Sulu and our Tausug Brothers

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

After three weeks in the United States, I thought it was basically the weather and the infrastructure that made the basic difference between here and there. I quickly realized it was not just the heat, or the old airport, that reminded me I was home. It was also the news of the kidnapping of Ces Drilon and her crew.

It upset me so to keep reading about the sad news of Ces. Only five weeks ago, I had been to Sulu with co-workers from Gawad Kalinga (GK) to attend groundbreaking rites of our first village in Patikul. I remembered our courtesy call to the governor at his office, how he had expressed his deep wish for the return of normalcy to the province, and how he hoped that groups and projects like Gawad Kalinga could facilitate the process of peace and break the image of violence associated with Sulu.

In truth, Sulu has been enjoying relative peace for the last few years. While violent clashes between renegade MNLF or Abu Sayyaf terrorists have broken out intermittently, the conflict that had characterized Sulu since the early days of martial law had long given way to consistent efforts for peace. Unfortunately, much blood and resentment had flowed between Muslims and the military, and ill will persisted way beyond actual fighting.

The military stood as the main representative of a government that is basically comprised of Christians, reviving a historical Muslim-Christian conflict that had started more than a thousand years ago. There are very few Christians left in Sulu, and they are a very careful and quiet minority. Even the Catholic Church is a meek institution in Sulu, quite mute actually. Perhaps, the slaying of a bishop some years ago has taught the present one that prudence is the better part of valor.

Three years ago, the former governor of Sulu asked Gawad Kalinga to establish its presence in the province just as GK had in several towns and provinces in Muslim Mindanao. The leadership of GK did not hesitate to agree, yet it had taken three years of waiting before the first model house now stands in Patikul. In between, there were a few "almost there" situations which eventually were aborted by recurring armed conflict on the ground.

When I traveled around a few places in Sulu, I was struck by the sheer natural beauty of an island blessed with the clearest and cleanest shorelines I had ever seen. I wish there were more people smiling to depict typical Filipino friendliness, but I did not sense hostility either. There were a lot of curious faces, though. It seemed that Sulu was not used to strangers anymore, especially Christian strangers.

I must admit that my co-workers and I felt apprehension even though we tried so hard to hide it. We went as far as to avoid talking about our fears; perhaps, we felt that it was not time to allow these fears to surface but instead manifest our deeper wishes for the return of friendship and cooperation between brothers of the same homeland. It helped so much that mutual friends sharing a common dream for Sulu gave us so much moral support, allowing us to be recipients of the cooperation of the governor of the province and the mayor of Patikul.

There are so many other individuals and groups who had never deserted their dream for the renaissance of a jewel of Philippine history. The sultanates of Sulu are a historical pride of Filipinos, evidence of a refined civilization that preceded the accidental encounter of Magellan and our native shores. There is cause for resentment among Tausugs. They lost so much in four hundred years, not just lives sacrificed for honor but also wealth, dignity and an illustrious history.

My sympathy for a people who lost so much is the same sympathy for the rest of Filipinos who lost just as much. While the sultanates of Sulu had their pomp and glory, the status of national leaders recognized by leaders of other nations, the natives of the north built and landscaped mountains to become the sculptured rice terraces complete with agricultural engineering and irrigation facilities far superior than most cultures could imagine a few thousand years ago.

When proud Tausugs were horrified at how their rights and control over their lands and natural resources were grabbed by force, and how they fought to keep what they had, gentle brothers of the same blood were brought to submission, also by force, and suffered the shame of being stripped of possession and dignity. The wholesale confiscation of land not only deprived Filipinos of their entrepreneurship, it gave birth to the millions of squatter families today who still cry for the return of their birthright.

The Tausugs and other Muslim tribes lost Moroland just as the vast majority of Filipinos lost their lupang hinirang. The big difference is that Moros kept fighting for Moroland while most other Filipinos took defeat and dispossession as painful facts of life and then tried to live with it. The great irony is that Muslims became rebels for fighting a just cause. The great shame is that the rest of the Filipino people chose to remain slaves of an unjust history. The great scandal is that foreign masters have left our shores but confiscated lands have never been returned.

The collaboration of power players, mainly the State and the Church, has extended a historical anomaly that begs to be corrected. While both State and Church began with no land, they ended up with so much. While natives of our lupang hinirang once owned everything, they are mostly left with nothing, not even their memories. Except the Moros, except the Tausugs. For remembering, they have become outcasts and rebels.

We cannot keep crying over spilt milk, but we have no greater power than those who rule today and who have not felt the compunction to correct the wrongs of yesterday. What is left in us is a dream that cannot die, that must not die. While we are not sure how justice can be attained in peace, we cannot foster conflict, death and destruction either. What is clear, however, is that Muslims and Christians are brothers, that Muslims and Christians are victims, and that Muslims and Christians must seek friendship and cooperation. That is the only way for a future full of hope.***