 This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Good afternoon and welcome to Asian Review. I'm your host, Lily Ong, and we have with us today Dr. Patricia Arpinales, who's a professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Welcome, Professor. Thank you, Lily, for the invitation. And you're here with us today to talk about Mindanao and Island of the Philippines. Would you mind giving us some historical background on the Mindanao place? Mindanao is the second biggest island of the Philippines, the size of Scotland, and they say slightly bigger than, slightly smaller than Portugal. It has a long history, a weird strange history with the relationship to the Philippine nation state in part because for a while it was dominated by Muslims who never saw themselves as Filipinos. Up until the coming of the American colonizers in the 1900s, most of Mindanao was trading with Southeast Asia. You have all these nationates who always thought of themselves as Southeast Asian traders flew in the six, seven languages and trading as far out as Northern China. Yeah, and then through Singapore, of course, everything, other than traders going on Singapore and through Java and Dutch Java. In 1900, the Spanish colonizers which preceded the Americans tried to colonize it, but for most part of the years of Spanish rule, the only time the Spanish were able to control Mindanao was in the last 40 years of the rule. For most part Mindanao was autonomous and independent from the Spanish colonial authorities. It was the coming of the Americans, however, with the weaponry and the weakening of the sultanates in the trade with Southeast Asia. The British took over of Singapore and now re-oriented Singapore as a jumping point of drugs in the opium to chow in China. It wasn't interested in spices anymore. The sultanate's weakened and the Spaniard and Americans then came in and easily defeated them. But the interesting thing about it is after having defeated them the Americans then became their teachers. They set up a public school system in order to educate and civilize the Muslims, the different kinds of Muslim groups. As a result, there were two things that happened. One, the emergence of a Muslim elite that was fluent in English. This first generation would talk like they're from Ohio. Then the introduction of public education among the Muslims made them supportive of and appreciative of American colonial rule, which run against the plan of the Americans in the North to integrate Muslim Mindanao with the rest of the colony and be governed by Filipino. So throughout this history, most of Mindanao's Muslim communities never imagined themselves as Filipinos, even I think after today. Now the second important thing about Mindanao was after World War II when as a result of the devastation of the war, Filipino families from the Central and Northern Philippines started to move down Mindanao because it was perceived as the land of promise. There was a lot of land in it. In fact, my family moved in the 50s from Central Philippines, both sides of my family into the town where I grew up, which is Osama City, which came authority of late, but I can talk about it later. And I'm just wondering with all these different colonial masters coming in, did the locals develop any kind of affinity for them? Well, the odd thing, yeah, is the odd thing that in 2004 there was a survey done by a localster polling group if they approved of Americans doing combat joint military exercises with the Philippine military in the south. 60% of Muslims said yes. So when I was doing research there in about 2008-2009, I was looking at how US Agency for International Development Programs succeeded while they were succeeding in war zones where the Muslims were active. It had partly something to do with two things. One, Muslims look at the Americans as a buffer within their communities and the Philippine military that was trying to destroy them. And the second thing that was more interesting is Muslims were appreciative that the Americans came in and said, we're going to do business with you. We're not interfering with your religion. We're going to set you up as entrepreneurs. And that's how these projects succeeded. So whereas at the other side and the Philippine government had been notoriously corrupt and it came to Muslim in the now, a lot of the resources that the government allotted went into the hands of Muslim elites from political families who then used it for their own needs. So Muslim in the now is one of the poorest regions of the world, of the country in part because whatever resources coming up are appropriated and stolen by the Muslim elite, which meant then for the Muslim communities the most successful projects, the USAID projects, and the ones are evidence of how the Americans took them seriously. So up to now, for example, the joke is if you fly an American flag in the war zones, you don't get kidnapped. If you fly a Japanese or a French flag or even a Philippine flag, it sounds like the Muslim populations and the Filipino populations they're not exactly talking to each other. Have either side approached the Americans to integrate the two? Well, the Filipinos actually began to populate in the now only after World War II. Everybody didn't want to go to Mindana because it was the border, the frontier, scary Muslims, smugglers, killers are all by there. That was something that I had to bear with and people in Manila referred to me as someone from in the now. So in 1946, the Filipino community began to migrate in large numbers down to the eastern and northern portion of in the now. So the family of the current president moved in after 1950 in the space called Davao. So they went to the areas where Muslims were either negligible in the presence and also areas where the forest had already been cleaned up. So much of Mindanao, the Filipino side of Mindanao, only emerged in the 1960s. Over one million people