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April 2002
Vol. VIII, No.3
Filipino Muslims Need More Than Economic Development
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The need for economic development is at the heart of the Muslim insurgency in the Philippine province of Mindanao, where several rebel groups are fighting to secede from the country, say experts on the region. However, they add that to address Mindanao's development issues, a new, more equitable political structure is required.
Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., who represents Mindanao in the Philippine Senate, and U.S. Institute of Peace senior fellow Amina Rasul-Bernardo discussed ethnic conflict in Mindanao and the war against terrorism in the Philippines at an Institute Current Issues Briefing held on April 2. Rasul-Bernardo, a former member of the Philippine presidential cabinet and a former research fellow with the Sycip Policy Center at the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines, discussed the issues further at a meeting on her fellowship report held on April 11. An audio file of the Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. meeting is available online at:
The former Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao is the poorest region in the Philippines with the least access to services and resources. Until the scourges of poverty and development are addressed, military actions against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the main rebel group in the region, will only further radicalize the population, Pimentel and Rasul-Bernardo asserted.
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Pimentel noted that the government's response to successive Muslim rebellions has been to put them down by force and then try to integrate Muslims into mainstream Philippine society. Muslims comprise less than 10 percent of the Philippine population, numbering around 6 million. They are 25 percent of the population of Mindanao. For their part, the Muslims have resisted integration, fearing it would wipe out their ethnicity, religion, and culture. A federal system with equitable representation at the federal level and equal access to resources is "the only solution I can see," Pimentel said. The government is concerned about implementation of Islamic law, but Islamic law would apply only to Muslims, he said. In conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims, national law would apply.
The Philippines and the United States are currently engaged in joint military exercises to strengthen the capacity of the Philippine military for counterterrorism, especially against the only Muslim rebel group in the Philippines that has ties to the al Qaeda terrorist organization, the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). Rasul-Bernardo cautions that it would be a grave error for the struggle against ASG to be directed against other Muslim rebels whose concerns are focused on political and economic grievances against the Philippine government.
