In the past, the tendency of the different Mindanao tribes was to emphasize their differences instead of their commonalities. Their tribal identities dominated their relationship with each other. And so they fought each other to control human and material resources.

Since many of the tribes were fragmented, they also fought among themselves. The Manobos fought Manobos, the Mandayas fought Mandayas, etc. The frequent intertribal and intratribal wars strengthened the sense of independent clan or community identity as no supreme leader emerged who could unify the tribes.
Present Mindanao ethnography counts 18 Lumad tribes and 13 Moro tribes. You can just imagine how turbulent Mindanao was because of this diversity and lack of unity among various tribes and communities. As the Maguindanaos and Tausogs reach a higher level of social and political organization, they were able to control a wide territory in Mindanao. In addition, they freely raided the Visayas, even Luzon. It is said there are still areas in Moroland today where the word Bisaya means slave.

But this did not mean that the Tausugs and Maguindanaos had complete control over the other tribes. The other tribes would also fight back, but invariably they would lose because the Moros had more advanced weapons. In Davao, there were communities who paid tribute to the Maguindanaos, but they were more independent that vassals of  the Maguindanaos. This means the Tausugs and maguindanaos were still continuing their campaign to subjugate the other tribes. The tribes therefore largely retained their separate distinct identities.

When  the Spaniards arrived, they fought the Tausugs and Maguindanaos for control of territory and tribes in Mindanao. In Davao, this only began in 1948 when Jose Gangrenous wrested the territory from the kalagan Moros. To civilize the tribes, the Spaniards rounded up the inhabitants and forced them into reductions. Because they were not used to living in concentrated settlements, and they had to pay tribute besides, the tribes escaped to the mountains at every opportunity. Sometimes the Lumads launched treacherous attacks to get even. The Spaniards largely blamed the Moros for the failure to reduce the Lumads.

In 1888 Jesuit priest pablo patells made this observation about the Moros.
It is well-known that the people of Mindanao and Jolo are of
bellicose character. They live in far places away from the capital of
the archipelago and look askance at Spanish domination, and
therefore they try time and again to consolidate their independence
through piratical raids undertaken all these year, without the
haphazard retaliations of our soldiers nor the evangelical preaching
of our missionaries having been able to put a stop to their infamous
attacks.

To destroy Moro power, Pastells suggested the following steps to Governor General Valeriano Weyler:
The policy. . . (is) to isolate them completely in the interior by means
of the missions and when necessary establish some military posts
among the nearby pagan population. Following the mission and the
establishment of the military inside the dominion of the Moros, villages should be formed, whether with people living in the locality,
or by fomenting the immigration of people from Bohol or from Ilocos. Every year either a fixed company of married soldiers should be established to be taken from the standing army all over the  islands, or married deportees should be settled, including slaves or other vassals of the datus wishing to live under the protection of our flag.

The Spaniards were kicked out in  1899 without having succeeded in subjugating the Moros and the Lumads. Under their rule, there were only very few settlers who came to Mindanao. Many of them were disciplinarios and deportees, that is, criminal and political offenders from Luzon and the Visayas.

When the Americans saw Mindanao, they were simply amazed at the fertility of the soil. They called Cotabato the “land of promise,” and Davao “the garden of the gods.” They proceeded to transform the island into abaca and coconut plantations. But the Lumads resisted plantation work. So severe was the labor shortage the Americans recruited workers from the Visayas, including Japanese labor.

The American planters and officials of the Moro Province had originally sought to annex Mindanao as territory of the United States. They wanted to turn it into a white man’s country, and at one time, encouraged Italians or Americans to settle in Mindanao. But this project failed. And so they had to the northern islands to recruit labor.

The recruitment of laborers actually served two purposes. It did not only solve the acute labor shortage, it also effectively diluted the Moro and Lumad populations. It had taken the Americans 10 years before they could impose complete hegemony in Mindanao, and to consolidate their rule, they now put the politics of add and rule in full swing.

Under the Americans, particularly during the Commonwealth period, Japanese plantations flourished in Davao. Workers and settlers also flocked to Davao. By the end of 1930, the demographic profile of Davao had changed. The settlers now outnumbered the natives . Imagine that annually, almost 10,000 settlers arrived in Davao. With the encouragement of the Republic of the Philippines, more settlers continued to pour into Mindanao so that today, the demography of the island has been totally changed. Now the natives have become the minority in their own hand.

What Pastells had recommended to arresr the expansion and consolidation of the Moros, as well as the Lumads, has finally become a reality. If you look at the placement of the settlements were really an extension of war. I call Mindanawons. The settlements were really an extension of war. I call this civilian warfare, in which civilians are used to advance the strategic goals of war.

The Lumads fought the Spaniards and Americans, but because they were defeated they resorted to evasion and fight to the mountains. In that way that way, they were not conquered and thus retained their identity as they were also successful in resisting the foreigners.

In retaining their identity they also retained their own culture. The terms for their political leaders such as sultan and datu, which the Spaniards also sought to make obsolete, persist. But where is their land?
In the past, If you said Bagobo, it did not only mean a person. It also meant language, clothing, customs, and religion. And most of all, if you said Bagobo, you meant Lobo, Digos, Tudaya, Toril, Bansalan, Makilala, Mt. Apo, and Sibulan, the known centers of the Bagobos. In short, when you spoke the word Bagobo it automatically meant territory.

That is also the meaning of the identity of the other tribes. The name of the tribe carries with it a constellation of meanings rooted in the territory. Each tribe  had its own territory that it defended against the instrusion of other tribes. Oral history tells of a treaty forged among the

Dibabawons, Mansakas, was to de and Mangguwagans to define the boundaries of their respective territories so as to avoid conflict. The treaty was agreed upon even if each tribe did not have a supreme leader. But like the Bagobos, the Mangguwangans, Mansakas, and Dibabawons have no clear territories of  tribes their own today.  This is also true to all the other ,including the Moros.

