Convened by the Asia Society, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), it was the first conference in America that focused on Mindanaom particularly the Bangsamoro struggle.

Invoking history, Mastura reminded policy decision makers at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington on September 28 and at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco on September 30 that before the Americans came to the Philippines, “we were a nation-state” and had treaties with other states.

“In 1898, we, the Bangsamoro, were sold by Spain to the United States of America, without our consent, for 20 million dollars,” Mastura said.

Mastura was referring to the Treaty of Paris of 1898 where Spain ceded to America for 20 million dollars, what is now the Philippines, including areas in Mindanao Spain never conquered.

“We were never subjects of Spain,” Mastura said. In San Francisco, he added, “to be the subject of Spain you had to be Catholic.” The Moro people are Muslims.

Then to the crowd that was still absorbing what he was saying, Mastura added: “it is not true the United States first participated in regime change in Afghanistan or Iraq. The first was a century ago when the Americans came to Mindanao,” he said.

In San Francisco, he said, “I want you to know how it is not Afghanistan, not Iraq that is the first victim of regime change. It is Mindanao, the Bangsamoro people.”

For those who knew little about the struggle of the Bangsamoro, it was a quick trip to history.

“Please do not say that is history, that that was a long time ago, that this is no longer the reality now. We have to look into history to understand the roots of the problem, to understand this is not just plain insurgency but a struggle with legitimate grievances,” Mastura, also a historian, said.
 

The American colonial government introduced a series of land laws and agricultural colonies, leading to the marginalization and the minoritization of the Moro and the Lumads (indigenous peoples), the original occupants of Mindanao, and the entry of more settlers into what would be touted as the “land of promise.”

Efforts were then made by various administrations for the development of Mindanao but Mastura asked, “development for whom?”
 

“The Bangsamoro were always the objects of war,” Mastura said, apparently referring to the military option that the national government, spanning several administrations, had been resorting to.

In the late 1960s, the Muslim (later Mindanao) Independence Movement and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were set up following the infamous Jabidah Massacre of March 1968. Martial law was declared in 1972, citing the Moro rebellion as among the reasons for the declaration.
 

In 1974, peace talks were facilitated by the Organization of the Islamic Conference 9OIC) and in 1976, a peace agreement was signed by the Philippine government and the MNLF in Tripoli, Libya. Two regional autonomous governments were set up by Marcos instead of one. The MNLF cried foul. In 1996, government and the MNLF signed what is now referred to as the “Final Peace Agreement” (FPA).

Mastura commended Fidel Ramos, the retired general who became president, for taking the route of peace.
 

But the FPA does not bind the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) with whom government has been negotiating peace since August 1996. Then Executive Secretary Ruben Torres told MindaNews in the middle of the Estrada administration’s “all-out war” in 2000 that he linked up with the MILF in August that year, hoping what they would offer the MNLF would be acceptable to the MILF.

The struggle of the liberation fronts, however, has been adversely affected by the presence of extremists such as the Abu Sayyaf. At one point during the Estrada war against the MILF in mainland Mindanao in 2000 and its war against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Sulu, the Abu Sayyaf and MILF were lumped as one and the same, a lumping protested by the MILF, Mindanao’s Senator Aquilino Pimentel, peace advocates and officials in government who knew the difference.

The Abu Sayyaf would not be the first to be lumped with the MILF. Soonafter 9/11 in 2001, news reports immediately focused on supposed “al Qaeda” terrorist cells in Mindanao. Much later, the reports would say “Jemaah Islamiyah” operatives were training in MILF camps in Mindanao, an allegation the MILF has repeatedly denied.

In the 2003 war, the Arroyo administration as well as the Bush administration in the US repeatedly warned the MILF it would be labeled a terrorist organization if it did not renounce links with terrorist groups.

Recently, MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu said they were inviting Australian officials and those who say there are Jemaah Islamiyah elements in so-called MILF areas, to visit Mt. Cararao, where the Jemaah training is supposedly being conducted.

But the alleged presence of the al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah in Mindanao, however, has helped justify military presence ­ both Filipino and American - in Mindanao.

Since 2002, US military presence in Mindanao has been steadily increasing, triggering protests from militant and peace advocacy groups. This includes the 2002 RP-US Balikatan 02-1, this year’s “Balance Piston” in Carmen, North Cotabato and the counter-narco-terrorism training in Davao City.

Recent reports indicate the next venue for the military exercises is Sarangani.