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Friday, March 11, 2005
Gulle: Now you see 'em, now you don't
By Inocentes A. Gulle
Your Business is Our Business
THE conflict between Moros and non-Moros - Visayans and maybe Luzonians, had its beginning way, way back, before the Spaniards came to the islands.
Back then, I surmise, it was not anything religious as most of us today would probably think.
Basing on the stories my great grandfather passed on to my father who in turn, passed on to me, the conflict was more or less along the lines of man's inclination to enslave the weaker of his fellow.
I suspect the religious color only came up when the inhabitants of the northern islands were Christianized by the Spaniards, who claimed the archipelago for the Spanish king.
Slaving would continue off and on even up to recent times.
We even heard tales of slaves who had been freed by their masters, as they had grown too old to work, not very long ago.
According to the stories, the Moros of the south (Mindanao) would sail, in groups of four or five vintas, to the northern islands, we now know as Visayas, to hunt for and kidnap as many as they could, of the unwary inhabitants in isolated settlements.
They would then sell their captives to the sultanate as slaves.
This prompted the northern people to organize and train their able-bodied men in the art of fighting they called "eskrima", a kind of martial arts similar to today's arnis, except that they used long knives called pinuti instead of canes.
(I believe there were no M16s yet at the time.) Three of these defenders, brothers of my father's grandfather, became legends, for their spectacular exploits in the fight against the slavers.
One, was said to be a high-jumping knife-wielder, was called Tamsihon, allegedly for his ability to stay in the air several seconds while fighting the enemy, like the tamsi (a native humming bird).
His elder brother was nicknamed Hingkod, as he could allegedly uproot a year-old coconut tree (folks called a coconut hingkod as soon as the fronds start growing off the ground).
And the eldest was Lantayug, a name that literally means tall and big (a hulk).
(He was mentioned in a an old book by an unknown author, for his role in the revolution against the Spaniards, in a place near what is now Butuan where resettled.
He fled there to hide from the Spanish soldiers who wanted him for some offense.
Feats of these three legends had become pet subject of many a sarsuela (stage plays) in our barrio during fiestas.)
The Moros had stopped only slaving when their hands had become full, keeping the invading Spaniards off their homeland.
Later on they would consider enemies too, the Christianized northern people, their former prey, who naturally looked up to the Colonizers as their protectors.
As we know, the fighting would go on for years and then cease for some time, and then start again. Local (Lumad) historians have plenty of stories of these encounters.
The fighting would continue intermittently until today.
Their reason that they never paid allegiance to the Spaniards, nor to the Americans who bought us from the Spaniards, and neither to the Philippine government which took over from the Americans.
Despite the great number of them who are tired of the state of affairs, or who do not understand the rationale of seceding from the Philippines, the die hard ones would not let go of their dream of an independent "Bangsa Moro", whatever it would cost.
This is the situation in Mindanao, more particularly the southwestern portion where Muslims predominate.
And while there are those among them who would not give up the idea of independent Muslim state, fighting would continue.
We may have different bases for our assumptions, I agree with my boyhood chum, Absalom Cerveza, who declared on TV a few days back, that (no matter how many times cease fires or peace agreements could be forged), fighting would flare up again (and again).
In opinion, for as long as man continues to set aside God's laws love and justice, and does what his fallible mind dictates, peace (and prosperity) that everybody dreams of would never be.
For Bisaya stories from General Santos. Click here. (This section is updated every Monday)
(March 7, 2005 issue)
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