MANILA, Philippines - Mindanao: Land of Promise. And Land of Promises. The story of Mindanao is not only the story of colonization, but the story of international intrigue, as the Americans periodically toyed with the idea of detaching it from the rest of the colony whose vociferous natives were agitating for independence; intrigue which included infiltration of the Davao area by the Japanese, leading to, at one point, a furtive program of introducing Jewish refugees from Hitler?s Germany in the hope that their business acumen would neutralize the impending economic dominance of the Japanese prior to World War II.

With instances like these in the past, it was hardly surprising that the Muslim residents of Mindanao developed a deep-seated distrust of the officials of the Republic, a Republic under which they felt they were being treated as second-class citizens.

For Mindanao, too, became a land for new beginnings where broad tracts of land were given away by the government to poor farmers and other migrants from other parts of the country. Mindanao saw itself as the adopted home of a rapidly burgeoning population of Christian settlers who rapidly encroached on the living areas of the original Muslim and tribal residents, who now began to feel that they were also being robbed of their lands and the economic opportunities they provided.

And so Mindanao became the land of rivers of blood.

The blood-letting that would consume the lives of a generation of Filipinos had its genesis in bloodshed elsewhere. When 299 Filipino Muslim military trainees were murdered by the Philippine government under Ferdinand Marcos on March 18, 1968 in Corregidor, an outraged group of Muslims decided that the only alternative was to seek independence from Manila, however violent and protracted the effort might be. Nuruladjid (?Nur?) Misuari, a University of the Philippines professor, rose to become the leader of this group with the title of chairman. The group came to be known as the Moro National Liberation Front. The MNLF proclaimed itself a Filipino Muslim liberation movement and proceeded to wage an armed struggle against the Philippine government, in the hope of achieving independence, or at the very least regional autonomy for the Southern Philippines. This struggle would eventually claim anywhere from 80,000 to 200,000 lives; at the height of its strength, the MNLF could count 30,000 armed men in its ranks.

Interviewed by FaxNews International?s John L. Shinn III in the mid 1990s, Misuari (in retrospect) said that the 28-year-old war in Mindanao was between Filipino Muslims and the Philippine government?and not between the Christians and the Muslims. Which explains why the road to peace remained impassable until the government took it upon itself to forego a policy of all-out war, and decided to negotiate a settlement instead.

The genesis of the eventual peace achieved by the Ramos administration can be found in the Tripoli Agreement, negotiated by the government of Ferdinand Marcos and brokered by the flamboyant Moammar Gadhafi and with the support of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Signed in 1976, the agreement provided for a ceasefire and called for autonomy under the broad principle that Mindanao would remain an integral part of the Republic of the Philippines. Thirteen provinces (eight of which had Christian majorities) were proclaimed subject to the provisions of the agreement, which allowed Muslims their own ?courts, schools and administrative system? (according to writer Lela Noble). Furthermore, the autonomous Muslim areas would have ?a legislative assembly, executive council, special regional security forces, and economic and financial system.?

However, after securing an initial agreement, Marcos went ahead and held a ?referendum? which seemed to indicate ?opposition to the inclusion of certain provinces, opposition to the degree of autonomy presumably wanted by the MNLF and support for [Marcos?] plan for two autonomous regions under central control.? The initial ceasefire, which was beneficial to Misuari as it gave his battle-weary troops time to rest (an opportunity welcomed with equal relief by the Armed Forces of the Philippines), eventually worked against the MNLF?s interests; the Moro resistance fragmented into three main groups, each representing different attitudes toward negotiations with the government, and with whom the government has had varying degrees of success when it comes to negotiations.

However, the Tripoli Agreement came to represent a framework after which all subsequent attempts at agreement would be patterned?particularly after the fall of the dictatorship.

President Corazon Aquino ignited controversy when she invited Nur Misuari back to the bargaining table and even granted him permission to return to the country after having been in exile in the Middle East. Her policy of conciliation resulted in the creation of the Office on Muslim Affairs, established on Jan. 30, 1987 by virtue of Executive Order No. 122-A as amended by Executive Order No. 295. The Office was placed under the direct supervision and control of the Office of the President of the Philippines. It was mandated with the formulation and implementation of state policies and programs affecting the Muslim Filipinos. As one member of the agency asserted, the office was ?solely established for the upliftment and betterment of the Muslim citizenry.? As such, the Office on Muslim Affairs was the lead agency and coordinating office for the national government?s ?multi-faceted development efforts in the Muslim areas.?

Eventually, establishing regional autonomy, by now the chief aim of the MNLF, became a congressionally sanctioned policy. Another step forward in the peace process took place when the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

(ARMM) was created on Aug. 1, 1989 by virtue of Republic Act No. 6734. A plebiscite was held under tense circumstances which eventually resulted in only four Muslim provinces opting for autonomy; the ARMM itself was eventually organized and inaugurated on Nov. 6, 1990 in Cotabato City, which was declared the seat of the regional government. (To be continued)