It was a tragic mistake to ‘integrate’ them: Now we don’t know whom to trust

There’s no graceful or "humble" way, unfortunately, of saying: I told you so. Now, the worst fears expressed by many critics of the phoney-baloney "peace" deal hatched by the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos (sorry, Kuya Eddie, but there’s no less hurtful way of putting it) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of rebel chieftain Nur Misuari, have come home to roost.

It was bad enough that the pot was excessively sweetened for Misuari by not only gifting him with the chairmanship of the multi-billion-peso Southern Philippines Development Authority but with an even bigger plum, the governorship of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). In short, for his years of harassing Mindanao’s peaceful citizens, bringing the kris and the automatic rifle to disrupt and destroy the lives of scores of thousands of victims, Misuari was rewarded handsomely. He wasn’t an insurgent who "came in from the cold." He came into glory – and plenty of pelf, to boot.

Those concessions to him were disgraceful enough, but these were not half as harmful as the next condition to which the FVR administration "surrendered." The government agreed to "integrate" thousands of Misuari’s MNLF guerrillas and Bangsamoro cadres into our Armed Forces and Philippine National Police. Thus, the government not only gave the "ex-rebels" jobs, they were given government-issued firearms, ammunition, freedom-of-passage anywhere, and – worst of all – Army and Police uniforms. A collective shudder went through the ranks of our soldiers and non-Muslim policemen: "Now we’ll not only have to watch out for ambush from the enemy, we’ll have to keep an eye on the guys beside us and at our backs."

However, preaching the sunshine gospel that Christians and Moros were brothers and sisters, and all they needed was a chance to get to know and love each other, FVR and his peace-makers warbled that all would be well, and that a Moro rebel converted to peaceful ways and sworn anew to the Constitution, would be dependable, trustworthy and loyal.

With former MNLF-integrees in the police in Sulu turning their guns, first on Philippine Marines (it was a massacre), then helping armed civilians pounce on and butcher three Philippine Army Scout Rangers, it’s now clear that the Moro "integrees" were never integrated at all. They remained rebellious in their hearts, this time camouflaging their hatred with Army and Police uniforms. This simmering rage has now exploded into violence.

We should have seen it coming. Friends and relatives of ours – who are Scout Ranger, Army or Marine officers and non-coms in Zamboanga, Sulu and Basilan – used to tell me that the ex-MNLF integrees usually refused to salute Christian officers. Why, in the intervening years between the "peace deal" in 1996 and the current orgies of violence in Sulu did we never see it coming?

Remember the recent seizing of hostages and vest-pocket uprising in Zamboanga City. The Misuari "ex-MNLF" rebels were all attired in military and police uniforms. You couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys, except the latter had civilian hostages roped together as a "human shield" in front of them.

Now, at least 50 of the 400-strong almost all-Muslim PNP Special Mobile Group who have been ordered out of the area to another assignment to defuse tensions are refusing to surrender their firearms and leave Jolo unless the Army and Scout Rangers are pulled out, too! Sanamagan. Can you beat that? The threat is that they’ll return to the hills if their demands are not met.

My response is: Good riddance! They were a knife-in-our-backs, anyway. Now, at least, we can clearly identify them as the foe. The sad part, of course, is that those bandidos are now well-supplied with government-issued weapons and logistics. They can even infiltrate communities everywhere, posing as legitimate police constables.

* * *

There’s nothing more devoutly to be wished for, it must be said, than a brotherhood of Filipino Muslims and Christians under our common flag and oath of allegiance. But how can we contend with the weight of traditional animosities, engendered by song and legend, and reinforced by the teachings in Qu’ranic schools (madrasahs as they’re called in Pakistan and Afghanistan) where children learn that Muslims belong to a worldwide community, and that they can never trust the Infidel – meaning us, Christians.

