[EXCERPTS: Book review/message book launch of Dr. Heidi Gloria] I would like to thank the Office of the President, Fr. Joel E. Tabora, SJ and his staff for bringing us together to launch Dr. Heidi K. Gloria’s latest books, (Injustice and Prejudice in the Philippine South Volume 1 and 2) which sheds a light on just how long the Bangsamoro struggle really has been. It is a story that is just as old, if not older, than the establishment of the Philippine Republic itself.
My uncle once said, “It is a truism, I believe, that history is meant to be written by people who do not make it. The Austrian statesman, Prince Clemens von Metternich once said, “Those who make history do not have the time to write it.”
He said this because of the continued struggle of the Bangsamoro people for right to self-determination, he added, “because we are so actively involved in it still, any writing regarding our actions, how they reflect in posterity, are yet to be determined”.
As a descendant of the Maguindanao sultanates, like most of us of this present generation we could say that we cannot, therefore, fault our forebears who failed to write the history of Maguindanao and the rest of the Bangsamoro: they were the ones who made it.
During their times, it seemed that “the main thing,” as Count Otto von Bismarck observed, “is to make history, not to write it.” The duty of writing, I submit, primarily rests upon these history-makers’ descendants -- our Muslim Atenean students, who have neither the power, nor the opportunity, to make history, as of now.
For Al Qalam, our duty is to provide the training and right space for our Bangsamoro youth to fulfill this task of writing and correcting our history.
There is one point I the book of Dr. Gloria that caught my attention. I read in the regarding the Jabidah Massacre, I fully respect Dr. Gloria's view (that it did not happen). However, people from Sulu and the strong advocates of the Bangsamoro may not agree with this. But it is in the spirit of academic discussion where we allow people to agree to disagree.
Mahatma Gandhi even said, “Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” For those who are interested to know the details, grab a copy of these two volumes and learn the history of Mindanao.
With reading Dr. Gloria’s book, I hope you will learn that history is not just a way to look at the past -- it is a vantage point to our future, as well. In order to have the future we want, for ourselves and for our children, we have to work together.
This needs effective compromise on every side, from the government, the public and private sector, from each and every Filipino citizen, in order for us to truly impart effective meaningful change.
In closing, I proudly would say that the Maguindanaons, Iranuns, and the rest of the Bangsamoro claim to nationhood, aspiration to autonomy and the pursuit of the right to self-determination is a just, moral and practical proposition. It is the logical link that connects its glorious past with a more livable future. For a Maguindanaon, Iranun, and Bangsamoro, to fail in this duty is to live a wasted life.
One scholar of Mindanao said, “History shows that as a nation or people, we (Bangsamoro) have continuously enjoyed our independence prior to the illegal occupation of America which was merely based on the illegitimate inclusion of the Sultanate of Maguindanao in the sale of the Philippine Islands to the USA by Spain”.
The Duterte Administration recognizes this historical fact. “Ex injuria jus non oritur” Right cannot originate from wrong. Annexing us in the Philippine Republic without recognizing our glorious past is wrong.
The Tausugs, Iranuns, Meranaws, and Maguindanaons, from generation to generation since the colonization of our “inged” or ancestral domain have mounted some kind of protest or complaint in one form or another.
During the last four decades, the noisiest and most irksome to the government is the armed group, led by young leaders (Maguindanaons, Iranuns, Meranaws, and Tausugs) in 1970s established the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front.
They are struggling for the implementation of all signed agreements. Most of these agreements are mentioned in the book of Dr. Gloria.
Dr. Gloria’s book is timely and highly important today. As the GPH-MILF Peace Process seems to be well under way, this book gives us more reason to correct the historical injustices in Mindanao.