Monday, June 23, 2008 Nalzaro: My Sulu experience By Bobby Nalzaro Saksi
I AM a full-blooded Mindanaoan. I was born and grew up there. I practiced the first seven years of my 28 years of uninterrupted broadcast-journalism profession in Zamboanga City. I was already in the media while taking up mass communication at the Ateneo de Zamboanga. I used to travel to the perceived troubled areas in Region 9 to gather news.
Talking of Mindanao, people usually perceive it as a troubled place and a breeding ground for terrorist groups. No. It’s not the entire island that is affected by armed conflict. My hometown of Dipolog and the rest of Zamboanga peninsula are peaceful. Armed conflict only occurs in Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, which were originally part of Region 9 before it was fragmented because of the creation of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The other areas where peace and order situation is deteriorating are in Central Mindanao, like in the provinces of Cotabato, Maguindanao and Lanao.
And if we talk of unstable peace and order and armed conflict, it automatically enters into the public’s mind that the culprits are our Muslim brothers. Why? Because these areas are predominantly inhabited my Muslims. But this is not always the case. There are many Muslims who love peace. As the saying goes, “there are bad Muslims as there are bad Christians and there are good Muslims as there are good Christians.”
I am a little bit accustomed to the character and traditions of our Muslim bothers because I have so many Muslims friends, classmates and fraternity brothers. I was somehow exposed to their traditions. In fact, I had a Muslim girlfriend during my younger days. She belonged to the Yakan tribe of Basilan. She was nice and beautiful. But we parted ways when she decided to work in Saudi Arabia.
I am quite familiar with those areas in Sulu that hogged the headlines recently because of the kidnapping of TV broadcaster Ces Drilon and her crew, like the municipalities of Jolo, Maimbong, Patikol and Indanan. These areas were very poor and underdeveloped. I don’t know now since it has been more than 20 years since I last visited these areas.
One of my memorable coverages in Sulu was the meeting of former president Cory Aquino and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chief Nur Misuari on Sept. 1, 1986. It was a hair-raising experience because government troops lined one side of the road, while MNLF members, who were in full battle gear, occupied the other side. If one was stupid enough to shoot, a shooting melee would have erupted.
I used to cover the activities of Misuari during the consultations on the Organic Act that led to the creation of ARMM. Media people then could get in and out of his main headquarters in Maimbong, Sulu without fear of being kidnapped because all armed groups were under his control. Misuari, one of the founders of MNLF, was well respected by the Muslim community.
There was no Abu Sayyaf then. The Abu Sayyaf, who claimed to be an extremist group, only surfaced in 1995 when they raided the municipality of Ipil.
Poverty is not really the reason why armed conflicts occur in these areas. The main reason is because of the culture of violence that some of our Muslim brothers have adopted and the proliferation of loose firearms. Believe me, almost all people there carry firearms. Even farmers tilling their fields carry long firearms. Children going to school carry firearms.
Political warlords in the areas have armed groups, which cause armed conflict with warring political factions.
I don’t know the best solution to the conflict in the troubled areas in Mindanao. While I support military action against groups that sow terror there, it is not the ultimate solution. Development, projects and livelihood? These were made available to them during the time of Misuari as ARMM governor and Southern Philippines Development Authority chief but nothing came of it. Hangtod asa ug hangtod kanus-a magpabiling gubot ang gi-ilang “yuta sa mga saad.”
