On Friday, September 30th, 2011, South Cotabato Province became the fifth Mindanowan province to be declared as "Insurgency Free." Of course just as with the other four:
1) Misamis Oriental
2) Surigao del Norte
3) Camiguin
4) Dinagat
the proclamation amounts to little more than political jockying. As I noted in the Spring of 2010 when Misamis Oriental and Surigao del Norte Provinces, and by relation, Dinagat which was then fighting in the Supreme Court to secede from Surigao del Norte, the Armed Forces of the Philippines' proud claims of having made those provinces "NPA Free" would amount to "famous last words." With no joy I was proved right and so much so that as I compose this entry on September 30th the AFP is tearing up much of the Zapanta Valley on the Surigao del Norte and Agusan del Norte Provincial borders, as the 30IB leads a major two week military blitz against the NPA's Front 19 of Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee, or NEMRC.
South Cotabato is home to three different insurgent organisations and occasionaly has had as many as five operating there at any given time:
1) NPA, Front 73 and Front 74, both of the FSMRC, or Far South Mindanao Regional Committee
2) MILF/BIAF, the 107 Base Command as well as occasionally playing host to the Bedis contingent of the 105 Base Command
3) Black Fighters, a B'laan Tribal group composed of former NPA cadres and guerillas that is usally referred to by the generic label, "Sipot." The word is Hilgaynon, the language of the Ilonggo, a Bisaya People who constitute the majority of Christian Filipinos in Central Mindanao. The word simply means, "Take All" because that is exactly what the Black Fighters do when they swoop down on the isolated mountain communities they target, taking even impovershed peasants' last piece of livestock. To complicate matters local government authorities in South Cotabato have also used the label "Sipot" to refer to Maguindanowan Tribesmen, Muslims, who ALSO target isolated mountain villages.
The declared "Pacification" is interesting for two reasins, both of them inter-related. In South Cotabato these days all roads lead to Tapamkan, a municipality near the meeting of the South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Davao del Sur provincial borders. The town, not much to look at at first glance, is ground zero for the proposed open pit mine that will sit over what could be the world's second richest gold field. The project, split between four corporations:
1) SMI, or Sagittarius Mines Inc.
2) Xstrata
3) Indophil Resources Inc.
4) San Miguel Corporation, or SMC
aims to cover parts of three Mindanowan provinces:
1) South Cotabato
2) Sultan Kudarat
3) Davao del Sur
Naturally one of the world's most lucrative mining ventures would attract a significant amount of violence and mayhem were it located anyplace on the globe, how much more so seeing as how it is on Mindanao, the bloodiest part of an extremely violent country. Case in point, on the morning of September 16th, 2011, 53 year old Cristituto "Cris" Bual urged his wife Melanie to hurry up or they wouldn't have enough time to finish their regular morning run. These days Mr.Bual didn't get many opportunities to stretch his legs since getting a long awaited promotion at his job, in his employer's external operations facet. Promoted to Superintendent of Offsite Land Acquisition for SMI, or Sagittarius Mining Incorporated. As Melanie stepped outside in her trainers she saw that her husband was impatient as usual, almost at the front gate of their home in Davao City's Central Park Sub-division. Suddenly Melanie saw a man approach from outside the gate and before she could even register what was taking place, the man, dressed in combat fatigues and an orange baseball cap, raised his arm and fired three rounds from his 45 caliber pistol in quick succession. Each round was fired at point blank range and by the third bullet her husbands skull had been blown apart. Calmly walking to an idling black Honda Wave motorcycle the gunman slowly and calmly got on the rear of the motorcycle before it sped off and disappeared into the streets of the city's Bangkal District.
Immediately people theorised that the killing had been undertaken by the NPA since Bual worked for The Tampakan Project. It wasn't a theory without merit since the NPA has attacked the proposed mine at least four times since 2007. In fact, just this past March, 25th, 2011, a group of B'laan Tribesmen, including Black Fighters, had attacked a convoy of dumptrucks for a subcontractor on the Tampakan Project. In that attack as well, which killed one truck driver and two labourers- as well as critically wounding a third labourer- the NPA had been erroneously tagged as the party responsible.
On September 22nd, 2011 the NPA's Valentin Palamine Command of the Far South Mindanao Regional Committee, or FSMRC, released a statement in which it took great pains to claim that since Mr.Bual wasn't a senior employee of the Tampakan project his name had never been placed on the FSMRC Order of Battle. "Orders of Battle" are lists used by many militaries and paramilitaries in which personalities and other military objectives are priortised as to their importance.
Though the NPA adamantly opposes the Tampakan Project it is but one of literally dozens of very motivated opponents. Truth be told the NPA hasn't targetted executives or company officers since the early 1990s. In the many years since then the Maoists have instead latched onto highly symbolic targets like mining company's base camps or company equipment. It reserves executions for traitors to the movement or to intelligence assets. Laughably the NPA has suggested that it was SMI itself that killed Mr.Bual. According to the NPA Bual had recently been tasked with large land purchases in the municipality of Malalag in Davao del Sur Province. In three of that town's barangays along the shores of Malalag Bay the Tampakan Project aims to build a filtration facility, a dedicated port facility, and a 317 megawatt coal-fed energy plant to power the preceding two. The NPA says that Bual had failed to accomplish this task to the satisfaction of his employers and instead of demoting him, or even terminating his employment, they opted to terminate his life. If it wasn't such a deathly serious subject the NPA's ridiculous claim would be hilarious.
Now that I mentioned that March 25th ambush of a dumptruck convoy, accused triggerman Dagil Capion says that he is willing to surrender IF his brother Pilo Capion is released from the South Cotabato Provincial Jail in the provincial capital of Koronadal City where he is being held on a Rape charge. Dagil says that the Rape never took place but was contrived by SMI to payback his family for their strident, even violent opposition to the mining project. Things weren't always like this between SMI and the Capion Clan. Like a minority of his fellow B'laan Tribesmen Dagil had jumped at SMI's offer of steady employment.
Shortly after the project began to materielise in 2006 the company reached out to the municipality of Tampakan's strongest clans in a blatant attempt to curry favour and strengthen their hand. Dagil was hired as a Community Relations Officer on the company payroll. Things were fine for awhile but Dagil says he soon found himself sickened at SMI's dirty underhanded tricks and abuse of his fellow B'laan and the mountains they hold so sacred.
On the day in question, March 25th, Dagil Capion and several other men armed with M16s and M1s set out to get their message out for the umpteenth time. Travelling upcountry the men lined both sides of a new dirt road in Barangay Danlag's Sitio Datalbiao, stretching from Tampakan's Barangay Poblacion and the location of SMI's local offices up to a test site uphill from the aforementioned Barangay Danlag. When the convoy came within sight the men strafed the first dumptruck killing three men:
1) Osias Pizania, a driver
2) Rommel Vega, a labourer
3) Nelson Parasan, a labourer
and wounding another labourer:
1) Elmer Magdula
all three of whom were employed by SMI subcontractor LVE Construction. LVE happens to be owned by none other than Tampakan's Mayor, Leonardo V.Escobillos. Capion added a request that the Armed Forces of the Philippines, or AFP's Task Force Kitamco withdraw from the town's upland barangays to stem abuse committed in support of the Tampakan Project. Just one month before, on February 22nd, 2011, that ambush a B'laan leader who was one of the project's biggest cheerleaders had been targetted as well; Datu Tonio Binuhay and his pregnant wife Rosanna had just sat down for supper in the lowland barangay of Santa Cruz. Two men riding tandem on a single motorcycle approached the Binuhay home in Sitio S'bangken, in Purok Quezon. The rear passenger hopped off, dressed in camoflauge fatigues and wearing a "bonnet" (baclava) over his face, kicked in the door before spraying the couple with his M16. In just a few seconds Datu Tonio, his wife Rosanna, and their unborn child lay dead on the floor. This carnage had also briefly been blamed on the NPA's Front 74.
Although the NPA does make a convenient whipping boy the AFP and PNP, or Philippine National Police had no choice in these two cases and came clean, absolving the Maoist guerillas.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
GPH-MILF Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part VI: Wikileaks Ruin the MILF's Day
Most people are aware of the website Wikileaks and its stated mission to lift the veil of secrecy that clouds all our lives. Founded by an Australian religious cultist cum computer hacker Julian Assange, the site has made international news headlines dozens of times for its suprising, neigh often startling revelations. The problem of course is that IF the information offered is "secret," there is no way to corroborate it. In fact, several major problems with Wikileaks' trust factor. For starters, his man in Sweden is a rabid Anti-Semite of the Nazi persuasion, "Israel Shamir." Shamir not only is a confirmed bigot but has been caught MANUFACTURING fake cables concerning Belarussia and its right wing dictator whom Shamir counts as a close personal friend. That is all fine and dandy but what in the world does THAT have to do with Southeast Asia, let alone the Philippines, and not even introducing Mindanao into the mix? Funny you should ask...
In short, absolutely nothing EXCEPT that with the veracity and authenticity of every nugget Wikileaks coughs up is in question, UNLESS partcipants themselves somehow corroborate the information therein, there is no way in which to accept these cables as authentic or at all believable. The Manila-based media outlet ABS-CBN has become a bit fixated on cables having to do with the MILF. Reporter Jojo Malig has produced a few srticles since late July dealing with MILF-centric cabels. At first the MILF played dumb, hoping that the hoopla would dissipate but of course we are just about into October and behold, here I am. In mid-September the MILF finally lost its cool. Did they get angry at the US State Department, the entity allegedly behind the cables? Did they get irate with peroxide blonde Julian Assange and his wacky website? Of course not, don't be silly. No, the MILF placed ABS-CBN reporter Jojo Malig on its shi* list and began tossing off higly acidic condemnations.
What was it that FINALLY got the MILF spinning its propellers? Malig slash ABS-CBN dared to publish excerpts from cables in which former Malaysian Facilitator to the Peace Process, Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak clearly went above his pay grade and conveyed, seemingly unwittingly, that Malaysia had its own beady eye on the economic spoils in Mindanao and resented American influence in what Malaysia consider to be its own sphere of influence. Not only was America in Southeast Asia, it was in Islamic Southeast Asia.
It is ironic given the fact that in more than a dozen cables Othman practically begs the American Ambassador to Malaysia, Christopher J.Lafleur to expand its presence in Central Mindanao. Othman specifically asked America to involve itself in the "bakwit," or Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) dynamic as well as to build an institution to train future Filipino Muslim leaders. The last wish is a fine idea but the cultural parameters of Filipino Muslims are so far removed from the Liberally Democratic parameters of most any Western Culture.
On September 15th, 2011, the MILF Central Committee contacted ABS-CBN and asked the media giant to "discipline" its reporter, Jojo Maliga. Chairman of the Central Committee, Muhammed Ameen, criticised Maliga's September 9th article entitled, "MILF Talks Show Malaysia Eyes Mindanao," in which Maliga posted excerpts from Wikileak Cables in which Othman did exactly as Maliga claimed. Says Ameen, "The newscaster must be reprimanded or axed immediately for violating the ethics of journalism [sic]." Let us hope Ameen wasn't speaking literally when he demanded that Mr.Maliga be axed. After all, the fun loving folks in the MILF Shari'a Supreme Court HAS had men decapitated over less serious crimes.
Jojo Maliga's other articles, and many cables never published, show perfectly the naked, unadulterated pro-MILF bias that caused the Philippine Government to nearly sacrifice the entire Peace Process in order to ensure Othman's permanent removal as Facilitator. I'll spare the petty drama regarding the entire replacement process since I have discussed it in depth in other "GPH-MILF Peace Process" entries.
I will offer some juicy excerpts from the Wikileaks Cables that perfectly frame the GPH campaign to replace Othman and how the Philippine Government really had no choice in the matter.
Cable #08KL94, transmitted in February of 2008 from Ambassador Christopher J.Lafleur at the American Embassy in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia to the U.S. State Department in condensed and paraphrased form is as follows:
In February of 2008 Ambassador Lafleur conferred with Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak during the latter's visit to the US Embassy to Malaysia, in Kuala Lampur. The major point of discussion was the December 2007 failure of the most recent Formal Round, in what both Panels labeled, "Proximity Talks." Othman 'regretted' that the GHP (then known as the GRP, or Government of the Republic of the Philippines before being changed to Government of the Philippines, GPH) Peace Panel wasn't permitted to discuss Governance since both the MILF AND Othman felt that Governance is the most important aspect on the table. Othman suggested to the author that the then-impasse might be resolved via a "secret codicil," or secret Agreement. Othman said that in the February 8th of 2008 Executive Session between Panel Chairmen and one Peace Panelist from each side, he had tabled the idea about the secret Agreement but that the GPH Panel hadn't discussed it and had begged off saying that it would have to discuss the suggestion with President Arroyo and her Cabinet first. Datuk Othman explained that the aforementioned "Secret Codicil" could be in the form of an Interim Agreement
Othman then began discussing how there had been a marked increase of armed contacts between the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces as the MILF's military wing is known. The inference of course being that was a direct correlation to the MILF's frustration at the floundering Peace Process. He discussed how the increase in armed contacts had begun just after the collapse of the December 2007 Formal Round (Proximity Talks) in Kuala Lampur, and that IF the GPH Peace Panel didn't show some gumption and sincerity in the Peace Process the Malaysian Government would drop out of the IMT, or International Monitoring Team, a Malaysian led Security Force that are mandated to serve as a buffer force between acrimonious positions of AFP and BIAF. In fact, Othman warned that his Government might withdraw its IMT contingent "at any time."
Cable #06KL1812, transmitted on September 27th, 2006, once again, by Ambassador Lafleur from the US Embassy in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, to the US State Department in Washington D.C.
Regarding a conversation between the US Embassy's Political Counselor (Political Officer) and Facilitator Othman centering upon the GPH-MILF Peace Process. Othman pressured America to lean on then-President Arroyo. "Compared with his views in early August, Othman's outlook on the Peace Process was far more negative and more partisan in favor of the MILF negotiating position." "Othman continues to show strong pro-Moro sympathies in our meetings and does not hide his view that at this juncture at least, compromises should come from Manila, not from the MILF." "While acknowledging that he risked being labeled as partisan at this juncture, he placed the blame for the current 'impasse' on the GRP (the GRP being the old abbreviation for the Government of the Republic of the Philippines. In September of 2010 the Government changed its official designation to GPH, or Government of the Philippines)." "Othman urged the U.S. To exert diplomatic pressure on Manila to offer more compromise on the issiue of Moro-administered territory." "Othman clearly intended his comments to influence US views in support of international pressure on Manila."
I mean, really, it truly does not get any clearer than that. The Facilitator's role is to remain absolutely neutral and above the communal fray. Yet here was Othman trying to cajole the United States into twisting the Philippine Government's arm so as to achieve a more advantageous position for the MILF/BIAF. The GPH insistence on the replacement of Othman before resumption of Talks in 2010 was widely perceived to be a simple delaying tactic. In reality noone can help but see just how foul Othman really is.
More over, Cable #07KL496, also from Ambassador Lafleur to the State Department, had Othman blaming the AFP for all the armed contacts between the AFP and the BIAF. In his eyes the Government could nothing right.
Cable #06KL2235, again, Ambassador Lafleur to the State Department, offers more of the same bias, "The Malaysian Facilitator notably continued to place the onus for compromise on Manila rather than the MILF."
Aside from Othman's bias and the illustration of just why the Government went to such lengths to excise Othman from the Peace Process are well worth the reading. I had included a scant reference to Othman's suggested "Secret Codicil" which of course ended up evolving into the failed 2008 Interim Agreement commonly referred to, the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, or the MoA-AD. Like so many other subjects THAT is clearly worth at least one entry all its own.
