After two decades, the secessionist conflict in Mindanao has finally subsided. With the signing of the Peace Agreement 2 on 2 September 1996 between the Moro National Liberation Front and the Philippine Government, the Moros (for Muslims in the Philippines) have started a new journey that may chart peace and progress in the south. How did this come about? What are the implications of and prospects for a lasting peace? This article explores these queries in the light of existing conditions in the Philippines.

History of Ethnic Conflict

The strife in the southern Philippines, or Mindanao, began as an ethnic problem associated with nation-building. Prior to 1946, when the Philippines was recognized as an independent state, the north-south divide was apparent as a result of colonial and imperial designs. Much earlier (before 1565), Mindanao was an autonomous periphery. It had a relatively simple, homogenous social differentiation. Pre-Spanish and pre-Islamic conditions pointed to the existence of self-contained, independent tribes and datuships which were later consolidated into larger communities when Islam came during the 14th century.

Spain prevented the Islamic inroads to the north as it colonized the islands for over 300 years (1565–1898) and attempted to incorporate Mindanao into what would become a Christian Philippine state. By the 16th century, Spanish influence in the Philippines brought about massive Christianization among the natives in Luzon and the Visayas as well as in northeastern Mindanao. Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, Mindanao's people comprised three major groups: the natives who accepted Islam (Moros), those who became Christians (Filipinos), and others who stayed away from these two modern religions (Lumads). This bipolar religious transformation created a sense of divided peoplehood or “ethnicity” in Mindanao, which has survived to this day.

Recent official statistics (1990) on the southern Philippines (Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan) show that of the total population of 14.7 million inhabitants, the Moros constitute 17.5%, the Lumads 5.3%, while the Christianized Filipinos command a hefty majority of more than 70%.