The Philippines is an archipelagic country consisting of more than 7,000 fragmented islands, mainly divided into three major island groups: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
▲ The Philippine archipelago is densely packed, and it is no less than indonesia, the "country of a thousand islands"
The capital of the Philippines is located in Manila, the northern island of Luzon, so the north is also the country's political and economic center of gravity.
In the southern Philippines, especially on the island of Mindanao, there are many armed rebel groups. Although these organizations vary in size, their core demands are to secede the Muslim areas of Mindanao, and their actions are becoming more and more violent, often causing quite a stir internationally.
Location of Mindanao (within the red circle)
In 2020, two serial bombings caused by suicide attackers in the city of Holo in the southern Philippine province of Sulu killed 15 people and injured 75 others.
During the Malawi crisis in 2017, the Philippine government fought with independent groups for five months before completely recovering the city.
The Malawi crisis, the Philippine government's war on terror
The most sensational was the kidnapping of tourists from Holo Island in 2000 by the Abu Sayyaf group on the Malaysian island of Sipadan, and the hostages were gradually released after mediation by the Libyan leader and the payment of a $25 million ransom.
What is it that makes the independence of the Philippine South so strong that it has even given birth to many terrorist organizations?
The "Abu Sayyaf" organization, active in the southern Philippines, frequently carried out bombing attacks and large-scale kidnappings
I. Finan's Past: The Origin of Moro Muslims
The Philippines is the only Catholic country in Southeast Asia, with Catholics making up about 80% of the total population in the Philippines.
▲ Map of the main religions of Southeast Asian countries
In the southern Philippines, Muslims, who make up about 5 percent of the country's population, are concentrated in Mindanao. The bright "green" in this "Catholic ocean" seems out of place.
▲ Map of religion in the Philippines
Mindanao is home to more than 10 million Muslims, and although there are many ethnic groups and inherent differences, they all have many social and cultural commonalities because they all believe in Islam.
After a hundred years of running-in, they gradually distinguished themselves from other ethnic groups in the north-central Philippines.
▲ The proportion of believers in various religions in the Philippines, Christian Catholicism and Protestantism account for 90%
As early as the 14th century, driven by the Renaissance and the wave of maritime trade, the Arabs along the Persian Gulf coast traveled all the way east to India, China, the South China Sea and East Africa.
In Southeast Asia, they traveled north from the Indonesian archipelago to the south of the Philippines, spreading Islam to the Philippines, thus beginning the history of "Islamization" in the Philippines.
Islam expanded eastward, making its first landing in the Philippine Archipelago in 1390
In the 15th century, some Arabs from Sumatra established Islamic regimes large and small in the Sulu Islands and Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
Among them, the Sultanate of Sulu is recognized as the first state established in the history of the Philippines.
▲ Sultanate of Sulu
During the Sultanate period, Islam gradually spread in the southern Philippines. However, due to the fragmentation of the Philippine archipelago, the Sultanate was not able to expand to the north of Luzon for a while.
Soon after, the arrival of Spanish colonists completely cut off the opportunity for the sultanate to expand north.
Sultans and retinues of The Muslims of the Phinecry
Second, colonial invasion: the north and south are gradually drifting apart
At the end of the 15th century, the Spaniards eliminated the Arab "Moorish" regime (710-1492) that had ruled them for seven centuries and restored their rule.
▲ The Arabs occupied the Iberian Peninsula
During these 7 centuries, Islamic rulers practiced Islam in Spain. After the restoration of the Catholic regime, the first thing Spain did was to "de-Islamize", overhaul the Catholic Church, ban the arabic language and wear, and establish the Inquisition to judge Islamists.
Spain then quickly entered the Age of Discovery, and in 1521 Magellan's fleet arrived in the Philippines, representing Spain's first discovery of the land.
▲ Magellan Monument in Lapu-Lapu, Philippines
Subsequently, in the mid-to-late 16th century, Spain traveled from Mexico to the central Philippines, where it began its colonial conquest and the promotion of Catholicism there.
But as it marched south to Mindanao, Spain encountered decades of revolt.
When the Spaniards invaded, they found that the locals were very similar to the former Islamic rulers of Spain, the Moors/Moros, and called them "Moors" in contempt, which later evolved into "Moro".
The 300-year-long war between the two sides is also known as the "Moro War".
▲ Spanish colonial territory, the Philippines is located in Asia and Southeast Asia, the lower left corner of the picture
After that, the Spaniards launched more than a dozen wars to the south, but never effectively, and the Muslims were not to be outdone, often attacking some parts of Luzon.
Such conflicts have continued for more than 300 years. It was not until the mid-19th century that the Sultan of Sulu was forced to recognize suzerainty over Spain.