In short, absolutely nothing EXCEPT that with the veracity and authenticity of every nugget Wikileaks coughs up is in question, UNLESS partcipants themselves somehow corroborate the information therein, there is no way in which to accept these cables as authentic or at all believable. The Manila-based media outlet ABS-CBN has become a bit fixated on cables having to do with the MILF. Reporter Jojo Malig has produced a few srticles since late July dealing with MILF-centric cabels. At first the MILF played dumb, hoping that the hoopla would dissipate but of course we are just about into October and behold, here I am. In mid-September the MILF finally lost its cool. Did they get angry at the US State Department, the entity allegedly behind the cables? Did they get irate with peroxide blonde Julian Assange and his wacky website? Of course not, don't be silly. No, the MILF placed ABS-CBN reporter Jojo Malig on its shi* list and began tossing off higly acidic condemnations.
What was it that FINALLY got the MILF spinning its propellers? Malig slash ABS-CBN dared to publish excerpts from cables in which former Malaysian Facilitator to the Peace Process, Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak clearly went above his pay grade and conveyed, seemingly unwittingly, that Malaysia had its own beady eye on the economic spoils in Mindanao and resented American influence in what Malaysia consider to be its own sphere of influence. Not only was America in Southeast Asia, it was in Islamic Southeast Asia.
It is ironic given the fact that in more than a dozen cables Othman practically begs the American Ambassador to Malaysia, Christopher J.Lafleur to expand its presence in Central Mindanao. Othman specifically asked America to involve itself in the "bakwit," or Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) dynamic as well as to build an institution to train future Filipino Muslim leaders. The last wish is a fine idea but the cultural parameters of Filipino Muslims are so far removed from the Liberally Democratic parameters of most any Western Culture.
On September 15th, 2011, the MILF Central Committee contacted ABS-CBN and asked the media giant to "discipline" its reporter, Jojo Maliga. Chairman of the Central Committee, Muhammed Ameen, criticised Maliga's September 9th article entitled, "MILF Talks Show Malaysia Eyes Mindanao," in which Maliga posted excerpts from Wikileak Cables in which Othman did exactly as Maliga claimed. Says Ameen, "The newscaster must be reprimanded or axed immediately for violating the ethics of journalism [sic]." Let us hope Ameen wasn't speaking literally when he demanded that Mr.Maliga be axed. After all, the fun loving folks in the MILF Shari'a Supreme Court HAS had men decapitated over less serious crimes.
Jojo Maliga's other articles, and many cables never published, show perfectly the naked, unadulterated pro-MILF bias that caused the Philippine Government to nearly sacrifice the entire Peace Process in order to ensure Othman's permanent removal as Facilitator. I'll spare the petty drama regarding the entire replacement process since I have discussed it in depth in other "GPH-MILF Peace Process" entries.
I will offer some juicy excerpts from the Wikileaks Cables that perfectly frame the GPH campaign to replace Othman and how the Philippine Government really had no choice in the matter.
Cable #08KL94, transmitted in February of 2008 from Ambassador Christopher J.Lafleur at the American Embassy in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia to the U.S. State Department in condensed and paraphrased form is as follows:
In February of 2008 Ambassador Lafleur conferred with Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak during the latter's visit to the US Embassy to Malaysia, in Kuala Lampur. The major point of discussion was the December 2007 failure of the most recent Formal Round, in what both Panels labeled, "Proximity Talks." Othman 'regretted' that the GHP (then known as the GRP, or Government of the Republic of the Philippines before being changed to Government of the Philippines, GPH) Peace Panel wasn't permitted to discuss Governance since both the MILF AND Othman felt that Governance is the most important aspect on the table. Othman suggested to the author that the then-impasse might be resolved via a "secret codicil," or secret Agreement. Othman said that in the February 8th of 2008 Executive Session between Panel Chairmen and one Peace Panelist from each side, he had tabled the idea about the secret Agreement but that the GPH Panel hadn't discussed it and had begged off saying that it would have to discuss the suggestion with President Arroyo and her Cabinet first. Datuk Othman explained that the aforementioned "Secret Codicil" could be in the form of an Interim Agreement
Othman then began discussing how there had been a marked increase of armed contacts between the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces as the MILF's military wing is known. The inference of course being that was a direct correlation to the MILF's frustration at the floundering Peace Process. He discussed how the increase in armed contacts had begun just after the collapse of the December 2007 Formal Round (Proximity Talks) in Kuala Lampur, and that IF the GPH Peace Panel didn't show some gumption and sincerity in the Peace Process the Malaysian Government would drop out of the IMT, or International Monitoring Team, a Malaysian led Security Force that are mandated to serve as a buffer force between acrimonious positions of AFP and BIAF. In fact, Othman warned that his Government might withdraw its IMT contingent "at any time."
Cable #06KL1812, transmitted on September 27th, 2006, once again, by Ambassador Lafleur from the US Embassy in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, to the US State Department in Washington D.C.
Regarding a conversation between the US Embassy's Political Counselor (Political Officer) and Facilitator Othman centering upon the GPH-MILF Peace Process. Othman pressured America to lean on then-President Arroyo. "Compared with his views in early August, Othman's outlook on the Peace Process was far more negative and more partisan in favor of the MILF negotiating position." "Othman continues to show strong pro-Moro sympathies in our meetings and does not hide his view that at this juncture at least, compromises should come from Manila, not from the MILF." "While acknowledging that he risked being labeled as partisan at this juncture, he placed the blame for the current 'impasse' on the GRP (the GRP being the old abbreviation for the Government of the Republic of the Philippines. In September of 2010 the Government changed its official designation to GPH, or Government of the Philippines)." "Othman urged the U.S. To exert diplomatic pressure on Manila to offer more compromise on the issiue of Moro-administered territory." "Othman clearly intended his comments to influence US views in support of international pressure on Manila."
I mean, really, it truly does not get any clearer than that. The Facilitator's role is to remain absolutely neutral and above the communal fray. Yet here was Othman trying to cajole the United States into twisting the Philippine Government's arm so as to achieve a more advantageous position for the MILF/BIAF. The GPH insistence on the replacement of Othman before resumption of Talks in 2010 was widely perceived to be a simple delaying tactic. In reality noone can help but see just how foul Othman really is.
More over, Cable #07KL496, also from Ambassador Lafleur to the State Department, had Othman blaming the AFP for all the armed contacts between the AFP and the BIAF. In his eyes the Government could nothing right.
Cable #06KL2235, again, Ambassador Lafleur to the State Department, offers more of the same bias, "The Malaysian Facilitator notably continued to place the onus for compromise on Manila rather than the MILF."
Aside from Othman's bias and the illustration of just why the Government went to such lengths to excise Othman from the Peace Process are well worth the reading. I had included a scant reference to Othman's suggested "Secret Codicil" which of course ended up evolving into the failed 2008 Interim Agreement commonly referred to, the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, or the MoA-AD. Like so many other subjects THAT is clearly worth at least one entry all its own.
Kidanp for Ransom for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part XV: The Release of Manuel Boniao
In my recent "Kidnap for Ransom for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part XII" entry I discussed the September 19th, 2011 KFR, or Kidnap for Ransom of Cagayan del Oro City businessman Manuel G.Boniao. For those who don't recall, men dressed in PNP, or Philippine National Police, uniforms entered Peoples Agri Supply in Barangay Gusa and managed to disarm the lone security guard and divest him of his pump shotgun. Grabbing Mr.Boniao as well as his 17 year old son Edwin the faux (or authentic) policemen made their way out of the warehouse-like building. Arguing amongst themselves the kidnappers ended up not taking the boy and exited with only Mr.Boniao before speeding away into Barangay Puerto and an escape by sea.
On Wednesday, September 21st, the Isuzu Adventure used in the kidnapping was discovered unoccupied in the neighbouring province of Bukidnon. Parked on the side of a hiway in Sitio Langga in the municipality of Sumilao's Barangay San Vicente, facing towards Cagayan del Oro City, it had been amateurishly spraypainted black in a foolish attempt to change the vehicle's appearance. Twenty-two empty cans of black Pylox spray paint along with three jars of mostly used laquer thinner were discovered inside the SUV, along with the six police patrol tee shirts used in the kidnapping and four PNP baseball caps. The tee shirts are easily faked but all six of these shirts were PNP-issued to PRO-4A, or Police Regional Office for Region 4A. Region 4A is more popularly known as CALABARZON Region, on Luzon. While those shirts definitely lend creedence to the intelligence coming out of Manila that the various PNP cliques moonlighting as KFR, or Kidnap for Ransom groups have finally branched into the south, it is also just as possible that the uniforms had been captured or stolen.
As for a police connection, such a development, if accurate, is very interesting because of the propencity of turf wars between newcomers, albeit highly organised, and the well established local Mindanowan organisations directly tied into the local power structure. Also found in the re-painted SUV was a roll of tape, Boniao's emptied brown leather wallet and most noteworthy of all, the discovery of Mr.Boniao's sleeveless blue tee shirt with blood stains all over it. The SUV was traced and found to have been originally owned by Abdul Hakim Grande. On September 15th, 2011, four days before Mr.Boniao was dragged into hell, Mr.Grande sold the vehicle to Enrique Goltiao. Mr.Goltiao tells a funny story. According to him, as soon as he bought the red Isuzu Adventure (NOT a Mitsibushi Adventure as many have erroneously reported), he turned right around and flipped it to an auto broker whom he knows only by the eponym, or should I instead say "nom de guerre," Gayong. Ridiculously police claim to be focusing on "Gayong" as opposed to hanging Enrique Goltiao up by his thumbs and laying the rattan on him.
Almost immediately after the September 19th abduction the family contacted an old friend, Felix Borromeo, the ex-Mayor of Balingasag, a municipality within Bukidnon Province, who was tied into the local KFR industry. With Borremeo's assistance the negotiations went smoothly but as in all cases resolved within days the Boniao Family ended up paying much more than would normally be the case. Reportedly Mrs.Boniao pushed Mr.Borremeo to pay whatever they demanded so as to not prolong the ordeal. One certainly cannot criticise the woman even if no compelling evidence like her husband's badly bloodied shirt were discovered. As if that wasn't horrendous enough I am sure that Mrs.Boniao was well aware of the infamous KFR of their former business associate, Bennie Longbien Lee. The Tsinoy (Filipino of Chinese descent) businessman's shop was directly next door to Boniao's Peoples Agri Supply. Way back in 1980 Mr.Lee was kidnapped from his place of business, just as Mr.Boniao was. When the family took too long consolidating their money for a steep ransom demand Mr.Lee was executed. Understandably Mrs.Boniao, who personally witnessed her husband's abduction, was in no shape to endure a long and drawn out negotiating process.
Mr.Borremeo did as Mrs.Boniao requested and managed to net a 33% reduction from the kidnapper's first authentic offer of 5.5 Million Pesos. That same day, Saturday, September 24th, he then delivered a "Room and Lodging Fee" of 1.5 Million Pesos ($33,000) to a representative of the KFR group at a local mall. That evening, Mr.Boniao was dropped off in front of his Cagayan del Oro city home in Barangay Carmen's Golden Village Sub-division having taken a habal-habal (motorcycle taxi), after his abductors dropped him off on a hiway in Lanao del Sur Province.
Aside from having been handcuffed during his five day ordeal and almost always under a blindfold, Mr.Boniao was apparently none the worse for the wear although quite often the psychological wounds run a lot deeper and often never heal at all. In Zamboanga City, inside of Camp Navarro, the huge military base that serves as the home of WESMINCOM, or Western Mindanao Command, sits a non-descript turquiose and white concrete bungalow. Not much to look at, it is proof positive that great things often come in small packages. Officially christened "Healing House" it was created through the hard work and tireless effort of a female American expatriate, psychologist Eleanor Lisa Beyea Pomoroy PhD, who spent the better part of a year and a half working at Dr.Torres Memorial Hospital in Lamitan City on the island of Basilan. Her place of employment was the scene of a pivotal ASG, or Abu Sayyaf Group, kidnapping that took place way back in 2001.
Then-leader of the Basilan ASG, Khadaffy Janjalani, younger brother of ASG founder Abdurajak Janjalani, had led his band of sorry misfits in an audacious attack against a high priced resort off of Palawan Island's capital of Puerto Princessa. The kidnapping including three Americans (the Burnhams, Martin and Gracia, a missionary couple, and Guillermo Sobrero, a would be lothario) and high tailed it back south to Basilan.
Landing in Basilan with the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, right behind him Janjalani led his men and their captives to what he thought would be his last stand, inside Dr.Torres Memorial Hospital. Of course Janjalani managed to escape out of there with even more captives thanks to the connivance of local politicians and the local military commander. However, the Palawan abduction, known commonly as the "Dos Palmas Kidnapping," after the pricey resort where it transpired, has become the quinessential expat nightmare. It made such an impression on the female American I mentioned that she launched an initiative that culminated in the creation of the afore mentioned "Healing House." The name refers to a lot more than the modest concrete structure situated catacorner to a food stall, but to the scores of therapeutic programmes that seek to alleviate much of the mental baggage carried by kidnapping victims. Unfortunately the programme ended not long after she returned to the United States but it ought to have set a standard of care for these battered and bruised victims, of which Mr.Boniao surely is one.
Speaking of the Dos Palmas Kidnapping, two brothers from Basilan learned this week that one must always pay for their mistakes. As teens brothers Abu Abdul Aziz Kunting and Abu Akmed Kunting joined Abu Sayyaf. The decision wouldn't have been too difficult given the island of Basilan's extreme poverty and the Abu Sayyaf's recent kidnapping on Sipidan Island in Malaysia having netted the group more than 20 Million US Dollars coutesy of Libya. So much money was floating around in those days that the US Dollar lost half its value on Jolo Island. In the days after the Dos Palmas Kidnapping they must have seriously questioned their decision. Living in the deep bush in Basilan is incredibly difficult since practically all the island's population lives along its coast. Then, being chased to Zamboanga where the infamous Abu Sobaya ended up going down in a fussilade of bullets...well, you get the picture.
The Brothers Kunting chuckked it away for a new life as Robert and Jason Tan, respectively. Now living as Christians they gravitated towards Davao Region and it was there that the AFP's MIGs (Military Intelligence Group) 9 and 11, backed by the 28IB (Infantry Battalion) and the 104th Military Intelligence Company found them on September 23rd, 2011. Living in a non-descript thatched hut (nipa) in the municipality of Mati's Barangay Matiao in Davao Oriental Province, the two were taken on warrants out of Regional Trial Court #9 in Zamboanga City for Illegal Detention and Kidnapping in the Dos Palmas Kidnapping. The past ALWAYS catches up with you.
On Wednesday, September 21st, the Isuzu Adventure used in the kidnapping was discovered unoccupied in the neighbouring province of Bukidnon. Parked on the side of a hiway in Sitio Langga in the municipality of Sumilao's Barangay San Vicente, facing towards Cagayan del Oro City, it had been amateurishly spraypainted black in a foolish attempt to change the vehicle's appearance. Twenty-two empty cans of black Pylox spray paint along with three jars of mostly used laquer thinner were discovered inside the SUV, along with the six police patrol tee shirts used in the kidnapping and four PNP baseball caps. The tee shirts are easily faked but all six of these shirts were PNP-issued to PRO-4A, or Police Regional Office for Region 4A. Region 4A is more popularly known as CALABARZON Region, on Luzon. While those shirts definitely lend creedence to the intelligence coming out of Manila that the various PNP cliques moonlighting as KFR, or Kidnap for Ransom groups have finally branched into the south, it is also just as possible that the uniforms had been captured or stolen.
