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REVIEW: ‘Rulers of Magindanao’: a book well-worth the effort to read and understand

mindaviews review

(Delivered online by Dr. Steven Rood at the book launch of Datu Michael Ong Mastura’s ‘The Rulers of Magindanao in Modern History, 1515-1903: Continuity and Change in a Traditional Realm in the Southern Philippines’ at the Ateneo de Manila University Press on 4 May 2023. The Ateneo University Press is the publisher of the book).

I first met Datu Michael Mastura in 1987, when the Cordillera Studies Center (CSC) at the University of the Philippines in Baguio held a conference on autonomy for the Cordillera. I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with him frequently over the years.

Several of the invited speakers to that 1987 CSC conference were from Mindanao because the 1987 Constitution provided for autonomy both in the Cordillera and in Muslim Mindanao. At the time, Datu Mike was a member of Congress and had previously been in the Ministry of Muslim Affairs.

The reasoning of the organizers was that it was natural to look for comparisons and contrasts between the two potentially autonomous regions, and these comparisons and contrasts continue to intrigue me. Simply put, the question can be raised why in 1989 the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was instituted (and revised in 2001) and then recently replaced in 2019 with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, while in the years since 1987 the Cordillera has failed to achieve autonomy.

I venture to say that the short answer lies in the contrast between sultanates and ili as governance structures and that this contrast has its roots in Islam. A considerably longer answer lies in this 430-page book.

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Dr. Steven Rood presents his review of the book of Datu Michael Ong Mastura at the book launch at the Ateneo de Manila University on 04 May 2023. MindaNews photo by CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS

This is an ambitious and wide-ranging book but its center is an explication of the two major elements of Majul’s “constellation of sultanates” (page xx) — the Sultanate of Magindanao (downriver, sa-Ilud) and the Rajahnate of Buayan (upriver, sa-raya) in the Pulangi River basin (Rio Grande de Mindanao). “The boundaries of the two major power centers were never clearly defined”(p. 21) – one characterization I read was that sa-ilud refers to the part of the river affected by tidal flows from the sea (and saltwater intrusion).

As Mastura says, “this book’s core is derived from ‘core lineage’ of datus whose Muslim Sultanate capital lay on the Pulangi river where they took pride in a pattern of indigenous political system.” (xvii) The use of tarsilas (written genealogies) allows for the construction of the sequence of the Raja Buayans of Buayan, for example (table 3, pp. 78-81) cross referenced against the reigns of Magindanao sultans, which helps to follow the historical relations between the two systems of power. Aside from the male line, frequent reference is made to how marriages caused or strengthened interrelated linkages among datus and royal houses. Sometimes the welter of names can be daunting but there is an excellent index for the book. 

One thread throughout the book is the role of Islam as both the background from which statecraft emerged and the motivating factor in its resilience in the face of colonialism. As one author had it, Islam was like a “slow, giant wave” moving through the Malay Archipelago and so it is not surprising that not only some of the leading lights of Magindanao history came from Southeast Asia such as Sharif Kabungsuwan in 1515, but office titles, such as Kapitan Laut (navy commander), originated in Ternate.

Islam allowed for institutional structures that encompassed whole territorial domains and linguistic groups and “the courtly society inspired by the Islamic religion” (102). As for the wholesale adoption of Islam. Mastura summarized

within the Sunni aspect of Islam, the stratified structure of Maguindanao society did not pose an obstacle to the conversion process. As it were, reverence for the family of the prophet and the Sharif descent lineage merely affected the realignment of the social power relations over the community of believers. This is a direct source of legitimacy as ulil amr (rule to bind). (p. 183)

Though the book is not a detailed history of Moro Wars, it does deal with the hostilities between Moros and the Spanish state and church. 

the Catholic religion came to the Muslim South as an integral part of military expeditions and of the colonial government. This participation of the church in Spanish penetration in Mindanao and Sulu was perfectly consistent with Catholic mission theory and was also a concomitant of the union of church and state in Catholic Spain. [Moros] made no distinction between the Spanish colonialist and the Hispanized natives who were in the colonial administrative and military service. (325)

One aspect of which I had been unaware was the establishment in the 1870s by Jesuits of what Mastura refers to as a “Paraguayan-style reduction settlement which involved a program of rescate (ransom) of Tiruray slaves and even Moro children from the slave markets of Mindanao to be raised as Christians” (198). This was one effort to reduce the power of datus by striking at the heart of the institution of slavery, and Moro datus were well aware that.  