But even after acknowledging Spanish suzerainty, the Spaniards still did not gain full control of the southern Philippines. After the Spanish garrison entered Mindanao, not only was its range limited to military positions, but it was often attacked by local forces at night.
For most of mindanao's inland areas, the Spaniards simply could not control it.
▲ King Philip II of Spain, the name "Philippines" comes from its name
Colonial invasions cut off cultural ties between the north and south of the Philippine Archipelago, and the Spaniards, after occupying the Philippines, Central and Northern Philippines, vigorously pursued a policy of "de-Islamization" consistent with the mainland.
Spain has almost completely erased the shadow of Islamic culture in central and northern Philippines for hundreds of years, and has widely promoted the Catholic faith in north-central Philippines.
In the face of the constant invasion and oppression of northern colonizers over the past three centuries, the contradiction between Catholicism and Islam has become increasingly acute.
Map of the Philippines in Spain in 1734
Time into the 19th century, hundreds of years have passed, Spain's status as the first generation of colonial hegemons has long since ceased to be the past, and the United States, as a new generation of powers, has long coveted the colonies owned by Spain, which have long ceased to exist.
In 1898, in order to compete for control of the Philippines, the Spanish War broke out, and the Spanish in the Nippon Hills were defeated by the Americans who were more favorable to the ships and guns, and finally lost the war.
But in the signing of the armistice treaty, the Spaniards played a slippery slope, allocating the island of Mindanao, which they did not actually occupy, to the United States, and dumping this mess on the Americans.
▲Spanish-American War
After the United States took over the Philippines, it soon discovered a very different situation in the south. In order to completely control the Philippines, the Americans used both hard and soft measures, while promoting economic and political oppression of Muslims and transforming education; While waging several wars, it still did not succeed in occupying the island of Mindanao.
Not only that, but it has further stimulated the determination and independence of Muslims, and also intensified the contradictions between Muslims and Catholics.
▲American education has entered the Philippine classroom
Considering the high cost of war, the United States began negotiations with southern Sudan, culminating in the Treaty of Gilam Baez, in which Sudan recognized U.S. sovereignty over its territories and the United States recognized Sudanese rule over the territory.
The United States symbolically gained dominion over Mindanao, but the Muslims of Mindanao retained some autonomy.
▲ The massacre of the Moro people by the US army
In the decades since, the United States has also adopted a consistent strategy of dividing the Philippines — using the north to rule the south, that is, to maintain its rule while retaining the independent characteristics of the south, to establish the image of the Filipino ethnic group centered on the cultural identity of the northern Philippines, and to give it the official status of the nation, which further deepened the rift in the relationship between the North and the South.
The United States even promulgated a new Philippine land law, declaring the southern land as "illegal land", and planning to migrate the Catholic residents of the north to Mindanao to dilute the religious composition of the local Islam.
▲ The Governor's Palace of the Philippines occupied by the United States (pink)
Although the South has political autonomy, in fact many departments of the Autonomous Government of the South, such as elections, internal affairs, elections, and the judiciary, are controlled by Northern immigrants.
With the increasing number of immigrants from the north, the resources of the south were being transported to the north while being exploited, and the south had a tendency to become a vassal of the north economically.
These policies caused great harm to the North-South relations in the Philippines, and the South began to gradually shift its dissatisfaction with the colonizers to the central government in the North. This shift is an important background for the further continuation and even deterioration of the social estrangement and ethnic antagonism between the North and the South after the independence of the Philippines.
Third, assimilation and integration, the contradiction between the north and the south has intensified
After gaining sovereignty over the Philippines, then-U.S. President McKinley set the tone of U.S. policy toward the Philippines in a letter to the U.S. Congress in 1899:
"For the Philippines, we are not here to plunder, but to train them to govern themselves with policies of development, civilization, and indoctrination."
Therefore, the United States transplanted its own set of political system to the Philippines, that is, the supreme power under the premise that the United States held, abolished the original colonial system of Spain, and established a new set of "American-style" Senate and BICA political system, and the Philippines enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy on the basis of "The interests of the United States first".
For the southern region, the United States tore up the Treaty of Giram Baez in 1902 and exercised direct rule over the Moro people, and the United States copied the Spanish management model and established the Moro Province, with the supreme power controlled by the Philippine Governor-General and the five-level administrative provinces at the local level; And the introduction of the American judicial system, giving the local people a certain leadership.
Governor-General of the Philippines (1901–1904) William Howard Taft, later 27th President of the United States (1909–1913)
In 1914, moro province was abolished and the Ministry of Mindanao and Sulu was established. Elites in the north held important official positions and held legislative power in the Moro region.
