral inconsistency between their prejudice and exclusionary practices and their refusal to let the Bangsamoro choose their political destiny. “Mindanao has always been and will always be part of the Philippines” is often the emotional reply to such clamor. This retort, bearing in mind the treatment to which Muslims are subjected, only begs the question whether it is Mindanao’s Muslims or Mindanao’s resources that they want to be part of the Philippines.

The inconsistency becomes more pronounced when we note the all-out support that was given by Christian civil society to East Timor’s assertion of its right to self-determination and yet at the same time fail, refuse, or reject outright any recognition of the Bangsamoro’s own aspirations. Perhaps, herein lies the psychological utility of prejudice and bias against Muslims. Creating a negative image of what Edward Said refers to as “the other” makes it more morally palatable to close one’s eyes to, even condone, the deprivation of rights of that “other”. OK lang, mga terorista naman yan eh (That’s alright, they are all terrorists anyway)! No wonder the bias has persisted for so long. It is convenient, it is useful.


II. PHDR: Implications for the Ongoing Peace Process Between the GRP-MILF

Every time I am asked about my assessment of the ongoing peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), my standard reply has been that I am not so much worried that the two panels will not be able to arrive at a peace agreement. For its part, the government seems to have arrived at the conclusion that to prolong the conflict would be too costly for the entire country, economically and socially. For the MILF, it too has to spare its Bangsamoro constituents from a never-ending war.

My confidence, however, does not go as far as for me to say that the government will have an easy time “selling” the peace agreement to its national constituency. For how does a government sell an agreement to a populace that fails or refuses to look at the root causes of the conflict? Any such pact would immediately be labeled as “treasonous”, “a sell-out to extremists”, and giving too much “special treatment” to a minority.

I recall President Ramos’ peace convoy being pelted by tomatoes by Christians in Mindanao when he entered into a final peace pact with the other Moro liberation movement, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). I also recall the difficulties the agreement faced in the halls of congress when it came to translating its provisions into law, resulting in a watered down version. Now comes a peace agreement with the MILF that is expected to concede to the Muslims more than that with the MNLF. Is it not reasonable to expect that the opposition to it will be more intense?

By identifying bias against and the socio-economic exclusion of Muslims as the underlying root cause of the conflict, the PHDR has actually identified the steps that need to be taken by those advocating for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. As the report recommends, there is a need to build a constituency for peace and that constituency must be built not only within the government but in the greater populace. And that constituency must be based on a true understanding of what propels and fuels the conflict for only then a peace pact be “acceptable” to the public. Without a fairly nuanced understanding, we will continue to have a constituency that thinks economic or military solutions or a mixture of both are the only things needed to resolve the conflict – a myopic outlook that has led to so many failures and to so much destruction.

Thus, I therefore encourage policy-makers, advisers, and the academe to increase their understanding of the conflict. More studies about the conflict be conducted and, equally important, these studies must be disseminated to as wide an audience as possible. If successful in that regard, it might be possible to convince the national constituency to look at the ongoing GRP-MILF negotiations as a process by which the two panels will define a new “term of coexistence” or “modus vivendi” for the Bangsamoro and Christian communities. The history of the conflict has shown that existing and previous ones have been abject failures. Hopefully, the new “modus vivendi” to be crafted by the GRP-MILF panels will be one that is well grounded on the roots and nature of the conflict, thereby increasing its viability and sustainability.

As important shapers of public opinion, media must be engaged. Unrealized by many media practitioners, there are many norms of professional ethics violated by their reportage on the conflict. For instance, in addition to its unfair description of Muslim detainees as “allegedly innocent”, the editorial board of the Inquirer has seen fit to give greater prominence in its front pages to the SWS survey than Pulse Asia’s thereby giving the impression that it gave more credence to the former’s assertion that all is well in good in Christian-Muslim relations. This would have been innocuous were it not for the fact that the latter preceded the first and is far more detailed in its questions. But since the Inquirer seems unconvinced about the survey conducted by Pulse Asia, conducting a survey among Muslims themselves might settle the issue. Let them speak on their views on Muslim-Christian relations. Let them be active participants in the study and not just its passive object.


III. Re-Assessing Strategies for Development Interventions in Conflict-Affected Areas

There is a need to draw lessons from the implementation of the 1996 Peace Accord between the MNLF and the GRP. It is unfortunate that during the period when huge amounts of developmental funds were poured into the ARMM, the HDI has not gone up. Thus, there is a need to re-examine our strategy for rehabilitation and development so that an MILF-GRP peace pact may not suffer the same fate.

The first step in this regard is for us to look at how we have prioritized development interventions. How many have heard of a multi-lane EDSA-type circumferential road for the island of Sulu? I have also heard many teachers complain of being made to attend so many training sessions outside the region (some of them identical in content and design) only to go back to schools that have no blackboards or, worse, no schoolbuildings. I have heard ARMM bureaucrats complain of repetitious training and other capability building activities funded by different aid agencies but all having similar or identical content.

I am also aware that of the many “rule of law” interventions, none include initiatives that promote an environment of equal opportunity. There is yet no well-supported advocacy for the enactment of an equal employment opportunity law, an unfortunate situation since religious discrimination in the workplace is one of its most socially divisive and pernicious manifestations. Some types of discriminations hurt the spirit, others hurt the stomach.

I am likewise surprised that there are far less funding for human rights initiatives than there are for promoting Barangay Justice and Muslim personal laws. Muslims, as a community, are far more concerned about indiscriminate arrests, indiscriminate bombings, and discriminatory practices by the majority than they are about divorce or their petty quarrels with their neighbors. Clearly, the absence of a well thought-out prioritization of interventions lead to tragic-comic situations.

Thus, aid agencies need to wean themselves out of the practice of delegating the lead role in designing programs to those lacking sufficient knowledge of the Bangsamoro environment and context. Indeed, the bias that the PHDR mentions afflicts even in the development assistance community. In one forum organized by a European Union conducted in this same city, one organizer refused to recognize the delegation coming from the ARMM.

To complement a rethinking of how projects are identified, prioritized, and designed, it might also be a good idea to prepare an HDI map of the conflict affected areas which can be used as a benchmark in assessing the efficacy of developmental interventions. This has been my suggestion to the OPAPP. Such a template was lacking at the inception of the MNLF-GRP Peace Accord and that prevented development agencies and stakeholders to accurately measure the actual impact of their projects after the agreement was signed. It would do well to prepare one for an expected MILF-GRP agreement. Accountability must be exacted not just from the government or the parties to the agreement but also from the donor community. There were a lot of failed expectations from the ’96 Agreement, the Philippines can ill afford to fail again.

IV. CONCLUSION

By way of concluding my reaction and my inputs on anti-Muslim bias, allow me to read a portion of an article I wrote for my column “From the Plains of Kutawato” in the Mindanao Cross:

Two Moro Kids in Baguio

I want to share with my readers a heart-wrenching story I saw the other night on NHK, a Japanese TV network.

The TV documentary featured two kids from Lanao - Nuruldin and his younger sister Marimar - both of whom could not be more than ten years old. The two had to leave their family, including their sickly mother, and their lakeside home in Lanao due to the war and the poverty that surrounded them. So poor were they that their relative in Baguio to whom they were entrusted was himself only slightly less poor than they are and yet sending them to him \was already thought of as an escape for them. Thus, Nuruldin and his sister had to spend their freetime selling plastic bags in a Baguio market.

One of the most heart-wrenching portions of the documentary was when Nuruldin and Marimar were asked how it is to live in Baguio City in Luzon, far from the Muslim communities in Mindanao. Their answers were unpleasant. Nuruldin recounts how along the alleyways of the market, he is commonly confronted and asked if he is a Muslim and why he is in Baguio – the program actually showed a middle aged storeowner doing this. Invariably, he is told to go back to Mindanao.

His sister’s experience is no less unpleasant. She goes to an elementary school where she is the only Muslim. Often, she is taunted by her classmates and schoolmates with “Abu Sayyaf ka, umalis ka dito, bumalik ka na lang sa Mindanao” (You are an Abu Sayyaf, get out of here, go back to Mindanao).

As the camera focuses on Nuruldin’s face while he recounts this story, I could see clearly from his eyes how such encounters hurt him. And his stories tug at the heart because as the program went on, I could sense that there could be few kids more adorable, more devoted, more full of love than he and his sister, and least deserving of being subjected to such terrible treatment.

This story reminds me of an article I read in a daily newspaper a few years back. It told of Muslim kids in the same city, Baguio, who were participating in an independence day parade. Dressed in colorful traditional Moro garb, the kids were obviously eager to join in the festivities and to show their oneness in commemorating Philippine independence. But as their floats were going around the city, they were greeted by other kids watching the parade at the roadside with chants of “Abu Sayyaf, Abu Sayyaf!”

I am also reminded of my own experience as the lone Muslim in my batch in a special science high school in Manila. Back then, there were no Abu Sayyaf yet. Back then, the taunt was simply “Muslim, Muslim”, as if being a pure monotheist was some form of a social disease.

But back to Nuruldin and Marimar. Apparently, a Baguio-based NGO has initiated an activity where Muslim and Christian kids could mingle and get to know each other. In the presence of Nuruldin, a Christian girl was asked what she thinks of Muslims. She replied: Ayaw ko sana silang galitin pero ang ayaw ko sa kanila eh iyong mayroon sila sariling Diyos (I don’t want them to get mad at me but what I do not like in them is that they worship a different God). The poor ignorant girl might as well have just said: Magugustuhan ko lang sila kapag nagsimba sila sa Cathedral sa araw ng Linggo (I will only like you once you start showing up for mass at a Cathedral on Sundays).

These are words from the mouth of babes. Imagine if you were the one who had to hear it. I’m sure many if not all of you have had the same experience living as a religious minority in a Christian country.

* LL.M., I.M.R.I., J.D.; Director, Bangsamoro Center for Law and Policy; comments may be sent to morolaw@yahoo.com. This reaction paper was read at the presentation of the 2005 Philippine Human Development Report on November 8, 2005, at Waterfront Insular Hotel, Davao City.
Posted by Morolaw at 8:33 AM Links to this post
Labels: Mindanao Conflict: Backgrounder

Muslims around us (http://politics.inquirer.net/view.php?db=1&article=20100203-251019)

Last November, a referendum in Switzerland resulted in a ban on the building of Muslim minarets, the iconic towers on top of mosques with a crescent and star to symbolize Islam.

The ban was criticized as a violation of the freedom of religion, but the Swiss justice minister insisted it was not “anti-Islam” but “against certain fundamentalist developments.”

One could ask, of course, how a ban on minarets would stop Islamist fundamentalism. It reminded me of an incident some time back in Greenhills, when “concerned citizens” tried to ban the construction of a prayer hall for Muslim traders in the shopping center. Their reason? The prayer hall would attract “terrorists.” Fortunately, reason prevailed and the construction pushed through.

These bans work on stereotypes, and in the cases of the Swiss minarets and Greenhills prayer room, it is the perception that all (or most) Muslims are potential terrorists. These fears are fueled by perceptions that the number of Muslims is rapidly growing. Muslims, Muslims not just around, but surrounding, us.

If someone did a survey to find out what Filipinos know of Islam and Muslims, I am certain we will find low levels of knowledge, accompanied by many negative perceptions. There would be irony in our ignorance, because in a sense, we are indeed surrounded by Muslims. Within the Philippines, Muslims remain a small minority but they (mainly Maranao traders) are now found in urban areas throughout the country. Moreover, we share borders to the south with the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, large numbers of Filipinos live and work in Muslim countries.

We, and that would include Muslims themselves, need to discover the Muslim world in all its diversity. Last October, the Pew Research Center in the United States, which does extensive research on religions, released an important study entitled “Mapping the Global Muslim Population.” It is the largest study of its kind, drawing from extensive resources.

The study estimates the total number of Muslims to be about 1.57 billion, or about 23 percent of the world’s population. This Pew report does not talk about the number of Christians in the world, but one of their earlier reports, “Christianity in Global Context,” estimates more than two billion Christians.

Sunni, Shia, and more

Like Christians, Muslims everywhere share many common beliefs, but are also marked by great differences, often verging on the antagonistic. Given that there is no central authority like the Catholic pope, Islam has been free to develop in many directions.
Shortly after the death of the prophet Mohammed, his followers had a split over leadership, resulting in two main divisions. The majority of Muslims, about 90 percent and including Muslims in the Philippines, are Sunni. The rest are Shia (or Shiites), found mostly in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.

Among the Sunni and Shiites, there are further divisions into different sects. Besides these Sunni and Shiite divisions, there are groups that are difficult to classify. For example, the Druze of Lebanon are supposed to be Muslims but believe in reincarnation. Sufism, referring to mystical Islamic practice, is found among both the Sunni and the Shia.

We tend to think of the Middle East as the bastion of Islam. Yet, the largest numbers of Muslims, totaling 972 million, are to be found in Asia. Here are the four largest Muslim countries, all in Asia, together with the Muslim population and their percentage of the total population: Indonesia (203 million, 88 percent), Pakistan (174 million, 96 percent), India (161 million, 13 percent) and Bangladesh (145 million, 90 percent). China has 20 million Muslims, more than Malaysia’s 16 million. The Philippines has 4.6 million (about 5 percent). (I am sure this number will be disputed by some Filipino Muslims, who say that the national censuses tend to under-count them.)

Let me insert some more information on Muslims in the Philippines. There are actually several Muslim ethnicities in the Philippines, each with their own language: Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausug, Samal, Banguingui, Sangil, Bajau, Illanun, Yakan, Kalagan. As with their Christian counterparts, Muslims in the Philippines incorporate many elements of folk religions with elements of animism (beliefs in many supernatural spirits) and magic (for example the use of amulets and talismans).

When the Spaniards arrived, what is Manila today was already largely Muslim. In many of my earlier columns, I talked about how the entry of Islam impacted on Philippine culture, including Arabic words in our languages.

Let’s get back to the worldwide distribution of Muslims. After Asia, the largest numbers of Muslims are to be found in the Middle East/North Africa, in countries where they form majorities. Again contrary to stereotypes, the largest Muslim populations are actually in north Africa, rather than the Middle East: Egypt with 78 million, Algeria with 34 million and Morocco with 31 million. Saudi Arabia only has 24 million.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 240 million Muslims, the largest concentration being in Nigeria with 78 million. Note though that the Muslims tend to be concentrated in the north, and account for only half of the total Nigerian population.

Borders and barriers

Then we get to Europe, where there is so much Islamophobia. Europe has 38 million Muslims, 16 million in Russia alone. Several Eastern European countries—Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzego and Bulgaria—have had Muslim populations for several centuries, but we see how age-old biases can erupt into murderous rampages in the name of “ethnic cleansing” as it did in Bosnia.

The Swiss ban on the minarets mirror the tensions in Western Europe, which has attracted Muslim migrants in more recent times. Most of them seek better economic opportunities but others are political refugees. Their numbers reach the millions, but they remain a small minority, ranging from less than one percent of the total population in Italy and Spain (an irony considering that Spain was once under the Moors) to 6 percent in France.

Because Muslims tend to be more visible, especially in the practice of their faith, they become easy targets of discrimination. Being Chinese-Filipino, I can empathize. The Chinese in the Philippines constitute less than 2 percent of the population but tend to attract attention, and resentment, because of their visibility in businesses. In the 1950s, Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson banned Chinese-language signs, which appeared mainly in Chinatown’s business establishment. Out of sight, out of mind.

People tend to fear what’s different, and unknown. But societies everywhere are becoming more and more multicultural and trying to close borders, or setting up walls and ghettos, means we are all the poorer in our humanity, and even our nationhood. Our understanding of the Filipino will never be complete without understanding our linkages to the Islamic world and to Muslims.