As for a police connection, such a development, if accurate, is very interesting because of the propencity of turf wars between newcomers, albeit highly organised, and the well established local Mindanowan organisations directly tied into the local power structure. Also found in the re-painted SUV was a roll of tape, Boniao's emptied brown leather wallet and most noteworthy of all, the discovery of Mr.Boniao's sleeveless blue tee shirt with blood stains all over it. The SUV was traced and found to have been originally owned by Abdul Hakim Grande. On September 15th, 2011, four days before Mr.Boniao was dragged into hell, Mr.Grande sold the vehicle to Enrique Goltiao. Mr.Goltiao tells a funny story. According to him, as soon as he bought the red Isuzu Adventure (NOT a Mitsibushi Adventure as many have erroneously reported), he turned right around and flipped it to an auto broker whom he knows only by the eponym, or should I instead say "nom de guerre," Gayong. Ridiculously police claim to be focusing on "Gayong" as opposed to hanging Enrique Goltiao up by his thumbs and laying the rattan on him.
Almost immediately after the September 19th abduction the family contacted an old friend, Felix Borromeo, the ex-Mayor of Balingasag, a municipality within Bukidnon Province, who was tied into the local KFR industry. With Borremeo's assistance the negotiations went smoothly but as in all cases resolved within days the Boniao Family ended up paying much more than would normally be the case. Reportedly Mrs.Boniao pushed Mr.Borremeo to pay whatever they demanded so as to not prolong the ordeal. One certainly cannot criticise the woman even if no compelling evidence like her husband's badly bloodied shirt were discovered. As if that wasn't horrendous enough I am sure that Mrs.Boniao was well aware of the infamous KFR of their former business associate, Bennie Longbien Lee. The Tsinoy (Filipino of Chinese descent) businessman's shop was directly next door to Boniao's Peoples Agri Supply. Way back in 1980 Mr.Lee was kidnapped from his place of business, just as Mr.Boniao was. When the family took too long consolidating their money for a steep ransom demand Mr.Lee was executed. Understandably Mrs.Boniao, who personally witnessed her husband's abduction, was in no shape to endure a long and drawn out negotiating process.
Mr.Borremeo did as Mrs.Boniao requested and managed to net a 33% reduction from the kidnapper's first authentic offer of 5.5 Million Pesos. That same day, Saturday, September 24th, he then delivered a "Room and Lodging Fee" of 1.5 Million Pesos ($33,000) to a representative of the KFR group at a local mall. That evening, Mr.Boniao was dropped off in front of his Cagayan del Oro city home in Barangay Carmen's Golden Village Sub-division having taken a habal-habal (motorcycle taxi), after his abductors dropped him off on a hiway in Lanao del Sur Province.
Aside from having been handcuffed during his five day ordeal and almost always under a blindfold, Mr.Boniao was apparently none the worse for the wear although quite often the psychological wounds run a lot deeper and often never heal at all. In Zamboanga City, inside of Camp Navarro, the huge military base that serves as the home of WESMINCOM, or Western Mindanao Command, sits a non-descript turquiose and white concrete bungalow. Not much to look at, it is proof positive that great things often come in small packages. Officially christened "Healing House" it was created through the hard work and tireless effort of a female American expatriate, psychologist Eleanor Lisa Beyea Pomoroy PhD, who spent the better part of a year and a half working at Dr.Torres Memorial Hospital in Lamitan City on the island of Basilan. Her place of employment was the scene of a pivotal ASG, or Abu Sayyaf Group, kidnapping that took place way back in 2001.
Then-leader of the Basilan ASG, Khadaffy Janjalani, younger brother of ASG founder Abdurajak Janjalani, had led his band of sorry misfits in an audacious attack against a high priced resort off of Palawan Island's capital of Puerto Princessa. The kidnapping including three Americans (the Burnhams, Martin and Gracia, a missionary couple, and Guillermo Sobrero, a would be lothario) and high tailed it back south to Basilan.
Landing in Basilan with the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, right behind him Janjalani led his men and their captives to what he thought would be his last stand, inside Dr.Torres Memorial Hospital. Of course Janjalani managed to escape out of there with even more captives thanks to the connivance of local politicians and the local military commander. However, the Palawan abduction, known commonly as the "Dos Palmas Kidnapping," after the pricey resort where it transpired, has become the quinessential expat nightmare. It made such an impression on the female American I mentioned that she launched an initiative that culminated in the creation of the afore mentioned "Healing House." The name refers to a lot more than the modest concrete structure situated catacorner to a food stall, but to the scores of therapeutic programmes that seek to alleviate much of the mental baggage carried by kidnapping victims. Unfortunately the programme ended not long after she returned to the United States but it ought to have set a standard of care for these battered and bruised victims, of which Mr.Boniao surely is one.
Speaking of the Dos Palmas Kidnapping, two brothers from Basilan learned this week that one must always pay for their mistakes. As teens brothers Abu Abdul Aziz Kunting and Abu Akmed Kunting joined Abu Sayyaf. The decision wouldn't have been too difficult given the island of Basilan's extreme poverty and the Abu Sayyaf's recent kidnapping on Sipidan Island in Malaysia having netted the group more than 20 Million US Dollars coutesy of Libya. So much money was floating around in those days that the US Dollar lost half its value on Jolo Island. In the days after the Dos Palmas Kidnapping they must have seriously questioned their decision. Living in the deep bush in Basilan is incredibly difficult since practically all the island's population lives along its coast. Then, being chased to Zamboanga where the infamous Abu Sobaya ended up going down in a fussilade of bullets...well, you get the picture.
The Brothers Kunting chuckked it away for a new life as Robert and Jason Tan, respectively. Now living as Christians they gravitated towards Davao Region and it was there that the AFP's MIGs (Military Intelligence Group) 9 and 11, backed by the 28IB (Infantry Battalion) and the 104th Military Intelligence Company found them on September 23rd, 2011. Living in a non-descript thatched hut (nipa) in the municipality of Mati's Barangay Matiao in Davao Oriental Province, the two were taken on warrants out of Regional Trial Court #9 in Zamboanga City for Illegal Detention and Kidnapping in the Dos Palmas Kidnapping. The past ALWAYS catches up with you.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
GPH-MILF Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part V
It certainly has been a rollercoaster ride these last two months. From the brink of war at the end of July over the Government's interminable delays in turning over its long promised Draft Comprehensive Compact, to near fever pitch excitement (if you root for the MILF) and trepidation (if you hope to see the nation remain intact) just a few days later with the secret meeting in Japan, to the entire Peace Process hitting a brick wall on August 23rd as the GPH Peace Panel stormed out of the conference room in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia over MILF abuse after the latter finally got its paws on the aforementioned GPH Draft Comprehensive Compact the day before. From the ashes of August 23rd glimmers have since appeared and when, on September, 6th, 2011 Chairman of the MILF Peace Panel, Mohagher Iqbal travelled to Davao City for a warm up "Focus Forum," observers began paying careful attention to what Iqbal had to say. The Davao Forum was merely a dry run before travelling north to the Central Philippines in a short but very meaningful round of "Focus Forums" well outside the MILF comfort zone of Central Mindanao. By the time the Visayan sojourn finished, on September 10th, any doubt that the Peace Process was still in existence had dissipated.
The Visayan Round, consisting of a press conference and two forums on three Visayan islands of:
1) Cebu
2) Bohol
3) Negros
was sponsored by the Davao City-based NGO, Initiative for International Dialogue, or IID, in conjunction with various local partners. In the warm up forum in Davao City, Iqbal was joined by Irish Minister of Parliament, Dominick Hannigan. MP Hannigan does double duty as the Chairman of the Committee of Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Signed in 1998 the document served as an FPA, or Final Peace Agreement between the IRA, or Irish Republican Army, Great Britain, and Britain's allies amongst the Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. Ireland is a traditionally Catholic nation but under domination from England mostly Scottish Protestants were transported into Ireland to help consolidate the English grip upon the land and its people. Shortly after the turn of the 20th Century the Irish rose up and eventually were able to achieve independence EXCEPT FOR for a northern portion that came to be called, "Northern Ireland."
Northern Ireland remained a British territory despite the vast majority of its inhabitants being indigenous Irish Catholics. The Scots-Irish, Protestants like the English, desired to remain one with England while virtually all Irish Catholics wanted either union with Ireland, or else indepence of its own. Britain doesn't relinquish land easily and so it was with Northern Ireland. Communal warfare ended up killing 3,000 under attacks that included a fair dose of terrorism on the part of the IRA and to a much lesser extent the Protestant paramilitaries. Finally, all three sides were able to reach the Good Friday Agreement satisfying all but a tiny iota of radicals in both the Catholic and the Protestant Communities.
The MILF has often looked towards the Good Friday Agreement as a working template for a Mindanowan peace agreement. To the laymen the conflict in Mindanao between the Government and the MILF certainly appears to be a conflict based upon ethno-religious sectarianism. In reality it is far more complicated. In Northern Ireland one can easily log the trajectory of the conflict from its baseline at the point where merry ole' England set its beady little eyes on poor old Ireland. One can observe all the incremental periods, all the issues neatly layered but what could one do with the MILF conflict in Mindanao? It isn't a case of proverbial "apples and oranges." It is much more like a case of "apples and goldfish."
In any event, MP Hannigan was spending three fun filled weeks in the Philippines fufilling a parliamentarian requirement to volunteer in charitable endeavours overseas. The programme, under the auspices of the NGO, Volunteers Overseas, or VSO, places skilled volunteers in the so called "Developing World." On the day in question, September 6th, MP Hannigan joined Chairman Iqbal, Peace Panelist, Professor Abhoud Syed Lingga, and Chairman of the MILF Peace Panel Secretariat, Jun Mantawil for the Forum in Davao, entitled, "Good Friday Agreement and the GPH Peace Agreement," at Ateneo de Davao University. The three hour programme at the school's Finster Building was moderated by Executive Director, Agusto "Gus" Miclat Jr. of the sponsoring NGO, the aforementioned IIC.
In Chairman Iqbal's speech he offered what he creatively labeled an "Update on the Peace Process," Iqbal gave a very condensed briefing about the "secret meeting" that took place between President Aquino and MILF Chairman al Haj Murad Iqbal on August 4th. Then, segueing into the August 22nd Government handover of its long awaited Draft Comprehensive Compact, where Iqbal spent the most time talking. No real suprises but a couple of interesting anecdotes. As Chairman of the MILF Peace Panel Iqbal met with his GPH counterpart, Mario Victor "Marvic" Leonen during the one hour Executive Session that took place first thing on August 22nd the two had a very heated exchange. According to Iqbal, Leonen tried to discuss the infamous Kumander Kato and his renegade military organisation, BIFF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. Iqbal refused to discuss it, reminding Leonen that the first course of business was the scheduled submission of the GPH Draft Comprehensive Agreement. Chairperson Leonen wouldn't play ball. Everytime Iqbal reminded Leonen that the GPH Draft was supposed to have been submitted back in March of 2011, Leonen would get angrier and angrier. Finally, with assistance from Malaysian Facilitator Datuk Ab Tengku Ghafar Tengku Mohammed, Iqbal was able to remain focused enough so as to bend Leonen's considerable will and get his way.
With that highly contentious issue settled they immediately opened the door and quickly went into the prefunctory diplomatic niceties before getting to the meat and bones of the meeting, the GPH Draft. Iqbal and the MILF Peace Panel refused to comment and informed Leonen that they would adjourn and study the GPH Draft overnight and offer their take on it as the first order of business the next morning, August 23rd, in plenary session. From there it is just a rehash of the same information I have posted in other "GPH-MILF Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011" entries.
On September 8th, Iqbal, Lingga, and Mantawil flew from Davao City to Cebu Island where the group, accompanied by IID Executive Director Agusto "Gus" Miclat Jr. The next morning, September 9th, the group travelled to Cebu City's Barangay Lahug for a press confrence held at Pino Filipino Cuisine on Wilson Street. The conference lasted a bit more than 2 hours and was scantily attended by less than a dozen media outlets. After finishing at 1PM the group travelled to Mactan, a suburb of Cebu City, and boarded a speed boat for the ride to Bohol, the second stop on their Visayan Tour.
Arriving in Bohol's Tagbiliran City, site of the second Forum, entilted, "Civil Society Dialogue with the MILF Peace Panel," at the University of Bohol. After a ahort opening speech by the university's President, Iqbal once again stepped to the podium. The speech, entitled, "Peace is the Concern of All," began with Chairman Iqbal touching upon local history to pique the attention of the nearly 400 attendees. Iqbal mentiomed that Bohol is the site of two blood compacts between local chiefs and allied foreigners. As Iqbal noted, the first compact took place on March 16th, 1565 between Datu Sikatuna of Bo'ol, Datu Sigala of Loboc, and the Spanish Conquistador, Legazpi. The three vowed to regard each other peacefully. The second compact, according to Iqbal, took place between an unknown Boholano datu and Rajah Laut Buisan, the military commander of the Maguindanao Sultanate in what is today Central Mindanao, citing the claim of Cesar Majul.
Iqbal, in a congratulatory tone informed his listeners that Bohol was home to the Daguhoy Revolt, the longest single insurrection in the Philippines. Led by Francisco Daguhoy the rebellion lasted from 1744 to 1829. That is ironic given the Filipino Muslim spiel about how the Filipino Muslims are now engaged in a 500 year rebellion.
Next on the menu was the revolt led by Tamblot in 1621. Tamblot was a babaylan, or shaman, and led his warriors against the Spanish in a noble but failed effort to save his tribe's indigenous faith. Naturally Iqbal was attempting to draw parallels between Tamblon's efforts to save his religion and therefore his way of life and the Filipino Muslim's struggle to do the same. In another ironic twist, in my previous "GPH-MILF Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011" entry I discussed the MILF's incredibly silly, "Top 10 List of Spoilers of the Peace Process." On that list the MILF took Manila-based journalist Ramon "Mon" Tulfo to task for daring to maintain that the GPH-MILF conflict is religio-culturally based whereas the MILF is insistent that it is entirely political. The MILF, after 24 years, has still not managed to compose a coherent platform, nor a half-way believable historical narrative.
Finishing in Bohol the group returned to the speed boat and departed for the ride back to Cebu City where they retired for the evening. Very early the next morning, September 10th, the group hopped in the same speed boat for the long ride to Negros Island, the site of their third and last stop. Landing in Bacolod City they quickly met with the co-sponser of the Negros Forum, Director Rhoderick Samonte of the Negros-based NGO, Institute for Negros Development, before heading to Saint Lasalle University for their Forum at 130PM. Entitled, "Dialogue Mindanao," IIC Executive Director Gus Miclat gave a presentation on citizen participation in the Peace Process being absolutely vital to its success. Next up was Iqbal with a speech entitled, "The Collective Security of the Moros is Threatened."
Iqbal began an almost verbatim rendering of the arrogant nuttiness used by Peace Panelist, Datu Michael O.Mastura in just about every one of his speaking engagements. Iqbal stood there telling bold faced lie after bold faced lie. Some gems:
"A century ago Moros controlled 98% of Mindanao." OK, let us imagine that he wasn't referring to 1911 and instead take it back to the height of Islamic influence and/or power on Mindanao. IF so, Muslims controlled less than 15% of the entire island. From Cagayan del Oro City on the north coast, moving east, rounding the island onto its east coast and moving all the way to the southern coast, AND THEN, continuing along the southern coast as far as Sarangani Bay, ALL THAT was controlled by indigenous Bisaya. The Butuanons, the Suriganon, the Karaga, these were ALL Bisaya Tribes. Butuan was trading with China nearly 1,000 years before the Maguindanao Tribe entered existence, let alone formed the Maguindanao Sultanate.