moved in. Now you mentioned Davao, is that the most popular city in Mindanao? Yeah, it's supposed to be the largest city in Mindanao. Is this also the cradle of prosperity? Davao was seen at the early start of the American period as the frontier with nobody goes to the back border. But then the Japanese settlers came in 1912 and turned Davao into the center of the hemp industry in the world. So 30,000 Japanese, actually they were all Okinawans, moved the Davao and developed and cultivated the hemp industry until 1941. And after which, when Americans came back after World War II, they were all deported to Japan. Those lands then became the basis for they were already developed, such that in the 60s and 70s American corporations came in to plant pineapple and bananas, which were then exported to Japan and the Middle East. So it's one of the fastest growing in terms of economic development of agriculture. Davao is actually one of the fastest growing provinces in Mindanao. And it still is. And not just in Mindanao. I think Mindanao itself is actually the food basket of the Philippines, is that right? Yeah. Food basket in the sense that south of where the Muslim communities in Mindanao are located used to be the rice rich rice lands. And there's a problem with El Niño today that a lot of the rice were coming or being produced there. Food basket is Davao. Yeah, Davao is actually mangoes, everything mangoes fruits. Even Dorian, you know, you get from Davao. And so it's been that. I mean, so there's on one side of Mindanao, but people in the Philippines and Manila especially are not familiar with this. The only thing that they get mangoes and bananas from Davao. But you know, this is a thriving that part of Mindanao is a very thriving industry that's connected to global market as far back as the 1900s. And the other side actually is Amboanga City, which is a city that faces Borneo. But it trades with Singapore, the rights of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Most of the trade is called smuggling. It's referred to as smuggling, but if you look at where most of the Muslim communities rely on their commodities and their household goods, it's in the trade. It's a trade where everybody can buy a Malaysian five-in-one coffee. As I told you earlier, my mother's favorite Singaporean umbrellas were of course that area. I grew up with Cadbury Chocolate, which was still British-owned and still an American company bought it. And Indonesian Malo and sambal of course. What is so special about Singaporean umbrellas? I guess I grew up with them. I didn't think. Well, apparently in the history of Singapore, the production of Singaporean umbrellas were better than the rest of Southeast Asia. So they were always seen as top quality, I think in part because it was a British colony. So having a, I said to her, western-made umbrella was a sign of higher status in small villages like mine. You didn't buy American umbrellas or Chinese umbrellas because they're bad and crappy. Singaporean umbrellas are efficient and long-lasting and it's not colorful. So I was growing up with my hometown and that was my mindset about umbrellas. Up to now, I wouldn't buy any umbrella and they're made in Singapore. Thanks for letting me know. I didn't know that. Now, so would you say that Food S4 is the main industry driver? Yeah. It is. In part also, as a result of the development of food crops in places like Davao, the tuna industry also developed as a result of that. A former student of ours who now finished PhD in University of Wisconsin studied the relationship between the tuna industry and the Japanese community in Davao and found out that if you were to talk about southern Philippine tuna, or northern Indonesian tuna production that's connected to the needs of this Japanese community, the Japanese community did not have the time to grow things for hug industry or to rear bad cattle, so tuna was that. It's important as a food basket also was appreciated by the Japanese, such that during World War II the Japanese Navy took control of Mindanao, not the army in part because Mindanao was a food basket for whatever if its troops would last long across Southeast Asia. But it was also the connecting production to Indonesia where oil was supposed to be being had. So it's an interesting island. If you talk to somebody from Manila it's a scary place but if you talk to people in Mindanao, I come from there I'm a little bit biased, is that we are actually the center of the world. We played with Japan, we played with Singapore, our smugglers are fluent in 6 or 7 languages and we can go in and out of Indonesia and so there is this bizarre distinction that's the result partly of the different histories of Mindanao and the Philippines in regard to the colonization of the archipelago. So given the historical connection do you see a lot of Japanese there today? No, there's actually so they were all deported after World War II back to Okinawa and South in Japan, Kyushu. The children, some of the children were left. So there are now Okinawan associations like Davao because people were trying to trace their Japanese ancestry but also the kids who were born in Davao and deported to Okinawa of rich retirement age and are coming back and say where did I come from? Or was I born? So with the eve of World War II for example, Davao was called Davao Ko which is Japanese for city and there was a weird beside Davao language that included Filipino with the language of southern Philippines and Japanese and so these kids then went to go back. They've gone back and they've actually helped set up these associations. If you go to Okinawa some of the novels about, some of the memoirs about these people actually talk about growing up in Davao. So there's that interesting connection in Davao and then give you more spice to the story, the island story and the other end of Zambuanga city. Every fair looking hapa Zambuangeno think