MODULE 1

WHY STUDY THE HISTORY OF THE FILIPINO

MUSLIMS AND OTHER INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF
MINDANAO?

I. Objectives

At the end of the module, the students should be able to answer

the following questions:
1. Why was the Mindanao State University System created?
2. How did History 3 (i.e., “A History of the Filipino Muslims
and Lumads of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan”) become a
mandated course in the MSU System?
3. What is the relevance of studying this history?

I. Introductory Activity: Read the Story of Kamlon

Hadji Kamlon was a Moro and former WW2 guerilla hero, from

the town of Luuk, Sulu Province. From 1948 to 1955 lead a rebellion
against the national government. He defied government authorities for
eight years and successfully evaded arrest despite the fact that the
Philippine Military had already concentrated its forces on Jolo to capture
him. He was considered by the Philippine military as the biggest threat to
national security and a bandit to be feared but to the Tausugs, Kamlon
was a legendary folk hero and a local Robin Hood, who stole from the
rich to give to the poor. Kamlon’s uprising reached its zenith in 1951
when he and about 100 of his followers inflicted “heavy casualties” on
patrolling government soldiers. Clashes started to rage over wide areas of
Sulu. The most bloody was the one launched by Kamlon Hadji and 100
followers. Despite their inferior strength and crude weapons comprising
mostly of old rifles and being mainly restricted in the Luuk area on Jolo
Island, Kamlon and his band the government in his shoes. They inflected
severe losses on lives, equipment and fund. For almost 4 years the
government engaged Kamlon and, during the final assault, 5,000 ground
troops were utilized along with naval, air and mortar supports. Logistical
expenditures, after the final inventory, amounted to P 185 million.
Despite all this cost,
Kamlon could not be routed or captured. He finally gave up
conditionally due to advancing age.
In another account on August 1955, KAmlon and 40 of his
followers routed an entire platoon of government troops in Sulu, killing
18 and wounding 19 others. This was the “largest casualty figure in one
engagement suffered by government troops” in pursuit of Kamlon. His
group incurred only 1 death and 5 wounded, according to the news
report.
The cause of Kamlon rebellion, according to several sources, had not
been clearly established. To the Military, who tried to capture him,
Kamlon was simply a Moro who wanted to return to the life of
freebooter; some attributed his rebellion to conflict among local leaders
in Sulu, others say that Kamlon was irked by the land registration law,
which required him to register his land to make it his. Land registration
was said have caused a clan feud between a Kamlon and another Tausug
(affiliated with the government), who applied for land title to Kamlon’s
ancestral land. When violence broke out and his adversary, the
government came in to pacify them- only to find itself entangled in a web
of confrontation and armed violence. Kamlon (and his follwers)
suspected or were convinced that the government was supporting his
local enemies.
Perhaps unknown to many was the fact that Kamlon was
charged with multiple murder and kidnapping and sentenced to death by
the court. The Supreme Court affirmed his sentenced in a ruling in 1963.
However, it was not carried out.
Many Tausugs respected and loved KAmlon. The Local people
did not cooperate with the military despite the huge rewards offered for
his capture. According to one account “the only answers the trooper
could get in their query (when looking for Kamlon) was “dih” w/c means
“no” or “bukon” that means “not him” or not the one in the picture.
Kamlon’s rebellion made the government wonder: why could he
not be captured despite the inferior number and crude weapons of his
followers? Why were the government’s superior military force and its
bountiful reward system for the capture of Kamlon not effective? Or,
why was it taking too long to capture a band or more or lesspoorly armed
individuals fighting on a small island of Jolo? What was really the
problem of kamlon’s uprising?
Subsequently, the government to investigate the causes of the unrest.
Congress created a Special House Committee composed of Sen.
Domacao Alonto of Lanao, Cong. Luminog Mangelen of Cotabato and
Cong. Ombra Amilbangsa of Sulu to look into the problem. The
Committee’s investigation was revealed that the problem of Kamlon’s
long lasting rebellion was due neither to an inept military nor the
talisman (anting-anting) of Kamlon. The problem was created by the
general feeling of the Moros that they were not Filipinos; that the
military was not their military and that the Philippine government was a
foreign government. The Special House Committee recommended that if
the government wanted to genuinely address the problem, it should adopt
measures to make the Moros feel that they were an integral part of the
Philippine nation. This aim, according to the Committee must be
 achieved through a comprehensive approach covering economic, social,
moral, political and educational developments.
As a result of the recommendation, the government created several
programs and agencies that were supposed to effect the economic,
social, political, moral and educational integration of non-Christian
Filipinos into the main body politic of the Philippines. Foremost of the
agencies charged with the above function were the Commission on
National Integration (1957) and Mindanao State University (1961).