Philippines: The impact of exclusion on the Moro peace process

I. The war of attrition

About 300 people have been killed in more than two months of fighting between Philippines security forces and alleged renegades of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) led by commanders Ameril Umbra Kato, Adbullah Macapaar alias Kumander Bravo, and Solaiman Pangalian. To date more than 650,000 people have been displaced. Though President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration has intensified the attacks against the alleged MILF groups, there is a sentiment across the spectrum that peace talks will soon resume.



The collapse of the peace talks was not triggered by either party but rather by a judgement of the Supreme Court declaring a draft Memorandum of Agree*ment on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the MILF and the Philippines government as “contrary to law and the Constitution”.



The collapse of the peace talks with the MILF provides an opportunity for both parties to address inherent flaws – non inclusion of indigenous Lumad people - who are Christians unlike the Islamised Bangsamoros. The non-inclusion is not only a flaw in the peace process but constitutes a clear violation of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.



II. Peace processes with Bangsamoros and the Supreme court's intervention



The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) started fighting for an independent Moro nation in 1968. Following peace talks between the Government of the Philippines and the MNLF from 1976, the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was created by the Republic Act No. 6734 on 1 August 1989. A plebiscite was held in the provinces of Basilan, Cotabato, Davao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Palawan, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur; and in the cities of Cotabato, Dapitan, Dipolog, General Santos, Iligan, Marawi, Pagadian, Puerto Princesa and Zamboanga to determine if the residents would want to be part of the ARMM.



Of these, only Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi voted favorably for inclusion in the ARMM. The ARMM was officially inaugurated on 6 November 1990 in Cotabato City, designated as the provisional capital. In 2001, Republican Act 9054 was passed in order to expand the ARMM to include the areas which initially rejected inclusion and the provinces which were carved from them. Only Marawi City and Basilan with the exception of Isabela City opted to be integrated in the region. At present, the ARMM consist of five provinces namely Basilan (except Isabela City), Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and Marawi City.



The Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF was concluded on 2 September 1996. However, the conflict did not end with signing of the Final Peace Agreement. The MNLF split and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) emerged claiming to be the true representative of the Bongsamoro people.



In July 1997, the Government of the Republic of Philippines started Peace talks with the MILF and the Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities was signed. After a series of talks, in 2001 both parties came up with a document titled “The Government of the Republic of the Philippines-Moro Islamic Liberation Front Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain on Bangsamoro Juridical Entity” (MOA-AD-BJE).



The document provided for – (i) concept and principles, (ii) territories, (iii) resources, and (iii) governance of the Ancestral Domain of the Bangsamoro people. As per the said MOU-AD-BJE 2194 barangays (villages) inhabited by the indigenous peoples, settlers and Bongsamoros would be included in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. The total area intended to be included is estimated to be around 2 million hectares.



The Government and the MILF were scheduled to sign the Agreement on 5 August 2008 in Putrajaya, Selangor, Malaysia. But on 4 August 2008, the Supreme Court of Philippines issued an injunction against the ancestral domain agreement after local officials in Cotabato complained they had not been consulted. On 14 October 2008, the Supreme Court declared the MOA-AD-BJE “contrary to law and the Constitution”.



III. Peace talks and exclusion of the indigenous Lumads



Given the reasons behind the failure of the agreement it is expected that the peace talks between the government of the Philippines and the MILF will resume soon. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi met on 25 October 2008 on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Summit in Beijing but details of the talks were not disclosed. The Arroyo administration cannot defy the judgement of the Supreme Court. But at the same time, the decision to launch military strikes against the alleged reneged MILF groups is counter-productive.



The interested governments like the United States, Malaysia and Japan and the Organsation of Islamic Countries which have been supporting the peace process must move beyond a focus on immediate concerns: more effective ceasefire mechanisms, reintegration of the for*mer combatants and providing humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced.



It is essential to acknowledge that while none opposed the peace talks, both the government of Philippines and the MILF were aware of the strong opposition to the MOA-AD, not only from the Provincial government but indigenous Lumads too.



If the MOA-AD had been signed on 5 August 2008, it would have meant loss of at least 1 million hectares of Ancestral Domains belonging to the non-Bangsamoro indigenous peoples i.e. Erumanen ne Menuvù of Cotabato and Bukidnon provinces; Higaunon of Lanao del Norte province; and the Subanen of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga de Sibugay and Zamboanga del Sur provinces to the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity. Once their Ancestral Domains are included in the Bongsomoro Juridical Entity, these indigenous communities would have been deprived of all legal rights and protection available to them under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.



The experiences of the indigenous communities of Teduray, Lambangian and Dulangan Manobo of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces whose Ancestral Domains of 400,000 hectares were included in the existing Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has not been encouraging. The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 is not applicable in the ARMM. This led to further marginalisation of non-Muslim indigenous communities living under the ARMM.



The constitutional validity of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) has already been upheld by the Supreme Court in December 2002. The IPRA, among others, provides for the right to free, prior and informed consent. Indigenous peoples who are likely to be affected by any agreement between the MILF and the government of Philippines have the right to free, prior and informed consent as to whether they want to be included in the Bongsomoro Juridical Entity.



Since indigenous Lumad people had not resorted to armed rebellion, they were never considered as a party in the peace process with the Moros. Their identities were subsumed in clear violations of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997. While the government of Philippines must ensure implementation of the IPRA in letter and spirit; the MILF and other Moro groups must also recognise the distinctiveness of the indigenous Lumad people.



Asian Centre for Human Rights recommends to the government of Philippines and the MILF to ensure the following in any future peace process:

* implement the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 including the right to free, prior and informed consent in letter and spirit;

* include Chairperson of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines in the Peace Secretariat of the government of Philippines.


* delineate, recognise and protect the Ancestral Domains of the non-Muslim indigenous communities; and


* include representatives of the non-Muslim indigenous communities in any peace negotiation between the Government and the MILF.

ACHR also urges the United States, Malaysia and Japan and the Organsation of Islamic Countries to impress upon the government of Philippines and the MILF to implement the above recommendations.


http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2008/221-08.html

Lumad Struggle for Ancestral Domain and Self-Governance in the ARMM


Contribution presented to the Asia People’s Assembly at the occasion of the ASEAN meeting in the Philippines (to take place in Cebu, but postponed at the last minute).


By: TIMUAY LABI ALIM M. BANDARA



Greetings!



The subject of my presentation is “Lumad Struggle for Ancestral Domain and Self-governance in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).” To me, this is an expression of building a community of caring and sharing society in the local level.

But before going further, let me say very briefly that the Lumad people are non Muslim Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao and some of them are included in the ARMM area without due recognition of their traditional territories and tribal based self-governance. Moreover, portions of their ancestral domain areas were awarded by the government to logging concessionaires in the ARMM. Today, the logging operation is still going on in seven (7) tribal barangays in Upi, Maguindanao of the ARMM.

If indeed this is peace in the ARMM, I say that we the Lumads paid a high price for the peace in this part of the region. I therefore call on government officials to recognize the ancestral domain claims and system of self-governance practices of the Lumads in the ARMM.

But despite all these problems, we remained faithful in a peaceful way of protecting our ancestral domain territory and the century old system of tribal self-governance. In doing so, we honestly abide by the procedures on filing ancestral domain claims based on the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) at the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) national office but still pending at the Ancestral Domains Office (ADO) of the NCIP to the present.

On the ground level, we kept on consolidating our tribal based self-governance we called today the Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG). We were able to re-install the Baglalan or tribal title holders in the village level with the Ukit, Tegudon and Dowoy or tribal customary laws fully codified now as the governing laws in tribal governance.

And to protect our forestlands, we conducted a Tribal March to Defend the Forest in April 7-12, 2006 other than dialogues with local government officials. This was attended by more than seven hundred regular tribal marchers and more than 1,000 participants in every municipal stop over areas of the seventy five (75) kilo meters walk. Another tribal approach to stop the logging is the implementation of the Teduray and Lambangian Biodiversity Conservation Project in Upi funded by the United Nations Development Program; Global Environment Facility and Small Grants Program, Philippines (UNDP-GEF-SGP).

In summary, all our efforts even how little they may be are directed towards the consolidation of the different tradition of tribal governance in the ARMM. This is our only way to establish safety measures to protect the people in our villages and communities. Along this line, we, the tribal chieftains called for FEGERANG. This is a traditional call addressed to all people in a community, from children and youth to men, women and the elderly. Traditionally, this is a call for battle. But today, we translated it to a call for UNITY to stand guard over our century old common tradition in community building.

And just recently, we discovered that there are six-point commonalities in our customs and traditions. We believed that the discovery is spiritually inspired because non in our history that we, the Lumad people of Mindanao are governed in one umbrella organization. It is only today we found that we have the same roots and that this can be the basis of our unity in defense of our ancestral domain territory and are also useful tool in determining our own version of development and in building a community of caring and sharing society. Now may I present these development frameworks for consideration when linking these group of people with ASEAN leaders, and are as follows:

1. Development should ensure that we are not distanced from our close connection to nature. Development that threatens to destroy nature and remove us from our lands is not acceptable because nature is the basic sources of our livelihood ranging from food, medicine, shelter including our customs and tradition. Because of this, nature is considered the extension of our life and body.

2. Development should ensure that collective forms of leadership and decision making are respected. We particularly abhor attempts by large corporations to get way through divide and rule enticements aimed at individuals in our society. Development process must respect the need to group consultation so that we can determine by consensus what the whole community desires.

3. Development should ensure that communal ownership of property is not threatened. This includes the communal ownership of the land, hunting and fishing grounds; worship places and other major source of economy in the community for no one have the sole control over the product of mother earth. We use these resources in-order to live a human life.

4. Development should ensure that equal status in society is preserve. We reject development that elevates some individuals into prestigious and powerful positions at the expense of others in the community. We value every individual in our community irrespective of life chances that may have come their way for advance education, employment and so on. Thus we reject development that values one human being over another for, we, the children of mother earth are equal.

5. Development should ensure that the good fedew remains the basis of justice and development. Good fedew is the presence of a good feeling, peace of mind and the physical well being of every individual member of the community. This is the strongest foundation of peace, justice and development in tribal society. Any undertaking that runs counter to the “good fédéw” is not good development.

6. Finally, development should ensure that lumut minanga or progressive pluralism is maintained and enhanced. Development should be respectful of all people including the tri-people neighbors of Mindanao like the Bangsamoro people, the Christian majority Filipinos and the Lumads.



Thank you.

BANDARA Alim M.


http://www.iiremanila.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51:lumad-struggle&catid=34:guest-articles&Itemid=60

Mindanao, Palawan Lumads Urge Government to Fully Explain Contents of Bangsamoro Accord

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY The national government is now challenged to fully explain contents of the Memorandum of Agreement for Ancestral Domain on the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity in the way it is being understood by the grassroots.

Lumad leaders and representatives from different tribal groups in Mindanao and Palawan claimed level of understanding between those on the top echelon of government and ordinary people whether one is Lumad, Muslim or Christian varied differently thus there is a dire need to have common understanding about it at all.

They claimed that as a result of failed information dissemination ordinary Muslim brother and sisters. lumads and christians have different interpretation of the agreement saying such situation is critical in the implementation stage as tri-people of Mindanao have been long searching for that elusive lasting peace in the island.

The clamor developed as more than 200 lumad leaders and representatives from different tribal groups in Mindanao and Palawan today claimed that there were “no free prior and informed consent” in the inclusion of their territories in the Memorandum of Agreement of Ancestral Domain for Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

Said observations were enshrined in their three pages strong worded however less combative position paper they called, “The Cagayan De Oro Declaration”.

Lumad leaders here who gathered for consultation meeting that started on Sunday (August 24) and ended today (August 27) claimed that their ancestral domain which includes natural and forest resources within it were included in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity as stipulated in the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.

They claimed that under Indigenous People’s Rights Act or IPRA law which is recognized within the framework of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Philippine Constitution any intrusion much more inclusion of anybody to lumad territories, the intruder(s) must submit to the lumads’ free prior and informed consent .

“From the very start of the GRP-MILF talks on ancestral domain, we were not directly consulted neither our voices, sentiments heard” the lumad leaders lament as they wanted renegotiation on the ancestral domain issue of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

The position paper crafted in the three day consultation meeting made recommendations to ensure lasting peace and development in Mindanao and these were;

For the GRP-MILF peace panel, “As a matter of respect to lumad rights and respect of the traditional peace pacts between the old Moro People and lumad tribal leaders, there must be non-inclusion of the ancestral domain of the Teduray, Lambangian og Dulangan Manobo tribes who are living within ARMM which formed part of the core area of the BJE.

Two, recogintion of the rights of said three tribes whose ancestral domain found within BJE that their Moro brothers and sisters would recognized their self-governance based on their tradtional system of justice, (Guyudan og Timuay Justice and Governance) , customs and traditions and adminsitration of natural and forest resources within their territories.

Three, cessation of hostitlites between MILF and the Armed Forces and go back to the negotiating tbale for peace and fourth, inclusion of the lumad tribal leaders in the peace panel so that true resperesantation from the lumad groups formed part of the panel not just an observer or facilitator neother mere member of the technical working group.

Five, there must be clear concept of governance within Bangsamoro Juridical Entity in as far as ancestral domain and system for self-governance of the lumad tribes.

The declaration also called for genuine dialogues amongst tri-people of Mindanao, the Bangsamoro, the lumads and Christians as a way of finding lasting peace and development in Midnanao and clearer, comprehensive education and information dessimination of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain in way that it must be fully understood by the grassroots.

The declaration also challenged the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) to fastrack dilineataion of the ancestral domain of lumads within BJE while urging said government agency duties and responisbilities to strenthen lumad tradition, culture and rights.

And finally the lumad leaders in their declaration claimed that it is not appropriate to call the entire Mindanao as Bangsamoro homeland much more that of lumad’s ancestral domain since it has separate entities, culture, customs and traditions while it cal for lasting peace and harmonious co-existence with brother abnd sister Muslims in Mindanao.



http://mindanao.com/blog/2008/08/mindanao-palawan-lumads-urge-government-to-fully-explain-contents-of-bangsamoro-accord/

Kalumaran
Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao
Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao

Unity Statement
From the 1st Kalumaran Assembly
February 27 to March 2, 2009
Episcopal Mission Center, Davao City


We, the delegates and participants of the First Assembly of Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao) held in February 27 to March 2 at the Episcopal Mission Center in Davao City;

Representing Lumad organizations from various regions of Mindanao that continue to face the exploitation and oppression in our ancestral domain;

Firmly unite to express our stand against the plunder of our ancestral land and of our national patrimony by large-scale mining, logging, IFMA, dam, plantations and many more projects.

This plunder by multinational capitalists is the handiwork of the Arroyo regime especially through the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. Such policy has incited conflict and destruction of our communities. We Lumads are displaced from our own land and homes. This encroachment of our land has destroyed our livelihood and is the cause of human rights violations.

Under the national military program called Oplan Bantay Laya 2, the Arroyo Regime ensures to grab the indigenous people’s ancestral domain and natural resources by way of military operations and attacks on our leaders. One concrete manifestation of this is Task Force Gantangan where Lumads are being recruited for paramilitary formation.

Both Oplan Bantay Laya 2 and Task Force Gantangan are unleashed against the Lumads as based on the National Internal Security Plan Application on Indigenous Peoples Sector (NISP-IP), a counter-insurgency policy but is actually anti-Lumad as for stopping us from defending our ancestral domain. The NISP-IP is nothing else but a means to destroy the unity and the strength of the Lumads in order to clear the way for capitalist exploitation of our land.

The Armed Forces’ Eastern Mindanao Command is relentless in its implementation of the NISP-IP in Lumad areas in South Cotabato, Sarangani, North Cotabato, Davao provinces, Caraga, Bukidnon, and Misamis Oriental by way of launching non-stop military operations, creating Barangay Defense System / Integrated Territorial Defense System, organizing fake tribal councils under their command, and backing up the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Conference on Peace and Development (MIPCPD ) which facilitates the contracts with capitalist interests to exploit our ancestral lands.