"Today only 12% of Mindanao is controlled by Muslims." Yes indeed and that is all they have ever controlled. Seems quite fare to me.
"From 1903 to 1915, Moro Province with its five districts:
1) Cotabato (including North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Maguindanao, and Sultan Kudarat Provinces)
2) Lanao (including both Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur Provinces)
3) Zamboanga (including Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Zamboanga Sibugay Provinces)
4) Davao (Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Compostela Valley Provinces)
5) Sulu (Sulu, Basilan, and part of Tawi Tawi Province)
was 90% Moro and indigenous people." OK, even if we ignore how Iqbal slid "indigenous people" in as an afterthought, he still was 100% wrong. The Spanish never took a census outside of a couple of small settlements on the coast. Neither did the Americans, except for Christians and not including "los Conquistas," the Spanish term applied to first or second generation converts to Christianity. Examining the (US) Congressional Record, Edition #4791, "Report of the (Philippine) Commission," pp5 and 6, we find America extrapolating other data to come to a reasonable estimate of population in Moro Province, and demographically breaking it down. I will quote from pp5, verbatim, "There has never been an accurate census taken of the non-Christian population."
Within Moro Province there were, in 1904, 66,000 Christian Filipinos. The Americans state that the overall population of Moro Province was 500,000. It then says of the 444,0000 people tallied as "non-Christian," 290,000 were what we now call "Lumad," and what Iqbal creatively labeled "indigenous people." So, 290,000 Lumad, 66,000 Christian, and the remainder tallied as Muslims, less than 150,000. Of that less than 150,000 Muslims, they include the population of Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi Tawi. If we are discussing Mainland Mindanao there were just as many Christians as there were Muslims and Moro Province is but one of three provinces on Mindanao! Factor in Surigao and Misamis Provinces, both having zero Muslims at that time (even today Caraga Region, most of what was contained within Surigao Province, has less than 1,400 Muslims!). Iqbal, like the entire Bangsamoro narrative is a fraud.
Next Chairman Iqbal launched into an angry screed about Land Laws from the American Era; the Public Land Act #2874, of 1919 allowed land purchases up to a maximum of 24 hectares UNLESS one was Muslim in which case the maximum was 10 hectares. Sounds very unfair BUT one needs to be aware of the proper context before considering its fairness. Every Islamicised tribe in that era was ruled by potentates, whether a Datu, Rajah, OR Sultan who held each subject's life entirely in his hands. There was absolutely no private land ownership. The Datu, Rajah, OR Sultan owned 100% of the land in a given area. Slavery still existed but even so called "freemen" were bound to their ruler and had no choice in any matter, large OR small.
Since wresting the Southern Philippines from Spain in 1899 the Americans had been doing their best to subvert the power of the Datus, Rajahs, and the Sultans. The Americans correctly believed that if and when implementing private land ownership schemes, the Muslim Rulers would subvert the 24 hectare maximum limit simply by buying vast tracts of land in the names of their subjects. It wasn't that the Americans were trying to prejudice the system against Muslims but more like they were trying to offer an affirmative action type boost to disadvantaged non-Muslims.
Other than the Mastura-like diatribe I just related, both the Negros AND the Bohol speeches focused on two underlying themes:
1) The Peace Process began in 1997 and therefore has gone on far too long. Filipino-Muslims cannot negotiate forever.
2) The MILF has rejected four GPH entreaties to involve itself in the ARMM, or the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. It sees the ARMM as a failure and view it as being incompatible with the MILF vision and platform.
At least the MILF is still involving itself in the Peace Process. A lying and scheming MILF involved in Talks is still a whole lot better than an earnest and honest MILF rejecting the Peace Process as a waste of time.
The Visayan Round, consisting of a press conference and two forums on three Visayan islands of:
1) Cebu
2) Bohol
3) Negros
was sponsored by the Davao City-based NGO, Initiative for International Dialogue, or IID, in conjunction with various local partners. In the warm up forum in Davao City, Iqbal was joined by Irish Minister of Parliament, Dominick Hannigan. MP Hannigan does double duty as the Chairman of the Committee of Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. Signed in 1998 the document served as an FPA, or Final Peace Agreement between the IRA, or Irish Republican Army, Great Britain, and Britain's allies amongst the Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. Ireland is a traditionally Catholic nation but under domination from England mostly Scottish Protestants were transported into Ireland to help consolidate the English grip upon the land and its people. Shortly after the turn of the 20th Century the Irish rose up and eventually were able to achieve independence EXCEPT FOR for a northern portion that came to be called, "Northern Ireland."
Northern Ireland remained a British territory despite the vast majority of its inhabitants being indigenous Irish Catholics. The Scots-Irish, Protestants like the English, desired to remain one with England while virtually all Irish Catholics wanted either union with Ireland, or else indepence of its own. Britain doesn't relinquish land easily and so it was with Northern Ireland. Communal warfare ended up killing 3,000 under attacks that included a fair dose of terrorism on the part of the IRA and to a much lesser extent the Protestant paramilitaries. Finally, all three sides were able to reach the Good Friday Agreement satisfying all but a tiny iota of radicals in both the Catholic and the Protestant Communities.
The MILF has often looked towards the Good Friday Agreement as a working template for a Mindanowan peace agreement. To the laymen the conflict in Mindanao between the Government and the MILF certainly appears to be a conflict based upon ethno-religious sectarianism. In reality it is far more complicated. In Northern Ireland one can easily log the trajectory of the conflict from its baseline at the point where merry ole' England set its beady little eyes on poor old Ireland. One can observe all the incremental periods, all the issues neatly layered but what could one do with the MILF conflict in Mindanao? It isn't a case of proverbial "apples and oranges." It is much more like a case of "apples and goldfish."
In any event, MP Hannigan was spending three fun filled weeks in the Philippines fufilling a parliamentarian requirement to volunteer in charitable endeavours overseas. The programme, under the auspices of the NGO, Volunteers Overseas, or VSO, places skilled volunteers in the so called "Developing World." On the day in question, September 6th, MP Hannigan joined Chairman Iqbal, Peace Panelist, Professor Abhoud Syed Lingga, and Chairman of the MILF Peace Panel Secretariat, Jun Mantawil for the Forum in Davao, entitled, "Good Friday Agreement and the GPH Peace Agreement," at Ateneo de Davao University. The three hour programme at the school's Finster Building was moderated by Executive Director, Agusto "Gus" Miclat Jr. of the sponsoring NGO, the aforementioned IIC.
In Chairman Iqbal's speech he offered what he creatively labeled an "Update on the Peace Process," Iqbal gave a very condensed briefing about the "secret meeting" that took place between President Aquino and MILF Chairman al Haj Murad Iqbal on August 4th. Then, segueing into the August 22nd Government handover of its long awaited Draft Comprehensive Compact, where Iqbal spent the most time talking. No real suprises but a couple of interesting anecdotes. As Chairman of the MILF Peace Panel Iqbal met with his GPH counterpart, Mario Victor "Marvic" Leonen during the one hour Executive Session that took place first thing on August 22nd the two had a very heated exchange. According to Iqbal, Leonen tried to discuss the infamous Kumander Kato and his renegade military organisation, BIFF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. Iqbal refused to discuss it, reminding Leonen that the first course of business was the scheduled submission of the GPH Draft Comprehensive Agreement. Chairperson Leonen wouldn't play ball. Everytime Iqbal reminded Leonen that the GPH Draft was supposed to have been submitted back in March of 2011, Leonen would get angrier and angrier. Finally, with assistance from Malaysian Facilitator Datuk Ab Tengku Ghafar Tengku Mohammed, Iqbal was able to remain focused enough so as to bend Leonen's considerable will and get his way.
With that highly contentious issue settled they immediately opened the door and quickly went into the prefunctory diplomatic niceties before getting to the meat and bones of the meeting, the GPH Draft. Iqbal and the MILF Peace Panel refused to comment and informed Leonen that they would adjourn and study the GPH Draft overnight and offer their take on it as the first order of business the next morning, August 23rd, in plenary session. From there it is just a rehash of the same information I have posted in other "GPH-MILF Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011" entries.
On September 8th, Iqbal, Lingga, and Mantawil flew from Davao City to Cebu Island where the group, accompanied by IID Executive Director Agusto "Gus" Miclat Jr. The next morning, September 9th, the group travelled to Cebu City's Barangay Lahug for a press confrence held at Pino Filipino Cuisine on Wilson Street. The conference lasted a bit more than 2 hours and was scantily attended by less than a dozen media outlets. After finishing at 1PM the group travelled to Mactan, a suburb of Cebu City, and boarded a speed boat for the ride to Bohol, the second stop on their Visayan Tour.
Arriving in Bohol's Tagbiliran City, site of the second Forum, entilted, "Civil Society Dialogue with the MILF Peace Panel," at the University of Bohol. After a ahort opening speech by the university's President, Iqbal once again stepped to the podium. The speech, entitled, "Peace is the Concern of All," began with Chairman Iqbal touching upon local history to pique the attention of the nearly 400 attendees. Iqbal mentiomed that Bohol is the site of two blood compacts between local chiefs and allied foreigners. As Iqbal noted, the first compact took place on March 16th, 1565 between Datu Sikatuna of Bo'ol, Datu Sigala of Loboc, and the Spanish Conquistador, Legazpi. The three vowed to regard each other peacefully. The second compact, according to Iqbal, took place between an unknown Boholano datu and Rajah Laut Buisan, the military commander of the Maguindanao Sultanate in what is today Central Mindanao, citing the claim of Cesar Majul.
Iqbal, in a congratulatory tone informed his listeners that Bohol was home to the Daguhoy Revolt, the longest single insurrection in the Philippines. Led by Francisco Daguhoy the rebellion lasted from 1744 to 1829. That is ironic given the Filipino Muslim spiel about how the Filipino Muslims are now engaged in a 500 year rebellion.
Next on the menu was the revolt led by Tamblot in 1621. Tamblot was a babaylan, or shaman, and led his warriors against the Spanish in a noble but failed effort to save his tribe's indigenous faith. Naturally Iqbal was attempting to draw parallels between Tamblon's efforts to save his religion and therefore his way of life and the Filipino Muslim's struggle to do the same. In another ironic twist, in my previous "GPH-MILF Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011" entry I discussed the MILF's incredibly silly, "Top 10 List of Spoilers of the Peace Process." On that list the MILF took Manila-based journalist Ramon "Mon" Tulfo to task for daring to maintain that the GPH-MILF conflict is religio-culturally based whereas the MILF is insistent that it is entirely political. The MILF, after 24 years, has still not managed to compose a coherent platform, nor a half-way believable historical narrative.
Finishing in Bohol the group returned to the speed boat and departed for the ride back to Cebu City where they retired for the evening. Very early the next morning, September 10th, the group hopped in the same speed boat for the long ride to Negros Island, the site of their third and last stop. Landing in Bacolod City they quickly met with the co-sponser of the Negros Forum, Director Rhoderick Samonte of the Negros-based NGO, Institute for Negros Development, before heading to Saint Lasalle University for their Forum at 130PM. Entitled, "Dialogue Mindanao," IIC Executive Director Gus Miclat gave a presentation on citizen participation in the Peace Process being absolutely vital to its success. Next up was Iqbal with a speech entitled, "The Collective Security of the Moros is Threatened."
Iqbal began an almost verbatim rendering of the arrogant nuttiness used by Peace Panelist, Datu Michael O.Mastura in just about every one of his speaking engagements. Iqbal stood there telling bold faced lie after bold faced lie. Some gems:
"A century ago Moros controlled 98% of Mindanao." OK, let us imagine that he wasn't referring to 1911 and instead take it back to the height of Islamic influence and/or power on Mindanao. IF so, Muslims controlled less than 15% of the entire island. From Cagayan del Oro City on the north coast, moving east, rounding the island onto its east coast and moving all the way to the southern coast, AND THEN, continuing along the southern coast as far as Sarangani Bay, ALL THAT was controlled by indigenous Bisaya. The Butuanons, the Suriganon, the Karaga, these were ALL Bisaya Tribes. Butuan was trading with China nearly 1,000 years before the Maguindanao Tribe entered existence, let alone formed the Maguindanao Sultanate.
"Today only 12% of Mindanao is controlled by Muslims." Yes indeed and that is all they have ever controlled. Seems quite fare to me.
"From 1903 to 1915, Moro Province with its five districts:
1) Cotabato (including North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Maguindanao, and Sultan Kudarat Provinces)
2) Lanao (including both Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur Provinces)
3) Zamboanga (including Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Zamboanga Sibugay Provinces)
4) Davao (Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Compostela Valley Provinces)
5) Sulu (Sulu, Basilan, and part of Tawi Tawi Province)
was 90% Moro and indigenous people." OK, even if we ignore how Iqbal slid "indigenous people" in as an afterthought, he still was 100% wrong. The Spanish never took a census outside of a couple of small settlements on the coast. Neither did the Americans, except for Christians and not including "los Conquistas," the Spanish term applied to first or second generation converts to Christianity. Examining the (US) Congressional Record, Edition #4791, "Report of the (Philippine) Commission," pp5 and 6, we find America extrapolating other data to come to a reasonable estimate of population in Moro Province, and demographically breaking it down. I will quote from pp5, verbatim, "There has never been an accurate census taken of the non-Christian population."
Within Moro Province there were, in 1904, 66,000 Christian Filipinos. The Americans state that the overall population of Moro Province was 500,000. It then says of the 444,0000 people tallied as "non-Christian," 290,000 were what we now call "Lumad," and what Iqbal creatively labeled "indigenous people." So, 290,000 Lumad, 66,000 Christian, and the remainder tallied as Muslims, less than 150,000. Of that less than 150,000 Muslims, they include the population of Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi Tawi. If we are discussing Mainland Mindanao there were just as many Christians as there were Muslims and Moro Province is but one of three provinces on Mindanao! Factor in Surigao and Misamis Provinces, both having zero Muslims at that time (even today Caraga Region, most of what was contained within Surigao Province, has less than 1,400 Muslims!). Iqbal, like the entire Bangsamoro narrative is a fraud.
Next Chairman Iqbal launched into an angry screed about Land Laws from the American Era; the Public Land Act #2874, of 1919 allowed land purchases up to a maximum of 24 hectares UNLESS one was Muslim in which case the maximum was 10 hectares. Sounds very unfair BUT one needs to be aware of the proper context before considering its fairness. Every Islamicised tribe in that era was ruled by potentates, whether a Datu, Rajah, OR Sultan who held each subject's life entirely in his hands. There was absolutely no private land ownership. The Datu, Rajah, OR Sultan owned 100% of the land in a given area. Slavery still existed but even so called "freemen" were bound to their ruler and had no choice in any matter, large OR small.
Since wresting the Southern Philippines from Spain in 1899 the Americans had been doing their best to subvert the power of the Datus, Rajahs, and the Sultans. The Americans correctly believed that if and when implementing private land ownership schemes, the Muslim Rulers would subvert the 24 hectare maximum limit simply by buying vast tracts of land in the names of their subjects. It wasn't that the Americans were trying to prejudice the system against Muslims but more like they were trying to offer an affirmative action type boost to disadvantaged non-Muslims.