II. Lesson Proper

1. Why was the Mindanao State University System created?

The first agency charged with the integration of the non-integration

Filipinos was the Commission on Integration (CNI). However, because of
its gigantic tasks, limited funding and poor administration, the agency
found itself unable to carry out its mandate fully. More than 10 years later,
the CNI would be abolished.
Chiefly, it was in education that CNI needed to carry out its special
tasks. When this agency was dissolved, the responsibility of educational
integration and advancement for the Moros and other IP’s in MinSuPala
was passed on to Mindanao State University (MSU) September 1, 1961
through RA 1387, as amended, was the brain child of the late Senator
Domocao A. Alonto, as one of the government’s responses to the so-called
“Mindanao Problem”. Integration, according to its first President, Dr.
Antonio Isidro, was the heart of MSU which would serve as a social
laboratory.
As a crucial mandate, integration is stated on the University’s official
website as follows.:
The 1954 congressional committee conceptualized it (i.e,. MSU) as a
social laboratory for national integration. It is the only university in the
country directly charged by the government to advance the cause of
national unity and actively pursue integration through education.
The original mission of the university was anchored on instruction,
research, and extension. The 1954 Congressional Committee
conceptualized it as a social laboratory for national integration. For the
main campus in Marawi City starting with 282 students and 12 faculty
members in its pioneering classes in 1962, it has grown to a multi-campus
supra-regional university system, serving over 69,000 students in all levels
with nearly 3,100 faculty members.
Today, MSU has units in areas which cut across the Mindanao regions.
From a one campus university in Marawi City, MSU has grown to a multi-
campus university of eight autonomous campuses: MSU-Main in Marawi
City, MSU-IIT in Iligan City, MSU-TCTO in Tawi-Tawi, MSU-Naawan in
Misamis Oriental, MSU-Maguindanao, MSU-General Santos, MSU-Sulu
in Jolo, and MSU Buug in Zamboanga Sibugay.[5]
 The mandates of the university are
 To perform the traditional functions of a university namely:
instruction, research and extension service;
 To help accelerate the program of the integration among the peoples
of Southern Philippines, particularly the Muslims and other cultural
minorities;
 To provide trained manpower skills and technical know-how for the
economic development of the Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan
(MINSUPALA) region in Bangsamoro.
The initial batch of students to enroll in the University on June 13, 1962
passed the scholarship examination administered by the National Science
Development Board. The 282 freshmen students were in the top 5% of their
high schools in the MINSUPALA region in Bangsamoro. Their teachers
were 12 regular Filipino faculty members and a number of volunteers from
the British Voluntary Service Overseas, Volunteers in Asia, Ford
Foundation, Fulbright Foundation and others. Baccalaureate courses were
offered by the pioneering colleges: Liberal Arts, Education and Community
Development to which four more were added in the subsequent school year
1964-65 – Agriculture, Fisheries, Business Administration and
Engineering. In July 1969, the College of Forestry was added.
To meet the growing demands of the region, 12 major colleges/units
were created/restructured.
 On January 10, 2001, three CHED supervised institutions — Lanao
Norte Agricultural College (LNAC), Lanao National College of Arts &
Trade (LNCAT), and Maigo School of Arts and Trade (MSAT) — were
integrated into the MSU System by virtue of CHED Order No. 27 S. 2000,
per Republic Act No. 8760.

2. How did History 3 (History of the Filipino Muslims and Lumads

of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan) become a mandated course in
the MSU System?

There has been some controversy in the use of the term “integration” as
MSU special mandate. Salah Jubair says that some moros object to the term
because it includes the action of assimilation, which lead to the absorption
of their belief and culture into the dominant group’s – the Christians.
Secondly, Salah Jubair “implied that the Christians were not only superior
in all spheres of life, but even in matters of religion, they were spiritually or
religiously correct. Jubair believes that through integration, there would
come a time when “one could not distinguish Muslims from the Christians
and vice versa anymore.
But apparently as far as MSU is concerned, integration that not entail
assimilation of the local culture and the religious belief of the Moros and
IP’s in MinSuPala. In fact, the Mission statement of the University says:
 Committed to the attainment of peace and sustainable development in
the MINSUPALA region, the MSU System will set the standards of
excellence in science, arts, technology and other fields; accelerate the
economic, cultural socio-political and agro-industrial development of the
Muslim and other cultural groups, thereby facilitating their integration into
the national community, preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the
region and conserve its natural resources; and infuse moral and spiritual
values. For collaborative efforts, for diplomatic relations, and for
international recognition as a leading institution of higher learning, the
MSU System will pursue vigorously linkages with foreign agencies.
The University mission stresses the phrase “preserve and promote the
cultural heritage of the region. To MSU, integration does not stand for
absorption and eventually annihilation(eradication) of the Moro and other
IP heritages. In fact, the University is tasked as part of its national
integration effort, to preserve and promote Moro and other IP cultures. It is
apparent then that as a process, integration in the MSU view means
enabling the Moros and other IP’s to recognize that they are indeed a
Filipinos, too, by enabling them appreciate the efforts of advancing their
heritage and cultures, counting them as part of the general Filipino heritage
and providing them with educational, economic and other opportunities to
move up on the social ladder. It seems hard to believe that assimilation and
annihilation of the Moro and other IP cultures was the meaning of
integration that the authors of the MSU Charter had in mind. After all,
these authors themselves were also proud Moros. Integration, therefore, as
conceived by them meant including the Moros and other IP’s in the
development efforts of the national government. It meant taking them into
account in all things that the government would consider “central”,
“national “and “integral”. Thus, if there were such events as economic,
socio-cultural, political, educational and other developments, the Moros
and other IP’s, in the context of integration, would be included in them.
The same would apply when Moro and other IP cultures would be no
longer considered marginal, trivial or minor; rather, integration would
count them in as integral parts of the national culture heritage of the
Philippines.
The same may be said of the struggles and history of the Moros and
Lumads of MINSUPALA. If the struggle of other peoples in the
archipelago (e.g. Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisaya, Igorot etc.) were to be
considered part of the country’s “national” history, why should it not
include the struggle and history of the Moros and Lumads in the general
struggle of the Filipino people? In other words, even the idea of requiring
History 3 in the MSU curricula came out of the idea of integration, the
rationale of which was: the struggle and history of the Moros and Lumads
are integral parts of the general struggle and history of the Philippines.
Thus, they should be included in the national (i.e “mainstream” or
“central”) not in any marginal or local history of the Philippines.
 3. What is the purpose of studying “A history of the Filipino
Muslims and Lumads of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan”?