The Eastern Mindanao Command also implements the NISP-IP to make the encroachment on ancestral lands easier, and by doing so it is also destroying the culture and unity of the indigenous peoples. It has organized bagani (Lumad warrior) groups allegedly to defend the communities but is actually defending the capitalists. These groups include Alamara, BULIF, Wild Dogs, LUPACA, Bagani Force, Tribal Justice, etc. and they are sowing division among the indigenous peoples for the benefit of the Arroyo Regime to take over. These groups are also strongly backed and led by the officials of the MIPCPD with the likes of Joel Unad, Ramon Bayaan, Lito Umos, Luis Lambak, George Mandahay, Lito Gawilan, the Napongahan brothers, etc.

This manipulation of indigenous culture along with the encroachment of ancestral domain attacks the Lumad tradition. For us, the ancestral land is sacred and covers all things found above and below it. Thus, the ancestral land is never for sale, for we only borrowed this from our future generation. The ancestral domain also forms part of the national patrimony and should be defended for the benefit of genuine development that is aspired by the Filipinos.

In spite of this situation, we Lumads firmly oppose Oplan Bantay Laya 2 and NISP-IP for trampling on our rights. We likewise condemn the leaders of MIPCPD for betrayal of the collective interests of the Lumads. Most of all, we condemn the Arroyo government for exploiting and oppressing the Lumad people.

As Lumad people, we strengthen our unity and stand to defend ancestral domain and the right to self determination. Through our unity with other oppressed sectors, the people’s struggle will be stronger against the fake president and her plunder of national patrimony and rights. If the Arroyo government wants war against the Lumads, then we the oppressed Lumads together with the Filipino people are ready to frustrate her aims so that we can reclaim our rights and dignity.

It is a great challenge to us to unite and ceaselessly advance for genuine peace, justice, and liberation.


Lumad people unite! Strengthen our ranks!

Oppose the anti-Lumad and anti-people policies of the Arroyo government!
Scrap Philippine Mining Act of 1995!
Scrap the inutile and devious Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA)!

Fight for the collective rights and tradition of the Indigenous Peoples!
Land, education, and social service; not bullets and bombs !
Defend ancestral domain and patrimony!

Oppose militarization and plunder of ancestral land and national patrimony!
Oppose Oplan Bantay Laya and National Internal Security Plan for Indigenous Peoples!
Stop militarization in the countryside!

Signed by 200 delegates of the First Assembly of Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao) held in February 27 to March 2 at the Episcopal Mission Center in Davao City.

http://www.arkibongbayan.org/2009/2009-03-March07-kalumaran/kalumaran.htm

MUSLIMS IN THE PHILIPPINES:A Historical Perspective
by Cesar Adib Majul



Muslims throughout the world generally have tended to look at their history as a process tending towards justice, provided men make the effort to work for it. But more than this, there is the widespread belief that the historical process is not solely the result of Man’s intentions and actions but there is also the Merciful and Compassionate Deity who is involved in the direction of such a process. Thus, concomitant with the belief that life on earth is a severe moral test, there is always the hope that living the Islamic way of life makes it more purposive and tends to bring about a social situation where justice and good life become operative.

Because of all this, it becomes understandable why Muslims in the Philippines believe that the coming of Islam to the Philippines, and hence their being Muslims, constitutes an instance of Allah’s mercy and graciousness. Also understandable is the belief that their bitter wars against the Spaniards and Americans, their resistance to any form of European colonial design or foreign economic exploitation, and even their internecine quarrels and the chronic epidemics that have visited them have served to maintain their integrity as an Islamic Community.

In so far as they are aware of belonging to a definite religious community, Muslims in the Philippines have always made an effort to understand their past and have never ceased to recall those men who, on account of personal traits, character, and leadership, have helped to guarantee the preservation of Islam in the Philippines in spite of the determined efforts of their antagonists to deprive them of their religion, land, and knowledge of their ancient past. A careful analysis of the history of the Muslims in the Philippines will reveal that the character and attitudes of present-day Muslims are not only the result of what they have made out of themselves but also of what others have forced them to become. Thus it is important to know how Islam was introduced and how it expanded in the Philippines. We need to know also those forces, which came into conflict with Islam, forces which helped to shape the character of the present day Muslim Filipino.

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http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-crescent-moon.gif Truth or Myth?

Moon worship has been practiced in Arabia since 2000 BC. The crescent moon is the most common symbol of this pagan moon worship as far back as 2000 BC. In Mecca, there was a god named Hubal who was Lord of the Kabah. This Hubal was a moon god. One Muslim apologist confessed that the idol of moon god Hubal was placed upon the roof of the Kaba about 400 years before Muhammad. But it was a Turkish symbol adopted before Turkey embraced Islam, which spread to the rest of the Muslim world when the Turks came into power during the early second millennium. This may in fact be the origin of why the crescent moon is on top of every minaret at the Kaba today and the central symbol of Islam atop of every mosque throughout the world. The moon god was also referred to as "al-ilah". This is not a proper name of a single specific god, but a generic reference meaning "the god". Each local pagan Arab tribe would refer to their own local tribal pagan god as "al-ilah". It was later shortened to Allah before Muhammad began promoting his new religion in 610 AD.

THE REMONTADOS OF THE SIERRA MOUNTAINS by Daisy, Noval-Morales
http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?i=255&subcat=13

The Remontados, identified as a Negrito ethnolinguistic group, derive their name from the Spanish verb "remontar", meaning, "to flee to the hills", "to frighten away" or "go back to the mountains". These indigenous peoples (IPs) are said to be the descendants of lowlanders who opted to live in the mountains to avoid subjugation by the Spaniards. Subsequently, they intermarried with the Negrito groups. Also referred to as Dumagat, they prefer to call themselves taga-bundok (from the mountains) or magkakaingin (those who practice kaingin). (Bennnagen, 1985)

Physical Characteristics.

The Remontado are of mixed blood, hence, they have a combination of Negrito and lowland Filipino features. (Beyer, 1917) Avena (1988) describes them: "deep brown skin, average height of 128 centimeters, curly to straight hair, high cheekbones, small slightly flared noses, Mongol-type eyes, and teeth that are sometimes filed and red from chewing betel nut. They also have a lean, small built but with strong firm muscles and well developed extremities including broad feet, because of physical daily work in the fields, climbing hills, or hiking in the forest".

They inhabit the uplands of Rizal and Quezon Provinces along the Sierra Madre highlands. They live mainly on the eastern part of Rizal Province, specifically Sta. Ines of Antipolo Municipality (now part of Tanay); Tinukan, Mamuyao, San Andres, Cuyambay, Layban, Daraitan, and Sampaloc of Tanay; and Macabod, Anginan, Cabooan, Mabolo, Malasia and Puray of Montalban. The areas of Infanta-Real-General Nakar of Quezon Province are also their dwelling places. Although the Remontado are semi-nomadic, there is no reported case of heavy out-migration. They roam in a specific geographic range they consider home base.

In 1936, the total population of the Remontado in eastern Rizal was 2,650. After 45 years, this was reduced to 2,750. The group’s population growth is almost stationary when compared with Rizal’s non-Remontado populace that has increased five-times in the same time period.

Land Ownership

Communal Ownership. The Remontado believe that the ancestral lands are theirs communally and no individual can claim land as private property. Testimonies of elder men and women point out that settlements and barrios near the town proper that are currently occupied by non-Remontado groups were once abode to their ancestors. This encroachment has driven the group to the upper, more remote areas of the uplands.

Government Intervention. In 1956, President Ramon Magsaysay declared as resettlement areas the mountains of Montalban to Tanay. This action by the government was "an attempt to appease the land hunger of countless tenants, sharecroppers, many of whom had started to organize and arm themselves to wreck what they deemed an unjust and exploitative feudal order". (Coronel, 1981) Subsequently, several cases of land grabbing, whether by technical default or manipulation among those who have access and understanding of land titles, were carried out. The Remontados’ practice of kaingin that involves fallow period is now inappropriate since areas left to fallow are prone to acquisition by the migrants.

Economy

Kaingin System. The Remontado used to be hunters and gatherers before they switched to shifting cultivation or kaingin. This economic activity has prompted them to gain mastery of seasonal weather and yearly cycle. They also possess their own economic calendar showing the main subsistence activities of the group. The whole family is involved in the process with the father performing the heavier task of preparing the field; e.g., clearing and burning of the ground. Both the mother and the children help in sowing, weeding and harvesting. If the field is too big for the immediate family to manage, assistance from the kin is sought. Compensation is usually in kind or in work exchange where the helper in turn seeks assistance for work in his own field. A typical kaingin field is one half (1/2) to one-and-a-half (1 ½) hectares yielding a harvest of around one to six (1-6) cavans per hectare. Rice is planted in May in time for the rainy season. In addition, the following are also cultivated: corn, gabi, cassava and sweet potato. They plant vegetables, papayas and bananas as intercrops. Pepper, beans and even tobacco are raised in scattered patches while fruit bearing trees are planted around the plot.

Supplementary Activities. Supplementary subsistence activities include gathering of uway (rattan), buho (light bamboo), almaciga, vines, honey, and other forest resources which are traded with products of lowlanders. Charcoal-making is also a source of income.

Political Organization

Leadership. There are no full-time, formal leaders among the Remontado. Nevertheless, advice and decisions of older members of the community are heeded when necessary. Remontado are guided by their "old customs and traditions which are closely observed and seldom violated". Maceda (1937) describes a "definite and established form of political organization" of the group "with officers of which are the president, the vice president, the councilors, the secretary, the chief of police, and the members of the police force". They have an open vote election process that is facilitated by a superintendent. Each barrio elects its own set of officers who "pass ordinances pertaining to public works" of the area concerned". This practice is similar to the "mainstream" political structure.

Ethnicity and Conflict. For many reasons, the group does not appreciate the idea of living with the migrants. Cultural differences and conflict of interest heighten this tension. The Remontado suffer the same fate of other indigenous Filipino groups who do not have equal rights and access to resources.

Social Organization


Marriage. The indigenous group practices monogamy and often, endogamy. Intermarriage with non-Remontado is not popular since the group members, said to be shy and passive by nature, are not comfortable living with the banyaga or settlers. Their term for marriage is pagbabalae, that is, performed by parental arrangement. Child bethrotal occurs when the children are still young. As soon as the children reach puberty, the girl’s parents ask for the bilang or bride price (in 1937, the boy’s family would pay the amount ranging from 10 to 100 pesos). In addition, clothes for the bride as well as food and working animals for her parents are provided. During the wedding ceremony, the bride dresses in the house of one of her nearest kin. The bridegroom than fetches her and they walk together to the woman’s residence. As they parade, the relatives of the bride kneel to them, asking for rice and wine. When the couple reach the house, an old man officiates at the wedding ceremony by counseling them. He would loudly advice the couple to act maturely and leave behind their childish ways. Moreover, he would express pity for the couple since they now have to leave their respective parents to live independently. He tells them to offer their parents food and buyo (betel) in the future. After the counseling, the parents of both parties declare them husband and wife. Currently, those who are poor do not practice these rites anymore. Parental consent to live together is sufficient. There are cases of separation due to adultery, although this very seldom happens. There are documented instances of individuals remarrying after separation. The offending party returns the bilang and all the expenses incurred during the wedding ceremony. Death is a possible consequence if this is not achieved.

Post-marital Residence. The groom’s family provides a house for the couple. Oftentimes, kin help build the one-room hut. They practice a neolocal pattern of residence, but the new house is still within the area of either of the two sets of parents or where the kaingin site is located. At times, the family builds a kaingin hut if the permanent house is very far from the site. Usually, during the height of farming activities, adults stay in the kaingin hut while the older children are left at the permanent house to look after the younger siblings. A typical Remontado house is a one-room elevated hut with a detachable ladder to keep out animals. The construction materials consist of tree trunks, caña boho (for sides or walls), rattan, and cogon grass (for roofing).

Birth and Baptism. Traditionally, children are born in the house of the parents. The husband assists the midwife, usually an old woman, while the wife gives birth in a squatting position. The husband’s presence is required during the labor; otherwise, as believed, the wife will have a difficult delivery. Customary baptism is called pagbubuhos. This event is officiated by an old, respected man. He pours water on the head of the baby who is then given a small amount of salt. The parents themselves choose the godparents or ninong/ninang for their child.

Death and Burial. The Remontado believe in life after death. The term bibit refers to the spirit of the dead, which returns after the physical body expires. Traditionally, there are no cemeteries for the departed. When a person passes away, he or she is buried in the same location where he/she died. Thus, the house that used to be occupied by the deceased is burned. A burial ceremony is undertaken by an elder man who recites explanations for the burning of the house so the dead will not haunt the living. He also offers food and betel as the deceased’s share. Mourners sing the dalet (song for the dead) for nine successive nights. A sample of the song’s words is as follows: "You will pass a meandering stream and you will reach the place where sterile jackfruits are also sweet. Cloudy sky, we are lowering the deceased and we will pray to God to pardon him for his sins". The belief in the afterlife is evident in the song. The spirit crossing a stream or body of water is typical in indigenous cosmology. Consistently, the bereaved gather on the third day to eat, sing and bring offerings for the dead. There used to be a custom of checking whether the spirit of the dead really visited his/her home. This is done through the spreading of ashes on the window tray during the fourth night of the interment. The following day, if the ashes have been disturbed, it is said that the bibit returned the previous night. Social changes and acculturation have altered this burial practice. While previously, the body was wrapped in a mat, it is now laid in a wooden casket. Then the family and kin of the departed hold a wake for one to two (1-2) days, after which the body is brought to a distant hill where a cemetery is located.

Sickness and Cure

The average marital fertility rate is 8.6 children per ever-married woman, but the census shows that survival rate is only three - 3 (only three –3- children survive). Causes of child mortality are the following: tigdas (measles), biglang sakit (probably epidemics like El Tor), mataas na lagnat (high fever), malarya (malaria), magkasamang lagnat pagtatae at pananakit ng sikmura at dibdib (combination of fever, diarrhea, stomach and chest pains), lagnat, suka at tae (fever, vomitting and diarrhea), sumusuka ng dugo (spitting out blood, probably tuberculosis), lumalaki ang tiyan (bloating of stomach), sipon at tigdas (colds and measles), parang dinadakma at tumitirik ang mata (convulsion), sakit at gutom (illness and starvation), nakulam (witchcraft), namatay habang tulog (died while asleep), isinilang ng patay (stillbirth), nakunan, nalaglag (miscarriage). When the children survive adolescence, mortality rate lowers. Frequency in cases of death rises again during old age with tuberculosis, malaria and simply old age as primary causes. Although the Remontado believe in spirits, illness for them is "physical in nature". They have a wide array of medicinal plants for cure. Some of these are: amuyong for fever; katmon for cough; tugis, dayap, tambo, tibig, talustos for colds; lagundi, tala, mamongol, herbabuina for stomach troubles; amarillo for headache; and kulanturuhan for measles. Yet, there are also cases of bati and kulam (witchcraft). A medicinal man or hilot is sought to diagnose an illness and he uses medicinal herbs for remedy. Recently, environmental stress and drastic cultural changes effected not only in the scarcity of resources but also the introduction of new illnesses. These are difficult to address with the existing medical knowledge and expertise.
Indigenous Knowledge

Flora and Fauna.

The Remontado have a rich reservoir of knowledge on the environment and ecology. Their taxonomy of the flora and fauna is evident in their crops, technology on hunting wild games and even in the identification of medicinal plants. They are familiar with at least 10 varieties of gabi, six (6) of cassava, 16 of sweet potato, 11 of bananas, and 39 of rice, eight (8) of which are glutinous. Their mastery and expertise on the issue of ecological management is also evident in their kaingin system of multi-cropping and fallow period.

Technology.

