A Hopeful Vote, A Tragic Bombing, and Muslim Self-Rule In Southwestern Mindanao

By: Bob Boyer

 

Sunday morning, January 27, I received a troubling text from a friend: “What a tragedy in the Philippines! Prayers!” That text was the first news I received about explosion in a Catholic Church in the Muslim area of Mindanao. It took me a while to sort out exactly what had happened, and when, and what it seems to mean.

Here are the details of the tragedy according to the online “New York Times,” Jan. 26, 2019. The church attacked was the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo, the capital city of the island of Jolo in the Province of Sulu in Southwestern Mindanao. Two bombs exploded minutes apart. The first was inside the church, ripping apart wooden pews, during Sunday Morning Mass; the second was in the parking lot, killing and wounding the fleeing and the first-responders who were rushing to assist. Twenty people were killed, including six of the responders, and over a hundred were wounded. According to an updated online “Wall Street Journal” article (Jan. 27), the Islamic State or their ally in the area, the Abu Sayyef terrorists, took credit and claimed over a hundred killed.

Both the NYT and the WSJ reported on the tragedy in the context of the vote for Muslim Self Rule that took place just six days earlier, the Monday before the bombing. Jake Maxwell Watts, the WSJ Manila correspondent, had covered the voting in an article that came out (print edition) a day before the bombing. He reported that the four million people in the “five Muslim-majority western provinces” in Southwestern Mindanao “voted overwhelmingly in favor” of Self Rule. He quoted 88% percent, while the NYT, cited above, reported 85% in favor.

Watts went on to explain the approximately fifty-year history leading up to the vote. The MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) had fought for a separate Muslim state in Southwestern Mindanao, the only place in the Philippines where the Muslims were the majority population in a predominantly Catholic country. The MILF had signed a peace treaty with Manila to work out a legitimate form of Self Rule. After years of often-failed negotiations, the MILF and the government in Manila had finally agreed to terms referred to as “Bangsamoro Law.” The government voted in favor of the treaty, President Duterte signed it, and the people in the five Muslim-majority provinces voted for it. The Abu Sayyaf extremists rejected the treaty from the start and allied themselves with the Islamic State.

The newly created Muslim Region of Self Rule is generally recognized both within the Philippines and internationally as the best chance of a peaceful future for the Muslim Region and its best opportunity to share in the improving economic future of the Philippines. The Abu Sayyaf have been rightly condemned on all sides as brutal thugs or gangs. It will take until 2022 before a Regional Parliament is elected and seated in the new Muslim Region. Until then an appointed interim Parliament will be in charge. The challenges will clearly be great.

I return to my friend’s promise at the end of his text telling me about the tragic bombing: “Prayers!” It is hopeful perhaps to remember that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, has a chapter devoted to her in the Koran, the Muslim Scripture.

Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu.