The colonial legacy of Spanish-spawned Catholic chauvinism against the recalcitrant mostly-Muslim Moros has helped fortified the type-casted images of conflicts in Mindanao and Sulu that is simply described as antagonistic.

These constructed images sadly imply that only war or violence can be the path towards peace. The same framework seems to fuel the resurgence of anti-Moro sentiment among the Zamboanguenos; sentiments which now tries to resurrect a painful historical tradition of the Spanish guerras piraticas and the moro-moro.

The signing of the 13-point accord, called the “Tripoli Declaration”, by ten senior leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) last May 18 in Tripoli, Libya, calling for internal unity and reconciliation marks another significant episode in the history of the front. We in the civil society are truly elated with this development.