Other than the Mastura-like diatribe I just related, both the Negros AND the Bohol speeches focused on two underlying themes:
1) The Peace Process began in 1997 and therefore has gone on far too long. Filipino-Muslims cannot negotiate forever.
2) The MILF has rejected four GPH entreaties to involve itself in the ARMM, or the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. It sees the ARMM as a failure and view it as being incompatible with the MILF vision and platform.
At least the MILF is still involving itself in the Peace Process. A lying and scheming MILF involved in Talks is still a whole lot better than an earnest and honest MILF rejecting the Peace Process as a waste of time.
NPA Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part VI: Davao Region Turns Hot Again
After a sweet quiet spell, albeit far too brief, the NPA's SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee, has once again greased up its rifles and begun making itself heard. On September 17th in Davao City's Barangay Paradise Embac in Paquibato District the NPA's PBC1, or 1st Pulang Bagani Company (1st Red Warrior Company) harried a combat patrol from the AFP's (Armed Forces of the Philippines) 69IB (Infantry Battalion). As the AFP detachment entered Sitio Guinobatan in Purok #7 the NPA targetted it with sniper fire. The AFP denied that any casualties had been incurred but after the NPA released claims that it had managed to kill one soldier the AFP sheepishly admitted that, yes, it had in fact suffered a single casualty but that it was a very minor wound when a single round grazed an extremity...Suuuuuure, don't worry, I won't tell anyone.
Speaking of Barangay Paradise Embac, the outlying settlement recently became the focus of an interesting debate in the Davao City Municipal Council when Councilors Leah Librado Yap and Jimmy Dureza co-authored a Resolution seeking to oust a garrison of the 69IB from a post located nearly 300 meters away from the Paradise Embac Annex Primary Elementary School. The NPA and its puppets, including Councilor Yap who is herself a member of Bayan, a legal above board political party doing the bidding of the NPA and its political arm, the CPP or Communist Party of the Philippines, is of course opposed to any AFP control within the long established, albeit technically unofficial, NPA Territory in that district, Paquibato, along with two adjoining districts. The garrison has been on site since 2002 and yet this past Spring, 2011, the NPA and its coterie of multi-sectoral front organisations got a gigantic bee in their bonnet about its existence, as if they had gone to bed the night before only to discover an AFP post smack dab in the middle of "their" territory.
According to the Resolution, which passed its first of three Readings on August 16th, it hopes to take aim at the emplacement and its checkpoint on the road in front of the school because it is placing both students and their teachers in grave danger. Vice Mayor Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte has interestingly defended the emplacement saying that his friends, the NPA, do not attack schools NOR children and so the garrison endangers nobody. I suppose Big Daddy Duterte failed in Logic 101 on his way into Law School because those rationalisations mean absolutely nothing. By placing armed men in proximity to small children you are automatically placing the children in danger. How much more so when there are two competing armed groups in that area? Even more interestingly, his daughter, the MAYOR, Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio has ALSO come out in support of the military post. Though Vice Mayor Duterte has long enabled the NPA to play house in three of his city's districts Mayor Carpio had gone much further and actually tried to have the military, aside from the anti-terrorism Task Force Davao, pulled out of the city. This nearly 360 degree turn is quite marked and all the more so when one realises that she had had to sign off on the military operation that captured the NPA's main camp in the Davao Region, but alas THAT sordid tale must be relegated to a subsequent entry.
At about the same time as the NPA began sniping in Davao City another NPA element in the municipality of Malita in that same province as Davao City, Davao del Sur, another of the AFP's "security patrols" stumbled upon 20 NPA guerillas in that town's Barangay Datu Danwata's Sitio Tambolang. The 30 minute firefight that ensued led to the AFP capturing one M1 rifle and 4 IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (as in "bombs"). Interestingly the military is claiming that two of the devices aren't IEDs at all but rather Claymore Mines. Claymores, or M18s in American speak, are still controlled detonation devices as opposed to pressure plate mines that detonate when something steps on, or rolls over the device. This distinction is extremely important because the AFP engages in ignorant propaganda attacks against the NPA in which it claims that the Maoist guerillas are breaking International Law by utilising landmines.
First, even if the NPA engaged in non-controlled detonation devices, it still would not be contravening any part of LOAC, or the Laws of Armed Conflict, the genre within International Law that applies to warfare. There are widely adhered to treaties, Ottawa for example, in which nations that have ratified the treaty are then bound by International Law not to use such devices. I definitely view such treaties as positive to the nth degree but with controlled detonation there is no discernible chance of "accidentally" killing a group of children as they walk to school or even a peasant family's caraboa (Philippine water buffalo) because in a controlled detonation a person detonates the device from a close distance almost always within the detonation's line of sight. Ergo, even if the NPA had some acquired Claymores, and I highly doubt it since they haven't externally sourced weaponry since the mid-1970s (and never, ever in Mindanao), they wouldn't be illegal. The use of the word "landmine" in and of itself lends definite connotations to laymen. They naturally envision pressure detonated devices. This is why the AFP spin meisters cling to that ignorant phrasing. It is a shame because just in its day to day actions the NPA is guilty enough of many things. Yet, when you disseminate FALSE PROPAGANDA and people see through it you then lose all credibility.
The AFP has entered the age of Political Correctness where combat patrols have become "security patrols in support of PDTs." PDTs, or Peace and Development Teams, are the cornerstone of the AFP's new gameplan, OPlan Bayanihan, or Operational Plan Bayanihan (Operational Plan Helping Hand), which turned the traditional AFP ethos on its head. Whereas in the past, under the preceding OPlan Bantay Laya II (Operational Plan Guarding the Nation II) and all preceding OPlans, the COIN, or Counterinsurgency strategy has always been an 80:20 combination of Tactical Engagement:Hearts and Minds Engagement, Bayanihan has the 80:20 skewed into a converse dynamic as Hearts and Minds:Tactical Engagement. For the uninitiated, "Hearts and Minds" refers to actions and programmes designed to win over the "hearts and minds" of civilians in CAAs, or Conflict Affected Areas (not to be confused with the AFP COIN Tactical cornerstone, Civilian Active Auxiliaries like CAFGU, et cetera).
The idea is to defeat the NPA on its strongest facet, its Mass Base of Support. Mass Base of Support refers to peasants and others on the bottom part of the Philippine socio-economic totem pole who offer the NPA support both emotionally as well as materialy. For example, the farming family who happily hands over a half kilo of rice because he or she sympathises with the NPA's goals and outlook. Usually the NPA finds it easy to win such people over because the Maoists are the first outsiders who have ever taken even a scant interest in their needs or concerns. The state cannot be said to have "failed" such people because in almost all cases the state has never even stopped to consider such people exist EXCEPT when divvying up their lands for mineral and timber extraction. There is an old adage in COIN, "Insurgency begins where good roads end."
So, in Hearts and Minds Operations the Government wishes to win over these heretofore ignored citizens by providing marked improvements in their lives. This is done via MEDCAPs, DENCAPs, and VETCAPs, where the military, either by itself or by teaming up with charitable institutions, organisations, and individuals provides no-cost medical, dental and vetinary care for the peasants and their livestock. Schools are built or otherwise rehabilitated and/or expanded if extant. Farm to Market Roads and in the case with offshore islands, Circumfrential Roads which link communities by land where heretofore they have been 100% reliant upon seatravel are constructed and so communities do see their lives vastly improved.
Sounds fine but one needs to understand that the Government is not operating out of altruism but rather with a medium range plan that offers no real supportive infrastructure to make these improvements sustainable over the long haul. You are told that the military's engineering battalions have built a new Farm to Market Road but a few locals may see it very differently. A tribal leader may see that his tribe is now threatened by the consumerist materiel-centred culture that has defined much of the modern Philippines. Villagers may see it as the Access Road it so often is, helping to spped up the Development Aggression that has destroyed so much of Mindanao's once pristine environment.
In the autumnn of 2010 the AFP launched its first PDT. With three weeks of training nine man teams are deployed into targetted communities. They usually garrison themselves in schools, houses of worship or even private homes. They blanket a barangay and engage in a very intrusive surveying process in what amounts to a naked grab for intelligence though the military, lying through its teeth swears it is to zero in on a given community's needs. Often the questioning even focuses on the average amount of food consumed by a given family in any random month so that just as in Hamleting sustenance is measured so as to control diversion to the NPA.
This Summer, 2011, the AFP expanded its PDP programme to include the villagers themselves working side by side. On August 21st 118 civilians graduated from a three day seminar on their role(s) within the PDT programme. The ceremony in the municipality of Mati's municipal gymnasium in Davao Oriental Province featured that province's Governor del Rosario giving the keynote speech. The PDT programme, which began in Davao Region in the Autumn of 2010 has now gone nationwide after becoming the key protocol within OPlan Bayanihan.
Speaking of Barangay Paradise Embac, the outlying settlement recently became the focus of an interesting debate in the Davao City Municipal Council when Councilors Leah Librado Yap and Jimmy Dureza co-authored a Resolution seeking to oust a garrison of the 69IB from a post located nearly 300 meters away from the Paradise Embac Annex Primary Elementary School. The NPA and its puppets, including Councilor Yap who is herself a member of Bayan, a legal above board political party doing the bidding of the NPA and its political arm, the CPP or Communist Party of the Philippines, is of course opposed to any AFP control within the long established, albeit technically unofficial, NPA Territory in that district, Paquibato, along with two adjoining districts. The garrison has been on site since 2002 and yet this past Spring, 2011, the NPA and its coterie of multi-sectoral front organisations got a gigantic bee in their bonnet about its existence, as if they had gone to bed the night before only to discover an AFP post smack dab in the middle of "their" territory.
According to the Resolution, which passed its first of three Readings on August 16th, it hopes to take aim at the emplacement and its checkpoint on the road in front of the school because it is placing both students and their teachers in grave danger. Vice Mayor Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte has interestingly defended the emplacement saying that his friends, the NPA, do not attack schools NOR children and so the garrison endangers nobody. I suppose Big Daddy Duterte failed in Logic 101 on his way into Law School because those rationalisations mean absolutely nothing. By placing armed men in proximity to small children you are automatically placing the children in danger. How much more so when there are two competing armed groups in that area? Even more interestingly, his daughter, the MAYOR, Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio has ALSO come out in support of the military post. Though Vice Mayor Duterte has long enabled the NPA to play house in three of his city's districts Mayor Carpio had gone much further and actually tried to have the military, aside from the anti-terrorism Task Force Davao, pulled out of the city. This nearly 360 degree turn is quite marked and all the more so when one realises that she had had to sign off on the military operation that captured the NPA's main camp in the Davao Region, but alas THAT sordid tale must be relegated to a subsequent entry.
At about the same time as the NPA began sniping in Davao City another NPA element in the municipality of Malita in that same province as Davao City, Davao del Sur, another of the AFP's "security patrols" stumbled upon 20 NPA guerillas in that town's Barangay Datu Danwata's Sitio Tambolang. The 30 minute firefight that ensued led to the AFP capturing one M1 rifle and 4 IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (as in "bombs"). Interestingly the military is claiming that two of the devices aren't IEDs at all but rather Claymore Mines. Claymores, or M18s in American speak, are still controlled detonation devices as opposed to pressure plate mines that detonate when something steps on, or rolls over the device. This distinction is extremely important because the AFP engages in ignorant propaganda attacks against the NPA in which it claims that the Maoist guerillas are breaking International Law by utilising landmines.
First, even if the NPA engaged in non-controlled detonation devices, it still would not be contravening any part of LOAC, or the Laws of Armed Conflict, the genre within International Law that applies to warfare. There are widely adhered to treaties, Ottawa for example, in which nations that have ratified the treaty are then bound by International Law not to use such devices. I definitely view such treaties as positive to the nth degree but with controlled detonation there is no discernible chance of "accidentally" killing a group of children as they walk to school or even a peasant family's caraboa (Philippine water buffalo) because in a controlled detonation a person detonates the device from a close distance almost always within the detonation's line of sight. Ergo, even if the NPA had some acquired Claymores, and I highly doubt it since they haven't externally sourced weaponry since the mid-1970s (and never, ever in Mindanao), they wouldn't be illegal. The use of the word "landmine" in and of itself lends definite connotations to laymen. They naturally envision pressure detonated devices. This is why the AFP spin meisters cling to that ignorant phrasing. It is a shame because just in its day to day actions the NPA is guilty enough of many things. Yet, when you disseminate FALSE PROPAGANDA and people see through it you then lose all credibility.
The AFP has entered the age of Political Correctness where combat patrols have become "security patrols in support of PDTs." PDTs, or Peace and Development Teams, are the cornerstone of the AFP's new gameplan, OPlan Bayanihan, or Operational Plan Bayanihan (Operational Plan Helping Hand), which turned the traditional AFP ethos on its head. Whereas in the past, under the preceding OPlan Bantay Laya II (Operational Plan Guarding the Nation II) and all preceding OPlans, the COIN, or Counterinsurgency strategy has always been an 80:20 combination of Tactical Engagement:Hearts and Minds Engagement, Bayanihan has the 80:20 skewed into a converse dynamic as Hearts and Minds:Tactical Engagement. For the uninitiated, "Hearts and Minds" refers to actions and programmes designed to win over the "hearts and minds" of civilians in CAAs, or Conflict Affected Areas (not to be confused with the AFP COIN Tactical cornerstone, Civilian Active Auxiliaries like CAFGU, et cetera).
The idea is to defeat the NPA on its strongest facet, its Mass Base of Support. Mass Base of Support refers to peasants and others on the bottom part of the Philippine socio-economic totem pole who offer the NPA support both emotionally as well as materialy. For example, the farming family who happily hands over a half kilo of rice because he or she sympathises with the NPA's goals and outlook. Usually the NPA finds it easy to win such people over because the Maoists are the first outsiders who have ever taken even a scant interest in their needs or concerns. The state cannot be said to have "failed" such people because in almost all cases the state has never even stopped to consider such people exist EXCEPT when divvying up their lands for mineral and timber extraction. There is an old adage in COIN, "Insurgency begins where good roads end."
So, in Hearts and Minds Operations the Government wishes to win over these heretofore ignored citizens by providing marked improvements in their lives. This is done via MEDCAPs, DENCAPs, and VETCAPs, where the military, either by itself or by teaming up with charitable institutions, organisations, and individuals provides no-cost medical, dental and vetinary care for the peasants and their livestock. Schools are built or otherwise rehabilitated and/or expanded if extant. Farm to Market Roads and in the case with offshore islands, Circumfrential Roads which link communities by land where heretofore they have been 100% reliant upon seatravel are constructed and so communities do see their lives vastly improved.
Sounds fine but one needs to understand that the Government is not operating out of altruism but rather with a medium range plan that offers no real supportive infrastructure to make these improvements sustainable over the long haul. You are told that the military's engineering battalions have built a new Farm to Market Road but a few locals may see it very differently. A tribal leader may see that his tribe is now threatened by the consumerist materiel-centred culture that has defined much of the modern Philippines. Villagers may see it as the Access Road it so often is, helping to spped up the Development Aggression that has destroyed so much of Mindanao's once pristine environment.
In the autumnn of 2010 the AFP launched its first PDT. With three weeks of training nine man teams are deployed into targetted communities. They usually garrison themselves in schools, houses of worship or even private homes. They blanket a barangay and engage in a very intrusive surveying process in what amounts to a naked grab for intelligence though the military, lying through its teeth swears it is to zero in on a given community's needs. Often the questioning even focuses on the average amount of food consumed by a given family in any random month so that just as in Hamleting sustenance is measured so as to control diversion to the NPA.
