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The Discrimination of the Bangsamoro people: A continuing saga of
national oppression
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Muslims all over the world
has to face up a heightened hatred and discrimination in the post 9-11
era. Anti-Muslim sentiment and prejudices is hyped in the so-called
campaign against Global Terrorism. The Bangsamoro, the Muslims in the
Philippines, cannot escape this reality and is doubly feeling the brunt
of this hatred and discrimination because of its existence as a
marginalized minority nationality.
Discrimination of the Bangsamoro people is felt in manifold expressions
in all dimensions of the social, political, cultural and economic
spheres of our national life. It is a nightmare that is experienced in
an almost daily basis. The term Muslim is disparagingly used in media
with derogatory connotations. The Muslims are the usual suspects and
fall guys in almost all criminal and “terroristic” incidents. Muslim
students are forced to abandon religious customs to comply with
discriminatory policies of educational institutions. Some Muslims in the
Metropolis even has to hide their true identities by assuming Christian
names in order for them to get a job or rent an apartment or be accepted
in dormitories or boarding houses. And so on and so forth, the list goes
on without end.
These are shared experiences of the ordinary Moro. But discrimination
against the Moro people does not discriminate its victims; even Muslims
who are already placed in high and respectable positions in government
service are not spared from these discriminatory acts.
The case of Dr. Jamail A. Kamlian, a Ph.d. and currently serving as Vice
Chancellor of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of
Technology is a glaring manifestation that discrimination against the
Moros of the Philippines is very much in practice and spares no one.
Even after having paid an initial down payment, Dr. Kamlian was denied
the right to purchase and own a lot in a subdivision in Cagayan de Oro
City for the simplest yet most absurd reason of his being a Muslim. It
is said that the Real Estate Company who owns the subdivision and is
said to a subsidiary of the Real Estate Empire of Honorable Senator
Manny Villar, Jr., has a standing policy not to sell real estate
properties to Muslims. This is discrimination in its vilest form and
grandest proportions.
We condemn this incident as a blatant act of discrimination against the
Moro people. We strongly support the quest of Dr. Jamail Kamlian for
justice to the violations committed against his person. We call on the
Moro people to unite and rally the cause against discrimination and
bring this issue and other related incidents to the halls of Justice, to
the Congress and even to Malacanang. We will lobby for policy
intervention, legislative measures or mechanisms that will look into
recurring discriminatory practice against the Moro people and penalizing
those found guilty of committing such acts.
We will raise the issue of discrimination against the Moro people to all
fora and arenas of our struggle if only to put sands in the wheels of
continuing national oppression; for what more can be the grandest act of
discrimination against the Bangsamoro people than the long-standing
denial of the Philippine government to its right to self-determination?
INDEPENDENT MORO ACTION NETWORK (IMAN)
Metro Manila
October 8, 2002
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