The whole of Mindanao and Sulu were once ruled by the Moros. Together with the unIslamized indigenous tribes, they owned 98 percent of the lands and made up 90 percent of the population of the Moro Province (made up of five districts namely, undivided Sulu, Zamboanga, Davao, Lanao, and Cotabato).
Had they been given self-rule by the United States, they would have formed their own government by now, and perhaps, Mindanao would have been better governed than Luzon and Visayas to this day. But there is no way to ascertain this; it did not happen.
In the current stage of the government-MILF peace negotiation, much of which are devoted to discussion of natural resources in the seas and waters, which used to be the lakes of the Moros especially the Sulu Sea and Moro Gulf, including the Illana (Iranun) Bay. Moro ethnic identities are associated with waters; for instance, Tausog means “people of the current”; Maranao, “people of the lake’; and Maguindanao, “people of the flooded plain”. “Mindanao” was also coined from the same root word,”danao”, which means flooded or inundated. Hence, Mindanao is a place which is flooded and inundated. That place was and still is in Cotabato City now. It is also this waters that had given them feathers in the cap as masters of the seas, or more pejoratively as “pirates”. (During earlier times especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, there had been no dividing line between legitimate trade and piracy).
Given these facts of history and being part of the patrimony of the Moros, it is very hard to imagine that they will not be given a share of the natural resources found in and beneath the Sulu Sea and Moro Gulf. After all, both the territory of the Bangsamoro defined in the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and the doctrine of ancestral domain included the land mass as well as the maritime, terrestrial, fluvial and alluvial domains, and the aerial domain and the atmospheric space above it.
This is one aspect of the negotiation which the MILF wants to improve on what the MNLF had forgotten or failed to secure for our people. The issue of waters is never part of the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of 1996. Nur Misuari, who claimed to be a Tausog and as such has bigger claim thereof, had either forgotten this or found this issue hard to argue and assert, much less to get.
Be this as it may, we still believe that under the current administration that such deprivation would not happen. We have high regard for the high sense of justice of President Benigno Aquino III. His daang matuwid or straight path policy has core values that are antithesis to cheating people. A share of these resources is the best gift that President Aquino can give to our people. This they will value and remember forever!
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/editorial/item/585-gift-to-our-people
In the current stage of the government-MILF peace negotiation, much of which are devoted to discussion of natural resources in the seas and waters, which used to be the lakes of the Moros especially the Sulu Sea and Moro Gulf, including the Illana (Iranun) Bay. Moro ethnic identities are associated with waters; for instance, Tausog means “people of the current”; Maranao, “people of the lake’; and Maguindanao, “people of the flooded plain”. “Mindanao” was also coined from the same root word,”danao”, which means flooded or inundated. Hence, Mindanao is a place which is flooded and inundated. That place was and still is in Cotabato City now. It is also this waters that had given them feathers in the cap as masters of the seas, or more pejoratively as “pirates”. (During earlier times especially in the 16th and 17th centuries, there had been no dividing line between legitimate trade and piracy).
Given these facts of history and being part of the patrimony of the Moros, it is very hard to imagine that they will not be given a share of the natural resources found in and beneath the Sulu Sea and Moro Gulf. After all, both the territory of the Bangsamoro defined in the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and the doctrine of ancestral domain included the land mass as well as the maritime, terrestrial, fluvial and alluvial domains, and the aerial domain and the atmospheric space above it.
This is one aspect of the negotiation which the MILF wants to improve on what the MNLF had forgotten or failed to secure for our people. The issue of waters is never part of the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of 1996. Nur Misuari, who claimed to be a Tausog and as such has bigger claim thereof, had either forgotten this or found this issue hard to argue and assert, much less to get.
Be this as it may, we still believe that under the current administration that such deprivation would not happen. We have high regard for the high sense of justice of President Benigno Aquino III. His daang matuwid or straight path policy has core values that are antithesis to cheating people. A share of these resources is the best gift that President Aquino can give to our people. This they will value and remember forever!
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/editorial/item/585-gift-to-our-people
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