In addition to agriculture, they have developed their distinct technology on hunting games. Traps such balaes (for wild hogs) and pakuis (for monkeys) are used. Bows and arrows with catapults and darts are some of their devices to hunt eels, mudfish, wild chicken, birds, shrimp, and other animals. A poisonous plant species called kamaysa that bears green, berry-like fruits are pounded and scattered in the fishing spot in the river to temporarily paralyze and thus easily catch the fish. Remontado have two methods of making fire, the firesaw method and the pinkian. The former involves the rubbing of the edge of split bamboo over another piece in a horizontal position with bamboo shavings in between until the latter combust due to friction. The pinkian process produces fire by striking steel against the flint that produces sparks to ignite the akipan or fine dried husk of palm trees.

Art and Craft

Music and Dance. The Remontado are fond of music. They sing during feasts, gatherings and ceremonies. The beautiful passages of their ilda (song) in rhyme are sung while walking, during work, or as they rest after the harvest while drinking a locally purchased wine called lambanog. Songs are sang to celebrate their young’s baptismal, or when they pay their last homage to their dead. Love songs or kundimans are accompanied by guitar. Fandango is a must in every feast.

Aesthetics. The group members are indulgent with regard to adornments and they readily spend savings for bodily decoration. Beautiful costumes (others still use G-strings) and ornamentation like bejuco rings decorated with orchids, seeds, fruits and rare forest flowers are displayed during special gatherings such as fiestas and weddings to capture the admiration of the opposite sex. Like other indigenous groups, they also practice dental filing - they grind the anterior surface of their front upper teeth to create a uniform appearance and a concave look. Tattooing, called cadlet, is also practiced. The process entails the use of a pointed metal and powdered charcoal that serves as the pigment. Even their rich knowledge on the flora and fauna is manifested on their sense of aesthetics. Flowers and bark strips are arranged into arm and head bands. Natural dyes are utilized to redden the lips and cheeks. Everyday utility objects like mats, mortar and pestle, boat, pouches for betel nuts, traps, and containers are created from indigenous materials. Weaving is a practiced art that produces baskets, hats and mats.

Future of the Remontado

The Remontado identity is intertwined with the land and their plight for survival as a people depends on it. Environmental and system disruption put so much pressure on the adaptation of these IPs. Urbanization, mining activities, deforestation, land encroachment, construction of dams and air and seaports are just manifestations of a deeper issue. For them not to be exploited, they have verbalized the need to learn to read, write and calculate. This, they hope the government will be sensitive enough to respond to. Due to the interaction with the lowlanders and other external intrusions, the indigenous knowledge that used to be sufficient for their adaptation is now inadequate. The Remontado survival lies on the society’s acceptance of the group as fellow Filipinos with equal rights to access the nation’s institutions.

THE NEXUS BETWEEN DISCRIMINATION AND THE MINDANAO CONFLICT: THE 2005 PHILIPPINE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

By: Atty. Zainudin S. Malang*

First, I would like to thank the organizers – the Ateneo de Davao University Research and Publication Office - for inviting me to be a reactor in today’s presentation of the 2005 Philippine Human Development Report. Second, allow me to congratulate the Human Development Network team that prepared this Report on behalf of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). I sincerely believe that through this Report, you have made a substantial contribution towards an accurate understanding of the nature and roots of the Mindanao conflict and, potentially, to its resolution as well.

I. The 2005 PHDR: An Emerging But More Nuanced Understanding of the Moro Insurgency

These past few years, I have noticed a shift in outlook on the roots of the Mindanao Conflict, particularly that which is between the Bangsamoro and the Philippine State. Earlier, there was the World Bank’s Social Assessment of Conflict Affected Areas in Mindanao which, although primarily delving on the socio-economic costs of the war, also partly looked into the nexus between the land issue and the conflict (2002). This was followed by a yet to be released study commissioned by the World Bank on the causal link between land tenure problems besetting the Bangsamoro and the war.

The conventional belief among policy-makers and public institutions is that the Moro insurgency was brought about by economic reasons. With this premise, it was therefore convenient to conclude that with massive infusion of funds into the Bangsamoro areas, the clamor for independence and, by extension, the conflict would peter out. But we have seen so many administrations do just that since the outbreak of the 20th century phase of the Moro Wars and yet the insurgency is still there as well as the sense of Moro nationalism that feeds it, stronger than it ever was before. Now, we are beginning to see the fallacy of this shallow and condescending view. And hopefully, studies such as those contained in the 2005 PHDR will cause decision-makers as well as the general public to re-examine how they view the Moro Wars.

Anti-Muslim Prejudice and the Roots of the War

Back when I was still studying at the Ateneo de Manila School of Law, I was explaining the Bangsamoro perspective on the Mindanao conflict to a classmate who is also a good friend and she, quite matter of factly, told me that I have a persecution complex. Well, now at least, we have the 2005 PHDR which tells us that “anti-Muslim bias are not imagined nor random”. Maybe now is a good time for me to get in touch with her and give her a copy of this report.

Now, we know that every time a Muslim like me walks the streets of Metro Manila or other Christian-populated cities, almost 5 out of every 10 people on the same street thinks that I am a “terrorist”. Ditto for every Maguindanon student who has to attend school, a Maranao applicant for a job, a Tausug who has to face a policeman or soldier. For Muslims in this country, there is no escape from that prejudice even when one is merely reading the mainstream papers wherein a columnist can unabashedly object to the building of Mosques in Metro Manila, a sentiment purportedly shared by his wife who is ironically related to the UNESCO, or wherein pictures of Muslims protesting indiscriminate arrests are captioned as protests against the detention of “allegedly innocent” Muslims. For Muslims in this country, it is their innocence that must be alleged and not their guilt because the latter is already presumed. So much for Muslims enjoying the right to be presumed innocent under the Bill of Rights of the Philippine Constitution.
The relevance of this bias to the conflict is far more important than studies commissioned by credible international public institutions before the 2005 PHDR cared to attach to it. Pro-independence sentiments arise out of a lack of feeling of belonging, of being outcasts, of being second class citizens to whom concessions are only made grudgingly. Prejudice by the largely Christian body-politic rears its ugly face in the government, in the media, and other sectors of civil society. Going over the history of relations between the Bangsamoro and that Christian body-politic shows that there is no lacuna for reasons to feel that Muslims are outcasts even in their own homeland.

Starting from the early 1900s, the national government engaged in a policy of changing the demography of Mindanao by repopulating it with settlers from Visayas and Luzon. Strategies included providing financial assistance and land titles to the new inhabitants (e.g. Agricultural Colonization Act) to outright forcible land-grabbing by providing weapons to para-military groups (e.g. Ilagas in the 1960s) to granting timber concessions over thousands of hectares of Moro ancestral lands. Muslims, on the other hand, received no such assistance. Worse, the land titling system was not only alien to them but actually clashed with their own indigenous system of landholding. And when they fought back against the forcible-landgrabbing, the national government and the media were quick to label them as terrorists. Is it any wonder how the Muslims ended up being reduced from 76% to a mere 18% of Mindanao’s total population? And yet when they venture out of Mindanao to Luzon and Visayas, they are denied jobs, not allowed to build their mosques, subjected to humiliation in schools and workplace, and told to leave and go back to where they came from. Go back to what? Their lands have already been taken away from them.
We might as well face the reality of Christian-Muslim relations in this country, as Muslims perceive it. The resources of Mindanao are all-too welcome in this country, but Muslims themselves are not. Should we then wonder why pro-independence sentiments, expressed through armed struggle, is still strong notwithstanding many efforts, military and economic by the government? And if we need more convincing about the nexus between violence and exclusionary practices of the majority against the minority, we only need to look at what is going on in France for the past week. There, the majority even in a highly developed Western European country has to face the ugly consequences of their prejudice.

This is not to ignore the valiant efforts of those in Christian communities who view the roots of the conflict differently from the majority but as the survey attached to the PHDR itself has shown, there is an uphill battle to be waged in changing the present sad state of relations.


The Democratic Deficit of the Philippine State Vis-à-vis the Bangsamoro

Maybe now is the time for the largely Christian body-politic to ask themselves whether they truly want Muslims to be part of a pluralistic multicultural country. More importantly, maybe its about time to let the Bangsamoro themselves decide their political future. To put it more succinctly, recognize their “freedom of choice” as the UNDP itself defines human security.

Months ago, I was interviewed by a group of professors from the University of the Philippines who were conducting a democracy audit in the Moro areas. Among the indicators that they were looking at were government’s ability to provide for the basic services for Muslims, e.g. health, housing, education, etc.. It occurred to me during the interview that if they were truly interested in conducting a democracy audit, then they need to go back to the fundamental premise of democracy – the consent of a people to be subject to the sovereignty of a particular state.

For decades since the inception of the Philippine Republic, the largely Christian body-politic has failed to see the moral inconsistency between their prejudice and exclusionary practices and their refusal to let the Bangsamoro choose their political destiny. “Mindanao has always been and will always be part of the Philippines” is often the emotional reply to such clamor. This retort, bearing in mind the treatment to which Muslims are subjected, only begs the question whether it is Mindanao’s Muslims or Mindanao’s resources that they want to be part of the Philippines.

The inconsistency becomes more pronounced when we note the all-out support that was given by Christian civil society to East Timor’s assertion of its right to self-determination and yet at the same time fail, refuse, or reject outright any recognition of the Bangsamoro’s own aspirations. Perhaps, herein lies the psychological utility of prejudice and bias against Muslims. Creating a negative image of what Edward Said refers to as “the other” makes it more morally palatable to close one’s eyes to, even condone, the deprivation of rights of that “other”. OK lang, mga terorista naman yan eh (That’s alright, they are all terrorists anyway)! No wonder the bias has persisted for so long. It is convenient, it is useful.


II. PHDR: Implications for the Ongoing Peace Process Between the GRP-MILF

Every time I am asked about my assessment of the ongoing peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), my standard reply has been that I am not so much worried that the two panels will not be able to arrive at a peace agreement. For its part, the government seems to have arrived at the conclusion that to prolong the conflict would be too costly for the entire country, economically and socially. For the MILF, it too has to spare its Bangsamoro constituents from a never-ending war.

My confidence, however, does not go as far as for me to say that the government will have an easy time “selling” the peace agreement to its national constituency. For how does a government sell an agreement to a populace that fails or refuses to look at the root causes of the conflict? Any such pact would immediately be labeled as “treasonous”, “a sell-out to extremists”, and giving too much “special treatment” to a minority.

I recall President Ramos’ peace convoy being pelted by tomatoes by Christians in Mindanao when he entered into a final peace pact with the other Moro liberation movement, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). I also recall the difficulties the agreement faced in the halls of congress when it came to translating its provisions into law, resulting in a watered down version. Now comes a peace agreement with the MILF that is expected to concede to the Muslims more than that with the MNLF. Is it not reasonable to expect that the opposition to it will be more intense?

By identifying bias against and the socio-economic exclusion of Muslims as the underlying root cause of the conflict, the PHDR has actually identified the steps that need to be taken by those advocating for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. As the report recommends, there is a need to build a constituency for peace and that constituency must be built not only within the government but in the greater populace. And that constituency must be based on a true understanding of what propels and fuels the conflict for only then a peace pact be “acceptable” to the public. Without a fairly nuanced understanding, we will continue to have a constituency that thinks economic or military solutions or a mixture of both are the only things needed to resolve the conflict – a myopic outlook that has led to so many failures and to so much destruction.

Thus, I therefore encourage policy-makers, advisers, and the academe to increase their understanding of the conflict. More studies about the conflict be conducted and, equally important, these studies must be disseminated to as wide an audience as possible. If successful in that regard, it might be possible to convince the national constituency to look at the ongoing GRP-MILF negotiations as a process by which the two panels will define a new “term of coexistence” or “modus vivendi” for the Bangsamoro and Christian communities. The history of the conflict has shown that existing and previous ones have been abject failures. Hopefully, the new “modus vivendi” to be crafted by the GRP-MILF panels will be one that is well grounded on the roots and nature of the conflict, thereby increasing its viability and sustainability.

As important shapers of public opinion, media must be engaged. Unrealized by many media practitioners, there are many norms of professional ethics violated by their reportage on the conflict. For instance, in addition to its unfair description of Muslim detainees as “allegedly innocent”, the editorial board of the Inquirer has seen fit to give greater prominence in its front pages to the SWS survey than Pulse Asia’s thereby giving the impression that it gave more credence to the former’s assertion that all is well in good in Christian-Muslim relations. This would have been innocuous were it not for the fact that the latter preceded the first and is far more detailed in its questions. But since the Inquirer seems unconvinced about the survey conducted by Pulse Asia, conducting a survey among Muslims themselves might settle the issue. Let them speak on their views on Muslim-Christian relations. Let them be active participants in the study and not just its passive object.


III. Re-Assessing Strategies for Development Interventions in Conflict-Affected Areas

There is a need to draw lessons from the implementation of the 1996 Peace Accord between the MNLF and the GRP. It is unfortunate that during the period when huge amounts of developmental funds were poured into the ARMM, the HDI has not gone up. Thus, there is a need to re-examine our strategy for rehabilitation and development so that an MILF-GRP peace pact may not suffer the same fate.

The first step in this regard is for us to look at how we have prioritized development interventions. How many have heard of a multi-lane EDSA-type circumferential road for the island of Sulu? I have also heard many teachers complain of being made to attend so many training sessions outside the region (some of them identical in content and design) only to go back to schools that have no blackboards or, worse, no schoolbuildings. I have heard ARMM bureaucrats complain of repetitious training and other capability building activities funded by different aid agencies but all having similar or identical content.

I am also aware that of the many “rule of law” interventions, none include initiatives that promote an environment of equal opportunity. There is yet no well-supported advocacy for the enactment of an equal employment opportunity law, an unfortunate situation since religious discrimination in the workplace is one of its most socially divisive and pernicious manifestations. Some types of discriminations hurt the spirit, others hurt the stomach.

I am likewise surprised that there are far less funding for human rights initiatives than there are for promoting Barangay Justice and Muslim personal laws. Muslims, as a community, are far more concerned about indiscriminate arrests, indiscriminate bombings, and discriminatory practices by the majority than they are about divorce or their petty quarrels with their neighbors. Clearly, the absence of a well thought-out prioritization of interventions lead to tragic-comic situations.

Thus, aid agencies need to wean themselves out of the practice of delegating the lead role in designing programs to those lacking sufficient knowledge of the Bangsamoro environment and context. Indeed, the bias that the PHDR mentions afflicts even in the development assistance community. In one forum organized by a European Union conducted in this same city, one organizer refused to recognize the delegation coming from the ARMM.

To complement a rethinking of how projects are identified, prioritized, and designed, it might also be a good idea to prepare an HDI map of the conflict affected areas which can be used as a benchmark in assessing the efficacy of developmental interventions. This has been my suggestion to the OPAPP. Such a template was lacking at the inception of the MNLF-GRP Peace Accord and that prevented development agencies and stakeholders to accurately measure the actual impact of their projects after the agreement was signed. It would do well to prepare one for an expected MILF-GRP agreement. Accountability must be exacted not just from the government or the parties to the agreement but also from the donor community. There were a lot of failed expectations from the ’96 Agreement, the Philippines can ill afford to fail again.

IV. CONCLUSION

By way of concluding my reaction and my inputs on anti-Muslim bias, allow me to read a portion of an article I wrote for my column “From the Plains of Kutawato” in the Mindanao Cross:

Two Moro Kids in Baguio

I want to share with my readers a heart-wrenching story I saw the other night on NHK, a Japanese TV network.

The TV documentary featured two kids from Lanao - Nuruldin and his younger sister Marimar - both of whom could not be more than ten years old. The two had to leave their family, including their sickly mother, and their lakeside home in Lanao due to the war and the poverty that surrounded them. So poor were they that their relative in Baguio to whom they were entrusted was himself only slightly less poor than they are and yet sending them to him \was already thought of as an escape for them. Thus, Nuruldin and his sister had to spend their freetime selling plastic bags in a Baguio market.

