The Bangsamoro Story (The Real Story Behind the Struggle)
By Amilpasa T. BandayingIn these times of very dramatic
upheavals in our land of Mindanao, I feel that it is the right
moment to be reminded of history by going back in time and relay
the story of the Bangsamoro Struggle that seemingly to this day
remains a long journey that is yet to find its destination.I had
been part of this very long journey and I feel that I have the
appropriate memory to retell the story of this endless
struggle.Mindanao had been wrought by tumult since time immemorial;
from the time European colonizers have arrived on our shores
towards the fierce occupation of Imperial Forces of Japan. It had
seemed that Mindanao had been an unfortunate child of war, even to
this day.The Moro Struggle began in the years leading to the very
gruelling decade of the 1970s, in the path towards the spectre of
Martial Law declared by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos.I was
then a young Muslim student at University of the East (UE) taking
up law with an enduring ambition for the legal profession.In 1967,
I graduated my A.B. Political Science degree from the Zamboanga
Arturo Estaquiao College (ZAEC) and immediately I departed towards
Manila to pursue a lifelong aspiration to be a lawyer. As a
Commission on National Integration (CNI) scholar, I enrolled in the
University of Manila. There I have dedicated myself to gain higher
education in law and excelled well as I have performed consistently
with my examinations, finishing in the Top 5 almost all the
time.
I have all too suddenly felt that my prowess in legal principles
have sharpened steadily that I have gradually felt that I need to
channel this more suitably. And so after a semester, I transferred
to Ateneo de Manila law school in Padre Faura. The moment I stepped
into the hallowed ground of the Ateneo campus, I was awed to no end
with the grandness and splendor of the place.Immediately, I went to
tackle the rigorous lessons of law there. In fact, the level of
teaching there had been so different than in the previous law
school that I have attended that there was great challenge and a
very high level of difficulty. In Ateneo, we were made to study
stacks of cases and digest them on a very frequent basis that it
was almost smothering me and had tested my will to earn a law
degree in a venerated institution as Ateneo de Manila Law
School.
I was just one of two Muslims enrolled there and in the few
months that I was there I was recruited by Aquila Legis Law
Fraternity and became its member while my other Muslim companion
decided to join Utopia, a rival law fraternity.In 1968, the Jabidah
Massacre instigated the Muslim rebellion when the military
massacred 68 young Muslims recruits who were being trained in
Corregidor Island with the aim of reclaiming Sabah from Malaysia.
These violent deaths instigated sympathy and debacle among Muslims
throughout the country that the most boisterous amongst them is
from former University Professor (UP) Nur Misuari when he formed
the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1969 as an offshoot
organization Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM) which was formed
earlier in 1968 by Datu Udtog Matalam, former governor of Cotabato
Province - with an aspiration for an independent Muslim state in
Mindanao.In these turbulent years, the Muslims have increasingly
felt disenchantment and deprivation of rights and dignity that a
fierce craving for recognition have ensued, giving rise to the
Bangsamoro Movement. Eventually an armed struggle took root,
desiring to end long period of oppression, exploitation, neglect
and discrimination that was the mark of Philippine policy at that
time.
I was among the first recruits of MNLF as I felt then for
enduring desire to see our own homeland, a Moro homeland that could
be called to be our own, as I felt then a patriotic cause for
self-determination for our people, for the creation of the land
Bangsamoro. Prior to becoming the main secessionist entity in
Mindanao, It was a initially an underground movement in the youth
sector of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM) to which i have
enlisted as a founding member. Bangsamoro is a termed coined thru
the interplay of two very evocative words, the word Bangsa is a
Muslim term for nation and then Moro, a word used in vilification
for its negative connotation, used by Spanish colonizers to refer
to Muslim population in the conquered Philippines, but to which
Prof. Misuari opted to use in order to emphasize his love and
sympathy for the Moroland.One fateful day in 1968, I was among a
passionate group of young Muslim students who met in Pasonanca Park
in order to sign a Manifesto, pledging our commitment to fight and
struggle for our oppressed people and homeland.
