World Bulletin / News Desk


Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) on Saturday rejected Philippines bid for observer status at its opening session.

The OIC 36th meeting of foreign ministers was held in Syrian capital city of Damascus and ended on Sunday.

Turkey led the group of countries which opposed the Philippine bid for observer status. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen strongly supported the Turkey's position.

However, Indonesia, the traditional ally of the Philippines, asked the OIC foreign ministers to grant the Philippines an observer status. The motion was seconded by Bahrain and Iraq.

The Philippines sent a 33-man delegation, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) 22, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) only three.

MILF said Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, the chairman, wrote official letters to the foreign ministers of Muslim states, requesting them to oppose the Philippine bid.

Moro Muslims

The Philippines, an archipelagic country located in the western Pacific Ocean, has a population of 90 million people. The population of Muslims is about 12 million. Between the years 1450 and 1515, two Islamic principalities were founded on the islands of Sulu and Mindanao. Islam came to the Philippines in the 13th century 200 years before Christianity did.

After four decades of armed conflict between the Filipino state and the Moro Muslims, the two parties agreed to sign an agreement that would end the conflict. However, the supreme court of the Philippine declared the agreement illegal on August 4, which caused the conflict to resume. The biggest new internal displacement of people last year was in Muslim region in Philippine, where 600,000 fled fighting with government and MILF in Muslim region, a United Nations-backed report said.

The word Filipino originated from the name of the king of Spain, King Philip, who colonized the Philippines in 1570. But the name was not extended to the Filipinos, who originally were called Indios to distinguish them from the Moros in Manila and Tondo, until 1896 during the Philippine Revolution as a way to appease them. Filipino was originally used to call Spanish borne in the Philippines. Later, Filipino was only used for those who were subjects of Spain and the Moros were never subjects of Spain at any part of their history.

Luwaran.com., said that Ameen recalled that in the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) initialed by MILF and government peace negotiators on July 27, 2008, the latter acceded or conceded that it is the birthright of the Moros to be called as "Bangsamoro", which is a nationality identity as distinguished from Filipinos.

However, the Bangsamoro remains a Filipino citizen.

The Moros formally acknowledged themselves as "Moro", which is a separate nationality from Filipinos, in a petition addressed to the United States President and Congress on February 1, 1924.

The petition was signed by most of the leading sultans or leaders namely, Sultan Mangigin of Maguindanao, Hadji Panglima Nuno, Datu Sacaluran, Maharaja Habing, Abdula Piang, and Datu Benito of Lanao.

They wanted Mindanao to be declared to be separated from Luzon and Visayas in the grant of independence or become and American colony to be given independence separately.

The Americans did not listen to their demand.