that they were the children of General Pershing. The American army set up its headquarters in Zambuanga city, the one facing Borneo and up to now if you go to Zambuanga city the center of town is not the statue of the Philippine national hero but a place called Plaza Pershing named after General Jack Pershing who was the last military governor of the American in Mindanao. So there's a very strange relationship between Mindanaoans and foreigners Japanese and Americans but also Mindanaoans and the colonial masters especially the Americans. Well talking about the Davao Ko and the different names, I know that Mindanao is also the land of Zambuanga promise. So we're going to take a little break here when we come back we're going to discuss more with Professor Abinales on Mindanao. Thank you. Hello everyone, I'm Disoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. and with the show's host Martin Desbang we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian islands and how it not only affects the way we live but other aspects of our life not only in Hawaii but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha and Richard Concepcion the host of Hispanic Hawaii. You can watch my show every other Tuesday at 2 p.m. We will bring you entertainment, educational and also we'll tell you what is happening right here within our community. Think Tech Hawaii Aloha Welcome back to the Asian Review. I'm your host Lily Ong and we have with us today Professor Abinales from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In the first half we talked about a historical background of Mindanao. We're going to now go into some of the challenges that Mindanao faces today. Professor, perhaps starting from 1960 would you educate us on some of the violent conflicts that have occurred back then? Yeah, so Mindanao is always seen as a violent land. It's something to do with the conflict in the 1970s which was a result of the plant frontier closing. People competing for whatever left of the land. But also a national government becoming more and more assertive. An assertive government which the Muslim minorities saw as an attempt to exterminate them their way of life. The Muslims in the 1960s then politicians and student activists began to land together in defense of Muslim identity and culture against the enroachment of settlers but also the enroachment of Manila. That group eventually got the attention of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and Libya said we will send arms and training for you. In 1974 the Morro National Liberation Front was formed. It was an armed group supported by Libya which is another story and it wanted to fight for the separate Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago which is in south of the main island. Palawan Island in the west center of part of the Philippines separated from the Philippines and create a different republic. The argument being that not only the Muslims own the land and they were never treated as Filipinos but we actually had a different country that was artificially integrated into the Republic of the Philippines. The war started in 1975. It was one of the most intense battles in the 70s. My cousin actually was in the military until my best friends killed that war. In 1977 both sides began to negotiate but never withdrew their arms. There was intermittent clashes and in 1978, late 80s, another group came out just wondering how long was the negotiation process? Oh God, it took 20 years because it was back and forth, back and forth. It all depended whether Libya was happy about it or Malaysia was happy about it. So they were hosting this group. So were Libya and Malaysia the only other parties involved in the negotiations? In the initial negotiations until 1989. So another group emerged out of the Morro National Liberation Front which is a breakaway faction of that group and it's now the strongest group, armed group, Muslim armed group in Mindanao. It's a negotiation with the Philippine government that it has kept its 14,000 strong army. But to go back in 1996, no, 1989, the government of President Marcos was replaced by a more democratic government and that government decided to negotiate a final peace agreement with the Libyan organization. They signed it in 1996. The Morro National Liberation Front integrated its forces into the police then its guerrillas back to the farms and its leaders became part of the provincial government. That was with the assistance not anymore with the Libyans because the Libyans lost interest in Mindanao but the Malaysians and the United States. They got distracted by, I mean, remembering the concerns in the Middle East, weakening Libya's position vis-à-vis the other Arab countries, but also the decline in oil prices made it limited Libya's capacity to provide support to the Philippines. The third was the fall of the Berlin Wall. Libya's closest allies, the East European now were not there anymore. They've been integrated into the western Europe. For example, the most important anti-tank trainers of all these guerrillas in Mindanao were East German specialists, but now that East Germany had disappeared, these guys have disappeared too. It's another story in itself. So that declined and Malaysia was tired of hosting the training camps in Borneo of the MNLF and the corruption in the organization that then pressured the Philippine government to negotiate. And the Muslims actually said, well, maybe we should bring in the Americans too. They were kind to us. So in 1984, 2004 actually, the Americans formally participated in the mediation process of the different group. And in 1996, to go back, USAID also participated in the mediation process. So it's been there for the last 20 years. So with USAID and Americans coming in, did you see more of a progress in the negotiation process? Yes, I think a lot. The old organization, the first organization is completely integrated into the