The country has long wallowed in historical anomalies. School textbooks, journals and history tomes are more remarkable for their deficit of accounts of Muslims’ contributions in the wars against foreign invaders. The steps that must be taken to rectify this are long overdue.
The acknowledgment of Muslim freedom fighters be it by executive or legislative fiat or in history books is an elusive dream which they have painfully harbored through the years. Their bloody and pyrrhic battles against the Spanish Conquistadores, the Japanese Imperial Army and the American colonialists, which were essential episodes in the country’s struggle for independence, had largely been ignored by historians and state authorities.
Any talk about a historical injustice in a marginalized sector of Philippine society should necessarily include not only Muslims but also the Maranaws of Lanao whose heroism had for decades been buried in anonymity.
But there is hope. An attempt to remedy this historical anomaly is in the offing. State authorities are taking steps to give due recognition to and honor the gallantry, valor and heroism of Maranaw resistance warriors, especially those who perished in battle so that we, Filipinos of today, can breathe and enjoy the freedom that we have.
And this is giving fresh hope to Maranaws who have long suffered in silence because of the oversight of state authorities, national policymakers, historians, chroniclers, scholars, and researchers.
This issue was recently discussed by top BARMM officials who trooped to the office of Sultan Majul Gandamra, mayor of the Islamic City of Marawi. It was auspicious and coincidental because the city is in the midst of prepping for the celebration of its 84th Founding Charter in August, which makes Marawi one of the oldest cities in the country.
Datu Rohulla “Bobby” Alonto, commissioner of the BARMM Commission on the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, and Nurjamal Batugan Jr., senior researcher, discussed projects that would recognize the valor and gallantry, if not heroism, of Muslim fighters, which contributed to and influenced, in no small way, the Filipinos’ bloody fight for independence.
The documentary and historical bases for the project that will finally honor the Muslim heroes can be viewed in a PowerPoint presentation that was graciously shared with this writer in an email by Commissioner Bobby Alonto, a rabid Moro nationalist fiercely devoted to the so-called “Moro cause.”
Bobby is one of the few living prolific and intrepid Moro writers who believe in the pen being mightier than the sword.
In the presentation, there is a compendium of historical facts, Muslim heroes, and the dates and places (an ancient map is included) of the battles between the native Muslims and the foreign invaders, complete with the names and titles of the leaders of the resistance movement.
To preclude any doubts about the authenticity, veracity and integrity of the historical narrative, it includes the sources of the narratives, the book titles, authors, publishers and dates of publication. It is enriching and revealing and will leave one wondering why on earth these historical facts were not shared with the public, especially Muslim scholars and researchers. (I will discuss further some of the relevant tales in my next column).
But as I have said, they were completely ignored by state authorities and chroniclers of government. And this is the historical oddity that Commissioner Alonto is trying to correct.
Offhand, it is no wonder that the secessionist idea still thrives among the Moros in general, and the Maranaws in particular. The Maranaw statehood movement conceptualized by a visionary Maranaw leader, lawyer Bayan Boni Balt, is successfully popular, gaining currency and counts a horde of adherents. His Maranaw Federal State Movement, to use a colloquial term, is “selling like hotcakes.”
This is a symptom of the historical injustice we have described and the neglect or incompetence of the government to address the concerns of the Maranaws.
More historical revelations in my following articles.
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