In his forward to the book, Patricio Abinales states that with its publication “there is no more reason for any Filipino or Moro scholar not to teach courses on Magindanao and Moro histories.” I remember that 11 years ago I had a teaching sabbatical semester in Washington DC and tried to construct material about the Philippines from the Mindanao perspective. Recent years have shown a growing literature that would make that more possible and I find Mastura’s treatment of the 1896 Revolution a good example of what I would have wanted to be able to do.

He has a brisk standard review of the run-up to the revolution and then considers how it was viewed from the Muslim South.

the 19th century growth of liberalism up north was not without a counterpart in the development of a pan- Islamic movement … it was the return of pilgrims (hadjis) the Middle East to who became acquainted with the state of affairs there that constituted the anticolonial driving force in the southern Philippines.(280)

So, despite the coincidence of timing there was no direct connection between the revolutionary struggle and most events in the Moro South. It is true that the revolutionaries did try to appeal for support to their cause and Aguinaldo wrote to the Sultan of Sulu to persuade him. Unfortunately he addressed this to Sultan Haron ar Rashid, who had abdicated five years before and was located in southern Palawan.

This view from the Pulangi river basin is itself constructed from a particular viewpoint. Michael Ong Mastura is a datu, not a subaltern. He cites Saleeby as concluding “the principal mistake of the Spanish policy was in part due to their failure to rule the Moros through their datus and to give proper respect to native authority.”(333)

Debt bondage and outright slavery (baniaga), for instance, are treated as facts of life, not as a focus (as it is in The Embarrassment of Slavery by Michael Salman, another Ateneo de Manila University Press book). But Mastura’s book could serve as a solid foundation for a wide-ranging re-examination, in dialog with other work, of the history of Muslim Mindanao and its relation to the Philippine nation-state.

The Aguinaldo letter to a sultan who had abdicated years before can serve as an example of how national elites are often quite ignorant of the realities in the southern Philippines, which ignorance can have untoward consequences.

I remember a closed-door meeting in June 2000 where civil society, the business sector, and government leaders were brought together to discuss the all-out war being waged by the Estrada administration. There were two cabinet secretaries there, and civil society and big business leaders who were willing to put in time for consultations on good governance. I remember being struck at how little those from the center knew about what was going on in that all-out war even though I considered myself severely underinformed on the topic. In particular I remember an outburst by Michael Mastura, “if I hear one more time that the Philippines is the only Christian country in Asia magaamok na ako.

In his message at the Cotabato City launch of this book, Manong Bobby Alonto said:

There is an old African saying that “Unless the lion learns to write, all stories glorify the hunter.” Writing Bangsamoro  history from the perspective of the Moro is the “lion” writing his story notto earn glorification but for Truth.

Datu Michael Ong Mastura is indeed a lion. His book is well-worth the effort to read and understand. And I end by thanking the tireless Carol Arguillas for helping to make sure the publication saw the light of day!  

(Dr. Steven Rood, Fellow-in-Residence at the Social Weather Stations, was The Asia Foundation’s country representative for the Philippines from 1999 to 2017. He served as professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines Baguio from 1981 until he joined TAF. From 2009 to 2013 he was a member of the International Contact Group for negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and from 2013 to 2017 on the Third Party Monitoring Team for the agreements reached in the negotiations. He is the author of The Philippines: What Everyone Needs to Know [Oxford University Press, 2019]). 

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A reader’s guide to The Rulers of Magindanao, 1515-1903 by Datu Michael Ong Mastura

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