This Summer, 2011, the AFP expanded its PDP programme to include the villagers themselves working side by side. On August 21st 118 civilians graduated from a three day seminar on their role(s) within the PDT programme. The ceremony in the municipality of Mati's municipal gymnasium in Davao Oriental Province featured that province's Governor del Rosario giving the keynote speech. The PDT programme, which began in Davao Region in the Autumn of 2010 has now gone nationwide after becoming the key protocol within OPlan Bayanihan.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
GPH-MILF Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part IV: MILF's Top 10 List and August Re-cap
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Sunday, September 25, 2011
History of Mindanao, Part XIX: The Manobo Tribe in 1925, Part 2
In this, the second part of the series, "History of Mindanao, Part XIX" I will excerpt from an academic treatise presented to the National Academy of Sciences (American) annual meeting in 1929, "First Memoir of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII" (Washington DC: U.S.Government Printing Office) (1933) . Written by the American amateur anthropologist John M.Garvan, "The Manobo of Mindanao" is an incredibly well researched work, all the more so given Garvan's occupation as a teacher, and later a shopkeeper. In this entry, from Chapter 2, Garvan focuses on the label "Manobo" itself.
"The Manobos of Mindanao"
"Present Use of the Word Manobo"
The word "man" seems to be a generic name for people of greatly divergent culture, physical type, language. Thus is it is applied to people that dwell in the mountains of the lower half of Point San Agustin as well as to those people whose habitat is on the southern part of the Sarangani Peninsula. Those again that occupy the hinterland of Tuna Bay* came under the same designation. So it might seem that the word was originally used to designate the pagan as distinguished from the Mohammedanized people of Mindanao, much as the name "Haraforas" or "Alfuros" was applied by the early writers to the pagans to distinguish them from the Moros.
In the Agusan Valley the term Manobo is used very frequently by Christian and Christianized and sometimes by pagans themselves to denote that the individual in question is still unbaptized, whether he be tribally a Mandaya, a Mangguangan, or some other group. I have been told by Mandayas on several occasions that they were still "Manobo," that is, still "unbaptised." Then again the word is frequently used by those who are really Manobos as a term of contempt for their fellow tribesmen who live in remoter regions and who are not as well off in a worldly or cultural way as they are. Thus I have heard Manobos of the Upper Agusan refer to their fellow tribesmen of Libaganon as "Manobos" with evident contempt in ther voice. I asked them what they themselves were and in answer was informed that they were "Agusanon"- that is "Upper Agusan People," not "Manobos."
"The Derivation and Original Application of the Word 'Manobo' "
One of the earliest references that I find of the Manobos of the Agusan Valley is in, "General History of the Discalced Augustinian Fathers (1661-1699)" by Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis. The author says that "the mountains of that territory are inhabited by a nation of Indians, heathens for the greater part, called 'Manobos,' a word signifying in that language, as if we should say here, 'robust' or 'very numerous people'." I have so found no word in the Manobo Dialect that verifies the correctness of the above statement. It may be said however , in front of this derivation that "manusia" is the word for "man" or "mankind" in the Malay, Moro (Maguindanawon), and Tiruay** language. In Bagobo***, a dialect that shows very close resemblance to Manobo, the word "Manobo" means "Man" and in Maguindanaowan it means "Mountain People"; and is applied by the Moros to all the mountain people of Mindanao. It might be maintained therefore with some semblance of reason that the word "Manobo" simply means "People." Some of the early historians use the words "Manobo," Mansuba," Manubo." These three forms indicate the derivation to be from a prefix "man" signifying "The People" or "Dweller" and "suba" meaning "A River." From the form "Manobo" however, we might conclude that the word is made up of "man" (people) and "hubo" (naked), and therefore meaning the "Naked People." The former derivation appears to be more consonant with the principles upon which Mindanao tribes both general and local are formed. Thus "Mansaka," "Mandaya," and "Mangguangan"**** are derived the first part of each, from "man" (people or dwellers), and the remainders of the words, respectively; from "saka" (interior), "daya" (up the river), and "guanggan" (forest). These names that mean "People of the Interior," "People that Dwell on the Upper Reaches of the River," and "People that Dwell in the Forest" and other tribal designation of Mindanao races and tribes are almost without exception derived from words that denote the relative geographical position of the tribe in question. The "Banuaon" and "Mamanua" are derived from "Banua" (the country) as distinguished from settlements near the main or settled part of the river. The "Bukidnon" are the "Mountain People" (bukid = mountain); "Subanun***** are the "River People" (suba = river), "Tiruay"* means the "Mountain People" (tuduk = mountain) and (eteu = man); "Tagakaolo" are the "People at the Very Source of the River" (taga = inhabitant), (olo = head or source).
The deriviation of the above tribal designations leads us to the opinion that the word "Manobo" means, or is a deriviation of a "River Man" and not a "Naked Man." A further alternative deriviation has been suggested by Dr.N.M.Saleeby, from the word "Tubo," (to grow); the word "Manobo," according to this deriviation, would mean "The People that Grow Up on the Island" as an in indigenous.
"Geographical Distribution of the Manobos in Eastern Mindanao"
"In the Agusan Valley"
The Manobo occupy the whole Agusan Valley as far as the town of Buai on the Upper Agusan with the following exceptions
1) The upper parts of the Rivers Laminga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and Ohut, and the whole of the River Massam, together with the mountainous region beyond the head-waters of these rivers, and probably the territory beyond in the District of Misamis as far over as the habitat of the Bukidnon Tribe.
The reason for the insertion of this last clause is that the people inhabiting the mountains at the headwaters at the above rivers have the same physical types, dress, and weapons as the Bukidnons, if I may judhe from my slight acquaintance with the latter.
2) The towns of Butuan, Talakogon, Bunawan, Veruela, and Prosperidad.
3) The town of Tagusab and the head-waters of the Tutu and Binungngaan [sic] Rivers.
"On the Eastern Side of the Pacific Cordillera"
In this region I include the upper waters of the Lianga, Hubo, Oteiza, Marihatag, Kagwait, Tago, Tandag, and Kantilan Rivers.
"On the Peninsula of San Agustin"
I had only cursory dealings with the inhabitants of the last named region but both from my own scant observations and from the reports of others more familiar with them. I am inclined to believe that there may be differences great enough to distinguish them from the other peoples if the Agusan Valley as a distinct tribe.
As to the Manobos of the Libaganon it is probable that they have more or less the same cultural and linguistic characteristics as the Manobo that form the subject matter of this paper but as I did not visit them nor get satisfactory information regarding them, I prefer to leave them unoticed until further investigation.
Of the Manobos of the lower half of the Peninsula of San Agustin I know absolutely nothing except that they are known as Manobos. I noted however, in pursuing the Jesuit Letters****** that there were in the year 1891 not only Manobos but Moros, Bilanes*******, and Tagakaolos in that region.
"The Debabaons********"
The Debabaons are probably a hybrid group forming a Dialect Group with the Manobos of the Ihawan, Baobo, and a cultural group in dress and other features with the Mandayas. They claim a relationship with the Manobos and follow Manobo religious beliefs and practices to a great extent. For this reason I have retained the name that they apply to themselves until their tribal identity can be clearly determined. They inhabit the upper half of the Salug River Valley and the country that lies to the west of it as far as the Baobo River.
"The Manobo Conquistas*********"
The inhabitants of all the settlements in the Agusan Valley except Novela, Rosario, the towns of Buai, the towns within the Banuaon habitat and a few settlements of pagan Manobo on the Upper Umaiam, Arfawan, Ihawan, Wawa, and Maitum are Manobo Conquistas.
On the eastern slopes of the Pacific Cordillera in the vicinity of San Miguel (Tago River) on the Marihatag and Oteiza Rivers there are several hundred Conquistas. The towns up the Hinatuan and Bislig Rivers are made up of both Manobo and Mandaya Cobquistas.
"The Debabaon Conquistas"
The Debabaon Conquistas are found in the towns on Moncayo and are also scattered about on the Upper Salug. The missionaries found the Debabaon People very recalcitrant; the comparatively few converts made envinced on the one hand all the fickleness of and instability of the Manobos and, on the other, the aggresiveness of the Mandaya.
******************************************************************************************************************
* "Tuna Bay" is on the southern coast midwat between Sarangani Bay and Parang Bay
** "Tiruay" is usally spelled as "Teduray" and refers to the tribe living today in and around the municipality of Maguindanao Province
*** "Bagobo" are a Lumad Tribe living in the mountains of North Cotabato Province
**** Mansaka, Mandaya, and Mangguangan are all separate tribes centered in ComVal (Compostela Valley) and Davao del Norte Province.
***** "Subanun are today transliterated as "Subanon" and alternatively as "Subanen." Rooted in Indonesia their original home on Mindanao sat where today's Zamboanga City sits. When Muslims began arriving the tribe was pushed up into the mountains of the Zamboagan Peninsula where they remain today
****** "Cartas de los PP.de la Compania de Jesus," 9:335, et seq. (1892)
******* Modern transliteration is almost always "B'laan"
******** "Debabaons" is today transliterated almost always as "Dibabaowans," and is
********* "Conquista" is a Spanish term that literally means "Conquered Ones" and was a social/demographic classification of the Spanish Era that refers to first or second generation Christian converts from Animist tribes. Hence "Manobo Conquista" refers to the Manobo who had accepted Baptism and were now living in diocese and/or mission communities as well as to their children. Usually by the third or fourth generation the progeny had assimilated into the dominant Bisaya Culture so as to then be counted as Bisaya.
Mr.Galvan relied on at least two primary sources for this excerpt, in addition to the Jesuit Letters mentioned above ("Cartas de...") :
1) "The Origin of the Malayan Filipinos" by Dr.Najeeb Mitry Saleeby, a paper read at the Philippines Academy, a subsidiary of the National Academy of Science in Washington D.C. on November 1st, 1911
2) "Etimilogo de los Nombres de Razas de Filipinos ("The Origin of Filipino Tribal Names") by Dr.Trinidad Hermenegilido Gorrico Pardo de Tavera, a paper presented to the (Spanish) Royal Academy of Linguistics in Madrid in 1887
"The Manobos of Mindanao"
"Present Use of the Word Manobo"
The word "man" seems to be a generic name for people of greatly divergent culture, physical type, language. Thus is it is applied to people that dwell in the mountains of the lower half of Point San Agustin as well as to those people whose habitat is on the southern part of the Sarangani Peninsula. Those again that occupy the hinterland of Tuna Bay* came under the same designation. So it might seem that the word was originally used to designate the pagan as distinguished from the Mohammedanized people of Mindanao, much as the name "Haraforas" or "Alfuros" was applied by the early writers to the pagans to distinguish them from the Moros.
In the Agusan Valley the term Manobo is used very frequently by Christian and Christianized and sometimes by pagans themselves to denote that the individual in question is still unbaptized, whether he be tribally a Mandaya, a Mangguangan, or some other group. I have been told by Mandayas on several occasions that they were still "Manobo," that is, still "unbaptised." Then again the word is frequently used by those who are really Manobos as a term of contempt for their fellow tribesmen who live in remoter regions and who are not as well off in a worldly or cultural way as they are. Thus I have heard Manobos of the Upper Agusan refer to their fellow tribesmen of Libaganon as "Manobos" with evident contempt in ther voice. I asked them what they themselves were and in answer was informed that they were "Agusanon"- that is "Upper Agusan People," not "Manobos."
"The Derivation and Original Application of the Word 'Manobo' "
One of the earliest references that I find of the Manobos of the Agusan Valley is in, "General History of the Discalced Augustinian Fathers (1661-1699)" by Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis. The author says that "the mountains of that territory are inhabited by a nation of Indians, heathens for the greater part, called 'Manobos,' a word signifying in that language, as if we should say here, 'robust' or 'very numerous people'." I have so found no word in the Manobo Dialect that verifies the correctness of the above statement. It may be said however , in front of this derivation that "manusia" is the word for "man" or "mankind" in the Malay, Moro (Maguindanawon), and Tiruay** language. In Bagobo***, a dialect that shows very close resemblance to Manobo, the word "Manobo" means "Man" and in Maguindanaowan it means "Mountain People"; and is applied by the Moros to all the mountain people of Mindanao. It might be maintained therefore with some semblance of reason that the word "Manobo" simply means "People." Some of the early historians use the words "Manobo," Mansuba," Manubo." These three forms indicate the derivation to be from a prefix "man" signifying "The People" or "Dweller" and "suba" meaning "A River." From the form "Manobo" however, we might conclude that the word is made up of "man" (people) and "hubo" (naked), and therefore meaning the "Naked People." The former derivation appears to be more consonant with the principles upon which Mindanao tribes both general and local are formed. Thus "Mansaka," "Mandaya," and "Mangguangan"**** are derived the first part of each, from "man" (people or dwellers), and the remainders of the words, respectively; from "saka" (interior), "daya" (up the river), and "guanggan" (forest). These names that mean "People of the Interior," "People that Dwell on the Upper Reaches of the River," and "People that Dwell in the Forest" and other tribal designation of Mindanao races and tribes are almost without exception derived from words that denote the relative geographical position of the tribe in question. The "Banuaon" and "Mamanua" are derived from "Banua" (the country) as distinguished from settlements near the main or settled part of the river. The "Bukidnon" are the "Mountain People" (bukid = mountain); "Subanun***** are the "River People" (suba = river), "Tiruay"* means the "Mountain People" (tuduk = mountain) and (eteu = man); "Tagakaolo" are the "People at the Very Source of the River" (taga = inhabitant), (olo = head or source).
The deriviation of the above tribal designations leads us to the opinion that the word "Manobo" means, or is a deriviation of a "River Man" and not a "Naked Man." A further alternative deriviation has been suggested by Dr.N.M.Saleeby, from the word "Tubo," (to grow); the word "Manobo," according to this deriviation, would mean "The People that Grow Up on the Island" as an in indigenous.
"Geographical Distribution of the Manobos in Eastern Mindanao"
"In the Agusan Valley"
The Manobo occupy the whole Agusan Valley as far as the town of Buai on the Upper Agusan with the following exceptions
1) The upper parts of the Rivers Laminga, Kandiisan, Hawilian, and Ohut, and the whole of the River Massam, together with the mountainous region beyond the head-waters of these rivers, and probably the territory beyond in the District of Misamis as far over as the habitat of the Bukidnon Tribe.
The reason for the insertion of this last clause is that the people inhabiting the mountains at the headwaters at the above rivers have the same physical types, dress, and weapons as the Bukidnons, if I may judhe from my slight acquaintance with the latter.
2) The towns of Butuan, Talakogon, Bunawan, Veruela, and Prosperidad.
3) The town of Tagusab and the head-waters of the Tutu and Binungngaan [sic] Rivers.
"On the Eastern Side of the Pacific Cordillera"
In this region I include the upper waters of the Lianga, Hubo, Oteiza, Marihatag, Kagwait, Tago, Tandag, and Kantilan Rivers.
"On the Peninsula of San Agustin"
I had only cursory dealings with the inhabitants of the last named region but both from my own scant observations and from the reports of others more familiar with them. I am inclined to believe that there may be differences great enough to distinguish them from the other peoples if the Agusan Valley as a distinct tribe.
As to the Manobos of the Libaganon it is probable that they have more or less the same cultural and linguistic characteristics as the Manobo that form the subject matter of this paper but as I did not visit them nor get satisfactory information regarding them, I prefer to leave them unoticed until further investigation.