For instance, this mentality is why Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder and leader of India’s Muslim League during the last days of the British Raj, insisted on establishing an independent homeland for India’s Muslims, to be called "Pakistan", which means "Land of the Pure." What about non-Muslims like Hindus, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Christians? We were all "impure," naturally. (In India, it has to be added, there is an irony to Jonnah’s attitude: Under the Hindu caste system, we are outcasts and "impure", too.)

How religion, disastrously, divides this world into warring camps, even Christian versus Christian (as in Northern Ireland), Croatia, and other troubled areas.

During the years this writer travelled through Mindanao, children and those barely out of puberty would stand by the road and call me "Filipino."

"What about you?" I used to shout back. "Aren’t you Filipinos, too?"

They shook their heads resolutely, replying that they were Maranao, or Tausug, or Samal, or Maguindanao, or Yakan. Out of the mouths of babes!

It may smack of oversimplification but that’s the bare-bones reality of the situation. Until and unless, by resolute and patient effort, we can bring up a new generation in Mindanao of Muslims and Christians at ease with each other, schooled in equality, mutual respect, and recognizing common goals and aspirations, there will always be suspicion and hostility.

There is no "magic wand" that can bring such an Utopia about. Alas, if they’re shooting at us, there’s no alternative to shooting back. So it goes on, and on, and on.

The common wisdom is that the Bangsamoro rebellion dates back only to the 1970s. This is untrue. This is a battle that has been waged for centuries. The term "Moros" was inflicted on the Muslims, whose kingdoms ranged as far north as Manila when the Spanish conquistadores arrived in the sixteenth century. This was because the Spaniards had just shrugged off eight centuries of Moorish or Moro domination themselves. If you journey through Spain, you’ll find cities in which Islam’s great civilizations and universities once flourished, like Cadiz, Granada and Sevilla. You’ll also come upon cities, like the place from which the world-famous Jerez or sherry wine comes, Jerez-de-la-Frontera. Why de la Frontera? Because Jerez was one of the frontier cities fortified by Christians against the encroachment of the Muslim Kingdoms of Spain. The patron saint of Spain remains Santiago Matamoros – St. James, the Killer of Moors.

The great Captain Ferdinand Magellan, who died at the hands of Chieftain Lapu-lapu, didn’t live long enough to appreciate the fact, but it must have astonished Spanish King Felipe II’s men dispatched to colonize our islands in 1564, Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, the captain-general of the expedition, and the Augustinian Friar Andres de Urdaneta, to sail halfway around the world – and find the Moros confronting them again here.

When I was a boy, in my home province of Ilocos Sur, we still could find the broken ruins that far north in Luzon of Spanish-built watchtowers erected so coastal-guardians could look out to sea. Whenever the distinctive sails of marauding Moro vintas were spotted on the horizon, the alarm would go up. The Moros, fierce warriors and sailors even then, were constantly in search of loot and slaves.

As everybody has been reminded constantly, the antecedents of today’s "suicide bombers" were the suicide krismen of Mindanao – The juramentados. These Muslim fanatics (freedom-fighters in today’s euphemistic parlance?) would shave their heads, put tourniquets to bind their arms and legs (so they could keep on going even after being struck by bullets), offer their lives to Allah, then embark on an amok rampage, attempting to kill as many Christians as possible before they succumbed to their wounds. As in today’s intifada and the mujahideen creed of al-Qaeda, their souls would go straight to Paradise, with its delights and blessings.

The other side of the coin of this tradition of hatred is the fact that one of the slain Scout Rangers was reported beheaded by the angry Moro "civilians" who threw themselves on them and cut them to pieces. This is why, for that matter, the Abu Sayyaf have the quaint practice of beheading some of their captives, particularly priests and soldiers (and American hostage Guillermo Sobero.) Mindanao’s Muslims believe that the souls of headless corpses, or those missing vital body parts, have no chance of getting to heaven.

