By Antonio J. Montalban

The American military came to Mindanao in the year 1900 in rather unfriendly circumstances, to say the least. The Northern Mindanao resistance against impending American rule was already organized, part of the nationwide revolutionary movement to counter the United States' subjection of the Philippines. It was therefore anti-colonial.

The 40th Infantry of U.S. Volunteers sailed from Southern Luzon and first disembarked soldiers in Surigao on March 27, 1900. They then went to Cagayan, Iligan, Misamis, and finally Dapitan. By that time, Emilio Aguinaldo's tricolor was already fluttering in the skies of Northern Mindanao. The captain of the American ship had ordered that the "insurgent" flag be brought down at the Cagayan wharf. Each time he was refused. Out of rage, the ship trained its guns not on the revolutionaries already massing at the hillsides but on the helpless flagpole. Northern Mindanao then put up a fight against the Americans from the hills of Western Misamis (now Misamis Occidental) to the heavily wooded coasts of Surigao.

Having been no match to the well-armed Americans, the nationalists resorted to guerilla tactics to slow down the tide of the American offensive. But the Americans followed a pattern they begun in Luzon, which was to employ Filipino scouts to help track down the nationalists. The Americans soon routed the Filipinos in one encounter after another. Only at the Battle of Makahambus in Cagayan on June 4, 1900 did they experience defeat under the nationalists. Despite this, anti-Americanism in Mindanao did not die so easily as the Americans would have wanted.

Today's Filipino college students in Philippine history are familiar with the name "Colorum Uprising." In 1903, a group of armed Filipinos entered Surigao and attacked the American constabulary station, killing the American captain and carting away the guns of the detachment. Taft ordered the capture of the "insurrectos." The American district judge tried the case for a month, then the verdict came and the Filipinos were hanged, earning praises from President Theodore Roosevelt.

As the Aguinaldo phase ended, the Americans continued their intrusion into the interior Mindanao territories of the Moro. Both Moro and Lumad people were not considered "prepared for civil rule." Hence, they continued to be governed by American military authorities. The American euphemism for it was "pacification campaigns."

Thus, even without the national insurrection movement of Aguinaldo, Moro resistance continued against the Americans. Despite their inferior weapons, the Maranao staged a bloody resistance in what came to be known as the Battle of Bayang. The American press spoke of the battle as the "fiercest encounter in the entire Philippine insurrection." There were heavy casualties on both sides, and among the fallen heroes was the brave Sultan of Bayang and his fighting datus. All in all, the American pacification campaigns against the Moro saw the loss of no less than 20,000 Moro people.

Fast forward to the year 2002, these are all déjà vu. More so, it only indicates a strong anti-colonial tradition in Mindanao. It would be false thinking to say that such tradition leaves no residues among the sentiments of present-day Mindanao people.

No doubt a new factor has entered the picture that wasn't there before: the Abu Sayyaf. No doubt too that routing the Abu Sayyaf appears to be a popular cause, surveys or not. Certainly, the jubilant anticipation of many Basilan and Zamboanga residents, both Muslim and Chirstians, who wish to put the Abu Sayyaf issue to its final rest, is understandable. Certainly, the impasse has dragged on far too long without any end in sight.

But why not first clear the act of the Philippine military? That 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers of our military in Basilan as against only a handful of Abu Sayyaf bandits clearly shows something wrong with our military strategies and professionalism. Besides, there is the taint of allegations that the Philippine military has benefited from ransom payoffs. Mindanaoans have been wary of war so long. No doubt the Abu Sayyaf, which has only perverted the image of Islam, must be eliminated. But bringing in foreign troops only opens the nightmarish memories of American military presence of a hundred years past, opposition to which, by the way, was then a popular nationalistic cause.

Excerpts from Kris-Crossing Mindanao, Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 11, 2002, A9