Along with fellow recruits, I journeyed towards the faraway land
of Sabah, Malaysia to train in combat.I was among the 1st group
called as Batch 90 who was sent off to Tawau, Sabah aboard a wooden
ship called Tempel, from Jolo Sulu, arriving on New Years Day,
until we reached the secluded island of Pangkor Island. Along with
me in this initial batch was Sali Wali, Jamil Jimmy Lucman, Hundan
Haj Abubakar, Dimasangkay Dimas Pundato, Sabturaji Ji Salmadan,
Alver Boy Alonto, Abdul Bobby Alonto, Mike Japanasi Madarang, Cesar
Cana, Ali Clay Sansalana, George Enampadan, Manran, Ramit Daddy
Hassan, Abubakar Bakkaa Juli, Asamli Amil, Akmad Sumandal and Bian
Lay Lim.It was only months after that Prof. Misuari arrived at
Pangkor Island along with the group called 2nd Batch and there, the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was formally organized as an
armed rebellion where Prof Misuari was elected as the Chairman of
the Central Committee while Abdul Khayer Alonto was the
Vice-Chairman. I was a member of this committee along with Sali
Wali, Jimmy Lucman, Utoh Salahuddin and Ramit Hassan.
As a member of the Central Committee, it was our main duty to
look after the welfare of the recruits, whom we called then as Boys
in the Camp and to be spokesperson between the instructors and
trainees.Often, we call our group as the Central Committee of 7 and
in secrecy and stealth, we have held our meetings in a beach where
a big rock dramatically lies. We call this rock the Matalam Rock in
honor of Old Man Matalam, the founder of the MIM.
The first trainees at Pangkor Island was then on called as Group
of 90 and after a year of training, we have been sent back to
Mindanao and spread out towards our respective provinces and
locales, with the task of recruiting secretly young Muslims into
the fold of the armed struggle and then to train them in armed
combat.
The following formed part of the original Batch 90 Commandoes of
the MNLF Central Committee who were trained abroad:
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Nur Misuari
-
Chairman
Salamat Hasim
-
Vice Chairman for Foreign Relations
Abdul Khayer Alonto
-
Vice Chairman for Military Operations
Abdul Baki Abubakar- Secretary General
Judge Hamid Lucman-
Legal Adviser
Al Hussein Caluang
-
Field Marshall
RANKING FIELD COMMANDERS
Commander Sali Wali (Zone III) ZRC, Alicia, Zamboanga del
Sur
Commander Amilpasa Bandaying, Intelligence Officer, Olutanga,
Zamboanga del Sur
Commander Nur Maldisa
Commander Hussin Loong
Commander Hadji Camlian
Commander Rasul Abdullah
Commander Jamil Jimmy Lucman
Commander Amelil Ronnie Malagiok
In 1971, the Group of 300 was sent for training in another
neighbouring country that when Martial Law was declared on
September 21, 1972, our movement remained largely underground due
to intensified government operations. During these times of laying
low, we were to await the return of Group of 300 in order to resume
our armed struggle. As soon as the new trainees have arrived, most
of them were assigned as Field Commanders to lead their men in
their respective area of operations.
For myself, I was assigned as Commander and Propaganda and
Intelligence Officer with ten (10) foreign-trained member from the
Group of 300.
As the recruitment for new members have intensified, our ranks
grew an army of 16,000 men and the rebel force was then termed as
the Bangsa Moro Army.In the years of intense fighting and conflict,
just ahead of the declaration of Martial Law, the membership of
Central Committee have expanded to include Ahmad Bon Sumandal, Ali
Clay Sansaluna, Amelil Ronnie Malagiok, Dimasangkay Dimas Pundato,
Salamat Hashim and Bian Lay Li, who later became the Chief of the
MNLF Strike Forces in Jolo, Sulu.The Moro armed struggle has posed
a relentless threat to the government, gaining foothold as a very
formidable force. However, in the attack of Jolo in 1973, the MNLF
have sustained innumerable losses on their sides, with large number
of casualties. The Basilan bombings have also led to sizable
casualties, many among them were civilians.
In 1973, the government adopted a reconciliatory approach to end
the war in Mindanao thru the Policy of Attraction, which begun a
period of pacification, reconciliation and amnesty.Through a series
of negotiation and dialogues, a number of MNLF armed combatants
returned to the fold of the government and embraced the offer of
peace and reconciliation as well as the promise of rehabilitation
and resettlement in line with the main promise of ending decades
long of oppression and discrimination against Muslims and Lumads in
Mindanao. Central to this campaign of reconciliation was Rear
Admiral Romulo M. Espaldon, a native of Taw-Tawi, tasked to
dialogue with the MNLF in the thrust for finding a lasting peace in
Mindanao.To strengthen the cause of peace, the government agreed to
sign the Tripoli Agreement on December 23, 1976 granting political
autonomy to the Bangsamoro in Mindanao. And with this agreement,
the long quest for peace took root and thereafter sowed the seed of
peace, despite that such road was so arduous and difficult that
even towards this very day, after the grant of autonomy and
self-determination, the road to peace remains endless and
foreboding.2