* * *

As for the period of the American occupation, John J. Pershing who was later, as commanding general, to lead the American Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War I, had his hands full contending with Moro insurgency when he was in charge of Mindanao. He is well remembered, for instance, by Zamboangueños who named one of their crowded plazas, Pershing Square. (The old tale about the .45 caliber pistol is too hoary to relate anew.)

However, here’s what one American author, Louis C. Cornish, wrote about his pre-war trips around Mindanao in a 1942 book, The Philippine Calling (Dorrance & Company, Inc., Philadelphia).

Recounted Mr. Cornish: "There is a difference of opinion as to the danger of traveling among the Moros, some Americans feeling there is none; but one hears tales of cruelty, treachery and thieving. In Dansalan (now Marawi) we learned that the night before our arrival the metal water pipes at one of the schools had been cut and carried away to make guns. Later we heard that two Filipino Christians were murdered by Moros on the night of our stay. They were promptly captured by the Constabulary. In January, 1939, James Fugette, an American distinguished for his efficient service as former governor of the Island of Jolo and also widely known and respected for other disinterested work, was brutally murdered in the province of Cotabato, through which we passed on our second day’s travel. The persons responsible for the crime had not up to then been apprehended. On the other hand one hears high praise of the Moro’s passion for freedom and education. Bishop de los Reyes said to us, speaking of the dignity of their bearing on public occasions in Manila, ‘Their words are as the words of kings.’

"One cannot learn much about the Moros without realizing the desperate position in which this proud race, the original settlers and present owners of much of Mindanao, have been placed. Confiding in the promise of the United States Government given to them in 1911 by General Pershing, then Governor of the Moro Province, (Executive Order No. 24, Government of the Moro Province, Sept. 8, 1911) that they would be protected if they surrendered their arms, they did so, and before long found themselves ruled by Filipinos, their traditional enemies. It has to be admitted also that both Americans and Filipino authorities have shown on occasion no comprehension of ruling through tolerance as well as justice, while on the other hand wise and understanding men of both races have demonstrated what can be accomplished through friendly and fair dealing."

In this light, it’s easier to understand why distrust persists. Remember this pre-war American observer’s words ". . . ruled by Filipinos, their traditional enemies."

Aside from the debate their presence in Basilan and the prospect of more US Special Forces troops arriving in Mindanao for the Balikatan war games has engendered, what the Americans will be able to contribute to the crushing of the Abu Sayyaf remains a question mark.

Nobody believes the fable, really, that they will be coming only as "trainers" and "advisers", but neither can the opposition or the Left expect the President and her government to admit that a combat role for the Yanks is envisioned. In ordinary, everyday life, you may call that lying, but in the exercise of government during times of emergency, some would call it statecraft. Was it Winston Churchill (correct me, if I’m wrong) who said that in wartime, truth is so important "that it must be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies"?

The Americans, of course, are not supermen, and the Abus may, indeed, even conceivably make buffoons of them, continuing to lead our soldiers and their US allies on a merry chase. They are used to the terrain, they are well-financed from ransom profits and foreign funding. They are allied with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as I’ve insisted again and again, as well as the old MNLF.

In fact, this is what ties our government’s hands during the "hot pursuit" of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas being conducted by our military. While the government is involved in peace talks with Hashim Salamat’s MILF, our troops and PNP cannot attack MILF encampments and redoubts. We would be accused of violating the uneasy truce.

And yet, these camps are convenient, often enough, as safe havens in which the Abus can conceal themselves and their remaining captives, the Burnham couple and Deborah Yap. As for the MILF, they can claim good behavior. The "fund-raising" is now being undertaken by one of their splinter groups, the dreaded Pentagon Gang.

How imaginative of them to have chosen the name "Pentagon." That’s another thing for the Green Berets to figure out.

Don’t expect quick or easy "victories" in Mindanao. We could still be in danger, as a matter of fact, of a few surprises, debacles and defeats. Unlike the caves of Tora Bora, and the training camps of Kandehar, you can’t bomb the Abus out of business from high-flying B-52s.