The management of education, agriculture, and health care was also transferred from the Moro region to Manila in the north. Later, the United States once again accelerated the process of "Filipinization" in Moro, and the Ministries of Mindanao and Sulu were also removed, and their functions were transferred to the "Non-Christian Tribal Bureau" under the Ministry of the Interior.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Philippine people's desire for independence became stronger, and in 1923, a "cabinet crisis" broke out, and cabinet members and the speaker of the Senate resigned en masse.
Finally, after decades of struggle and pressure from interest groups within the United States, the Filipinos received an independent promise from the United States at the expense of a great degree of trade preference.
Representative of the Philippine Independence Mission in 1924
In 1934, the U.S. Congress passed a bill promising independence for the Philippines after ten years, but the subsequent philippine national association ignored the demands of southern Muslims in determining the territory.
Eventually, the Philippine National Association established a national map that included the three major island regions of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, but this chauvinistic "unification" would naturally not be recognized by the south.
▲ The flag of the Philippine Free State established in 1935
Shortly after the Kuomintang released its territorial plan, a group of Muslim elites presented the U.S. Congress with a Declaration of Power and Purpose, claiming to represent more than 500,000 Muslims and "insisting on recognition as a Moro state, a constitutional sultanate, and recognized by the world."
In 1935, a group of Muslim leaders in the Philosphere wrote to Roosevelt stating that the Philippines consisted of two peoples with different religious customs and traditions, and demanding that Muslim settlements not be incorporated into the soon-to-be-recognized Federation of the Philippines.
However, the outbreak of World War II interrupted the independence process of the Philippines, and during the Pacific War, Japan invaded the Philippines and supported the establishment of the Second Philippine Republic, ostensibly promising its independence, but in fact the Japanese military directly held power.
During the Japanese occupation, there were still guerrillas in the south who insisted on resisting, and according to statistics, there were 260,000 guerrillas in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation, and about 40,000 in Mindanao alone.
While the Filipinos continue to fight, their sense of independence is also strengthening, and the same hatred and hatred have temporarily alleviated the original contradictions between the North and the South.
After the end of World War II, the Philippines officially became independent in 1946, and the Mindanao region officially became part of the Philippines.
▲ Philippine independence
With the impetus and support of the United States, in order to break its cohesion and facilitate the assimilation of the central government, Mindanao was divided into several provinces and its autonomy was greatly weakened.
And as the Philippine government followed the U.S. assimilation policy, the implementation of the "integration plan" and internal colonialism, and other factors, the independence of Mindanao has intensified.
Since the 1950s, the Philippine government has followed the U.S. policy and begun to emigrate on a large scale to the South, and after the 1970s, it has implemented a further assimilation policy, not only continuing to encourage immigration to the South, but also supporting local Catholic immigrants to form armed forces, ignoring the emotional and religious identity of the local people, and erasing the local culture.
Between 1903 and 1939, nearly 700,000 immigrants moved into Mindanao from the north, while from 1948 to 1960, 1.25 million emigrated to Mindanao.
The influx of immigrants has led to a dramatic increase in the population of Mindanao, with population growth in Mindanao reaching 87 per cent between 1948 and 1960, more than double the national population growth rate of 41 per cent.
▲Moro women
By 1970, catholics in Philania outnumbered Muslims. To this day, the Muslim population of Mindanao's entire island of 25 million is less than 30 percent.
Catholic immigrants not only occupied Muslim public lands, but also made Muslims a minority in their own land, thus upsetting the balance between ethnicity and religion in the land.
Kodabato, Ranau, Davao, Zamboayan and Basilan, which were once the main body of Moro Muslims 50 years ago, are now predominantly Catholic areas.
The large number of Catholics emigration has seriously challenged the traditional society of Muslims, and the Moro people have suffered unequal treatment in all aspects of economy, politics and society, and the contradictions between the North and the South have been further aggravated.
Fourth, independent emotional outbursts
In 1968, two fishermen rescued a Muslim man wounded by a gunshot from Manila Bay, and he recalled that he was the only survivor of a massacre of Muslim recruits by the official armed forces, known as the Jabida massacre.
▲ The Jabida Incident
Prior to this, Moro Muslims were more likely to fight for just and equal political and economic rights, and less involved in the demand for independence, but this incident completely ignited the resistance of the Moro people.
In 1969, under the rising tide of nationalism, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was formed, and its Moro National Army became the main force in the confrontation with the central government.
In 1972, the central government promulgated the "Military Control Act", a large number of troops to the south, the Philippine government forces sent armed forces to surround and suppress various riot strongholds, the maximum strength of the force was 100,000 people, the average daily combat cost reached 270,000 US dollars, the Philippine government once lost control of parts of the south.
