This bias needs to be reversed

This is in reaction to Ramon Tulfo’s Aug. 8 column titled “Japan talks will not end war in the South.”

As a Mindanawon who has been working to promote peace-building and inter-religious dialogue, I strongly disagree with his observation that “Religious and cultural differences, not political, are the root cause of the war in the South.”

I am surprised that with the fast-paced progress of Muslim-Christian dialogues especially at the grassroots level, we still have people like Tulfo who want to portray the conflict in southern Philippines as a religious strife. This outmoded thinking is a remnant of the “socio-political engineering” of the ’70s which was employed to justify, among others, martial law. This dirty, violent, divide-and-rule apparatus has never and will never work, it only subverts the aspirations of Mindanao’s Muslim, Christian and Lumad populations.

Muslims, Christians and Lumads have shared the horrors of the war; they’ve lost loved ones in the decades-old violence. But they have since resolved to help each other overcome the conflict through dialogue and solidarity. It is revolting to note that amid their struggles to outgrow a painful history, you will hear of warmongers pitting these people against each other. Please note that even the Ilagas have already retired and are not willing to be used again for selfish ends, political or economic.

Tulfo is entitled to his observation about President Aquino’s poor knowledge of history. But by fanning the religious divide, he has exposed his own ignorance of Mindanao history. He even got wrong a basic fact: the MILF broke away from the MNLF, and not the other way around. This mistake is all the more surprising considering that Tulfo is himself a Mindanawon.

May I also take exception to Tulfo’s comment that “Moros love to fight.” This is a very sweeping statement which reveals his own personal bias against the Moros.

I have seen from my own eyes how Moro communities were bombed, burned and looted by soldiers. Just two weeks ago, a civilian baker from Basilan was tortured by his military interrogators. If the Moros really have the natural predilection to violence as Tulfo claims, I wonder what millions of Moros can actually do. Yet, with the injustice and oppression that they are going through as a people, it is the Moros who are still pushing for the peace process as a way to peacefully address their political aspirations.

Anyway, I would like to thank Tulfo for opening our eyes to the kind of mindset about Mindanao that we definitely need to change so that we can finally move forward in the peace process.

—MARY ANN M. ARNADO
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