One of the most heart-wrenching portions of the documentary was when Nuruldin and Marimar were asked how it is to live in Baguio City in Luzon, far from the Muslim communities in Mindanao. Their answers were unpleasant. Nuruldin recounts how along the alleyways of the market, he is commonly confronted and asked if he is a Muslim and why he is in Baguio – the program actually showed a middle aged storeowner doing this. Invariably, he is told to go back to Mindanao.

His sister’s experience is no less unpleasant. She goes to an elementary school where she is the only Muslim. Often, she is taunted by her classmates and schoolmates with “Abu Sayyaf ka, umalis ka dito, bumalik ka na lang sa Mindanao” (You are an Abu Sayyaf, get out of here, go back to Mindanao).

As the camera focuses on Nuruldin’s face while he recounts this story, I could see clearly from his eyes how such encounters hurt him. And his stories tug at the heart because as the program went on, I could sense that there could be few kids more adorable, more devoted, more full of love than he and his sister, and least deserving of being subjected to such terrible treatment.

This story reminds me of an article I read in a daily newspaper a few years back. It told of Muslim kids in the same city, Baguio, who were participating in an independence day parade. Dressed in colorful traditional Moro garb, the kids were obviously eager to join in the festivities and to show their oneness in commemorating Philippine independence. But as their floats were going around the city, they were greeted by other kids watching the parade at the roadside with chants of “Abu Sayyaf, Abu Sayyaf!”

I am also reminded of my own experience as the lone Muslim in my batch in a special science high school in Manila. Back then, there were no Abu Sayyaf yet. Back then, the taunt was simply “Muslim, Muslim”, as if being a pure monotheist was some form of a social disease.

But back to Nuruldin and Marimar. Apparently, a Baguio-based NGO has initiated an activity where Muslim and Christian kids could mingle and get to know each other. In the presence of Nuruldin, a Christian girl was asked what she thinks of Muslims. She replied: Ayaw ko sana silang galitin pero ang ayaw ko sa kanila eh iyong mayroon sila sariling Diyos (I don’t want them to get mad at me but what I do not like in them is that they worship a different God). The poor ignorant girl might as well have just said: Magugustuhan ko lang sila kapag nagsimba sila sa Cathedral sa araw ng Linggo (I will only like you once you start showing up for mass at a Cathedral on Sundays).

These are words from the mouth of babes. Imagine if you were the one who had to hear it. I’m sure many if not all of you have had the same experience living as a religious minority in a Christian country.

* LL.M., I.M.R.I., J.D.; Director, Bangsamoro Center for Law and Policy; comments may be sent to morolaw@yahoo.com. This reaction paper was read at the presentation of the 2005 Philippine Human Development Report on November 8, 2005, at Waterfront Insular Hotel, Davao City.
Posted by Morolaw at 8:33 AM Links to this post
Labels: Mindanao Conflict: Backgrounder

These people are Filipinos also, i think it should be heavily integrated in the school curriculum proper conduct on respect with fellow Filipinos, karamihan sa mga school natin may mga religion subject pero marami paring ganito sa school,..sa malaysia nga tatlong lahi wala namang ganung verbal descrimination ito rin yung pagka-ignorante ng Filipino sa kanyang kapwa Filipino ang di maganda mula pa sa pagkabata hanggang sa paglaki dala-dala sa katunayan puro yabang nalang natitira sa mga karamihang Filipino,..

http://litera1no4.tripod.com/t-1.jpg

Tinguian (http://litera1no4.tripod.com/tinguian_frame.html)

The word "Tinguian" may have been derived from the Malay word "tinggi," which means mountain or highlands, and may have been coined during the early Spanish period. As used by the Spanish colonizers, the word used to refer to all mountain people or hill tribes in the entire archipelago, living in places such as Zambales, Bohol, Basilan, and Mindanao. It was only later that the term was used exclusively for the mountain-dwelling people of Abra, Ilocos Sur, and Ilocos Norte.

The term "Itneg" has come to be used synonymously with "Tinguian." The word, according to one interpretation, is derived from "iti uneg," which literally means "the interior." Or it could have been derived from the combination of the prefix "I-," which indicates a place of origin, and the name of a major river and geographical area, "Tineg." The Tinguian have always thought of themselves and the other highland dwellers of the Cordilleras as Itneg, people of the interior uplands. There is a tendency, however, to refer to the inhabitants of Abra's isolated hinterlands as Itneg and to the province's more acculturated population as Tinguian, especially since the latter are supposedly hardly distinguishable from the lowland Ilocano.
Today, there are two identifiable Tinguian groups, namely, the "valley Tinguian" and the "mountain Tinguian." The first occupy the village communities where there are also Ilocano settlers, while the second are distributed in sparsely populated areas in the highland country of northern and eastern Abra.

The region covered by the original Tinguian population is significant. Azurin (1991) has echoed the earlier contention of the anthropologist Cole that certain pueblos in the Ilocos region "recognized as Ilocano are but Christianized Tinguian." The ancestral domain of the Tinguian covers a mountainous region which has four valleys and four river systems joining up with the Abra River, which empties into the China Sea. It is significant to note that the Spaniards used synonymous terms in referring to the highland dwellers of Abra (the Tinguian), and of the mountain provinces. The latter became known as the Ygorotes or "people from the mountain range". Tinguian territory is bounded on the North by the Ilocos Norte, on the West by Ilocos Sur, on the South by Bangued, and on the East by Kalinga-Apayao. The Tinguian are mainly in the towns of Tubo, San Quintin, Luba, and Buliney in Abra (Peralta 1988:13). They number around 57,000.

History (http://litera1no4.tripod.com/tinguian_frame.html)

Long before the coming of the Spanish colonizers, Tinguian settlements were already in the place along the coastal region of Ilocos Sur, specially the Narvacan Area southward to Santa Cruz. One theory has it that the Tinguian originated from the coastal areas, the predecessors of the precolonial Ilocano. These people would later move into what is now the province of Abra, where they intermarried with the older population. The descendants of this union are the present-day Tinguian. Others, however, went further upland towards the east, northeast, south and southeast, following the many branches of the Abra River. The group that trekked to the northeast, along the river called Tineg, may have encountered Aeta who inhabited the region called the Apayao. Those who intermarried with these Aeta came to be called Isneg, an ethno-linguistic group which now populates the western and northern parts of the present Kalinga-Apayao. The pure Aeta group may be found in the Apayao region.
The actual historical origin of the Tinguian has been the subject of much debate and speculation. According to earlier historians and anthropologists, these people may have come from China, or are the descendants of the second wave of Malays who came over in the boats hundred of years ago, or are the offspring of Chinese pirates who regularly came to maraud and were driven into the mountains of Panganisan. (Certain Sinoid features of the Tinguian, particularly their eyes and cheekbones, may have been the basis for the last speculation.) What is definite is the resilience of Tinguian culture, which has survived for centuries under the harsh conditions, physical and political as well as the influences of colonial culture and modernization.

The first mention of the Itneg as a distinct group comes from the "ub-ubuk." These are the genealogical accounts told in connection with funeral rites. These recall the migration of the Itneg of Ilocos Sur to Abra several hundred years ago, following an encounter with the invading Spanish forces.
Past and recent studies have maintained that close affinity exists between the Itneg and the Ilocano; and whatever difference exists as a result of acculturation (mainly through Christianization) have remained superficial. Both groups share common characteristics in terms of language, cultural traits, and physical characteristics. In fact, according to Cole, there are very slight differences between the lowland Tinguian, the Ilocano and the Apayao, although among the interior inhabitants, the hair tends to be wavy, the only significant difference that seems to stand out.

The Spaniards initiated contact with these natives in 1572 during Salcedo's Ilocos campaign. While Spanish colonization did not immediately disrupt precolonial trade with the neighboring countries, Christianity was at once imposed. Those who would later be identified as Tinguian fled to the mountains in resistance. In 1598, the Spaniards invaded Abra and erected a garrison at the village of Bangued. This drove the Tinguian further up the river where they founded the Langangilang settlement. Conversion was gradual but eventually succeeded in establishing Tinguian villages in the lowlands during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Voluntary assimilation, rewarded by tax exemption and other benefits, failed to attract the Tinguian. Forced to live in pueblos, they were burdened with taxes and forced labor. In 1868 Gov. Gen. Esteban de Peñarubia banished the nonconverts from their homes and confiscated their property. Their native costume was forbidden in the towns. Christianization increased through intimidation because the practice of old customs was made punishable by law. Mounting hostility and the exploitation of the Tinguian alienated them further from Christian Filipinos. Nevertheless trade relations continued and, with the support of the Spaniards and later the Americans, the Ilocano influence grew. By the turn of the century, headhunting had practically disappeared.

The Tinguian were represented in the Philippine revolution of 1898; warriors armed with traditional weapons were sent to fight the Spaniards. When the Americans came, Commissioner Worcester freed Tinguian villages from Ilocano control and granted them autonomy. The removal of unequal taxes and labor requirements prevented major conflicts with the Americans.

Tinguian socioeconomic life retained much of its traditional character up to the 1950s and the early 1960s. Changes in the economic mainstream started to impinge on Tinguian society since then. The liberal importation of textiles into the country increased to point that locally woven cloths were displaced. Tinguian weavers were not exempted from this influence. In recent years, there has been a constant decline in the supply of indigenous woven material from which the highly touted burial blankets of the Tinguian, and their apparel, are made. In the past, the Tinguian succeeded in producing their own cotton, and continued to use traditional material in perpetuating old designs or creating new ones. This was made necessary by the fact that every phase of the life cycle required a certain type of cloth to be worn or displayed in the many rituals, feasts, and celebrations held periodically.

The agricultural life of the Tinguian suffered from the introduction of Virginia Tobacco in the 1960s. The attention of farmers was focused on the raising of this cash crop rather that the cultivation of sufficient rice and other staple crops. The cash crop did little to improve the economic situation of the Tinguian. Prices of tobacco were manipulated, and the Tinguian farmers were cheated by intermediaries in the purchase of tobacco leaves.
In recent times, the Tinguian have become one of the most marginalized groups in the Cordillera. Economic underdevelopment, the inaccessibility of their mountainous homeland, and attempts of the Marcos regime to exploit their vast timberlands for large-scale logging and processing of forest products-for corporate profit-served to encourage the growth of insurgency throughout Abra.

The geo-political unit is known today as the Cordillera Administrative Region used to be composed of the province of Benguet, Ifugao, Bontoc, and Kalinga-Apayao, leaving Abra out as part of the Ilocos region. The inclusion of the Tinguian homeland in the Cordillera region is a late recognition of the fact that the Tinguian have a very clear cultural affinity with the Igorot groups, even though a significant part of their society has also been closely identified with Christianized Ilocano society.


http://www.museo-oriental.es/ver_didactica.asp?clave=121&loc=0

http://www.museo-oriental.es/imagenes/didactica/Filipinas,%20trampol%C3%ADn%20hacia%20Oriente/Gobierno%20y%20cortadores%20de%20cabezas.jpg

Cortadores de cabeza Tinguian. Grabado en la obra de P. P. de la Gironiere "Vint années aux Philippines", Paris 1853.

brutal talaga noong unang panahon, survival of the fittest!

dahil sa brutal sila, mas disiplinado mga tao ng mga datu noon di tulad ngayon puro kudeta at walang disiplina at pera lang ang nalalaman..noon pinapahalaga ang dangal ngayon eh pera na ang nangingibabaw...

Tama ka, mas masahol na mga tao ngayon, yun bang lahat gagawin kapalit ng pera sa paniniwalang iyon ang makapangyarihan. Binabalewala na lang nila mga ibang bagay maging kanilang dangal

Aetas - Children of God

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Uploaded by eteotico on Feb 28, 2012

The Aetas are nomadic tribes living in the deep forests of Northern Luzon. They were displaced from their natural habitat after the violent eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. They now live in government resettlement areas in the foothills of Pampanga. This documentary is about the plight of the Aetas.

Forgotten Voices of the Philippines

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Uploaded by 3rdworldvoice

Bataan, Mariveles, Philippines

Early Aeta Video Footage, Philippines

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Uploaded by amalahi on Jul 16, 2010

Duerme, negrito filipino

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Uploaded by fonsucu on Jan 16, 2010

Ancient Indigenous Tribe Narrates Identity of All Tribes in The World Originated From Cibolan in Davao, Philippines

Read more: http://www.bukisa.com/articles/590523_ancient-indigenous-tribe-narrate-identity-of-all-tribes-in-the-world-originated-from-cibolan-in-davao-philippines#ixzz1rUwFE8XY






posted for further discussion on an international science forum and despite trials and challenges still going strong, presently discussing the Asteroid Belt and Mars inevitably linked with the encoded ancient knowledge from the preserved creation myths of Mindanao's Indigenous Tribes:

http://scienceforums.com/topic/24444-ancient-indigenous-tribe-narrates-identity-of-all-tribes-in-the-world-originated-from-cibolan-in-davao/





Lemurian Timeline borne out from discussion from Mindanao Indigenous Tribes' ancient myths and legends that could trace the probability of a very, very ancient civilization dated back to as far as Paleozoic Era!

Lemurian Timeline (http://maharlikan.blogspot.com/2012/01/lemurian-timeline.html)

KAHARIAN NG MAHARLIKA:

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"Battle of wits" ongoing on this vid discussing about Continental Drift, Tectonic Plates and refuting the Expanding Earth Theory, and about the preserved ancient knowledge of Mindanao's Indigenous People's at the comments section. Soon their legacy shall be vindicated. One could expect science folks from international community giving attention to the Maharlikan lands in the coming era.

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200+ million year old giant footprint, evidence of our Lemurian ancestors? (http://maharlikan.blogspot.com/2012/10/200-million-year-old-giant-footprint.html)

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r253/artrocket/footprint.jpg

the Stewards of the Planet, the Indigenous Peoples are suffering under this corporate puppet Pnoy administration for its alarming offenses against them, this yellow Pnoy administration will be held liable to Universal repercussions for its offenses against the Indigenous Peoples, against the Planet and against discerning Humanity.

Tribal leader wounded in ambush in Zamboanga del Norte (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/264192/tribal-leader-wounded-in-ambush-in-zamboanga-del-norte)
A Subanen tribal leader was injured while his son was killed after they were ambushed by unidentified armed men in Bayog, Zamboanga del Norte, Tuesday morning.
Lucencio Manda and his 11-year-old son, Jordan, were riding on a motorcycle when they were fired upon by about five armed men around 6 a.m., Captain Albert Caber, Spokesman of the Army 1st Infantry Division, said in news reports.
Manda, a known anti-mining advocate, suffered a gunshot wound to the back while his son died on the spot, he said.

Wife and 2 children of tribal anti-mining activist killed by gov’t forces (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/291424/wife-and-2-children-of-tribal-anti-mining-activist-killed-by-govt-forces#.UICu482QVSo.facebook)
The wife and two young children of a B’laan leader opposed to the entry of Xstrata’s Sagittarius Mines Inc. in South Cotabato and Davao del Sur were killed in what the military claimed was a firefight between a group of tribal ‘bandits’ and a combined force of Army soldiers and policemen early Thursday morning.

40 governors oppose new Aquino mining policy—Salceda
Salceda said local government executives would oppose the mining policy that was supposed to be signed by President Aquino on Friday but was placed on hold because it put them in an adversarial position to the national government. It would also dismiss their autonomy and independence in favor of national laws and regulations on the mining industry, Salceda said.

Aquino is a worse deluge to indigenous peoples -- KATRIBU (http://www.kodao.org/stories/aquino-worse-deluge-indigenous-peoples-katribu)
The worst environmental destruction happens in areas with mining operations. In mining, forests are cleared out, rivers dammed off, and mountains are carved out. In the promulgation of the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016 (PDP), the economic game plan of the Aquino administration, mining and energy projects are one of the priorities of its centerpiece Public-Private-Partnership Program. So far, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau approved 507 mining applications all over the country, and roughly 60% of these are in ancestral lands. Aquino solidified his position in favor of mining corporations with Executive Order 79, that greases the wheels in mining applications and approvals.