The Lumads and Moros have angry two reactions to this altered situation very in Mindanao. Some have become very shy, while others have become very shy, while others have become very angry.

We can observe the shyness among the Lumads. In fact, many of them are ashamed of being Lumad because as a tribe they have been left behind in terms of development. They are considered backward, if not uncivilized. They are marginalized and excluded from mainstream society. In the past, their songs and epics celebrated the glory of their tribe and the pride of their baganis and braves – Tuwaang, Agyo, Sandyo. But now what you hear are the laments of their fate.

As a Mandaya chanter puts it: “All our land is gone / O gone is our pristine world. . . Our dignity is trampled upon/ O we have become worthless/ O they have become powerful/These aliens on our land.”

And the Tbolis lament: “This lake of Sebu/ Other people claim it/ Other people lord over it/ The Tbolis have nowhere to go/ The outsiders have prevailed/ They rule over the Tbolis/ Do you understand my song?”

We can also hear these laments of the Lumads in conferences and forums. It is not only land that has been taken away  from the Lumads. Their gold, arts and crafts have also been  taken away, and they fear they will be exterminated in the near future.

As one Bagobo puts it: “Our problem is not illiteracy. It is assimilation that is slowly depriving us of our identity as Tagabawa bagobo.”

That is why a lot of the Lumdas were happy when the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued Department  Administrative Order No. 2 (DAO 2) that paved the way for the Lumads to claim and own their ancestral domain, or what is left of their inheritance. This department order was the basis of the Indigenous challenged in court but was upheld by the Supreme Court.

But some of the tribes are not too happy with this law because it was made outside the tribe, it was written in a foreign tongue, it had no sanctions from the elders, and it contained totally alien provisions regarding the ownership, titling and registration of the land. Aside from these objections, what is this so-called ancestral domain compare to the vast territory that they owned not so long ago? It is a simple case of the state beginning the process of colonizing the lands and resources of the indigenous peoples and communities, and its weapon of choice is
the IPRA.

In other words, IPRA continues the relentless assault on and appropriation of the land that the Mindanawnons have experienced since the arrival of the Spaniards. That is why for some of them it is non shame they feel but anger.

Many of us from the majority culture raise our eyebrows when we hear about the complaints of the Lumads. We operate  from the framework that all this is Philippine territory, the state has sovereignty over all the land, and all citizens enjoy the right of transferability of residence within the said territory.

But while here in Cebu almost everybody is Cebuano, the language is Cebuano, the customs are Cebuano, this statement is not ‘transferable’ to Davao. We cannot say Davao is inhabited by Dabawnons, the language is Dabawnon, and the customs are Dabawnon. Because Davao today is Cebuano, with some admixture of the other tribes from other places. The Bagobos themselves, and Giangans, Mansakas, Diababawons have all been dispersed in remote areas.

I wonder how the descendants of Dagohoy would feel if Tagbilaran were now controlled by Maranaws, Tubigon by  Maguindanaws, Jagna by Manobos, Sagbayan and Belar by Bagobos, and Antiquiera by Mangguwangans? Would they not establish a Bol-anon Liberation Army?

As we can see in Mindanao this not a hypothetical question. We know the response of the Moros. Their sense of identity has been strengthened and now they are struggling on various fronts to claim their own space where they can build their own independent political
power and live a life of their own according to their own culture and beliefs.

Even if the Lumads are dispersed this has not prevented some of them to dream of Lumad unity. A few months ago, the Bungkatol Liberation Army emerged in Agusan del Sur. According to the reports, this army is composed of various Lumad tribes – Manobos, Higaonons, Mamanwas, Talaandigs, banwaons, Mandayas, and Umayams.

In Cotabato, the Indigenous People’s Federal Army announced its birth with a series of bombs to call attention to its demands.

How strong these groups are only time can tell. But these are signs that identity is a burning issue in Mindanao. In the case of the Moros, they have gone a long way even if tribal tensions plague their ranks. They have waged a bitter struggle for 30 years, but the forces of the Philippine government have proved stronger and the still cannot establish their own independent political regime.

The Lumads face a more difficult problem because of the deep, splits in identity, land and consciousness. They continue to be divided into small tribes. Their fragmentation prevents their political unity.s. Without unity, they have no power, no voice. This fragmentation exacerbated by the fact that they do not occupy a contiguous territory: d therefore it is also difficult to forge a I, mad national have inherited consciousness.

These are just the two of the more serious identity problems that we have  inherited from the politics of add and rule that the Spaniards started, which the American intensified, and which the present government wants to perpetuate. Today, there is no need to add settlers anymore in Mindanao as the balance is already skewed in favor of the settlers.

Now the question: What is the future face of Mindanao?
If the Lumads and Moros only had their own power, the settlers would have long been deported from Mindanao. Today, this is no longer appears possible. The demographic profile of Mindanao appears irreversible. Th settlers have stayed here for three generations or so, now consider themselves Mindanawnons. For good or for ill, the so-called tripeople character of Mindanao is here to stay. The Lumads, Moros, and settlers now share the land.

We know the political goals of the Moros militants. After so many years of struggle, some of them have become so desperate they have resorted to bombing of civilian targets, and kidnapping and beheading of innocent civilians.

On the other hand, what about the majority objective? What do we want to happen to the Moros and Lumads? Do we insist on integrating them or assimilating them? Or do we now launch the politics of subtraction, that is of exterminating them, so they will not trouble us anymore? Are we going to hold on tight to this seemingly divine law of Philippine sovereignty? Can we never give them a space where their identity and their land become one and the same again?