he Past Revisited

Before and during the Spanish times, the Moros were under sovereign sultanates. Left to themselves, they might have developed into unified and constitutional sultanates, or evolved into a political system of the Malaysian pattern, where the different princely states are federated and headed by a paramount ruler, although he is not the repository of powers and functions. But the course of history changed when powers changed in Spain. The Moors were defeated and Spain, eventually becoming world power, grabbed land ' s overseas; thence, the "rediscovery" of the new world and - in search for "tastes" -the Philippines.

The task of the Moros during the Spanish era was simple and vet bloody: defend, attack, negotiate, defend, attack, etc. This vicious cycle lasted for over three centuries. In the end, the Moros survived, Islam survived, and the Moro country survived.

At the exit of the Toledo blade, the Krag rifle came in and assumed the war with the Moros. There were still 34,000 armed Moros ready for action. But the newcomers were not "Christ" they were ''Ceasar.'' Armed with no "crosses" but "carrots and sticks" or "sticks and carrots," they tamed and disarmed the "unsubdued." After years of agonizing tit-for-tat interactions, the Moros learned to accept the Americans, not just as ordinary friends but as endeared ones, so that when the grant of self-rule was underway they pleaded to be retained under the American flag or be segregated from the Filipinos. The Americans fully grasped this sentiment and they even predicted that the Moros would rise Lip in arms against the Christians if U.S. rule ended. But alas! they did not only ignore this premonition; they committed another unconscionable act of handing the Moros, defenseless and disorganized to the Filipinos.

This was the state of affairs when the Moros slipped into the hands of the neo-colonial Filipino rulers when the Americans left. In the previous discussion, we have dealt with the policies of the new state and how these affected the twist and turn of events in Moro country. This time we will probe how the situation of the Moros, instead of improving, had steadily deteriorated into chaos, destructions and open warfare when the Filipinos assumed power in the Philippines.