▲ Flag of the Moro National Liberation Front organization
The confrontation between the two sides lasted for nearly two decades, and the south was plunged into protracted guerrilla warfare, but also experienced détente and fierce clashes, and armed factions were constantly being "recruited".
As for the conflict, the most intense was the 2012 Moro Islamic Freedom Movement, in which southern militants sneaked up on dozens of military installations and detained more than 500 villagers.
In the long confrontation between the two sides, the internal independence demands have also diverged, and some radical members of the MoA are increasingly dissatisfied with the organization's actions.
▲Manila, the capital of the Philippines. The political and economic center of gravity of the country is located in the north
In 1977, some members broke away from morats, and in 1982 some of them formed the more extreme "Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)," which focused on fighting the Philippine government under the spearhead of religion and insisting on armed struggle against the Philippine government.
In the divided resistance movement, "religion" was added to the background of "nation", thus further intertwining ethnic contradictions and religious contradictions, and further complicated the Moro issue.
Finally, in 1990, the MLM signed an agreement with the central government to establish the "Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)", which covers the five provinces of Ranau Dod, Maguinda, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi tawi.
The two sides stopped the military standoff and signed a final peace agreement and an armistice 6 years later.
▲Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (red part)
However, due to the fact that many of the commitments to the autonomous region were not really implemented, the MOA was not satisfied with the establishment of the autonomous region and continued to insist on armed resistance to the central government.
▲ Moro Islamic Liberation Front organization flag
In the new standoff, some militants in the MOP further disengaged from the organization and joined the "Abu Sayyaf Organization" established in 1991 to affirm the independence tendency in an extreme way of terrorism.
In the past 20 years, the conflict between the north and the south has been continuous, the momentum of independence in the south has become more and more vigorous like dry firewood, and the large and small anti-government organizations are scattered on the southern islands, and terrorist acts abound.
▲ Map of Mindanao, Philippines, the extent of Muslims is compressed into the Autonomous Region of Mindanao
Such as the shocking Bali terrorist attack in 2002, the Davao International Airport bombing in 2003, the Valentine's Day bombing in 2004, and the 2017 Manila hotel attack.
About 3,000 people in the Philippines have died in terrorist attacks since 2001. Mindanao has also been called the "Kidnapping Island".
After the 9/11 incident, the Philippine authorities stepped up their sweep of Mindanao in the name of counter-terrorism, and the situation between the North and the South was once extremely tense, and the separatist demands continued to strengthen.
▲ The incidence of poverty in various parts of the Philippines, the Muslim area of Mindanao "soared", up to 60%
Today, Abu Sayyaf has fully developed into a major terrorist organization in Finan, causing terrorist incidents in Southeast Asia, kidnapping tourists, and creating shootings and bombings.
The Moay'ísa has now grown into the largest anti-government organization in the Philippines, with 15,400 members and more than 11,300 weapons of various types. After an equally lengthy military standoff, there have been many rounds of negotiations with the central government, but there has been no real progress in the long run.
In 2013, the former Moro National Liberation Front was dissatisfied with the situation of the former autonomous region and announced the establishment of the "Bangsamoro Republic" in Sulu, Sabah and other regions, although the declaration of independence did not cause much repercussions, but the side made the central government conduct more peace negotiations with it on the establishment of Asian countries.
▲ Claim territory of the "Bangsamoro Republic"
In 2016, Duterte won the Philippine presidential election, the first president born in mindanao, received a university education in Manila, and a self-proclaimed Catholic, he openly challenged Catholic doctrine in 2018 and declared that he no longer professed Catholicism.
With great personality, he actively negotiated with the Mindanao rebel group to support the establishment of a further "sub-autonomous region".
▲ Duterte attended the inauguration of Bangsamoro
In 2019, after a series of lengthy referendums, the "Samoro Muslim Autonomous Region of Mindanao (BARMM)" was officially established, with parts of the jurisdiction including the former Muslim Autonomous Region of Mindanao.
The more than 20-year-long independence dispute was briefly settled with the expansion of the autonomous region.
Flag of the Bangsamoro Muslim Autonomous Region
Mindanao's total economy accounts for about 15% of the total Philippines, and according to surveys, Mindanao accounts for 70% of the total gold reserves of the Philippines.
But the terror in Mindanao has not disappeared, and more radical armed forces are seeking to cooperate with terrorist groups like Al Qaeda to create greater disputes.
In short, this growing independence tendency in the southern Philippines is rooted in ethnic and religious contradictions accumulated over a long period of history, as well as the central government's bent internal colonialist integration policy.
All of this continues to exacerbate the discontent caused by the marginalization of The Finan Muslims, which is so fraught by a complex set of factors, such as divisions within the Moro community and religious extremism.
Map of the Philippines