*Mindanao Ethnohistory Beyond Nations (Hayase) American Rule of Mindanao Chapter 4: Mindanao in the Modern Era

The peace and order situation in the region has been unstable: Muslims have been demanding separation/independence or autonomy; the Lumad (non-Muslim indigenous people) have been engaging in antigovernment activities; asking for autonomy and recovery of their unique culture. This chapter: basically about how Mindanao Muslim society , which was based on datu society, disintegrated under American colonial power and was minoritized in the formation of a modern colonial state. Decline of the Maguindanao Sultanate Overseas activities which were the base of their political and economic power were suppressed. Introduction of steamboats by the Spaniards (1848) for coastal security. Maguindanao sultanate had a strong naval powe and was active all over Maritime Southeast Asia. However, the boats rowed by slave labor were no match for modern naval and marine power. Tapos hindi na ganon kadali manghuli ng mga slaves kasi bantayado na nga ng Spanish and Dutch patrol boats ang karagatan. Slave trade rapidly declined due to an international movement to ban it (implemented by the Dutch East Indies in 1859). Nauso na rin yung plantation coolie labor. Unskilled and cheaply employed worker. ---Pero, siyempre, may mga privately owned slaves pa rin. *Slaves were very important in Maguindanao society. - Large-scale anti-Spanish resistance rooted from the slave policy change (1883): slaves who sought protection in Spanish territory automatically became free. - The power of the sultans depended on the number of slaves. - Slaves = boat rowers, agricultural cultivators, etc.; export commodities - Center of slave trade: Sarangani Bay and Sarangani Islands. Traders from all parts came to barter slaves. Resold in Borneo. Women slaves sold to Chinese settlers (laws in China forbade female emigration). This is where inter-cultural encounters happen. As Maguindanao weakend, the balance of coexistence with other peripheral peoples was no longer maintained. Dahil mahirap na nga ang manghuli ng mga alipin, Maguindanawons made their lumad neighbors their slaves (like the Tiruray). They also attacked Davao and Caraga. To counteract, Spaniards conquered Davao in 1848 and missionary work became active around 1880 in Caraga area. Kinuha na sa sultan yung capital at yung leadership sa foreign trade. The only power left is religious leadership. Pero hindi na siya nakapag-offer pa ng alternatives to the modernization brought by Christianity. Muslims of the Davao Gulf and Sarangan Bay Regions in the 19 th Century Davao was attacked on 1848. Christian conversions of Muslims. Christian migrants to Mindanao in 1861 from all over the Philippines. The successful conversion: To get away with the Muslim rule. (Missionaries concentrated their efforts on abolishing slavery and human sacrifice.) Frequent earthquakes, famines, and epidemics that tormented them. Muslims increasingly became the minority. May movements of Muslims around the 19th century. In the latter part of the 19th century, there were at least 3 groups of Muslims who moved to the southern part of Mindanao. 1. Royal family members of the Maguindanao sultanate who wished to establish a new sultanate 2. Sangir who often traveled between Mindanao and the Sangihe-Talaud Islands 3. Traders from Sulu and other places where slave trade became active **Further divided into three: 1. Those who sought permanent settlements 2. Those in temporary shelters and had their base in the settlements under either the Maguindanao sultanate or the powerful datus 3. Those who were constantly moving around There were reports about the Talao, probably from the Talaud Islands, who wished to migrate to Southern Mindanao but were afraid of the Muslims and Manobos. (Talao are traders. They brought and sold cloth and various kinds of woven mats.) Chinese traders (who came from Jolo, Brunei, and as far as Singapore). When the Maguindanao sultane began to decline, Muslims migrated to nonMuslims areas and build communities along the coast. They were able to maintain their own societies based on chiefdom without much influence from the outside. But the Muslims were to be integrated into the Americal colonial rule.