In general, studying history helps students see the Filipinos’ past

“mistakes” as a people. If they learned from these mistakes, they would be
unlikely to repeat them. Thus, history teachers hope to contribute to
improving the nation’s future by helping to recognize and point out past
actions that may be considered as blunders and failures and past “victories
and successes” of preceding Filipinos!
Mindanao has many lessons to offer. It is not by accident that the
subject, History 3, is a mandated course in the Mindanao State University
System. The more relevant reasons why there is the need to study the
History of the Filipino Muslims and Lumads of Mindanao, Sulu and
Palawan may be:
First: Objectively studying the struggles of the Moros and Lumads
would correct the long distorted, incomplete and lop-sided “popular
history” that had alienated them. In Philippine History books of the last few
decades, that in fact attitudinally hark back to the spirit of Spanish records,
the Moros and Lumads were either not mentioned or depicted only as
villains, bandits, pirates or “wild” people that needed to be tamed. For that
reason, the Moros and Lumads did not see Philippine history as their
history. Consequently, they felt that they were no part of the Filipino
nation. By recognizing the Moro and Lumad contribution to the making of
the Filipino nation and by including their perspectives in the study of the
country’s past, one would hope to turn Philippine history into EVERY
FILIPINO’s STORY (i.e Moros and Lumads included)

Second: Studying the Moros and Lumads in the past would broaden
Filipino understanding of the country’s present situation. In particular, it
would help that understanding of the present dynamics of Muslim-Cristian-
Lumad relationships: what had caused their divisions, their biases, their
claims (ancestral and proprietary), their marginalization, their predicaments
and their protests (both peaceful and violent)? The study would also
broaden understanding of implications in government responses, such as
the impact of war on the lives, properties and relationships of all the
peoples involved. Moreover, the study may create a better picture of
possibilities when the parties involved express willingness and collective
efforts to dialogue; to find common grounds; to solve problems; to get back
on their feet; and to correct their own mistakes. By redefining the violent
past of Mindanao together with and in the context of the basic desires and
dreams of its tri-people, history would hope to broaden Philippine
horizons!
Finally: By broadening such horizons, Filipinos hope to develop
essential values needed in genuine reconciliation, such as empathy, respect,
acceptance of the other’s needs and the culture of dialogue. When Filipinos
together have learned the stories of their fellows, they would understand,
empathize and help each other look for acceptable comprises and solutions
to their predicaments. Through understanding, they learn the method of
dialogue, which is the beginning of genuine reconciliation. In the long run,
this process would eventually minimize, if not eradicate, the “culture of
violence” and bring about the eventual triumph of the “culture of peace” in
the MINSUPALA. The authors of the charter must have believed (as the
authors of this study guide do) that this eventuality would be possible
through the trickle-down and multiplier effects of the more than 70,000
students of the MSU System.

III. Lessons Learned and Peace Message

As pupils of Mindanao History, History 3 teachers and students may feel

themselves privileged and obligated to comprehend the past social
experiences that shaped the current realities of Mindanao and its peoples.
Thus, ideally after their study of History 3, they should be among the
solution-providers and trouble-shooters of Mindanao. They should be ready
to translate their cognitive learning into affective maturity that would push
them to initiate actions for positive change.
They should not listen to pessimists who discourage them, saying
“You cannot change the ugly situation of Mindanao, for you are just
students!” They must remember that while they are only students, they are
not alone! One can just imagine how significant they could become if all
students at the Mindanao State University System were imbued with the
same attitude; aspiring for the same dream of peace and initiating positive
actions, no matter how small or simple they may be in their daily lives.
Individually, one may not feel his own impact, but collectively, they could
prove to be an important key to open more widely the door to the triumph
of the culture of peace in this part of the world.