Prologue

In the Cordillera Mountains of Luzon (northern Philippines) stood the majestic Ifugao Rice Terraces, built at least 2,000 years ago (before Jesus) across 20,000 hectares of mountainside. Extending 14,000 miles, the terraces were declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage site and the first living cultural landscape. They were testaments of an advanced civilization’s unique engineering and creativity, as well as efficient socio-political system.[i] Mummies had also been preserved in the caves of Kabayan in Benguet province and in the hanging coffins of Sagada, Mt. Province. The process of mummification, dating as far back as 200 BC, signified advanced biochemistry comparable to that of ancient Egypt, without the pyramids.

At least 1,500 years before the Spanish colonizers, the Igorots, the “people of the mountains” already had a “civilized culture” in a natural habitat of pristine forestland. They traded gold with lowlanders. After the colonizers arrived in 1521, the Igorots maintained their cultural integrity; while most lowlanders absorbed the colonial brand of Christianity and government. Colonialism bred a culture of dependence, where salvation came through the benevolence of a foreign race and culture, rather than on a God within and a people’s own capacity. Moreover, with the Regalian Doctrine, all land became the property of the King of Spain. After the Philippines gained independence from Spanish rule in 1898, ownership went to the state. The indigenous peoples did not have land titles; they became squatters in their ancestral domain, while foreigners and the wealthy acquired land by lease or purchase. A century after, in 1998, there were 11.6 million indigenous people in the country.[ii] Most were displaced and marginalized.[iii]

Mindanao (southern Philippines) had also been beset by wars between a predominantly Christian government and Muslim secessionist groups, with Lumads caught in between.[iv] In 1968, the government secretly recruited and trained young Muslim men to invade and annex Sabah (North Borneo) to the Philippines.[v] During the training, there was dissention that led to mass massacre. A survivor revealed the plot; it led to the birth of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). In the words of MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari, “The right of Muslims as a people was violated and abused. We had no option but to start the war for independence.”[vi] From the Christian viewpoint, the Muslims started the wars; they were the villains. Whatever the contentions were, the wars across three decades led to death and injury to thousands; destruction of home and property; and thousands more living in poverty in Muslim dominated areas.[vii]

The Igorots, Muslims, Lumads and other indigenous groups in the Philippines maintained their cultural integrity despite the colonizers and cross-migration with lowlanders. But such was considered by lowlanders (educated in the western traditions) as backward and deplorable due to colonial prejudices adopted as local standards.[viii] I suppose their plight is reflective of the setting in other countries and across various epochs. The search for answers thus led to the core of humanity.

Human Heritage

The Philippines, with its 80 million people (2008), shared both in the world’s creation and human heritage. The Philippine Deep in Mindanao is the world’s deepest ocean. It is 11,485 miles deep, lapped by waters of the Pacific Ocean to the east and the South China Sea to the west. This deep is a major source of deuterium.[ix] By combining two deuterium atoms (through fusion), tremendous cheap and safe power is released. The process is the principle behind the power and light of the sun and the stars. At the foot of Mt. Apo (the country’s highest mountain peak) is a rich deposit of uranium. Uranium is used as a way of dating the earth’s age as far back as the beginning.

If the Filipino shared humanity, his heritage originated from either the biblical Adam or the archeologist’s Eve from Africa at least 200,000 years ago.[x] What does heritage mean? Heritage gave the distinctive character of a people, its sense of identity and self-worth. In the same way a fish subsisted only in water, a human found meaning from his or her genealogy and cultural tradition. Genealogy was biological. Culture was the behavioral pattern passed on from parent to child and generation to generation. The cultural heritage included the ancient socio-political-religious wars after the Flood.

Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington had predicted that the conflicts in the 3rd Millennium “will be fought on the fault-lines of civilization and religion.”[xi] In history, the Middle East was the seat of ancient Mesopotamia, where the Sumerians, the first known civilization took root in c. 4000 BC after migrations from Africa in c. 75,000 BC. From the biblical standpoint, ancient Ararat, in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), was the place where Noah’s ark settled; from there, the post-deluge people emerged and radiated as far as Ur in ancient Mesopotamia, where Abraham journeyed from, to Canaan, Egypt, then back to Canaan. From Abraham came the heritage of the Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Apparently, the fault-lines had already been broken. The “bigger” wars had been fought in the Middle East, the seat of three major religions of the world. There, Jewish Israel contended with his predominantly Arab-Muslim neighbors. After the 9/11 2001 bombing of the twin towers by the Muslim terrorist group Al Qaeda, the “global war against terrorism” was launched. In 2003, a predominantly Christian US-Australia-UK force “liberated” Iraq from a despotic Sunni Muslim leader. Half a century earlier, in 1948, the Palestinians became landless after the UN mandated the state of Israel. The Israelites claimed that they owned ancient Canaan and Palestine by divine mandate; it was their “Promised Land.” But before the Jewish Exodus in c. 1454 BC, the Canaanite and Palestine peopled the land; the Israelites were the intruders.

