"I am a Moro." - Tom Pangcoga

MINDAVIEWS
COMMENTARY: I am a Moro
By Tommy Pangcoga

(Addressed to the Filipinos of Luzon, Visayas, and even Mindanao who do not
know and do not care to know because they think they already know. What a
pity.)

I am a Moro. I was born that way. I have Moro blood, Moro flesh, and Moro
heritage. It is not wrong to be this way. I am different from you. I do not
need to be judged or looked down upon. I do not need to be converted to the
ways and beliefs of the mainstream majority. I do not need to follow your
ways, because I do not want to. What I need and what all of those who are
like me need is your understanding and your respect for our differences.

We did not start this conflict in any way. And yet you scorn us and attack
us. Perhaps it is because you have read our history from the eyes and the
pens of your historians. Our history is older, much older than yours. And if
you could only see it through our own eyes, you would understand. But you do
not, and perhaps you never will.

Before your nation was born, we already had our own sovereignty in Mindanao.
We had lived peacefully with honor, prosperity and dignity and we had lived
in peaceful coexistence with others of different cultures and beliefs within
this land. This was before the Spaniards came to colonize you. This was
before the Spaniards sold you – and us too, though without our knowledge and
consent – to the Americans.

When your people finally gained your independence from the Americans, we had
already been doubtful that you would treat us and our ways with respect.
Because for over three hundred years, the colonizers had not only converted
you to their faith and their western ways, they had also used you as shock
troops against us. Where before their arrival, we had shared relations of
amity and commerce and perhaps some history as well, now after over three
hundred years of fighting one another, you with all your hate and enmity
against my people, had been given the opportunity to govern us against our
will. [More at MindaNews]