Separatism in the Philippines refers to bids for secession or greater autonomy for certain areas in the Philippines. The scope of the article includes such efforts since the Philippine Revolution both currently and historical.
Separatism in the Philippines refers to bids for secession or greater autonomy for certain areas in the Philippines. The scope of the article includes such efforts since the Philippine Revolution both currently and historical.
Several groups had advocated the independence of Mindanao, including the Sulu archipelago and Palawan from the Philippines. Such armed groups include the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and the Abu Sayyaf.
Historically, several states have governed the region such as the Sulu and Maguindanao sultanates. Other entities such as Sultanate of Buayan and the Pat a Pangampong ko Ranao emerged. These states has resisted attempts by the Spanish Empire to totally subjugate the area. Nevertheless, the Spanish ceded the whole of Philippine archipelago in the Treaty of Paris of 1898. [2] The United States later took control over the area, governing it as part of the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands.
Anticipating that the United States would decolonize the islands and grant the Philippines full independence, Moro leaders has expressed opposition their territories to be included in a future Philippine state. Such instances of this sentiment being expressed include: [2]
More secessionism continued after the United States granted the Philippines full independence on July 4, 1946. [2] Hadji Kamlon launched a rebellion. [4] As a response Sulu's Representative Ombra Amilbangsa filed House Bill No. 5682 in the House of Representatives during the 4th Congress which proposed granting independence for the Sulu islands. [2]
The Muslim Independence Movement arose in 1968 following the Jabidah massacre which advocated secession of the Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan areas. [5] The organization was later renamed the Mindanao Independence Movement so it could be inclusive to non-Muslims. [6] The Blackshirts was an alleged armed wing of the MIM. By 1969, the group has received financial support from Malaysia but failed to garner wider support from the Moros. [7]
The MIM would be disbanded in 1970 after meeting with then President Ferdinand Marcos. Leaders from the disbanded MIM, both students and older lead figures, would form the Bangsa Moro Liberation Organization (BMLO) but the organization would be disbanded due to internal conflict. [7]
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was established as a result of the Jabidah massacre. While it's unclear when the MNLF was actually established it considers the date of the incident, March 18, 1968, as its foundation date. [3] The MNLF had Nur Misuari as its first chairman and one of its early meetings was in October 1972 in Pangkor Island in Malaysia. [7]
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) led by Hashim Salamat splintered off from the MNLF when it abandoned its bid for independence in 1978. [8] The MILF formally dropped its bid for independence when it signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro with the Philippine national government in 2012. [9]
Reuben Canoy, leader of the Mindanao People's Democratic Movement and former presidential candidate had an averted plan to declare the Federal Republic of Mindanao in 1986. [10] [11] Four years later, the 1990 Mindanao crisis arose where Col. Alexander Noble led a mutiny and proclaimed an independent Federal Republic of Mindanao. [12] Noble along with Canoy, who is also involved as a civilian supporter, was arrested by government authorities but claimed that his effort was successful since it brought into attention issues affecting Mindanao. [13] [14]
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| 2005 Federal Republic of Mindanao Flag | |
 Photo of the proposed flag (black and white screencap on Philippine Daily Inquirer) for the Federal Republic of Mindanao as showed by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on the July 3, 2005 airing of Gikan sa Masa, para sa Masa. The flag's colors was described in the Philippine Star as having a predominantly sky blue and navy blue color scheme. It has an eight pointed red star in the center surrounded by eight white stars. [15] |
Davao del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez has advocated for the secession of Mindanao from the Philippines. He reportedly held the stance as early as 2005 when Rodrigo Duterte, then the Mayor of Davao City, advocated for the Christian-majority portion of Mindanao to secede in the event President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was deposed by a revolution or coup d'état. Alvarez had advocated an independence declaration "with or without GMA". [16]
In November 2023, Alvarez proposed that Mindanao should push for independence if the national Philippine government continues to pursue its claim in the South China Sea dispute. In his opinion, pursuing the claim will drag Mindanao into an armed conflict if the national government continues its policy regarding China and expressed reluctance on the United States commitment to side with the Philippines in a potential military confrontation. [17]
In January 2024, amidst a People's Initiative bid launched to revise the Philippine constitution, Duterte has said that Alvarez is planning to launch a signature campaign proposing Mindanao independence. [18] Alvarez has reiterated his support for Mindanao independence. [19]