Of the Manobos of the lower half of the Peninsula of San Agustin I know absolutely nothing except that they are known as Manobos. I noted however, in pursuing the Jesuit Letters****** that there were in the year 1891 not only Manobos but Moros, Bilanes*******, and Tagakaolos in that region.
"The Debabaons********"
The Debabaons are probably a hybrid group forming a Dialect Group with the Manobos of the Ihawan, Baobo, and a cultural group in dress and other features with the Mandayas. They claim a relationship with the Manobos and follow Manobo religious beliefs and practices to a great extent. For this reason I have retained the name that they apply to themselves until their tribal identity can be clearly determined. They inhabit the upper half of the Salug River Valley and the country that lies to the west of it as far as the Baobo River.
"The Manobo Conquistas*********"
The inhabitants of all the settlements in the Agusan Valley except Novela, Rosario, the towns of Buai, the towns within the Banuaon habitat and a few settlements of pagan Manobo on the Upper Umaiam, Arfawan, Ihawan, Wawa, and Maitum are Manobo Conquistas.
On the eastern slopes of the Pacific Cordillera in the vicinity of San Miguel (Tago River) on the Marihatag and Oteiza Rivers there are several hundred Conquistas. The towns up the Hinatuan and Bislig Rivers are made up of both Manobo and Mandaya Cobquistas.
"The Debabaon Conquistas"
The Debabaon Conquistas are found in the towns on Moncayo and are also scattered about on the Upper Salug. The missionaries found the Debabaon People very recalcitrant; the comparatively few converts made envinced on the one hand all the fickleness of and instability of the Manobos and, on the other, the aggresiveness of the Mandaya.
******************************************************************************************************************
* "Tuna Bay" is on the southern coast midwat between Sarangani Bay and Parang Bay
** "Tiruay" is usally spelled as "Teduray" and refers to the tribe living today in and around the municipality of Maguindanao Province
*** "Bagobo" are a Lumad Tribe living in the mountains of North Cotabato Province
**** Mansaka, Mandaya, and Mangguangan are all separate tribes centered in ComVal (Compostela Valley) and Davao del Norte Province.
***** "Subanun are today transliterated as "Subanon" and alternatively as "Subanen." Rooted in Indonesia their original home on Mindanao sat where today's Zamboanga City sits. When Muslims began arriving the tribe was pushed up into the mountains of the Zamboagan Peninsula where they remain today
****** "Cartas de los PP.de la Compania de Jesus," 9:335, et seq. (1892)
******* Modern transliteration is almost always "B'laan"
******** "Debabaons" is today transliterated almost always as "Dibabaowans," and is
********* "Conquista" is a Spanish term that literally means "Conquered Ones" and was a social/demographic classification of the Spanish Era that refers to first or second generation Christian converts from Animist tribes. Hence "Manobo Conquista" refers to the Manobo who had accepted Baptism and were now living in diocese and/or mission communities as well as to their children. Usually by the third or fourth generation the progeny had assimilated into the dominant Bisaya Culture so as to then be counted as Bisaya.
Mr.Galvan relied on at least two primary sources for this excerpt, in addition to the Jesuit Letters mentioned above ("Cartas de...") :
1) "The Origin of the Malayan Filipinos" by Dr.Najeeb Mitry Saleeby, a paper read at the Philippines Academy, a subsidiary of the National Academy of Science in Washington D.C. on November 1st, 1911
2) "Etimilogo de los Nombres de Razas de Filipinos ("The Origin of Filipino Tribal Names") by Dr.Trinidad Hermenegilido Gorrico Pardo de Tavera, a paper presented to the (Spanish) Royal Academy of Linguistics in Madrid in 1887
Friday, September 23, 2011
History of Mindanao, Part XIX: The Manobo Tribe, 1925, Part 1
There are basically three major demographical groupings in Mindanao:
1) Filipino Muslim
2) Filipino Christian
3) Lumad
Perhaps it is the last one, the "Lumad," that is the most interesting. Basically analogous to the "Igorot" of Central and Northern Luzon, the term "Lumad" is a generic label applied to a multitude of diverse, mostly Animist Hilltribes that inhabit the interior of the island. The term itself is Cebuano, the lingua franca of non-Muslims on Mindanao and literally means, "of the land," or in an idiomatic English sense, "Indigenous." Like mamy groups who end up adopting contrived labels applied by outsiders, the Lumad themselves finally adopted the label in June of 1986 as a way in which to negate tribal and ethnic differences. In this respect it has a good deal in common with the term "Bangsamoro" (Muslim Bloodline, or idiomatically speaking, "Muslim Heritage") which was invented in the late-1960s for the very same reasons. The term "Lumad," shorthand for "Katawhang Lumad," or, "Person born of this Land" (Indigenous Person) was formally adopted at a conference of Animist Tribes held at the Guadalupe Formation Center in North Cotabato Province's municipality of Kidapawan City, where 15 of the 18 ethno-linguistic groupings (often incorrectly classified as "tribes" of which Mindanao has several dozen). I need to point out that it was the Maoist NPA that was instrumental in that 1986 gathering. Formation Centers were bastions of Liberation Theology and co-incidentally employed NPA cadres such as the infamous "Angie Impong" among others.
The technical description of Lumad Peoples has the following 17 groupings, all of which share three points of commonality:
1) Native to Mindanao
2) Traditional Belief Systems remain intact
3) Malayan and/or Indonesian in descent (meaning Negritos are not included)
However, officialy speaking, there are 18 groupings though academics, politicians and the Lumad themselves cannot reach a consensus on which group constitutes the 18th...The 18:
1) Mandaya
2) Mansaka
3) Manuvu, usually referred to by non-Lumad as "Manobo"
4) Higaon-on
5) B'laan
6) Sangil
7) Bagobo
8) Teduray, or Tiruay
9) Tagakaola, or Kaola
10) T'boli
11) Subanon
12) Mangguangan
13) Dibabawon
14) Talaandig
15) Ubo
16) Banwa'on
17) Bukidnon
Number 18 is a bit of a cypher since it depends entirely upon opinion. The whole concept of "Lumad," or "Indigenous People" is counter-intuitive in the Philippines anyway, since classification can be so fluid as I will show further along in this entry. Basically, Mindanowan demography is skewed along the lines of religion, Muslim, Christian, or Animist. However, due to the quasi-fascist cultural terrorism of mostly Western Christian missionaries the majority of Lumad have at least a nominal affiliation with Christianity. Likewise, Islam is always pressing up against traditional Lumad Culture and beliefs. The best example would probably the Kalagan Tribe of Davao del Norte and ComVal (Compostela) Provinces. As Islam expanded into what we now call the Davao Region the highly marginalised Kalagan converted en masse to Islam in one fall swoop after tribal elders saw it as their best survival strategy. Now the Kalagan are counted as one of the 13 Muslim Tribes. What about individuals within the B'laan or Teduray Tribes? They are Lumad but WHAT IF they individually convert to Islam? Indeed, one of the tribes listed, the Sangil IS Muslim.
Then there is the issue of what constitutes a "tribe." Anthropologically speaking it is very easy to define, a traditional kinship grouping in which the group has reached critical mass as it expands (vis a vis the absolutely "bare bones" definition). But with Lumad we see ethno-linguistic groupings labeled as "tribes." My subject matter in this new series of "History" entries for example, the Manuvu, or as they are much more widely known, the Manobo...There is no "Manobo Tribe." Manobo was a term originally applied by other tribes to tribes whom they deemed inferior. In the early Spanish Era it came to represent so called "un-civilised" tribes. Tribes applied it to Negritos AS WELL AS to fellow Malay slash Indonesian Tribes. Today it has come to represent a disparate group of tribes ranging from the Agusan to the Matigsulag and a whole lot of shadings in between.
Another such quandry are the "Bukidnon Tribe." "Bukidnon" was Cebuano term (just as "Lumad" itself is) that merely denotes. "Those who live in the mountains," or Hilltribesmen. Again we see disparate tribes lumped together under an extrenely generic heading. Confusing the issue is the fact that there is today a Bukidnon Province. Saying "Bukidnon Tribe" can merely refer to a "non-Bukidnon" Tribe that merely dwells within that province, for example, the Manuvu and the Higaon-on both have substantial populations within that province's borders. Even more perplexing is the fact that in Bukidnon Province the "Bukidnon Tribe" does NOT dwell in the highlands but on the province's plains and in its largest valleys. This is because the Spanish tended to apply the label to recently "civilised" "Conquistas," or newly converted Christians that had presumably come down from the mountains. Also worth noting, on Panay Island in the Central Philippines' Visayas Region, the term "Bukidnon" is used to apply to Bisaya who resisted Spanish colonisation and assimilation by receding into the mountainous interior.
Suprisingly in the last couple of years people have mistakenly begun to label Mindanao's Negritos as "Lumad" as well. On the face of it is seems perfectly sensible since Negritos are also Animist Hilltribesmen but they don't meet the stock definition of "Malay and/or Indonesian." Ironically there is a similarly mysterious dynamic with regard to the island's Negritos. According to most academics, all Mindanowan Negritos today belong to the Mamanoa, or as they are more widely known, the "Mamanwa Tribe." However, the term "Mamanwa" is simply a generic label that literally means, "The First to Dwell in the Jungle/Forest." Just as one can find "Bukidnon Tribes" on Mindanao AND on Panay, so one can find "Mamanoa Tribes" on Leyte and Negros Islands AS WELL AS Mindanao. It isn't unheard of for tribes to inhabit different islands but in the case of the Mamanoa on Leyte and Negros, also islands in the Visayas Region, they ARE Negrito but posses a different language, culture and Belief System than the various Mamanoa groups on Mindanao (as do the Bukidnon of Panay when compared to the Bukidnon of Mindanao).
Another perplexing issue with regard to the 18th Lumad Tribe is that increasingly one finds the "Tasaday Tribe" placed on the list. For those who may be unaware, at the beginning of the 1970s, a stone age tribe of Malay descent was found naked and living in a cave in South Cotabato Province. Uncontacted Tribes are not unheard of even today in some parts of the world and Mindanao, until recently, certainly could have harboured such a tribe. The Tasaday were roughly two dozen individuals who knew very little about the outside world. What precious little they did know had been gleaned from a B'laan hunter who claims to have stumbled upon the Tasaday as he stalked a deer deeper into the jungle near his hometown. In turn this hunter told villagers about the Tasaday, or so the story goes, and before too long a Marcos crony, Rene Elizade, came south for a look see. Elizade arrived to meet the tribe in a helicopter which, if the tribe was truly contacted, could have catastrophically changed the tribe's worldview. Deciding that the Tasaday needed protecting Elizade cordoned off a huge swath of jungle and controlled all outside contact including the academic world which understandably was chomping at the bit to examine them.
In the end allegations of chicanery and deception swirled around the tribe after anthropologists and journalists later tracked down the Tasaday, or so they say, only to find that in fact they were T'boli Tribespeople who had been paid to act in a psychodrama meant to deflect Marcos' Martial Law which was declared within that same timeframe (and possibly to fufill some need for attention by Elizade). Later others would argue that the tribe was in fact authentic so that today noone but the Tasaday can say for sure since the hunter and Elizade died long ago. Personally? Well I will save my take on them for a lengthly entry on the issue.
In any event, the book I will be excerpting from in this section is not a book per se but rather an academic treatise presented at the 1929 annual gathering of the National Academy of the Sciences in the United States. Entitled, "The Manobos of Mindanao" by John M.Galvan. Galvan does a magnificent job and to his credit seems to be unblemished with the typical "White Man's Burden" mindset. He approaches his work by considering views other than his own with sincerity and respect. Garvan was a fascinating man. Emigrating to the United States from his native Irelans in 1895, at age 20. Saving gis wages he was able to put himself through university and afterwards spent 5 years teaching in one or another school.
In 1903 Garvan enlisted for service as a teacher in the nascent Americanisation programme being foisted upon the re-conquered people of the Philippines. In 1907 Garvan decided not to re-enlist and instead he opted for a life in the Mindanowan bush, homesteading in what is today Agusan del Sur Province. There Garvan opened up a trading post slash general store and became very well acquainted with the Manobo living in the hills around him. With no formal training as an anthropologist, ethnologist, OR sociologist. He merely had an inquisitive mind with a keen interest in the world around him.
Returning to America in 1925. In 1929, having edited his voluminous notes and journals he produced what became the seminal volume on the Manobo. That November he presented his volume at the annual conference for the National Academy of Science in Washington D.C.
I need to add that while many know of the aforementioned work on the Manobo, Garvan also studied the Negritos and became the first to study all four Negrito groupings in the Philippines:
1) Mindanao in what is today Surigao del Norte Province
2) Negros Island in the Central Philippines' Visayas Region
3) Northern Luzon
4) In what is today Zambales Province
The work was unfortunately published in its entierty after Garvan's death: "The Negritos of the Philippines" edited by Hermann Hochegger (Vienna:Horn) (1969). Portions had appeared a bit earlier but the only one I personally know of is a German language, "J.M.Garvans Materialien uber die Negritos der Philippinen" Fritz Borneman (Anthropos #50, pp899-930)(1955).
1) Filipino Muslim
2) Filipino Christian
3) Lumad
Perhaps it is the last one, the "Lumad," that is the most interesting. Basically analogous to the "Igorot" of Central and Northern Luzon, the term "Lumad" is a generic label applied to a multitude of diverse, mostly Animist Hilltribes that inhabit the interior of the island. The term itself is Cebuano, the lingua franca of non-Muslims on Mindanao and literally means, "of the land," or in an idiomatic English sense, "Indigenous." Like mamy groups who end up adopting contrived labels applied by outsiders, the Lumad themselves finally adopted the label in June of 1986 as a way in which to negate tribal and ethnic differences. In this respect it has a good deal in common with the term "Bangsamoro" (Muslim Bloodline, or idiomatically speaking, "Muslim Heritage") which was invented in the late-1960s for the very same reasons. The term "Lumad," shorthand for "Katawhang Lumad," or, "Person born of this Land" (Indigenous Person) was formally adopted at a conference of Animist Tribes held at the Guadalupe Formation Center in North Cotabato Province's municipality of Kidapawan City, where 15 of the 18 ethno-linguistic groupings (often incorrectly classified as "tribes" of which Mindanao has several dozen). I need to point out that it was the Maoist NPA that was instrumental in that 1986 gathering. Formation Centers were bastions of Liberation Theology and co-incidentally employed NPA cadres such as the infamous "Angie Impong" among others.
The technical description of Lumad Peoples has the following 17 groupings, all of which share three points of commonality:
1) Native to Mindanao
2) Traditional Belief Systems remain intact
3) Malayan and/or Indonesian in descent (meaning Negritos are not included)
However, officialy speaking, there are 18 groupings though academics, politicians and the Lumad themselves cannot reach a consensus on which group constitutes the 18th...The 18:
1) Mandaya
2) Mansaka
3) Manuvu, usually referred to by non-Lumad as "Manobo"
4) Higaon-on
5) B'laan
6) Sangil
7) Bagobo
8) Teduray, or Tiruay
9) Tagakaola, or Kaola
10) T'boli
11) Subanon
12) Mangguangan
13) Dibabawon
14) Talaandig
15) Ubo
16) Banwa'on
17) Bukidnon
Number 18 is a bit of a cypher since it depends entirely upon opinion. The whole concept of "Lumad," or "Indigenous People" is counter-intuitive in the Philippines anyway, since classification can be so fluid as I will show further along in this entry. Basically, Mindanowan demography is skewed along the lines of religion, Muslim, Christian, or Animist. However, due to the quasi-fascist cultural terrorism of mostly Western Christian missionaries the majority of Lumad have at least a nominal affiliation with Christianity. Likewise, Islam is always pressing up against traditional Lumad Culture and beliefs. The best example would probably the Kalagan Tribe of Davao del Norte and ComVal (Compostela) Provinces. As Islam expanded into what we now call the Davao Region the highly marginalised Kalagan converted en masse to Islam in one fall swoop after tribal elders saw it as their best survival strategy. Now the Kalagan are counted as one of the 13 Muslim Tribes. What about individuals within the B'laan or Teduray Tribes? They are Lumad but WHAT IF they individually convert to Islam? Indeed, one of the tribes listed, the Sangil IS Muslim.
