Why the Bangsamoro issue is not at all too different from the Philippines’ squatter problem

April 1, 2015

by benign0

I’ve come to realise the whole trouble with academics. A lot ot them have minds so imprisoned by their expensive “EDUCATION” that they fail to spot important points in the facts sitting right in front of their noses.

Take the simple question:

What is it exactly about the current governance system in the Philippines that supposedly prevents Filipino Muslims from achieving their aspirations?

You will not find the ANSWER to that simple question in the appeals of a certain Sitti Djalia (a Tausug) noted by the eminently academic “peace process” presidential advisor Teresita Quintos-Deles in her commencement address to graduating Xavier University students in Cagayan de Oro…

When Djalia declares ‘The Bangsamoro story is also the story of the Filipino,’ it is at once a statement of fact and a statement of faith. She is saying that Moros are also Filipinos, part of a nation in the making. Through the peace process and in other ways, we seek to heal the wounds of history that have pitted us against each other, because of religion, because of historical circumstances.

And here I am thinking: So what?

Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front come together to carve up Mindanao

Every Filipino has “wounds to heal”. Metro Manila’s squatters, for example, are “also Filipinos” with grievances to bring to the fore. They also are “part of a nation in the MAKING” as it is likely most of them are EMPLOYED and, as such, part of the national economy. They also have a story to tell — a history or “narrative” surrounding how they came to besquatters. What if, say, a gang of squatters guns down a representative of the owner of the land they occupy who was sent to SURVEY the property? Will their “history” stand up in a court of law as a valid position to take in their defense?

Can you imagine the Philippine government inviting the leader of, say, the Bahala Na Gang to negotiate amnesty (for the crimes of trespassing) on behalf of Manila’s squatter community? Government apologists, in this hypothetical scenario, may argue that the Bahala Na Gang have lots of members who are residents of Manila’s sprawling squatter colonies and therefore are “qualified” to represent the community.

A parable in the Holy Bible comes to mind in light of all this. It is the one about a landlord sending a series of servants to speak to tenants who are delinquent in rent PAYMENT. The tenant kills all of them. Then the landlord sends his son. The tenant kill him too.

* * *

It’s simple, really.

What the Philippines’ so-called “academics” essentially did was use their “EDUCATION” to turn the issue into an unnecessarily-convoluted one by padding it with a huge pile of irrelevant talking points.

The only real points that remain unaddressed remain the same:

(1) 44 STATE officers are dead.

(2) The prime suspects in their murder are people that are members of or at least closely-associated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front — a terrorist organisation with known ties with Al Qaeda.

(3) All of the prime suspects bear arms illegally and are in open rebellion against the Philippine government.

Now it is even becoming evident that the Malaysian government may also be a key player in an increasingly disturbing emerging picture — that the Philippines’ claim to the island of Borneo has been made a bargaining chip by the Philippine government under President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III.

So again:

Why is the “history” of the Moro people even “relevant” given the abovesimple facts of the case?

ANSWER that question plez.

[PHOTO courtesy Canadian Inquirer.]