Moro Ascription

When was the first time that we begun to accept the "Moro Identity" as our own?

Yes it was the Spaniards who first ascribed it on us, an umbrella of indigenous peoples largely in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan who profess a faith similar to the Moors of Northern Africa and who as Al-Andalusian overlords enjoyed hegemony over the Iberian peninsula for more than 600 years.

However, such ascription as applied in Minsupala area later on gained negative meanings. The term became synonymous with "pirates", "barbarics", "heathen", "uncivilized", etc. It was also a term Spaniards used to differentiate the "Moros" from other indigenous but conquered people, "the indios".

The Spaniards came in 1521 and only 3-4 decades later came into contact with us. This means, Our ancestors prior to this period have no knowledge of "Moro", it was not in their consciousness, it was not part of their identity nor was it ever their rallying point. Nothing.

After the Sapniards, the term was later on used by the Japanese and American colonial powers. The American government even created a "Moro Province" with headquarters in Zamboanga City.

However, it was not until the secessionist movement of the MNLF in the 70s that this term gain ascendancy as a unifying factor for all Islamized indigenous population who felt unsatisfied with the treatment of the national non-Muslim government and its imperial policies that disadvantaged and minoritized these Islamized indigenous peoples in their own homelands.

From MNLF, the term morphed into "Bangsamoro", "Bangsamoro Republik", and these days into "Bangsamoro Juridical Entity", "Bangsamoro Political Entity" and so on. The ascription continues. However it is now stuck in the political arena. There is a very thin line that connects these so-called Islamized ethno-linguistic groups. While often united by an external threat, it will not take long before each take comfort, consideration and revert to their ethno-linguistic groups.

There is also now an emergent belief that a political solution is the panacea for the Moro problem. Both the ascription and this panacea belief are problematic. For one Moros are not even settled on the form of government. Royalists prefer the return of the sultanate, leftists prefer a republic, right wings prefer the status quo, the religious prefer theocracy, and so no. Moros are also divided as to pursue independence or some form of federalism and or expanded autonomy. All of these, peace and non-peaceful in the name of the "Moro".