Background

The Philippines is an overwhelmingly Catholic country. Its Muslim minority is a legacy of the ability of Muslims in the southern Philippines to resist political and geographic incorporation by the Spanish colonial authorities, the religious domination by the Catholic Church, and the indifference of the United States as a colonial power to petitions for Muslim self-determination. Consequently, the territory that Filipino Muslims occupied was included within the boundaries of the Philippine state during the period of direct rule by the United States (1898–1934) and again after the Philippines became fully independent in 1946. In the 1970s, cries for Muslim separatism grew in the face of increasing in-migration of Christian settlers from elsewhere in the country and increasing assertiveness and abuses by the government in Manila. Armed combat peaked in the early 1970s and continued off and on with periodic upsurges (2000, 2003, 2008) that displaced hundreds of thousands. For the more than forty years that the conflict continued, as successive peace agreements were reached between the government and the insurgents, the basic deal being struck was autonomy for Filipino Muslims to run their affairs within their own defined territory in return for dropping their demand for independence. A ceasefire was agreed upon between the Government of the Philippines and one of the major insurgent groups, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in 2001 (UN Peacemaker 2001). The ceasefire became increasingly effective until the 2012 signing of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

Successive, Shaky Peace Deals

Institutions to recognize the claims of Muslims in the southern Philippines were set up initially in 1976 as part of the so-called Tripoli Agreement, but this occurred during the authoritarian interlude led by former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and so this agreement yielded no genuine autonomy.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was authorized by the 1987 Constitution put into place after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1986 “People Power Revolution”. ARMM was established as a geographic and administrative entity and provided some autonomy to Muslims living within its boundaries. The Organic Law that established ARMM was revised after another agreement—the “Final Peace Agreement”—was reached with one of the major insurgent groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), in 1996 (UN Peacemaker 1996). ARMM eventually had a geographic coverage of five provinces and two cities: Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Marawi City and Lamitan City.