The US successfully established indirect rule through the sultan of Sulu by making him recognize American sovereignty. Mindanao came under the direct rule of American military and Moro Province was established in July 1903. (First run by the American military but was later run by civilian government.) The purpose of establishing the Moro Province was to dismantle Islamic political and social institutions by introducing secular principles and to bring civilization and progress to this underdeveloped area. (as mentioned in previous readings) ethnocentrism of the Americans The purpose of the establishment of the civilian government was to gradually integrate Mindanao into the political system of Luzon and the Visayan Islands to make it part of the Philippine nation, and to ensure the civilization process of Mindanao. Muslim resistance to American colonial rule (mentioned in the previous reports, in Gowing) The policy of forming Filipino nationhood induced the creation of Filipino Muslim or Muslim Filipino. For Muslims, to become Filipino created another problem. Christian migration policy of opening areas in Mindanao to Christian settlers (response to demands by Christian peasants for land). Gradually, Muslims and non-Christian tribes became minorities. Three categories of inhabitants: Christians, Moros, and the non-Christian tribes (Lumad).

Restlessness of the Muslims and Their Minoritization 1. Dissolve the Muslim society by exercising the governments power! 2. Policy change: restore the datu system and make the Muslim population loyal collaborators with the colonial administration (by maintaining their position and dignity). 3. Established tribal wards and courts by appointing datus as their heads. (Geographically separated tribal wards. Each tribal community had different customary laws. Americans find it chaotic without organized and systematized laws.) 4. Tribal wards and tribal courts were abolished when the civilian government established the Department of Mindanao and Sulu. (Civilian government once runs with majority of Americans and minority of Christian Filipinos. Eventually, mas marami na ang mga Pilipino, partly due to the Filipinzation policy of the colonial government.) 5. Minoritization of non-Christians when the Philippies Organic Act (Jones Law) was passed in 1916. The law prohibited the use of royal titles, exercise of polygamy, and slavery.

There was no minority before, since each society/tribe was once independent. Muslims and Lumads lived in self-governed societies, regardless of the size and strength. The concept of minority was created when the modern colonial state, or nation-state, began to integrate plural ethnic groups and established unification policy centered on majority. Non-Christians were forced to abide to the laws decided by the Christians in Manila, and these laws denied or ignored their unique culture and customs.
(Walang gaanong resistance, surprisingly. New elites began to place more importance in their own interests than the interests of Muslims as a whole.)

The modernization of Mindanao meant that Mindanao moved from early Islamic sultanate that dominated East Maritime Southeast Asia into a modern frontier world where many minoritized non-Christians remained. Anti-government struggles but has been lightly dismissed as not dangerous enough to overthrow the government. 1990 establishment of ARMM Pero: may internal disputes among Muslims MNLF, MILF, Abu Sayyaf, etc. We tend to equate the Mindanao problem with Muslim problem. We should keep in mind that there were many non-Muslim natives in Mindanao. Hindi lang mga Muslim ang nakatira sa non-Christian areas ng Mindanao.

Formation of the Modern Colonial State and Minoritization Wala ng power ang sultanato (dahil hindi na nila kontrolado ang foreign trade) at nawalan na rin ng power ang mga datu sa pagdating ng mga Amerikano.