In February 27, 2024, Duterte backtracked and called his earlier pronouncements as a bluff. [20] [21] However Alvarez would still affirm that he is still pursuing said advocacy stating that there is "no rush" to declare an independent Mindanao. [22]
The proposed independent Mindanao state both of the mid-2000s and the early 2020s was named the Federal Republic of Mindanao [23] [15] and would have a federal form of government [24]
The mid-2000s proposal had eight constituent states, a national flag and a national anthem entitled "Land of Promise". [15] Meanwhile the early 2020s proposal had six constituent states and a flag. [25] Bukidnon was proposed as the capital. The Mindanao and Sabah Alliance (MASADA) stated that the Malaysian state of Sabah which was historically part of the Sulu Sultanate, is also part of the proposed state. [23]
The Abu Sayyaf was formed in 1991 splintering from the Moro National Liberation Front with Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani as its founder. Its professed goal is to establish an Islamic state comprising Mindanao, the Sulu archipelago, and Palawan as well as areas outside the Philippines specifically Borneo and southern Thailand. [26] The group split into two main factions after Janjalani's death, whose leaders in turn were killed in 2006 and 2007 which led to Abu Sayyaf splitting into several more factions. In 2014, several factions of the Abu Sayyaf swore allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which aims to establish a larger Islamic state of its own. [27]
This includes efforts to secure greater autonomy for areas or regions in the Philippines while remaining an integral part of the country. Either this efforts involve the creation of an autonomous region within a unitary state or grassroot movements for the creation of a certain subdivision within a federal Philippines.
At the Bangsa Sug Summit in 2018, participants of the convention including claimants of the Sultanate of Sulu, called for the creation of a Bansa Sug federal state consisting of the Sulu archipelago provinces and Zamboanga Peninsula. They also campaigned for the option to "opt-out" from the then-proposed Bangsamoro autonomous region. [28] [29]
The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is the sole extant autonomous region in the Philippines. It was established after a peace deal between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which originally pursued for independence. The region was established in 2019 after a two-part plebiscite and succeeded the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Previously the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity was attempted to be established as part of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MO-AD) between the MILF and the Philippine government under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2008. However the MO-AD was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. [30]
The Federal State of the Visayas was an independent revolutionary state during the Philippine Revolution. Its proponents intended it to be a subunit of the Philippines under a federal form of government.
It is impossible for any part of the Philippines to legally secede without amending the current 1987 Constitution, which includes a provision mandating the protection of the "territorial integrity of the Philippines". [31]
Abu Sayyaf, officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, was a Jihadist militant and pirate group that followed the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It was based in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines, where for more than five decades, Moro groups had been engaged in an insurgency seeking to make Moro Province independent. The group was considered violent and was responsible for the Philippines' worst terrorist attack, the bombing of MV Superferry 14 in 2004, which killed 116 people. The name of the group was derived from Arabic abu, and sayyaf. As of April 2023, the group was estimated to have about 20 members, down from 1,250 in 2000. They used mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a group based in Mindanao seeking an autonomous region of the Moro people from the central government. The group has a presence in the Bangsamoro region of Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, Palawan, Basilan, and other neighbouring islands. The armed wing of the group was the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), although the name of its parent organization, the MILF, was often used to refer to the BIAF. In July, 2018, the Philippine government passed the Bangsamoro Organic Law, giving more autonomy to Muslims. In return, MILF announced that it would disarm its 30,000 fighters.
Sulu, officially the Province of Sulu, is a province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago and part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was an autonomous region of the Philippines, located in the Mindanao island group of the Philippines, that consisted of five predominantly Muslim provinces: Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. It was the only region that had its own government. The region's de facto seat of government was Cotabato City, although this self-governing city was outside its jurisdiction.
The Moro people or Bangsamoro people are the 13 Muslim-majority ethnolinguistic Austronesian groups of Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan, native to the region known as the Bangsamoro. As Muslim-majority ethnic groups, they form the largest non-Christian population in the Philippines, and comprise about 5% of the country's total population, or 5 million people.