Tribe family in Tampakan massacred by military (http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/10/18/tribe-family-in-tampakan-massacred-by-military/)



A relative of the two Capion victims, Liah Capion, has previously denounced SMI saying that because she and her family had stood up against the entry of the mining company in their once peaceful community, the Army imprisoned one of her sons and declared three others as outlaws and fugitives.


MANILA — An anti-mining group is accusing the 27th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) of being behind the massacre of a family, who has long been fighting the Tampakan Gold project of SaXstrata’s Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), in Bong Mal South Cotabato.

The Alyansa Tigil Mina received reports that between 6:00 to 6:30 in the morning of October 18, soldiers under the command of Col. Alexis Bravo of the 27th IB of the Philippine Army raided the house of anti-mining advocate Daguil Capion. Minutes later, it was learned that three other civilians Juvy Capion, 27, Pop Capion, 13, and John, 8 were killed during the raid. As of this writing, Daguil remains in critical condition.

I've read recently that NPA killed a Manobo tribesman in Surigao del Sur. I hope I'd be able to find a link.

Celebrating indigenous wisdom and knowledge (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/298760/celebrating-indigenous-wisdom-and-knowledge)

A story was told about a team of city-bred researchers who wanted to know how the Aeta people were coping after Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991. After an hour of uphill trek, the researchers, along with a tribal elder as guide, chanced upon some wild guava trees with ripe fruits.

Excited with what they saw, they stopped and had a field day munching on the ripe guavas. After they had their fill, they harvested more, filling their pockets and bags. To their surprise, however, the Aeta guide picked only a couple to eat.

When they asked why he ate only two despite the abundance, the elder said: “There would be many travelers passing through this trail so it would be good to leave some for them.”

Often told and retold in many conferences, the story has become a classic illustration of indigenous wisdom, which is usually cited during the celebration of the Indigenous Peoples’ Month every October and in some homilies delivered by priests and pastors.

It has become a metaphor for two distinct paradigms—one represented by the team of “schooled” (and thus Westernized) researchers and the other represented by the “unschooled” guide, who has learned and kept the wisdom of his ancestors.

The first is based on consuming and amassing more than what one needs, while the other is based on knowing one’s basic needs and having a deep concern for others, including those of the next generations. The latter perspective is largely cultural or a way of life, which is deeply rooted in indigenous peoples’ belief and value system.


For example, in contrast to the “greed-as-driver-for-economic-growth” model, the indigenous peoples stressed the principle of “enough.” Through epics and stories, they highlighted the wisdom of leaving something for the coming generations as opposed to “maximizing production” preached by many corporations.

Not hunting pregnant or young deer or wild pigs, or observing an off-season for fishing were among the many stories shared during the conference.

The meeting also became a venue for Filipino academicians, many of whom took postgraduate studies in the United States, to pay tribute to their indigenous brothers and sisters for continuing their role as keepers of the traditional wisdom of their ancestors.

One woman participant from Pampanga even made an emotional public apology to the Aeta community. Owing to her “colonial education,” she confessed that indirectly and unwittingly, she was part of the whole process that disenfranchised the Aeta people from their ancestral domain, which, she said, included the once US-controlled Subic Naval Base in Zambales and Clark Air Base in Pampanga.

Recently, Tahimik said he was asked by Department of Education (DepEd) officials to help them work out the integration of “schools of living tradition” into the public school system. The schools are community-based institutions where indigenous youths learn from their elders important values and principles, along with epics, rituals, belief systems, songs, dances and crafts.

While long overdue, Tahimik welcomed the DepEd’s efforts to integrate indigenous knowledge and recognition of mother tongues as instruction media.

“[These may yet help] repair the damage brought about by our colonial education,” he said. “It is time we stop marginalizing indigenous knowledge.”

reposted from economy thread:

Thanks for the link very useful with citations and references. Very useful historical data.

It seems we already had strong cultural ties with Japan even before the Spaniards came, and when our people were colonized it caught its ire and threatened to attack the Spaniards were it not for the two elephants hastily sent by the Spaniards to appease the Taiko when otherwise it was given as gift by the King of Cambodia to the Maharlikans for aiding his kingdom together with our Maharlikan warriors (and Spaniards by that time), as kings from other Asian Kingdoms had been traditionally doing even before the Spaniards came. Our Maharlikan ancestors the "freemen", known for their nobility, wealth and bravery aided the great ancient kingdoms of Siam, Burma, Sri Vijaya, the Majapahit (Majapahit royalty eventually migrated to our Maharlikan shores when Muslim influence spread over its kingdom, during the 15th century bringing with them 900 yrs worth of wealth to be safeguarded by the DIWATA's the deities venerated by our ancestors), as well as Kampuchea, and as a Thai movie seemed to suggest perhaps even the queens of Langkasuka aiding them with their rich mercantile trade against pirates!

Lusong Jars made by our Maharlikan ancestors were also highly valued from among Japanese nobility due to its inherent characteristics not found in ordinary jars. There must have been a deep bond between our ancestors and Japan since the earliest of era. During WW2 Filipinos caught the ire of Japanese temperament for siding with Americans rather than the planned Asia co-prosperity sphere, although it was a sad chapter in history. During the assassination of Ninoy the Japanese were highly observant of Philippine politics and even sent their own representatives to ensure from the Marcoses that Ninoy would be kept safe. Ninoy's perpetrators were not necessarily the Marcoses as puppet media misinformed and manipulated the public.

There was also another very intriguing archeological discovery found in Yonaguni, Japan, an ancient sunken underwater city more than 10 millennium in antiquity, an intriguing proof that supported the myth and legends of our Maharlikan ancestors about a powerful, highly spiritual, legendary lost continent called MU/Lemuria in which our Maharlikan shores were said to be a remnant of. There was even an undeniably manmade sculpture of a face with feathered headrest usually associated with Native Americans!

http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r253/artrocket/japanlemurian.jpg

And yet the Native Americans did remembered their ancient origins, alluding to it as the golden city of Cibola (the fabled El Dorado romanticized by the West), in which a Bagobo mythology from Mindanao intricately narrated that all tribes in the world originated from Cibolan, and that these long lost children will still remember the place of their origin with the name Cibolan or from objects taken as remembrance of it (like pebbles, baskets, etc.). Even the term Cibolan was not a native language of American Indians but rather from a Dravidian word civ-pola meaning "city of reds" (pola like our "pula"), and as ancient lingua franca our Maharlikan ancestors actually used a Dravidian branch of language called Kavi/Kawi!

http://maharlikan.blogspot.com/2011/10/bagobo-peoples-shall-be-vindicated.html
http://maharlikan.blogspot.com/2009/12/of-davaos-cibolan-river-and-american.html

The Belief system of the Indigenous Peoples, Maharlikan ancestors, on the enchanted kingdom of DIWATA's, may be getting to be vindicated after all...the Mother Planet may turn out to be a Natural structure of a DYSON SPHERE.

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A Maharlikan Renaissance from among the discerning that will vindicate the priceless wealth of knowledge preserved and nurtured through the ages by Maharlikan ancestors and Indigenous Peoples may even propel Humanity from a TYPE 0 Civilization struggling to reach, if to survive into a TYPE 1 Civilization, to even skyrocket into a TYPE 2 Civilization.

^^ good article, still strange though our south east asian neigbhors were also colonized by europeans how come only us ended up as christianized same with east timor, are the iberians really fueled by such strong religious fervor compared to other europeans?

Iberians are generally less religiously tolerant than their other european neighbors. however they seem to be more racially tolerant as well based on the fact that Latin America is more assimilated racially than those lands conquered by the Brittish (USA) and french (French Canada). Basically the Spanish and Portugese will bang anyone so long as they are Christian :banana:

^^ good article, still strange though our south east asian neigbhors were also colonized by europeans how come only us ended up as christianized same with east timor, are the iberians really fueled by such strong religious fervor compared to other europeans?

yes they were really fueled at that time because Iberians were just got their freedom from their muslim colonizers
http://cdn.dipity.com/uploads/events/13c526d1f6a37e2229b4f7b32b254485_1M.png
spain & the iberian peninsula was under muslim rule for about 700 years(711–1492)... thats longer than than the 300 years spain ruled us

just a few decades after being freed from muslim rule... the iberians got to PI & they saw that the local Malays(us) are tribe-by-tribe slowly converting to islam just like the malays in indonesia & malaysia.. & they wanted to prevent this as possible. also thats why the spaniards called the muslims here "moros" because of the muslim african moors/moros that colonized iberia
if the iberians didnt colonize us.. we would probably be a majority muslim country... because by the time the spaniards got here.. islam have already reached Luzon & Manila was already ruled by muslim rajahs

HISTORY OF THE MANOBO TRIBES

THE MANOBO

It dates back to the time of Noah after the flood. There were six brothers and one sister who could find no food, as it was all water. The eldest, however, was a paralytic, so the second brother, named Kanaon served as the eldest. He would go out to search for food for the brothers.

When he left in search of food one day, a man appeared to the remaining five brothers and one sister. The man asked, Where is your brother? The others answered, He left to look for food for us. The man Whom they believed to be the Magbabaya (God), gave power to the six so that they will not go hungry. When they were given power, they found themselves elevated, floating in the air, and they were speaking in different tongues. He gave instructions that as soon as Kanaon comes, he should go to the top of the mountain at midday and shout so that he can also be given power.

When Kanaon came back, he was told by the brothers of the story. Kanaon said I cannot do anything because the Magbabaya has already given you the power. and has given His instructions. My only request is that before judgment by the Magbabaya, you come back here. They all disappeared in different directions. He was concerned how he was going to see his brothers and sister again. (Through the prophets, they learned that the lone sister was left in Mindanao while the eldest brother, the paralytic found himself in China.)

Obediently, as instructed by the Magbabaya, Kanaon went to the peak of the mountain and shouted to the top of his voice. The Magbabaya appeared and met him. Kanaon asked if he was the one who gave the brothers the power so that they do not go hungry and he said Yes. The Magbabaya (God) asked what was his name, and the young man answered "Kanaon". He told Kanaon, From now on your name will not be Kanaon anymore. Your name will be Manobo, meaning promise, the promise of God that one day man will have salvation and will have eternal life.

The Magbabaya (God) gave Kanaon three elements, Tabako, Bunga, Apog and Buyo leaf to chew. Magbabaya said that through the INAPOGAN Ritual, He will recognized them, and through this ritual, the brothers and sister will recognize each other. However, until such time that the law of the Manobo is not yet known or recognized, the Manobo will remain poor.



THE INAPOGAN RITUAL

The materials used for the Inapogan Ritual are symbolic of preserving the ritual of ancient tribes.

1. BUNGA (betel nut, fruit of betel palm) is a fruit in abundance, is a symbol of success
2. APOG (white shell powder) is a sign of purity
3. TABAKO (tobacco) the preservation of customs and traditions
4. BUYO (locally as ikmo, a leaf from a special vine, is a symbol of life.

The combination of the above materials wrapped with leaf in a triangular form is called hitso or itso. Then the combination is chewed The process of chewing is called pagnganganga.

The practice of chewing the four elements is a symbol of asking always for God's protection and intercession. Hence, the usual advice among the tribes, MAGBUYO KA SA MAGBABAYA means Always ask for God's intercession.

The chewing will produce a reddish concoction, which symbolizes that the Filipino Manobo tribe (also known as Katutubo) is of royal descent, and having royal blood.

It is their belief and experience that the ritual can have protection and healing effect.

The Manobo Tribes talk about bodies of ancestors being ruptured. Their Apo, who lies in state in their sacred grounds is believed to be simply sleeping. He had previously slept in the same state as he is now, and he woke up after forty-five days. The second time he slept, it was in 1995 and he woke up after fifteen days.

In December 2002, he asked his eldest son, CARMELITO S. ESCUDERO, whom he, later renamed HIGYAWAN-NA HOLAG-AYAN and Governor of all the tribes to build him a place to sleep. He told his son that he was going to sleep as he had a big lump on his neck. HIGYAWAN asked Why do you want to sleep? He answered that I am already very old and I can help you better if I am in the spirit. He gave instructions to strive hard and work with the national government so that the law of the Manobo will be understood. He will only wake up at the appropriate time, particularly when the country is prepared to meet the requirements of the Magbabaya.

Thus, the highest of the Baylans (priests/prophet) went to sleep on January 3, 2003 at nine o'clock in the morning.

http://gomaharlika.net/pages/?q=The-Unwrittenhistory

good article, still strange though our south east asian neigbhors were also colonized by europeans how come only us ended up as christianized same with east timor, are the iberians really fueled by such strong religious fervor compared to other europeans?

I once met a Datu from a tribe living in Mt. Kitanglad of Bukidnon and he revealed to me that the reason why they were easily converted to Christianity was because there were already similarities in their belief system especially on the Holy Trinity. Their pre-colonial belief system also believed in the concept of God the Father, God the Son (who also suffered), and the Spiritual aspect of Mother Nature.

When Magellan arrived in Massaua with Rajahs' Culambu and Siani of the kingdoms of Butuan and Caraga in Mindanao, he reacted joyfully when he asked whom the natives worshiped and they replied joining their hands and looking at the heavens, that their god was "Aba".

MAHARLIKA in experimental jazz

http://f0.bcbits.com/z/36/61/3661564088-1.jpg

http://thevenusflytrapcollective.bandcamp.com/track/3-maharlika

I once met a Datu from a tribe living in Mt. Kitanglad of Bukidnon and he revealed to me that the reason why they were easily converted to Christianity was because there were already similarities in their belief system especially on the Holy Trinity. Their pre-colonial belief system also believed in the concept of God the Father, God the Son (who also suffered), and the Spiritual aspect of Mother Nature.

When Magellan arrived in Massaua with Rajahs' Culambu and Siani of the kingdoms of Butuan and Caraga in Mindanao, he reacted joyfully when he asked whom the natives worshiped and they replied joining their hands and looking at the heavens, that their god was "Aba".

As inodis pangalan nya?:nuts::nuts::nuts::nuts:

contrary to their detractors and accusers, the gentle Tasadays are declared GENUINE




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While scholars debated, the hoax claims were also being challenged outside science|scientific circles. In 1987, the Philippine Congress held a four-month-long public investigation into the hoax claims, during which Elizalde arranged for a Tasaday woman to be present to support the original claims. The investigation concluded in favor of the original claims and denounced the possibility of a hoax. In 1988, President Corazon Aquino also conducted an inquiry and announced that the Tasaday were genuine and had nearly been victimized by unscrupulous scholars and businessmen who wanted their logging|timber- and mining|mineral-rich land. After the investigations, the Philippine National Museum and other official organizations began listing the Tasaday among the Philippines' indigenous people.

The Tasaday are a small group of indigenous people from the tropical rain forests of South Cotabato in Mindanao who allegedly lived a Stone Age life. Throughout the 1970s the Tasaday received world-wide fame, and then again in the 1980s when Oswald Iten purportedly discovered that they were a hoax masterminded government officials close to President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The MAHARLIKA Historic Event

CONVENTION OF MAHARLIKA TRIBES on Poverty reversal, peace,development and climate change December 14-16, 2012, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines.

The convention is on the date is declared by the maharlika tribes as:

ANG PANGMUNDONG KATIPUNAN.

Background: In International Discussions, December 14, 2012 (12-12-12) Is The End Time.

For the keepers of divine light, the Maharlika governance system, December 16, 2012 is the date of the union between God and man. This date coincides with the yearly celebration of the date of mystical descent of the shrine of the New Jerusalem in the Island of Matinloc on Dec. 16, 1985.

