BARMM VOICES

“We were not savages, we were not terrorists, we were simply fighting for our lands.”

The stories of the Bangsamoro people are not just found in books or taught in classes. They are scarred on the lands of the region that has long fought for its independence through its resilience despite all that has happened to them. There have been countless wounds that has been marked in BARMM, some known and some not fully known, from the mountains of Bud Dajo to the haunting shores of Corregidor, and most recently, to the war-ravaged streets of Marawi, the Bangsamoro struggle for justice is a constant desire for true autonomy.

To look at in the event of Bud Dajo, where in 1906, the American colonial government sought a brutal assault on the Tausūg people who took refuge at Bud Dajo which was a dormant volcano in Jolo, Sulu. They believed that they would be safer at that place from colonial rule and conscription. There were over 1,000 Moros — men, women, and children — that were gathered in the crater. The U.S. forces that were under Major General Leonard Wood, encircled the mountain and attacked the community for days.

By the end of the assault, over 600 were killed, mostly civilians. The images of the massacre, which included women with their children, shocked even Americans back home. President Theodore Roosevelt praised what happened at Bud Dajo but others stamped it as a massacre. For the Moro people, it was more than an assault, it was a symbol of imperial disregard for Moro life.

Fast forward to March 18, 1968, where a covert operation known as “Operation Merdeka,” that was designed to reclaim Sabah from Malaysia, brought young Moro recruits, mostly Tausūg and Yakan, to Corregidor Island. The mission that was covered in secrecy was ultimately revealed when the recruits discovered the deception and protested their inhumane training conditions.

In response to the revelation, 23 to 28 of the recruits were executed by their military handlers. The government tried to cover it up, but former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. brought the massacre to light. The incident outraged the Moro community and served as a catalyst for Nur Misuari to establish the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which began a decades-long armed struggle for Moro autonomy.

Nearly 50 years after Jabidah, the Bangsamoro people would again face unspeakable violence, not at the hands of a foreign colonizer, but through a five-month siege that shattered the soul of Marawi City.

On May 23, 2017 began a conflict between ISIS-inspired Maute Group militants and Philippine government forces which quickly engulfed Marawi in devastation. The military responded with intense airstrikes and ground offensives which led to the deaths of over 1,000 people and the displacement of nearly 400,000 residents.

Entire districts were reduced to rubble and the effect of the siege is still seen today. As of now, many families still await full rehabilitation and despite the government’s pledges, frustration lingers among survivors who feel left behind and have not completely recovered from what has happened.

Despite the traumas of the struggles and tragedies from all that has happened, the Bangsamoro people still remains resilient in finding ways for the region to prosper and for that development to be sustainable. The ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in 2019 and the formation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) marked a historic step toward self-governance.

Under the leadership of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), BARMM seeks to rebuild the trust of the people and to ultimately prioritize the development of the region. But progress is not linear. The wounds from the past still bleed, and decades of lingering conflicts still remain especially when these issues have long been distorted or even when these issues were not fully mitigated, so true holistic and inclusive development is needed for the region to remain prospering with the efforts of the region.

To forget the struggles of the Bangsamoro is to ignore the pain of those who lived through them. These events are not mere historical footnotes, they are living memories that shape Bangsamoro identity today. To forget the struggles is to allow those struggles to have a chance to happen again.

This is not just about political autonomy. It is about honoring the memory of every person who never made it off a mountain, every recruit who was silenced on an island, and every family who saw their home gone in Marawi.

The struggle for peace and justice continues, but so does the hope for a better future.

REFERENCES:

Rappler.com (2022) The Jabidah Massacre is real and documented. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/fact-check/jabidah-massacre-real-documented/

Alex J. Kay (2024) An American Massacre – 1,200 dead

Bangsamoro Information Office (2021) Remembering Jabidah and the seeds of the struggle https://bangsamoro.gov.ph/news/latest-news/remembering-jabidah-and-the-seeds-of-the-struggle/

Carmela Fonbuena (2018) Marawi one year after the battle: a ghost town still haunted by threat of Isis https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/may/22/marawi-one-year-siege-philippines-ghost-town-still-haunted-threat-isis