The Moro National Liberation Front is a political organization in the Philippines that was founded in 1972. It started as a splinter group of the Muslim Independence Movement. The MNLF was the leading organization among Moro separatists for about two decades beginning from the 1970s.
Nur Misuari is a Moro Filipino revolutionary and politician, founder and leader of the Moro National Liberation Front.
The Moro conflict was an insurgency in the Mindanao region of the Philippines which involved multiple armed groups. Peace deals have been signed between the Philippine government and two major armed groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but other smaller armed groups continue to exist. In 2017, the peace council settled around 138 clan conflicts.
The Moro National Liberation Front Executive Council of 15 is a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in which the group of 15 leaders forged a unity agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur and coincided with the Filipino President's visit. Muslimin Sema is the current chairman of the group. The government of the Philippines recognizes Sema along with Misuari as representatives of the MNLF despite the recognition of Nur Misuari as chairman by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which the MNLF is an observer member to. Supposedly, Sema's group together with Habib Mudjahab Hashim's MNLF Islamic Command Council (ICC), somewhat agreed to reunite with the MNLF under Misuari.
Maradeka, is a pro-democracy Islamic political organization which espouses non-violent political action, and is based in the Philippines. The organization has been active against a backdrop of over 40 years of armed Muslim insurgency, mounted by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in their quest for self-rule. These groups emerged following popular dissent with the Philippine government, and their treatment of the Muslim minority as second class citizens, which caused extensive suffering. These years of social, economic, and political inequities are known as the 'Mindanao problem'.
In the late 1960s, an independence movement was founded in Mindanao, the Philippines, to separate the Muslim majority-Moro areas from the rest of the Philippines.
Bangsamoro, officially the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is an autonomous region in the Philippines, located in the southwestern portion of the island of Mindanao.
Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, better known as Al-hajj Murad Ebrahim, is a Moro Filipino politician and former rebel leader currently serving as the first chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The Bangsamoro Republik, officially the United Federated States of Bangsamoro Republik (UFSBR), was a short-lived, self-proclaimed, unrecognized breakaway state in the Philippines. Nur Misuari, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, issued the Proclamation of Bangsamoro Independence on July 27, 2013 in Talipao, Sulu and declared the capital of Bangsamoro to be Davao City.
The Bangsamoro are a majority-Muslim ethnic group occupying a range of territories across the southern portions of the Republic of the Philippines. On three occasions, a short-lived and unrecognized Bangsamoro state independent of the Philippines has been formally declared by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The first declaration was issued in 1974, amid the Moro conflict. Bangsamoro Land would be declared in 2012. In 2013, the United Federated States of Bangsamoro Republik was declared.
The Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) is a final peace agreement signed between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front on March 27, 2014 at the Malacañang Palace in Manila. Under the agreement, the Islamic separatists would turn over their firearms to a third party, which would be selected by the rebels and the Philippine government. The MILF agreed to decommission its armed wing, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF). In return, the government would establish an autonomous Bangsamoro. Power sharing was a central point to the autonomy redesign.
The Bangsamoro Organic Law, also known as the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), and officially designated as Republic Act No. 11054, is a Philippine law that provided for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The 1976 Tripoli Agreement was signed on December 23, 1976 in Tripoli, Libya by Carmelo Z. Barbero, representing the Government of the Philippines and Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front. The agreement defined autonomous administrative divisions for Muslims in the southern Philippines, the establishment of an autonomous government, judicial system for Sharia law and special security forces, and the observance of a ceasefire. The autonomous region was to have its own economic system, including an Islamic bank.
The Jeddah Accord was signed on January 3–4, 1987 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia by Aquilino Pimentel Jr., representing the Government of the Philippines and Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front. The two panels agreed upon the continued discussion of the proposal of the grant of full autonomy to Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan subject to democratic processes.
The Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) was a proposed subdivision in the Philippines spanning portions of Mindanao and Palawan. Conceptualized during the peace talks between the government of the Philippines during the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the BJE was the proposed expanded successor to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Although the whole of Mindanao, Sulu – Tawi-Tawi archipelago, the islands of Basilan and Palawan are the traditional homeland of the Bangsamoro people
