Philippine National Police Special Action Force versus Moro Islamic Liberation Front at Maguindanao. I have been following the story not as a rubbernecker but as someone who had connections of Mindanao and Muslims in the past. This is about the encounter between Philippine government forces and MILF Abu Sayyaf group in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25, 2015, a week after the Pope visited the country. It was a video of Filipinos being pitted against each other, brothers killing each other.
"Duul mga kaigsuunan ug paminaw kamo
Duna ko'y dala nga mga balita gikan sa banwa ko, gusto ko nga ipahibalo ang mga istorya nga nagahitabu sa banwang gisaad nato."
Mindanao to me is not the Mindanao that Manila based media have always portrayed. There always seemed to be some feeling of discomfort among the population when the media portrays the whole of Mindanao as a war zone. The war zone image is more about the age old conflict between Christians and Muslims in Mindanao. As a new graduate working in the Northern Mindanao region, the image of a pious population who didn't miss Sunday celebrations of the holy eucharist and people taking part in basic Christian or ecclesiastical communities was the profile image of Christian Mindanao.
I had the chance to know more about Mindanao Muslims while working with the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Assir Region. The principle for non-judgmental attitude I learned while earning my BS on Social Work somehow helped me to be less factional while sharing a hostel room with fellow OFWs from Mindanao. The belief by Filipino Muslims in what is now known as the Automous Region of Muslim Mindanao that Filipinos were originally of the Islamic faith until Spanish conquerors Christianized most of the colony's population was something that made sense to me. It's probably a fact but no reasonable historian would easily claim it for fear of ridicule by the ass kissing supreme leaders in Manila.
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