From a larger scheme of things, humans do not own anything, but are part of a wonderful ecosystem; with each life form interdependent with others. Plants capture sunlight and release oxygen; animals and humans eat the plants, breath oxygen and release carbon dioxide needed by plants. Human colonies sustain each other through trade. I suppose heritage was initially about shared humanity in a living paradise. But amidst the ecosystem, culture emerged. With cultural traditions, humans have divided the earth among races, classes and faiths. They fought over land and property, with a minority hording a big chunk of nature as their own. How did the separation begin? How can unity be achieved? Perhaps the Holy Bible and the Holy Koran have the answers.

[i] Zardo Austria, “Boning Up on Banaue,” in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 11. 2002, p. D6; the Ifugao Rice Terraces are located in the town of Banaue, Ifugao. Ifugao is one of six provinces of the Cordilleras. The others are Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Mt. Province and Kalinga.

[ii] Philippine Medium Term Development Plan for Indigenous Peoples 2004-2008

[iii] Out of 15 regions in the country, the 1997 Philippine Constitution had mandated the creation of autonomous regions only for two - the Cordillera Region and the Region of Muslim Mindanao.

[iv] Historically, Islam was introduced peacefully by Tuan Masha’ika and Karim ul-Makdum in southern Philippines in 1380 AD, from Borneo. It blended peacefully and harmoniously with the ethnic culture. Nearly 150 years after, in 1521, Ferdinand Magellan landed in Cebu, central Philippines and “discovered” the Philippines. Thereafter began the systematic colonization and conversion of the natives to Christianity, except for Mindanao Muslims and Lumads, the natives who retained their ethnic traditions. Nonetheless, under Spanish rule, being colonized meant being civilized and not being colonized meant being uncivilized. Local Muslims became the Moros, bestowed by the Spaniards due to their similarities with the Moors of Northern Africa. (Spain was under Muslim domination for 700 years, until the Catholic re-conquest by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492). In a predominantly Christian country, Moro became derogatory. The tradition had been sustained.

[v] According to then University of the Philippines Prof. Nur Misuari, Sabah was a gift of the Sultan of Brunei to a cousin, the Sultan of Sulu (a Mindanao island), for the latter’s assistance in restoring the kingdom of Brunei. It was the basis for the Philippines’ claim to the territory.

[vi] Quoted from an interview conducted by the author with Nur Misuari, when Misuari was already the Governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in March 2000

[vii] The peace negotiations had spanned over twenty years, involving four Philippine Presidents. The 1976 Tripoli Agreement between the Marcos Administration and the MNLF was brokered by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). The Aquino Administration created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in 1989, a measure rejected by the MNLF. The Ramos Administration successfully forged a peace agreement with the MNLF in 1996 that ended the 30-year struggle of the MNLF. For the peace agreement, President Ramos and MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari earned jointly the Nobel Peace Award. However, the break-away Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) disagreed with the peace pact. Moreover, there was also the issue of Lumads asserting their own cultural integrity beyond the Muslim faith. The second generation MNLF and MILF ranks also spawned terrorists groups, such as the Abu Sayyaf and the Pentagon, which resorted to kidnapping and bombing. As of 2009, the negotiations were on-going with the MILF under the Macapagal-Arroyo Administration.

[viii] William Henry Scott, Of Igorots and Independence, Malaya Books, Philippines, 1972, p.55

[ix] Deuterium is a hydrogen isotope. Isotopes are forms of the same element, but with varying numbers of neutrons; hydrogen has one electron, one proton and one neutron; deuterium has an additional neutron.

[x] Relics of pre-historic civilizations dating as far back as 50,000 -10,000 BC were discovered in northern Luzon areas of Liwan, Cagayan Valley and along Batangas-Bulacan, and the Tabon Caves in the western island Province of Palawan (which cut across northern, central and southern Philippines). These included tools, bones, pottery, artwork and buildings. (F. Landa Locano, Filipino Pre-History, PUNLAD Research House, Inc., Metro Manila, Philippines, 1998, p. 108-110)

[xi] Quoted in “De Venecia’s Inter-Faith Council” by Blas Ople in his regular column entitle Horizon, Manila Bulletin, June 3, 2003, p. 2