TURN OF THE CENTURY THE MINDANAO BECOME WHOLE CHRISTIAN NATION NEXT TO ANDALUSIA Muslims is no unity, leadership crisis and massive Graft & Corruptions practices. Mindanao is grabbing land those who migrated from Visayas and Luzon. Aside from the peoples of Islamic faith, Mindanao is also inhabited by indigenous peoples known as Lumads, which, to name a few, include: the Subanon (Zamboanga); Manobo (Bukidnon); B’laan (Cotabato); T’boli (Sultan Kudarat); Higaonon (Misamis Oriental); Tiruray (Maguindanao); and Bagobo (Davao/Agusan), and Christians who are either indigenous to the island or those who migrated from Visayas and Luzon. The history of the Moros and the Lumads is that of resistance against the Spanish colonial government. Indeed, until the very last years of their colonial government in the archipelago, the Spaniards tried and failed in their attempt to subdue the Muslims in the South. Although the US next became the colonial power in 1898, its presence was not felt for many years in Mindanao. It was only after a decade or so later that Mindanao was incorporated in the national political set-up when it was made an administrative region under the suzerainty of the central government in Manila. Moroland soon came under the primary administrative supervision of the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes. From the point of view of the American colonial administrators, the people of the Islamic faith were collectively conglomerated under the term “Moros”. This the Americans did instead of focusing on the tribal divisions among them. And since most of the them were lowlanders, as opposed to the Lumads who were predominantly up landers, they were not exempted from the land registration policies of the colonial government. The Bureau of Lands started processing homestead applications. Laws were passed which provided registration of land ownership through land titles and also limiting hectarage for individuals and corporations. The Moros and the Lumads, being mostly illiterate and uninitiated in the intricacies of bureaucratic land registration, refused or did not bother to register their lands. Armed with legal documents sanctioned by the colonial government, Christian settlers and corporations, at first mostly American, eventually took over the lands previously owned by the Moros and Lumads, resulting in the loss of their traditional land rights. Vast tracks of land they traditionally occupied and cultivated were leased or sold to settlers and plantation companies.
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 07:11:17 +0000
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