Making Mindanao: Cotabato and Davao in the Formation of the Philippine Nation-State (Abinales) Chapter 5: Demographic Change and Social Stability on the Postwar Frontier
Examines the settlement of southern Mindanao, focusing on the spontaneous migration that dominated the process from 1946 to the early 1960s, and exploring the factors behind the surprising social stability of the frontier the period most characterized by destabilizing demographic change. (Pre-secessionist war and communist insurgencies of 1970s and 1980s.) Demographic Transformation: The single issue connecting the colonial and postcolonial periods: land problem. Revolts from peasantry. Solution to land problem crucial to the order and economic progress for the Philippines. Policy: Improve the existing land patterns without radical disturbance of landlord peasant relations: limited land distribution, introduction of technology to increase productivity, and the encouragement of migration to less developed areas. Since 90% of postwar Mindanaos land was public and the population was sparse, the region came to play a major part of the policy. Government saw a chance to offer discontent peasants from the north the opportunity to become owner-cultivators without changing existing tenancy arrangements. Migration was encouraged. Postwar difficulties, combined with the shrinking man-to-land ratio in northern provinces, encouraged many peasants to consider resettlement to Mindanao. Most massive movement of Filipinos in the history of nation. 1946-1960: population grew from less than 3 million to over 5 million Net migration over half of the growth while the rest was attributed to local births. Movements within Mindanao. Favored destinations were Cotabato and Davao (which absorbed over 60% of the migrants. - Cotabato: Escaping destitution. Settlers from Western Visayas who were compelled to move by the displacement of food crop farms by sugar plantations in Negros and by poor land quality in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Panay. Development of interisland shipping - Davao: Appeal comes from wide expanse of public land. Migration alternative to rebellion, restored state capacities, alleviate land pressure in provinces with high population density. Pero there were problems with land title applications and also, tensions between Muslims and Christian settlers over land ownership. In Davao, the Lumad (Bagobo and Ata) communities found themselves increasingly marginalized by settlers, squatters, corporations, and even government land agencies seeking to appropriate land for settlement. Overlap in land occupation by the settlers and the indigenes. Pero these social tensions were insufficient to seriously undermine political and social conditions. Hostility within and between the groups remained under control: Two major reasons why social conflict was held in check in 1946-mid-1960s: 1. Absence of a feudalistic political economy - The majority of residents were owner-cultivators of small- to medium-sized properties. - Land accessibility. - Pero both indigenous and settler groups are more interested in enhanced productivity rather than accumulation and conflict. Masyadong malaki ang lupa na puwedeng paghati-hatian. - Kanya-kanya so they are less engaged in conflicts. Although my tensions pa rin regarding land ownership, pero the absence of feudalism (landed elite-peasant relations) proved invaluable to the stability. - Class divisions within the settlements remained incipient, social antagonisms were muted, and conflict was limited to small battles between migrants and indigenes and among migrants themselves. - Some of the leading Cotabato families did own large estates but there is little evidence that they administered their lands through tenancy arrangements. - Where feudal authority was invoked, it had more to do with the nature of the datus traditional relationship with their constituents rather than with issues in land ownership. - Hindi sinasabi ni Abinales na walang tensions. In fact, meron. Maguindanao settlers in Cotabato never really found common ground for peaceful coexistence with the settlers and in Davao, linguistic difference pitted one migrant group against another from the electoral arena down to daily encounters. - Pero. Its not as bad as in any another province in postwar Philippines.

2.

Social solidarity that emerged out of these groups proximity which had both communal (religious, linguistic) and community (place of origin) bases. - Nature of inter- and intracommunity organization - Among Muslims: landownership complaints and the perceived partiality of the state officials towards settlers reinforced a sense of systematic marginalization. But this strengthened sense of identity did not automatically translate into separatist politics. - Response of indigenous groups to the deluge of migrants: strengthen their ethnic and religious ties to establish (or reestablish) a unified voice. - Among settlers: Social peace between Muslims and settlers were preserved in part through the mechanism of political links between local leaders with the mass electoral base to offer national parties and state leaders seeking to stabilize the states presence or expand their own networks in southern Mindanao. (Cotabato) - Important element: politics (the use of power by local and provincial strong men). Operated on 3 levels: 1. Imposing order in their communities 2. Managing relations between their communities and others 3. Mediating with the Philippine state - Patronage-operated process explains why tensions did not explode into widespread confrontation and war during the first two decades, postwar. - Mechanism of migration itself. Solidarity by preserving and reproducing in their new homes social ties from their provinces of origin. (Davao) - Migrants are groups of families that came from the same municipalities. - Pami-pamilya ang lumilipat. - Language and kinship were important bonds, reinforced later by cultural animosity toward both indigenes and other settler groups. - Migrants habit of regularly returning to their original provinces. Visits preserved cultural attachments which otherwise might be lost through coexistence with other language or ethnic groups on the frontier. (characteristics of settlers in Davao; settlers in Cotabato appeared to consider their migration as permanent. - Unity through these identities appears to have become stronger.