This year 2012, this date is declared as PANGMUNDONG KATIPUNAN when the chosen mahar dikka indigenous communities shall sign the treaty of maharlikka that will lead to their receiving the flow of grace from the divine.
THE RIGHT PEOPLE

God reigns amongst his sons and daughters, the right people, from the horizon of the far east, the chosen race, mahar dikka, now maharlika They are the faithful people from among the twelve tribes, primarily from the northern region who separated from the two tribes, in search of the land of promise. They travelled the distance�.. �� will keep shining and will serve as the rallying point of hope, redemption, and until finally, the birth of the new jerusalem as the fulfillment of god�s divine plan�.(ferdinand emmanuel marcos)
THE RIGHT PLACE

KAPULUANG MAHARLIKA, where the tribes settled in over seven thousand one hundred verdant isles, in faithful obedience to the will of the divine, in pursuit of the promise, where the tribes continue to live by the word of God, where the tribes await to be invited in the wedding feast of the Lamb and his spouse, THE KINGDOM OF GOD, REV. 21. NOW IDENTIFIED AS THE PLACE OF MYSTICAL DESCENT OF THE SHRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
THE RIGHT TIME

THE bible foretells of a time when today�s system will give way to a final destructive phase of humanity�s economic system. The good news is, it too will be replaced by one founded in benevolent, godly leadership � a global system, that filnally fulfills the deepest need of the entire world. William Wlch and HJpohn Meakin William.welch@vision journal; john.meakin@vision journal.org. The right time is when God�s faithful people are suffering and are asking for deliverance from poverty. When it is the time to flow God�s redemptive grace, the mannah in the end time. When the eagle will fly from Mount Apo; the Kingdom of God.
THE RIGHT INTENTION�

THE CREATION OF A DIVINE TRUST

KABAN NG KATIPUNAN SA KAPULUANG MAHARLIKA The ultimate financial system that shall flow God�s redemptive grace in the End Time, for the benefit of His chosen, the remnants of the Twelve Tribes in the world starting from Kapuluang Maharlika, THAT IS MADE POSSIBLE BY . . .

Their convention on:

Poverty reversal, peace, development and climate change;

their transformation, to become a new seed, a new society, new people of god, alpha kapha omega (god and society)

Their recognizing the redemptive Grace for All Peoples and Nations.

http://gomaharlika.net/pages/?q=The-MAHARLIKA-Historic-Event

Kara David of I-Witness impressively documented the unique issue on the Tasaday Peoples that caused sensation to the Global community and how they continued to fight for their Identity once attacked by unscrupulous scholars and greedy businessmen. The vid discussed topics further beyond the previous documentary such as what caused them to separate from the original tribe (due to epidemic) centuries ago, the ancient prophecy of their ancestors that a benevolent entity will help them (Manuel Elizalde), also the contempt expressed by some in the present generation for injustices done to them.

They are now befriended and guided by their Manobo brethrens.

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In 1971, a band of cave-dwelling people called the Tasadays was discovered in a very remote rainforest in South Cotabato. They were allegedly living a very Paleolithic lifestyle, using tools made of stone and wood, surviving in the wild by hunting animals, and wearing leaves for clothing. This was hailed by the international media as one of the greatest anthropologic discoveries that time, declaring the 26 members of the tribe as living proofs that prehistoric life is still in existence in the Philippines back then.

However, news reports came out thirteen years after that the Tasadays story was a big hoax and their story was just created to boost the growing worldwide popularity of the Marcos regime. Since then, no news was ever heard about the Tasadays again until now.

This Monday on I-Witness, award-winning documentarist Kara David becomes the first Filipino journalist to ever set foot on the Tasaday enclave thirty years after its much publicized discovery. Kara climbs mountains and crosses several rivers in Mindanao to reach the Tasadays current dwelling, the town of Tosofu in Lake Sebu in South Cotabato.

Kara meets Lobo, the 12-year old Tasaday poster boy who now acts as the tribes chieftain. Lobo relates how their life was after they were labeled as a hoax by the foreign media. Kara also meets Dul, one of the oldest members of the tribe. He leads Kara and her I-Witness crew to the infamous caves where they were discovered and put them to international prominence during the 70s.

PHILIPPINES FROM A COSMIC VIEWPOINT: STARGATE, MAHARLOKA, PLANETARY CHI (http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/philippines-from-a-cosmic-viewpoint-stargate-maharloka-planetary-chi/)
July 17, 2010

Erle Frayne D. Argonza



Good afternoon, dear Fellows!
It is still politically hot in PI (Philippine Islands) as I write this piece. I like this libertarian spirit of the people, particularly the middle class, who choose to right some wrongs via a civil way (senate investigations, mass actions) rather than take up arms. This is a sign that the modern islanders, dubbed Filipino by the late patriot Dr. Jose Rizal, are of a newer breed compared to their warlike ancient pedigree.

While the islanders are busy massing up for larger political storms, another cabal which we shall simply dub as Fallen Ones are making sure that the Philippines must never rise as a wealthy and globally powerful nation. For many centuries now they have been working behind the shadows to make sure that they’d be able to fragment Southeast Asia and control the Philippines and its people in particular.

The oligarchic Anglo-Saxons (British, Americans) who play the lead-role of storm troopers for the wars of the Fallen Ones, make sure that the Philippines will remain weak and secondary a force in global affairs. The American elites in particular fear the Philippines, fear a sphinx-like rise of the Filipinos to wealth and fame. And the few who sharply observe this Saxon (to shorten Anglo-Saxon) feelings about Filipinos or Pinoys are baffled by the American elite’s paranoia and bellicose attitude.

More than a century ago, mystics from the West, India and Tibet released to the world a humungous amount of knowledge about the planet’s evolution, and that of humanity’s. Theosophists, led by HP Blavatsky (see Secret Doctrine), became the lead documentors and messengers for the revelators (spiritual masters). Those documents are immensely significant, because they revealed for the first time the true history of the planet and the Earthans or Terrans in modern language for mass readership.

Among the revelations heralded was that the Philippines is a remnant of a subcontinent of the ancient continent of Mu or Lemuria. That subcontinent was then called Maharloka or Great Land. The term came down later in another version as Maharlika, which had since denoted nobility. Lemurian culture was the greatest civilization ever built on Earth, and maybe the only ones that can match it are those ones that are yet to come (called 6th and 7th Root races by Blavatsky).

Another revelation was that the Maharlokans (Pinoys being the descendants) were the very center of the world civilization at that time (tens of thousands of years back). The most powerful kingships of Mu were in Maharloka, in much parallel way today when the most powerful polities are the Caucasians’ (Saxons, Russians, Europeans). Such kingships were necessarily the center of warriorship, the ancient Maharlokans being the most feared in terms of warfare. Warriorship and offensive war acumen is therefore in the blood (genes) of the Pinoys of today, and there would be instances when such traits, long dormant in the collective subconscious, will awaken (e.g Phil. Revolution, 1896-1900).

An equally important phenomenon that shouldn’t be trashed is the presence (per revelation from Filipino mystics) in the astral-etheric belt above Palawan, of the stargate. This gate is the hyperspace doorway to and from the other galaxies: passage through it can short-cut the way to other galaxies, and likewise short-cut the travel from those galaxies to Earth.

Linking up the two phenomena is now quite an easy task. Being seeded by cross-galactic beings in ancient times (e.g. Orions, Lyrans, Pleadeans, Draconians, Andromedans, Sirians, Vegans), it is but logical that the stargate area is the location where the greatest civilization, in both antiquity and the future, will flourish.

Per my own knowledge of earlier revelations (see theosophy, Himalayan notes) and those of the present (see Sal Rachele’s contributions), the stargate was decidedly closed by those cross-galactic intelligences or CGIs upon their retreat later. Since then, it was difficult for CGIs to come to Earth as hyper-space travel was delimited by the stargate’s closure. Longer ways have to be traversed, whether by space or hyper-space travel modalities.

However, past the midway of a 555-million year period (that midpoint was in September 21, 1934) in human evolution, as humanity began to move upward in the ascending arc of its evolution, the Earth had also begun to evolve and has since been increasing its vibratory frequency. This upward evolution of Earth is now opening up the stargate naturally, and sooner enough the CGIs will be coming around with ease.

Suffice me now to say that the Fallen Ones, the elite builders of the evil New World Order or NWO, dread the coming of some CGIs whatever those beings are. For how could you explain such a paranoid dread, that they now go to the extent of fast-tracking the NASA, Russian and European space programs to be able to escape from Earth at any moment in the near future? They dread the CGIs, maybe the top-gun CGIs both from the ‘Light’ (Galactic Federation) and the ‘Dark’ (Orion-Reptoid Alliance) sides.

Let me now stress another equally important phenomenon: the Planetary Chi’s positioning in PI during the Aquarian Age. As I explained in my book 13th Gate Unveiled, every time that the Solar system is situated within a constellation’s force-field, for a period approximately 2,166 years long, the chief energy vortex or Planetary Chi will be located in a specific spot among the Earth’s 70 or so major energy spots or centers. Of those 70 energy spots, around 7 to 12 are the chief ones, Mt. Banahaw in PI being one of them.
Whenever the solar system transfers from one constellation alignment to another, the Planetary Chi also transfers to another major energy spot. There it will remain for 2000+ years. And where that energy vortex stays, civilization will rise like the sphinx as evolved souls will mass up in the area to hasten techno-economic, cultural and political development. Chances are that polities in the area will rise to world power prominence while the Planetary Chi is located there.

In 1994, when this mystic was initiated into the cosmic order of Lightworker mystics’ lodge here in PI, the news came to my ears that the Planetary Chi will transfer to Mt. Banahaw from Glastonbury (England) during the Aquarian Age. And no less than couples of Tibetan masters came here in a rush to find out what makes PI so special today, and perhaps noted the immense potentials of the Pinoys to rise to power during Aquarius. They also helped local mystics prepare for the coming events ahead.

So that information explains why the Saxons and Continental Europeans from France to as far as Russia woke up for 2000 years. From ‘barbarians’ those tribes were catapulted to world power prominence in all human fields, and among them all the Saxons (British, Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders) were to benefit the most from the awakening induced by the beneficial powers of the Planetary Chi during the Age of Pisces (from Jesus’ time to around 2004).

And such is the same reason now why the Saxon elites, led by Fallen Ones, fear the decline of the West as the Chi has transferred to PI. That the Pinoys or Maharlikans will rise to world power status in the future is no longer a myth nor ancient legend of foregone Lemuria but is an unfolding fact of life.

Now, couple that rise to power of the Maharlikans (and Asians in general) with the opening up of the stargate, and you can see in the near future the arrival of CGIs right in PI’s backyard to concur agreements, diffuse technologies and philosophies, and fast-track Maharlikans’/Majapahitans’ (Southeast Asians’) meteoric rise to space-age power and cross-galactic travel capabilities.

The question we ask now is: what CGIs did the Fallen Ones (elites) concur treaties with if ever? Why are they so scared of some reprisals from some CGIs? Why are they so desperate in controlling PI and its people? Do they desire to control the stargate eventually, so as to block all CGIs from coming here, so that they alone—Earthan global elites—can own the planet and do everything at their disposal? Or do they intend to block only the Galactic Federation that had in fact pre-positioned itself in the Solar system and nearby star systems for nigh 3000 years or so already? What armaments with such devastating firepower can they use at any rate against those CGIs?

Let me remind those Saxon-Western elites led by the Fallen Ones that their attempt for global domination is futile. They cannot escape this planet as the Federation forces are up there guarding the solar system. They cannot use nuclear devises to destroy the planet, as the same Federation will come down from hyperspace to destroy the same devises.

It’s not too late yet for the Fallen Ones to choose Oneness, choose the path of cooperation and dialogues of civilizations, and share the Planet with all the souls herein residing. And they should stop those futile efforts to exterminate or neutralize the Lightworkers, notably the mystics who they hold with such fear and contempt. Dead mystics of Light are soon replaced by new ones, remember.

And they should accept that the time of the ‘decline of the West’ and the rise of Asia has come. Among all Asians are especially the Maharlikans whose zeneath of power will be seen around the years 2700-3300 (peak period of the Aquarian Age). And, yes, they better accept the destiny of Maharlika, show kindness and friendliness to our people. For being bellicose at all times to Pinoys now may cause them devastating backfire in the future as the more war-like, space-age savvy Maharlikans will make no qualms in leveling off niches of the bellicose Fallen Ones and their elite subalterns.

If they now think of destroying PI with the latest Tesla Earthquake Inducer, it’s too late a thing for this evil act. Pinoys have been scattered all over the globe, precisely as a Plan B by the cosmic hierarchy in case that the islands will be destroyed by geological cataclysm or by WMD (weapons of mass destruction). Pinoy nations will be rising in other continents in the future, as the Filipino race is programmed to be the 6th sub-Race of the coming 6th Root Race of more advanced human prototypes.

In conclusion, one should look at the conflicts now taking place in RP as machinations of the Fallen Ones. The conflicts are ‘organized chaos’ cover-ups for the true events happening behind the scene. They fear RP, the Maharlikans, the CGIs who will team up with future Maharlikans, and their efforts to destroy us here are futile. “It’s the Cosmic Plan, stupid!” would be an apt campaign line against the Fallen Ones. They have no way out here, and they better choose Oneness or perish in the future worlds coming.

i am very touched by the Tasaday tribe..it kind of makes me feel sad..they were harassed..:ohno:

i am very touched by the Tasaday tribe..it kind of makes me feel sad..they were harassed..:ohno:

not just the Tasadays, their benevolent friend Manuel Elizalde was also victimized by mudslinging liars.

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i'm really touched and in awe.. :(

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A king in the Philippines?

A King in the Philippines is within our history and shouldn't be far fetched. The very island of Luzon is named after our greatest king, King Luisong Tagean Tallano, the father of Rajah Lapu-Lapu and Rajah Soliman.

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td3G9Yb73Xg

i'm really touched and in awe.. :(

amazing, gentle People, they would even call some birds and the birds would befriend them :uh::)

makes one wonder who's more civilized, the Tasadays or the greedy modern barbarians that mudslinged and attacked their genuine, unique identity.

the Venus Project and Resource Based Economy, a utopian socio-economic system for a brighter Future by visionary Jacque Fresco with some insights long practiced by Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years.

Past and Future synchronizing.





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The Venus Project - Resource Based Economy

The term and meaning of a Resource Based Economy was originated by Jacque Fresco. It is a holistic socio-economic system in which all goods and services are available without the use of money, credits, barter or any other system of debt or servitude. All resources become the common heritage of all of the inhabitants, not just a select few. The premise upon which this system is based is that the Earth is abundant with plentiful resource; our practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter productive to our survival.

Modern society has access to highly advanced technology and can make available food, clothing, housing and medical care; update our educational system; and develop a limitless supply of renewable, non-contaminating energy. By supplying an efficiently designed economy, everyone can enjoy a very high standard of living with all of the amenities of a high technological society.

A resource-based economy would utilize existing resources from the land and sea, physical equipment, industrial plants, etc. to enhance the lives of the total population. In an economy based on resources rather than money, we could easily produce all of the necessities of life and provide a high standard of living for all.

Consider the following examples: At the beginning of World War II the US had a mere 600 or so first-class fighting aircraft. We rapidly overcame this short supply by turning out more than 90,000 planes a year. The question at the start of World War II was: Do we have enough funds to produce the required implements of war? The answer was no, we did not have enough money, nor did we have enough gold; but we did have more than enough resources. It was the available resources that enabled the US to achieve the high production and efficiency required to win the war. Unfortunately this is only considered in times of war.

In a resource-based economy all of the world's resources are held as the common heritage of all of Earth's people, thus eventually outgrowing the need for the artificial boundaries that separate people. This is the unifying imperative.


We must emphasize that this approach to global governance has nothing whatever in common with the present aims of an elite to form a world government with themselves and large corporations at the helm, and the vast majority of the world's population subservient to them. Our vision of globalization empowers each and every person on the planet to be the best they can be, not to live in abject subjugation to a corporate governing body.

