Jabidah Massacre revisited
Allahu Akbar Allah Hu… It’s 12:15 p.m. I hear the call for the faithful Muslims to pray at noontime. The Ajan is on time, as he must be, at 6:30 p.m., to remind the believers of Allah about Maghrib prayers. At 7:15 p.m., while I eat, the loudspeaker goes on again for the Isha prayer. The Ajan actually began calling Mohammed’s followers at 5:15 a.m., his wakeup call for morning prayers, the Subuh.
I am in Simunul, having ridden in Governor Sadikul Sahali’s speed boat. What would take us from Bongao an hour by launcha has taken 15 minutes on a speed boat that glides like a white hawk over the waters. I see one hovering just above me now gracefully.
I just had to return to Simunul to see the four pillars that carried the wooden mosque on its tips in 1380 AD. The wooden structure is now of cement with marble flooring of beige. Its pillars are varnished to be perpetually glistening. When I saw it in 1988, it was flat, faded, multi-colored green, white and red. The pillars are now protected from the weather to be continuously revered. They were built by Sheik Karin Ul Makhdum, the earliest preacher of Islam in Sulu. I was advised to pay his white sand-covered mound a visit. Why not? I prayed for his intercession to Allah that my wishes come true…
This island Simunul has 17 huge springs. Fresh water gushes from the earth where children swim and everyone drinks its cold, clean water. During a drought, its water is used to irrigate banana and cassava farms. Crime rate is zero. These Samals go by the Qu’ran…every misunderstanding must be settled in three days. No killings, no revenge, just a spit or harsh words. Life is simplified under a circular kubo, where no one is allowed to stand at its open space where the sea breeze refreshes us.
The highlight of the day was my visit to Camp Sofia in barangay Tampakan, West Simunul. That camp was the training ground where Col. Eduardo “Abdullatif” Martelino trained the Moro warriors to fight the Sabahans in Malaysia in what become historically known as the “Jabidah Massacre.”
The Camp was named after Sofia Mercusia who was then young, 15 years maybe, and Martelino in his early 40s. They fell in love with each other, so the Samals say. Sofia wore no makeup, never had a child till her second marriage. Martelino left her to marry Miniang Jikiri of another barangay in Simunul, Tubig Indanan. In fact, among these Sama’s some are from Pangasinan. Their ancestors having arrived with the Thomasite teachers in 1901. They are the numerous Aquinos from Pangasinan, therefore a barangay was named after them. Two among them, Bashir and Rasdie, picked up the kubiertos left behind by the Jabidah fighters at Camp Sofia. They were then 16 years old. Today, they are in their 50s, walking with me over twigs, leaves from lush trees and spikey bushes where Martelino trained young men in the techniques of infiltration and sabotage and jungle survival. Martelino sported a Rolex watch from his boss, Ferdinand Marcos. They offer the information with Edith Absara. He was always bare-breasted with tight pants, boots, and a gun on his hip and a borong, a Tausug bladed weapon, on the other. Girls swooned over him… while Jibin Arola swam away.
“Jabidah” was the name of the oplan while training in Camp Sofia and thereafter. Jabidah was the name of a ravishing woman in Muslim folklore. At first Jabidah was a secret project, later code-named Operation Merdeka that actually took shape in Simunul in Sulu then, now a part of Tawi-Tawi. The recruitment of young Muslims was encouraged to become a private army but with unspecified links to certain elements of the Armed Forces. In December 1967, when it was still a top secret, Merdeka wound up 180 trainees and transferred them to Unisan, Quezon. After three months of survival training they were transferred to the rocky island of Corregidor.
In March 1968, in Corregidor, reports spoke of a mutiny in the camp where 14 Moro trainees were shot dead and 17 were missing. A survivor, Jibin Arula, said that the train-ees had protested about the non-payment of their 50-peso monthly allowance and wanted to resign.
They were told they could resign but not leave the island for security reasons. Thereafter batches of trainees were escorted to the airstrip below the camp. Arula was in the third batch of 12 who were led away at 4 a.m. At the airstrip an officer asked them to walk ahead. One of the men asked where they were going. The reply came in a volley of fire. Arula said he saw four of his companions die on the spot. He himself was hit in the leg. He managed to hide behind the bushes, and then rolled into the sea where he clung to a log until rescued by a fisherman four hours later, half dead.
A document from an unknown source reaching Senate investigators said that Merdeka was, in fact, conceived as a plan to take Sabah by a contingent of civilian volunteers under the Armed Forces control to invade and siege Sabah, which once belonged to the Sultanate of Sulu. Many opposition politicians supported this view, which would make the Philippine government a party to invading Sabah rather than preventing a planned invasion. Historian T.J.S. George supported their arguments and allegations that Marcos had a deal with the Sulu Sultanate by which he would acquire Sabah as his personal estate.
The Muslims had their own explanation. This conjured up a vision of devious politicians in Manila to split Islamic rank and provoke a war between Sulu and Sabah. According to this theory, the recruits quickly realized the nature of their mission, refused to fight fellow Muslims across the Sulu Sea, and this precipitated the mutiny and the shooting.
On a fact-finding tour of Sulu from Simunul in Camp Sofia to Corregidor Island, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. found scores of families weeping inconsolably for their dead and missing folks. It was more than a case of Muslims being used as pawns in Manila’s political maneuvers. The feeling of outrage was widespread among Muslims. Consequently, Muslims organized demonstrations all over Manila, especially in front of Congress and the Malacañang Palace. Demonstrators with cries of “Allahu Akbar” called the Jabidah shooting the “worst crime of the century.” Eventually these Muslims became Ninoy’s allies in the EDSA People Power.
My work takes me to far-flung areas or urban surroundings. But all told, life is really what we make of it… an adventure of sorts.
