Tribes want MILF, BIFM forces out of sacred lands

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Highland tribes in Central Mindanao want Malacañang to declare “protected areas” their sacred lands where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the splinter group of Ameril Umbra Kato have established lairs that soldiers overran over the weekend after five days of commando-type offensives. 

The abandoned hideouts of the Kato-led Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) and the MILF’s Camp Omar stand on a 12,000-hectare mountain range, which is a known domain of non-Muslim highland communities.

The area is surrounded by the adjoining Maguindanao towns of Guindulungan, Datu Saudi, Datu Unsay, Shariff Aguak, and South Upi.

In a statement on Monday, timuays (chieftains) of the ethnically related Teduray, Teduray-Dulangan, and Dulangan-Manobo tribes in the adjoining provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat said they want to “freely thrive in peace” in their enclave, where Mount Firis, a centuries-old tribal sanctuary, is located.

Fierce clashes erupted in the surroundings of Mount Firis last week as soldiers drove Kato’s followers away following their weeklong incursions in five Maguindanao towns that started midnight of Aug. 5.

Tedurays have been performing their religious rites atop Mount Firis even before the Spaniards came in the 16th century to spread Christianity and long before Sharif Mohammad Kabunsuan, an Arab-Malay prince from Johore, arrived at the Pab-paiguan area at the Bucana district near the border of what are now Cotabato City and Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao. 

Tedurays have long complained about the presence of Kato’s group and MILF forces in their mountain stronghold.

Teduray tribal leaders, in a statement e-mailed to various media outfits, described as “so harmful” to their tribe and their traditional and religious practices the spate of violent incidents that rocked Mount Firis and its surroundings last week.       

Mount Firis was also a traditional burial site for Teduray chieftains in ancient times, until sacred burial grounds were established in other areas.