Our proposals would not only add to the well being of people, but they would also provide the necessary information that would enable them to participate in any area of their competence. The measure of success would be based on the fulfilment of one's individual pursuits rather than the acquisition of wealth, property and power.

At present, we have enough material resources to provide a very high standard of living for all of Earth's inhabitants. Only when population exceeds the carrying capacity of the land do many problems such as greed, crime and violence emerge. By overcoming scarcity, most of the crimes and even the prisons of today's society would no longer be necessary.

A resource-based economy would make it possible to use technology to overcome scarce resources by applying renewable sources of energy, computerizing and automating manufacturing and inventory, designing safe energy-efficient cities and advanced transportation systems, providing universal health care and more relevant education, and most of all by generating a new incentive system based on human and environmental concern.


Many people believe that there is too much technology in the world today, and that technology is the major cause of our environmental pollution. This is not the case. It is the abuse and misuse of technology that should be our major concern. In a more humane civilization, instead of machines displacing people they would shorten the workday, increase the availability of goods and services, and lengthen vacation time. If we utilize new technology to raise the standard of living for all people, then the infusion of machine technology would no longer be a threat.

A resource-based world economy would also involve all-out efforts to develop new, clean, and renewable sources of energy: geothermal; controlled fusion; solar; photovoltaic; wind, wave, and tidal power; and even fuel from the oceans. We would eventually be able to have energy in unlimited quantity that could propel civilization for thousands of years. A resource-based economy must also be committed to the redesign of our cities, transportation systems, and industrial plants, allowing them to be energy efficient, clean, and conveniently serve the needs of all people.


What else would a resource-based economy mean? Technology intelligently and efficiently applied, conserves energy, reduces waste, and provides more leisure time. With automated inventory on a global scale, we can maintain a balance between production and distribution. Only nutritious and healthy food would be available and planned obsolescence would be unnecessary and non-existent in a resource-based economy.

As we outgrow the need for professions based on the monetary system, for instance lawyers, bankers, insurance agents, marketing and advertising personnel, salespersons, and stockbrokers, a considerable amount of waste will be eliminated. Considerable amounts of energy would also be saved by eliminating the duplication of competitive products such as tools, eating utensils, pots, pans and vacuum cleaners. Choice is good. But instead of hundreds of different manufacturing plants and all the paperwork and personnel required to turn out similar products, only a few of the highest quality would be needed to serve the entire population. Our only shortage is the lack of creative thought and intelligence in ourselves and our elected leaders to solve these problems. The most valuable, untapped resource today is human ingenuity.

With the elimination of debt, the fear of losing one's job will no longer be a threat. This assurance, combined with education on how to relate to one another in a much more meaningful way, could considerably reduce both mental and physical stress and leave us free to explore and develop our abilities.


If the thought of eliminating money troubles you, consider this: If a group of people with gold, diamonds and money were stranded on an island that had no resources such as food, clean air and water, their wealth would be irrelevant to their survival. It is only when resources are scarce that money can be used to control their distribution. One could not, for example, sell the air we breathe or water abundantly flowing down from a mountain stream. Although air and water are valuable, in abundance they cannot be sold.

Money is only important in a society when certain resources for survival must be rationed and the people accept money as an exchange medium for the scarce resources. Money is a social convention, an agreement if you will. It is neither a natural resource nor does it represent one. It is not necessary for survival unless we have been conditioned to accept it as such.

http://www.thevenusproject.com/the-venus-project/resource-based-economy


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Paris exhibit to showcase pre-colonial Philippine artifacts (http://ph.news.yahoo.com/paris-exhibit-showcase-pre-colonial-philippine-artifacts-145947685.html)
GMA News Online – Sun, Dec 23, 2012



As you rush through the last-minute holiday preparations, take a moment to daydream about Paris in April.

From the Eiffel Tower, you walk down the banks of the Seine until you arrive at the Musée du Quai Branly. At the entrance of the museum, you are greeted by an archival photograph of rice terraces.

As you go in, you are met by more than thirty bululs. The rice divinities are followed by a section dedicated to the mumbaki, the Ifugao priests. Here you will see objects used for divination, healing, and other rituals.

Next is a section featuring the "poetics of daily life"—spoons, baskets, and other objects that are needed for daily life in the Cordilleras.

A section featuring the kadangyan showcases textiles, ornaments, gongs, special jars, and the hagabi, a bench symbolizing the kadangyan's high Ifugao status.


The making of this bench is very elaborate and costly, explained anthropologist Corazon Alvina, co-curator of the grand exhibition of pre-colonial Philippine artifacts called "Philippines: Archipel des echanges" (Philippines: An Archipelago of Exchange).

"This is one opportunity where we are not only encouraged to be proud of what we have but also gives us an opportunity to look at our ancestry, to look at where all of these impulses, artistic and creative, come from and perhaps we can use that knowledge to further our development as a people," Alvina said during a press conference on December 20.

The exhibit will include ornaments from the highlands such as beads and necklaces, as well as warrior objects like axes, shields and other weaponry.

Separate spaces feature artifacts from the Maranao highlands, the Maranao and Maguindanao sultanate, and Palawan. Across the textiles of Mindanao is a spectacular exhibit of gold artifacts.

Before exiting, there will be pottery such as terracotta burial jars and urns used in Cotabato for secondary burial.

"Exchange is the core idea of the concept of this exhibition, and the notion of exchange could be translated in material, cultural, and commercial exchange," said co-curator Constance de Monbrison, who is in charge of the Insular Southeast Asia Collections at the museum.


The exhibit runs at the Quai Branly Museum from April 9 (Araw ng Kagitingan) until July 14, 2013, which is also Bastille Day or French National Day.

"The arts of the Philippines are little known in France and rarely shown in their entirety and diversity. Through these unique objects, each of which conveys a particular meaning, we pay homage to these multiple artistic expressions," Quai Branly Museum president Stephane Martin said in a press release.

The exhibit will feature art from various collections in the Philippines, United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria.

French Ambassador Gilles Garachon said they expect around one million visitors during the three-month exhibition.

"This will be an exceptional occasion and I think maybe one of the most important exhibitions abroad ever of Filipino art, and an exceptional occasion to discover this wonderful wealth and heritage of the Philippines," he said at the press conference.

Philippines: An Archipelago of Exchange will feature art from various collections in the Philippines, United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Austria.

Garachon added that the exhibit is one way of strengthening Franco-Philippine relations in culture and the arts, one of the core areas of cooperation highlighted by President Benigno Aquino III and French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault during the latter's visit to the Philippines last October.

"This visit was very special," Garachon said, as "no member of the delegation knew about the Philippines prior to the visit.

"At the end of the visit they told me it was an absolutely a wonderful country, and they don't understand very well why European countries are not more present in the Philippines ** . This is what it's all about. We have to understand each other much better to exchange more," he said.

Garachon said the exhibit promotes understanding through culture, and hoped that not only the French, but other European people will be able to see the exhibit.

Representing DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Laura del Rosario said the exhibition marks a first in the relations between France and the Philippines.

"It will put the Philippines on the cultural map and radar of France," she said.

Apart from the artifacts, parallel activities will also be held, like workshops, traditional Filipino dances, language classes, exhibition of classic and contemporary Filipino films, demonstration of Filipino cuisine, and traditional martial arts.

There will also be forums meant to provide avenues for exchanges of ideas on Philippine and French culture.

Outside the museum, there will also be side events such as "Alliances en resonance," which features music, photography, and cinema, at the Fondation Alliance Francaise in Paris.


**(not surprising with barbaric greed and manipulation of its Neo-colonial Oligarchy)

The Fourteen Worlds (http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/article:the-fourteen-worlds-part2)
from the Indian Puranas

Mahar Loka (The World of Stars)

http://www.findpk.com/zahid/earth%20in%20universe/Soler%20Interstellar%20Neighborhood.jpg

Vishnu Purana: Chapter 7:- Above Dhruva, at the distance of ton million leagues, lies the sphere of saints, or Mahar-loka, the inhabitants of which dwell in it throughout a Kalpa, or day of Brahmá.

Maharloka is described as the place of saintly souls (as per Vishnu Purana) and is considered as greater than the Suvarloka (Heaven or Jannat where ordinary people's souls go after death). As per some other Purana, it is said that the souls of the Saptarshis (the Seven Sages of Ancient India) reside here with a watchful eye upon the activities of humanity on Earth.

We are unable to verify if these are true or false. But, going by our understanding of the already discussed lokas (worlds) Maharloka can be equated to the region (Stellar Neighborhood) where all the stars visible to us including our Sun (and thus the Suvar Loka or our Solar System) is situated.

Inhabitants of Mahar Loka will thus belong to an inter stellar civilization. All of the 27 Nakshatras known to the ancient Indians too belongs to this Mahar Loka.

Eagle and Condor Indigenous Prophecy:

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once I told someone from the Bagobo Indigenous Tribe that I befriended a European inventor with his concept of pollution-free vehicle that could levitate with magnetic propulsion, and I half-expected her reply:

"hey, that's what our ancestors used to ride!" :lol: :lol: :okay:


http://www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_files/04images/Vimana/vimana03.jpg
artist's concept of a Vimana, flying ships mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts.

A king in the Philippines?

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A King in the Philippines is within our history and shouldn't be far fetched. The very island of Luzon is named after our greatest king, King Luisong Tagean Tallano, the father of Rajah Lapu-Lapu and Rajah Soliman.

http://www.academia.edu/1185485/Indigenous_rights_and_the_MILF_Peace_Process

Rep NC sited the subject for instance, pertaining to the millions of hectares declared as ancestral domains are actually not owned by the Muslims. She said, “At least one million hectares of ancestral domains belonging to the non-Bangsamoro IPs such as Erumanen ne Menuvu of Cotabato and Bukidnon provinces, Higaonon of Lanao del Norte province, and the Subanen of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga de Sibugay, and Zamboanga del Sur provinces..”

“Even now,” Rep NC added, “the Lumads who are within the ARMM are continuously being marginalized. The ancestral domains of 400,000 hectares of the Teduray, Lambangian, and Dulangan Manobo of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces have not been awarded to them. They claim the IPRA law does not cover the ARMM.”

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=295092993889561

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article5257

amazing, gentle People, they would even call some birds and the birds would befriend them :uh::)

makes one wonder who's more civilized, the Tasadays or the greedy modern barbarians that mudslinged and attacked their genuine, unique identity.

Without taking anything from who they are, they are still considered a hoax.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_stone-age_tasaday

Without taking anything from who they are, they are still considered a hoax.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_stone-age_tasaday

whatever that "museum" is profiteering at the expense of the country's Tasaday Peoples, it should include the WMD Hoax by Bush & Co. while it invaded countries for the "liberation" of oil "pipelines", er people :nuts:





The Tasadays were declared genuine already and it was even the special investigating panel during the Cory Administration.

Extensive scientific analysis were able to prove isolation of the tribe that spanned about 7 generations (though not necessarily since stone age) of about 200 years and these already provided valuable insights to Humanity; their gentle way of life (they would even call a certain species of birds to play with them), their tools (they used stone tools like stone age people, the bolos and arrows came in later introduced by the Manuvu tribesman Dafaal). Their ancestry were traced to a group that may had separated from the Manobo tribe (hence traces of the Manobo language in their dialect) after it suffered a plague hundreds of years ago. They were told by their ancestors not to leave the cave, and that in the future a benevolent being will save them. The foretold prophecy of their ancestors arrived after Elizalde came.

It was from modern barbarians the illegal loggers, incompetent and egotistic from the academe that attempted to discredit them.

Otherwise the Tasaday peoples are now declared genuine and were indeed isolated for about 7 generations or about 200 years, and their Ancestral Domain would help preserve the forests there, a legacy that will be proven crucial especially in this era of Climate Change as the recent deadly typhoons are proof that it is not something to be taken lightly. But even these remaining Ecological treasures were being constantly attacked. that is what you should be more concerned about.

they are now presently identified as Tasaday-Manobo with the Manobo peoples guiding them.

Without taking anything from who they are, they are still considered a hoax.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/the_stone-age_tasaday



Nope, as mentioned in the article, it's "hoax itself as a hoax" perpetrated by modern barbarians most especially the illegal loggers and the HEPATITIS Camp, just as it is presently doing bearing false witness, lies, deceit, black propaganda against otherwise competent leaders just to put their incompetent oligarch puppet in position.


Finally, it does appear that enemies of Marcos and loggers did join forces in the late '80s to discredit the Tasaday, going so far as to bribe members of the group to provide false confessions. So there is some truth to the 'hoax itself is a hoax' claim.

3hgMd2wJysA#!

makes one wonder what ABiaS' "Bantay Kalikasan" agenda is really about.

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Forests: Crucial And Vital Role To Combat Climate Change (http://www.countercurrents.org/nazareth201009.htm)
By Marianne de Nazareth
Countercurrents.org

According to research done by the Global Canopy Programme which is an alliance of 37 scientific institutions in 19 countries, this loss accounts for around a fifth of global carbon emissions making land cover change the second largest contributor to global warming. Forests therefore play a crucial and vital role in any initiative to combat climate change.

Forests are also home to local communities and support the livelihood of 90 percent of the billions living below the poverty line. In the Ghats, tribes depend on the forests as a source of fuel, food, medicinal herbs and a source of income by selling natural produce like honey and wild fruit. The loss of these forests puts the very survival of these indigenous people at risk. Well managed nature plays an important role in both climate change adaptation and mitigation. “ Nature can offer solutions that are available to the rural poor in particular, that are cost effective and sustainable,” says IUCN’s(International Union for Conservation of Nature) Climate Change coordinator, Ninni Ikkala. “ The potential of forests in reducing emissions is well known, whilst for example well managed mangroves can reduce flood impacts in low lying areas.”

Another new development is that despite scientific support, the protection of intact natural forests is under threat of conversion into plantations. These plantations will be periodically culled for their timber. Protection of natural forests and the rights of indigenous people are crucial for the well being of our planet. These indigenous people are stewards of the forest and provide vital ecosystem services, for the rest of the planet. As we can see it happening all around us already, Climate Change will hit the poorest the worst and so a concerted reduction in deforestation will help build natural resilience to climate impacts.

The reasons for deforestation are varied and multiple from country to country. In Asia, communities use forests to provide sources for food, fuel and farmland. Trees are cut down to make way for agriculture driven by consumer demand. In Africa, it is due to small scale subsistence farming. In South America, the reason is large scale farming to produce beef and soy for export markets. In South East Asia, the reasons for deforestation is clearing of land to grow palm oil, coffee and timber which is also a large scale export product.

If countries are able to comprehend that forests provide services which go beyond carbon storage alone, they would fiercely protect their forests. Forests afford watershed protection, water flow regulation, nutrient recycling, rainfall generation and disease regulation. Old growth forests also soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offsetting anthropogenic emissions. “There is also another important reason to protect old forests – they have what is known as a double cooling effect, by reducing carbon emissions and maintaining high levels of evaporation from the canopy,” says Charlie Parker, Global Canopy Programme's Policy Analyst and author of “The Little REDD Book”

http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/67666_10200375307527746_56787451_n.jpg

Tribo Miro--Paying Homage to Dinagyang Festival's Origins

Tribo Miro is a non-competing tribe in Dinagyang 2013. It is made of authentic Ati IPs from different areas of Iloilo and Guimaras. The celebration was graced by the tribe, depicting the life of the Ati in the boom and beat of the drums that Dinagyang and Ati-Atihan are known for.

They were well-lauded, and some of the audiences were also teary-eyed with their presentation.

Dinagyang's homage to its origins, just like last year when Kalibo Ati-Atihan visited through Kasadyahan.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-KujhcVFdciM/UQ6X-zENb6I/AAAAAAAANVE/JGfg4QFyBR4/s711/2013_DinagyangFestival17.jpg

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https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mfljGHK8j9w/UQ6Yi-l6iMI/AAAAAAAANWE/9airxvdIGn4/s694/2013_DinagyangFestival25.jpg

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