Then there is the issue of what constitutes a "tribe." Anthropologically speaking it is very easy to define, a traditional kinship grouping in which the group has reached critical mass as it expands (vis a vis the absolutely "bare bones" definition). But with Lumad we see ethno-linguistic groupings labeled as "tribes." My subject matter in this new series of "History" entries for example, the Manuvu, or as they are much more widely known, the Manobo...There is no "Manobo Tribe." Manobo was a term originally applied by other tribes to tribes whom they deemed inferior. In the early Spanish Era it came to represent so called "un-civilised" tribes. Tribes applied it to Negritos AS WELL AS to fellow Malay slash Indonesian Tribes. Today it has come to represent a disparate group of tribes ranging from the Agusan to the Matigsulag and a whole lot of shadings in between.
Another such quandry are the "Bukidnon Tribe." "Bukidnon" was Cebuano term (just as "Lumad" itself is) that merely denotes. "Those who live in the mountains," or Hilltribesmen. Again we see disparate tribes lumped together under an extrenely generic heading. Confusing the issue is the fact that there is today a Bukidnon Province. Saying "Bukidnon Tribe" can merely refer to a "non-Bukidnon" Tribe that merely dwells within that province, for example, the Manuvu and the Higaon-on both have substantial populations within that province's borders. Even more perplexing is the fact that in Bukidnon Province the "Bukidnon Tribe" does NOT dwell in the highlands but on the province's plains and in its largest valleys. This is because the Spanish tended to apply the label to recently "civilised" "Conquistas," or newly converted Christians that had presumably come down from the mountains. Also worth noting, on Panay Island in the Central Philippines' Visayas Region, the term "Bukidnon" is used to apply to Bisaya who resisted Spanish colonisation and assimilation by receding into the mountainous interior.
Suprisingly in the last couple of years people have mistakenly begun to label Mindanao's Negritos as "Lumad" as well. On the face of it is seems perfectly sensible since Negritos are also Animist Hilltribesmen but they don't meet the stock definition of "Malay and/or Indonesian." Ironically there is a similarly mysterious dynamic with regard to the island's Negritos. According to most academics, all Mindanowan Negritos today belong to the Mamanoa, or as they are more widely known, the "Mamanwa Tribe." However, the term "Mamanwa" is simply a generic label that literally means, "The First to Dwell in the Jungle/Forest." Just as one can find "Bukidnon Tribes" on Mindanao AND on Panay, so one can find "Mamanoa Tribes" on Leyte and Negros Islands AS WELL AS Mindanao. It isn't unheard of for tribes to inhabit different islands but in the case of the Mamanoa on Leyte and Negros, also islands in the Visayas Region, they ARE Negrito but posses a different language, culture and Belief System than the various Mamanoa groups on Mindanao (as do the Bukidnon of Panay when compared to the Bukidnon of Mindanao).
Another perplexing issue with regard to the 18th Lumad Tribe is that increasingly one finds the "Tasaday Tribe" placed on the list. For those who may be unaware, at the beginning of the 1970s, a stone age tribe of Malay descent was found naked and living in a cave in South Cotabato Province. Uncontacted Tribes are not unheard of even today in some parts of the world and Mindanao, until recently, certainly could have harboured such a tribe. The Tasaday were roughly two dozen individuals who knew very little about the outside world. What precious little they did know had been gleaned from a B'laan hunter who claims to have stumbled upon the Tasaday as he stalked a deer deeper into the jungle near his hometown. In turn this hunter told villagers about the Tasaday, or so the story goes, and before too long a Marcos crony, Rene Elizade, came south for a look see. Elizade arrived to meet the tribe in a helicopter which, if the tribe was truly contacted, could have catastrophically changed the tribe's worldview. Deciding that the Tasaday needed protecting Elizade cordoned off a huge swath of jungle and controlled all outside contact including the academic world which understandably was chomping at the bit to examine them.
In the end allegations of chicanery and deception swirled around the tribe after anthropologists and journalists later tracked down the Tasaday, or so they say, only to find that in fact they were T'boli Tribespeople who had been paid to act in a psychodrama meant to deflect Marcos' Martial Law which was declared within that same timeframe (and possibly to fufill some need for attention by Elizade). Later others would argue that the tribe was in fact authentic so that today noone but the Tasaday can say for sure since the hunter and Elizade died long ago. Personally? Well I will save my take on them for a lengthly entry on the issue.
In any event, the book I will be excerpting from in this section is not a book per se but rather an academic treatise presented at the 1929 annual gathering of the National Academy of the Sciences in the United States. Entitled, "The Manobos of Mindanao" by John M.Galvan. Galvan does a magnificent job and to his credit seems to be unblemished with the typical "White Man's Burden" mindset. He approaches his work by considering views other than his own with sincerity and respect. Garvan was a fascinating man. Emigrating to the United States from his native Irelans in 1895, at age 20. Saving gis wages he was able to put himself through university and afterwards spent 5 years teaching in one or another school.
In 1903 Garvan enlisted for service as a teacher in the nascent Americanisation programme being foisted upon the re-conquered people of the Philippines. In 1907 Garvan decided not to re-enlist and instead he opted for a life in the Mindanowan bush, homesteading in what is today Agusan del Sur Province. There Garvan opened up a trading post slash general store and became very well acquainted with the Manobo living in the hills around him. With no formal training as an anthropologist, ethnologist, OR sociologist. He merely had an inquisitive mind with a keen interest in the world around him.
Returning to America in 1925. In 1929, having edited his voluminous notes and journals he produced what became the seminal volume on the Manobo. That November he presented his volume at the annual conference for the National Academy of Science in Washington D.C.
I need to add that while many know of the aforementioned work on the Manobo, Garvan also studied the Negritos and became the first to study all four Negrito groupings in the Philippines:
1) Mindanao in what is today Surigao del Norte Province
2) Negros Island in the Central Philippines' Visayas Region
3) Northern Luzon
4) In what is today Zambales Province
The work was unfortunately published in its entierty after Garvan's death: "The Negritos of the Philippines" edited by Hermann Hochegger (Vienna:Horn) (1969). Portions had appeared a bit earlier but the only one I personally know of is a German language, "J.M.Garvans Materialien uber die Negritos der Philippinen" Fritz Borneman (Anthropos #50, pp899-930)(1955).
Thursday, September 22, 2011
History of Mindanao, Part IV: The Maguindanao Sultanate in the Late 17th Century, Part 7
In this, the seventh installment in "History of Mindanao, Part IV" I conclude my excerpting from William Dampier's "A New Voyage Around the World." Dampier was an upper class Englishman who while in Jamaica joined the crew of a privateer, liscenced pirates who attacked Spanish ships and split the profits with the English Monarchy. This excerpt addresses the crew's last two months on Mindanao during the reign of the ninth Sultan, Sultan Barahaman, and shows how they began to fight amongst themselves before finally culminating in a mutiny as the ship departs heading north with a quick stop in what is now Zamboanga City. The excerpt opens as the crewmen discover Captain Swan's journal in which he remarked quite negatively about most any crew member.
Chapter 13
"His Men Mutiny"
Therefore looking on what was written in the journal to be matter sufficient for them to accomplish their ends. Captain Teat, who as I said before, had been abused by Captain Swan, laid hold on this opportunity to be revenged for his injuries and aggravated the matter to the height, persuading the men to turn out Captain Swan from being commander in hopes to command the ship himself. As for the seamen they were easily persuaded to anything; for they were quite tired with this long and tedious voyage, and most of them despaired of ever getting home and therefore did not care what they did or wither they went. It was only want of being busied in some action that made them so uneasy; therefore they consented to what Teat proposed, and immediately all the ship bound themselves by oath to; therefore they concealed this design from those that were ashore until the ship was under sail which would have been presently if the surgeon or his mate had been aboard; but they were both ashore, and they thought it be prudence to go to sea without a surgeon; therefore the next morning they sent ashore one John Cookworthy to hasten off either the surgeon or his mate by pretending that one of the men in the night had broken a leg by falling into the hold. The surgeon told him that he intended to come aboard the next day with the Captain and would not come before; but sent his mate Herman Coppinger. The next day being the time appointed for Captain Swan and all his men to meet aboard, I went aboard with him neither of us distrusted what was designing by those aboard till' we came tither. Then we found it was only a trick to get the surgeon off, for now having obtained their desires, the canoe was sent ashore again to desire as many as they could meet to come aboard; but not to tell the reason lest Captain Swan should come to hear of it.
The 13th day in the morning they weighed and fired a gun; Captain Swan immediately sent aboard Mr.Nelly who was now his Chief Mate, to see what the matter was; to him they told all their grievances and showed him the journal. He persuaded them to stay till' the next day for an answer from Captain Swan and the merchants. So they came to an anchor again and the next morning. Mr.Harthop came aboard, he persuaded them to be reconciled again; or at least to stay and get more rice; but they were deaf to it and weighed again while he was aboard. Yet at Mr.Harthop's persuasion they promised to stay till' 2 o'clock in the afternoon for Captain Swan and the rest of the men, if they came aboard; but they suffered no man to go ashore except one Mr.William Williams that had a wooden leg and another that was a sawyer.
"The main part of the crew Go Away with the Ship, Leaving Captain Swan and Some of his Men; Several Others Poisoned There"
If Captain Swan had yet come aboard he might have dashed all their designs; but he neither came himself, as a Captain of any prudence and courage would have done, nor sent till' the time was expired. So we left Captain Swan and about thirty-six men ashore in the city and six or eight that ran away; and about sixteen we had buried there, the most of which died by poison. The natives are very expert at poisoning and do it upon small occasion; nor did our men want for giving offence through their general rogueries, and sometimes by dallying too familiarly with their women, even before their faces. Some of their poisons are slow and lingering for we had some now aboard who were poisoned there but died not till' some months later.
Chapter 14
"The Depart From the River of Mindanao"
The 14th day of January 1687 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon we sailed from the river of Mindanao, designing to cruise before Manila.
"Chambongo Town and Harbour with its Neighbouring Keys"
We coasted to the westward on the south side of the island of Mindanao, keeping within four or five leagues of the shore. The next day we were abreast of Chambongo, a town in this island; about thirty leagues from the river of Mindanao; Here is said to be a good harbour and a great settlment with plenty of beef and buffalo. It is reported that the Spaniards were formerly fortified here also; we sent our canoe ashore, thinking to find inhabitants but found no sign of any; but great tracts of hogs and great cattle; and close by the sea there are ruins of an old fort; the walls thereof were of a great height, built with stone and lime; and by the workmanship seemed to be Spanish. We weighed again on the 14th day and by the 22nd day we got about the western most point of Mindanao and stood to the northward.
"Two Proas of the Sologues Laden from Manila"
Here we met with two proas belonging to the Sologues, one of the Mindanayan nations before mentioned, they came from Manila laden with silks and calicoes.
********************************************************************************************************
That concludes the excerpts but I will post a Part 9 as well in which I offer a full synopsis of these 8 parts.
Chapter 13
"His Men Mutiny"
Therefore looking on what was written in the journal to be matter sufficient for them to accomplish their ends. Captain Teat, who as I said before, had been abused by Captain Swan, laid hold on this opportunity to be revenged for his injuries and aggravated the matter to the height, persuading the men to turn out Captain Swan from being commander in hopes to command the ship himself. As for the seamen they were easily persuaded to anything; for they were quite tired with this long and tedious voyage, and most of them despaired of ever getting home and therefore did not care what they did or wither they went. It was only want of being busied in some action that made them so uneasy; therefore they consented to what Teat proposed, and immediately all the ship bound themselves by oath to; therefore they concealed this design from those that were ashore until the ship was under sail which would have been presently if the surgeon or his mate had been aboard; but they were both ashore, and they thought it be prudence to go to sea without a surgeon; therefore the next morning they sent ashore one John Cookworthy to hasten off either the surgeon or his mate by pretending that one of the men in the night had broken a leg by falling into the hold. The surgeon told him that he intended to come aboard the next day with the Captain and would not come before; but sent his mate Herman Coppinger. The next day being the time appointed for Captain Swan and all his men to meet aboard, I went aboard with him neither of us distrusted what was designing by those aboard till' we came tither. Then we found it was only a trick to get the surgeon off, for now having obtained their desires, the canoe was sent ashore again to desire as many as they could meet to come aboard; but not to tell the reason lest Captain Swan should come to hear of it.
The 13th day in the morning they weighed and fired a gun; Captain Swan immediately sent aboard Mr.Nelly who was now his Chief Mate, to see what the matter was; to him they told all their grievances and showed him the journal. He persuaded them to stay till' the next day for an answer from Captain Swan and the merchants. So they came to an anchor again and the next morning. Mr.Harthop came aboard, he persuaded them to be reconciled again; or at least to stay and get more rice; but they were deaf to it and weighed again while he was aboard. Yet at Mr.Harthop's persuasion they promised to stay till' 2 o'clock in the afternoon for Captain Swan and the rest of the men, if they came aboard; but they suffered no man to go ashore except one Mr.William Williams that had a wooden leg and another that was a sawyer.
"The main part of the crew Go Away with the Ship, Leaving Captain Swan and Some of his Men; Several Others Poisoned There"
If Captain Swan had yet come aboard he might have dashed all their designs; but he neither came himself, as a Captain of any prudence and courage would have done, nor sent till' the time was expired. So we left Captain Swan and about thirty-six men ashore in the city and six or eight that ran away; and about sixteen we had buried there, the most of which died by poison. The natives are very expert at poisoning and do it upon small occasion; nor did our men want for giving offence through their general rogueries, and sometimes by dallying too familiarly with their women, even before their faces. Some of their poisons are slow and lingering for we had some now aboard who were poisoned there but died not till' some months later.
Chapter 14
"The Depart From the River of Mindanao"
The 14th day of January 1687 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon we sailed from the river of Mindanao, designing to cruise before Manila.
"Chambongo Town and Harbour with its Neighbouring Keys"
We coasted to the westward on the south side of the island of Mindanao, keeping within four or five leagues of the shore. The next day we were abreast of Chambongo, a town in this island; about thirty leagues from the river of Mindanao; Here is said to be a good harbour and a great settlment with plenty of beef and buffalo. It is reported that the Spaniards were formerly fortified here also; we sent our canoe ashore, thinking to find inhabitants but found no sign of any; but great tracts of hogs and great cattle; and close by the sea there are ruins of an old fort; the walls thereof were of a great height, built with stone and lime; and by the workmanship seemed to be Spanish. We weighed again on the 14th day and by the 22nd day we got about the western most point of Mindanao and stood to the northward.
"Two Proas of the Sologues Laden from Manila"
Here we met with two proas belonging to the Sologues, one of the Mindanayan nations before mentioned, they came from Manila laden with silks and calicoes.
********************************************************************************************************
That concludes the excerpts but I will post a Part 9 as well in which I offer a full synopsis of these 8 parts.
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