The ‘Bangsamoro Identity’

One of the issues that is causing a lot of debates in the proposed Bangsamoro Identity is the question of identity.  The Framework Agreement signed between the GPH and MILF on October 15, 2012 states the following:

 

“Those who at the time of conquest and colonization were considered natives or original inhabitants of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago and its adjacent islands including Palawan, and their descendants whether of mixed blood or of full blood shall have then right to identify themselves as Bangsamoro by ascription or self-ascription.”

 

The whole passage refers only to ALL the "natives or original inhabitants at the time of conquest and colonization and their descendants regardless mixed or full blood". 

 

There is NO mention or even any reference to the migrant population of Mindanao, Sulu Archipelago and its adjacent islands including Palawan. Some of these migrants came to Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan as teachers and government officials as early as 1910. The famous “colonos” settled in Mindanao as early as 1916. The early "migrant" inhabitants came in 1918 and in the early 1920’s. Most of their descendants are now, by ascription or self-ascription, "CHILDREN OF THE SOIL". 

 

People should recognize that the Bangsamoro Identity is relatively a new construct. Many writers (including this opinion maker) believe that it was the construct of the original and early Moro National Liberation Front or the MNLF. 

 

Since I was already an inhabitant of Cotabato at the time, its first public emergence came in the public addresses of Prof. Nur Misuari (oral and written) and in "Moros, Not Filipinos," the seminal booklet written by Dr. Abdulrasid Asani in the early 1970’s. 

 

Any political construct that is less than 200 years old is considered young. In fact, even the very concept of nation state that was concocted sometime in the 18th century is also considered young. In the same vein, the territories created during the period of decolonization are also very fluid, since most of these boundaries are also considered young not only because they have been established only post-World War II but also because they were drawn arbitrarily by the colonizers.

 

In the particular case of Bangsamoro identity, the best thing that can be said, at least among social scientists and equally among the possible inhabitants of the emerging Bangsamoro constituent units, is the fact that it remains fluid and open. 

 

True to any identity issue, there would be "colliding" elements in the final shaping of said identity. One side would argue from the position of “BLOOD,” often referred to as jus sanguinis. Others would argue from the position of “CHILDREN OF THE SOIL,” also referred to as jus solis. The former refers to “RACE and ETHNICITY” while the latter refers to being born of the land. The two positions have also variants of sorts. There is the purist and fundamentalist variant as well as the more inclusive variant. 

 

The document itself appears inclusive, referring to all natives at the time of conquests and colonization regardless of religions and ethnicity, but it is, in a sense, exclusive and silent with respect to the “migrant” population of Mindanao, Sulu and adjacent islands including Palawan, referring to the "settlers" and their descendants.

 

In the real sense, the sustainability of any political construct would ultimately lay in the social cohesion that would be shaped and forged by the inhabitants of the constituent units of the Bangsamoro. It is in this sense that the issue of identity should be shared by all the REAL and ACTUAL INHABITANTS of to-be-constituted Bangsamoro constituent units. 

 

There can be no social cohesion when the proposed identity is NOT shared. Ownership of identity, the territory, government as well as its future is crucial in the rise or fall of any social construct. 

 

Care, sensitivity as well as diligence need to be taken when navigating the "dangerous" waters of identity and territory, else what is to be born either comes out  a stillbirth, or becomes yet another "failed experiment". CUIDATE!