politics, the local politics of Mindanao. They have a few armed men, but that's normal in Philippine politics. Every politician has their own private armies. There were enough hosting anymore to go home. A second group, the more Islamic Liberation Front, has kept itself intact, but it's also very pragmatic. It says, as long as you keep out of our territory, you would be willing to talk peace. Now they're in conversation with the government with the forming of a new autonomous region in which the MNLF would be the governing body. Now you mentioned guerrillas. So was the warfare more like a hybrid warfare? Initially it was a conventional war. My cousin who was in the army said we had to fight an army that was supplied by Libya with guns to toilet paper. The Philippine army was inadequately supplied. But then the Muslim rebels realized that they could not fight a continuing conventional war with a Philippine military that was supplied with tanks and aircraft. So they tried to shift to warfare and that sort of warfare continued while the peace negotiations were being conducted. If you go to Mindana, it's a very strange place. You go to a military checkpoint, you have to look at the uniform and say, okay, that's army. The next military checkpoint, it's more a National Liberation Front. The next more Islamic Liberation Front. So you adjust in terms of which military checkpoint you go through. It's a fun exercise. I always get excited in stories when I go through this area. And during the negotiation, just wondering what kind of bargaining instruments did the Americans bring onto the table? Eight. Eight. The America. It was under President George Bush actually, we said, okay, we have $40 million to spend in the rehabilitation programs of Muslim guerrillas. They implemented it in 1996. And by the end of the fifth year, 14,000 of these guerrillas have been reintegrated into their communities with new livelihood projects. The Americans didn't bring in money, they just bring expertise and technology. So 14,000 of the 20,000 armed forces of the more National Liberation Front became farmers. But it was a very interesting arrangement because normally in peace processes, you want the rebel groups to be armed? USA, they said, no, you can keep your arms because the police is weak, the army is corrupt. You have to protect your corn, you have to protect your industry, you have to protect your poultry and fishing industries. And so we used the joke that instead of arms into farms, you said farms with arms. And it was very successful. It's the model now for this new group, the other group, the Moro National Islamic Liberation Front. A model that they want implemented when the peace agreement is finally signed. And along with aid, did they come with strings? Did they set a timeline or you got to accomplish this by the sudden deadline? Well, no, and I think this is why the Muslims appreciated the American more. The American, USA, they said, we'll give you two years, we have the technology and expertise, we will not give you money. And after two years, we leave you alone. All profits from your industry, from reliable projects go to you. And we don't care where you get the counterpart funds. So in Sulu, for example, in Sulu Island, you have this 100 mile fish sanctuary protected by big towers and with machine guns by the Moro National Liberation Front, the towers were spotted by USAID, but the guns were from, you know, the MNLF. You have schools, for example, in really, really poor places with computers, which are the product of USAID saying, we have 20 computers, we want you to come out with counterpart 20 computers, we don't care how you get it. So the smuggling family, the family involved in smugglers, then, oh, raise the fund during the PTA and raise, so this kind of fascinating stories that you don't see if you're in the capital in Washington, it's happening in Mindanao. Which balances the idea that it's always a conflict zone. And just a final point on conflict, actually the violence in Mindanao is more perpetrated by warlords, political families who are constantly fighting each other. The two most violent incidents in the last decade and now in Mindanao are perpetrated by Muslim clans fighting each other. Do you see these conflicts being contained to Mindanao, or is there a possibility of radiation to other parts of the Philippines or even the region? The second one, the one that happened in Marawi City, the possibility of spreading to the region because one side of the tribal group were the kids of a family that retained ISIS. There was an attempt in the 1970s, actually, by Jema Islami of Indonesia to penetrate that area. Hardly the more Islamic liberation fund kicked them out. And this is Philippine Islam, we can talk about this next time. Philippine Islam, the Jema Islami fundamentalist began dictating the M.I.L.F. what to do with their women. Well, I wish we had more time, but we're coming to the end of the show. Would you very quickly demystify for us why Mindanao is also dot the land of the promise? It's no much land, very rich in mineral resources, fish and fruits, but also mining. The Chinese are interested in copper and gold mines, for example. It's the richest part of the island, but it's also the poorest, because of its weird, bizarre history. Do you see a wave forward from here? Do you see Mindanao getting passed in office? The only thing that will keep Mindanao developed is the revenues that banks, offices earn in Manila at the end of the day get permitted back to Manila. So we call it Manila, Imperial Manila. Some of us want to separate Mindanao, but that's next impossible now. So Mindanao is a little bit of a troubled land of promise today, but a land of promise nonetheless. Well, thank you so much, Professor Avinalas. It's such a pleasure to have you with us today. Thank you very much. And we'll look forward to the next time when we see you again. Thank you. Thank you.