From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 18):
Hataman rallies Bangsamoro never to forget Jabidah Massacre
Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Friday reminded the Bangsamoro people not to forget
the lives offered in the name of peace in Mindanao.
"Today we continue this difficult task of remembering,
a task that is necessary in the greater struggle for our rights as Bangsamoros,
a struggle that we wage for lasting peace and genuine justice," Hataman
said in his message in commemoration of the 48th Jabidah Massacre in
Corregidor.
He said it has been almost five decades since the Jabidah
Massacre left its mark on the Bangsamoro consciousness, a mark "akin to a
wound that has never fully healed as its scab is picked over and over again
with every other act of injustice committed against our people."
The regional governor said for Bangsamoro people, the story
of Jabidah needs no introduction. "In our minds and hearts, there is no
question that it happened and that it is true. In our history, there is no question
about its rightful place in the long narrative of our struggle for
self-determination."
The infamous Jabidah Massacre refers to the mass killing of
about 60 Moro recruits trained by Marcos government allegedly to invade Sabah, Malaysia
on March 18, 1968.
Hataman said for many other Filipinos, the reality of the
Jabidah Massacre remains either unknown or denied.
"In the midst of all the unknowns and denials, this is
what we know: During the Marcos regime, Bangsamoro men were taken to Corregidor from the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu,
and Tawi-tawi, and were recruited to be part of an elite commando group called
Jabidah. This group has been tasked to carry out Operation Merdeka, an
operation that involved destabilizing Sabah, allowing the Philippines to
take over the area."
Hataman recalled the incident by narrating: "One night,
their military handlers began to take them by the dozen to a remote airstrip.
Here our brothers were executed as they were shot with machine guns, making
sure not one of them survived. They were indiscriminately shot at and summarily
executed, after being treated unfairly throughout the duration of their
supposed training."
"The number of Bangsamoro men killed ranges from eleven
to the thousands. No one knows for sure. This is because our history knows not
the exact numbers or dates, because our history has always been subjected to
denial and erasure," he added.
He said that incident triggered a series of atrocities by
the Marcos military to Moro communities in southern Philippines, triggering Moro
uprising the years that followed.
"After so many of our communities have been burned
down, so many of our families torn apart by war, and so many of our children
growing up while fighting injustice, the murder of our brothers who wanted only
to fight for our country was the final straw. Jabidah became the spark which
started the flames of our struggle," he said.
"It is our history that speaks of our pain and healing,
of conflict and survival, of losing and seeking our rightful place in this
country. It is a history that has been seared onto our minds and our hearts by
the fire of our long and difficult struggle, because no there is no other way
for us to remember," the regional governor said as he declared a
non-working holiday in the five provinces of ARMM.
"Never again will we allow our people be hidden by the
shadows of the past, and we will never forget our people whose lives depend so
much on peace and whose deaths strongly demand justice," he said.
ARMM is composed of the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del
Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=867910
