The election-related Maguindanao Massacre which involves family members of the Mangudadatu clan, their supporters and media men defies words of description. The monstrosity of the crime reportedly committed by a political warlord intimately allied with the regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has generated shockwaves even beyond the borders of the Philippine nation-state.

But while some observers merely relegate the cause behind this utterly heinous criminal act to the political rido (feud) between two rival Moro political families in Maguindanao, the implications of this dastardly deed have gone beyond this perception. The reported rape, mutilation and murder of women - many of whom were Muslims - have overshadowed the partisan political reason cited as the cause of the massacre. Here values-driven tradition, as well as Moro religious and cultural norms, had been brazenly violated by people who are Moros and who call themselves Muslims. For no Muslim would dare harm women, and Muslim women at that, let alone rape and mutilate them unless the perpetrators are really criminally insane, which is what the criminals (such as those Serbian barbarians in Bosnia) who masterminded and committed these despicable acts appear to be.

In Ranaw, some recent cases of rape and murder did occur. But the perpetrators without exception were under the influence of illegal drugs; or, in rare cases, driven by insanity. In most cases, the criminals were executed by members of the community or the relatives of the victims.

James Warren, in the documented accounts of the Moro wars against Spain in his book ‘Iranun and Bangingi’, took special note of the fact that Moro Iranun warriors who raided the Spanish-controlled areas of Luzon and the Visayas never harmed their Filipino Christian female captives. In very rare cases when female captives were molested by Moro Iranun and Bangingi warriors, the miscreants were invariably meted the death penalty by their leaders.

Why this should happen in the Maguindanao Massacre in a modern setting is a sort of aberration that one has to look into deeply.  Political rido is the culprit according to non-Muslim and non-Moro public perception.  However, there is more to what meets the eye.

Warlordism in Mindanao and Sulu is a residue of feudalism. It existed in the Bangsamoro homeland. But with the ideological entrenchment of Islam, it was gradually withering away. Until, however, Philippine colonialism found it to be a useful instrument of repression against the Moro liberation movement. Thus, it was given a new lease on life by Filipino rulers. Warlordism has since become a necessary component of the strategic Philippine anti-insurgency project that was given impetus by the Marcos dictatorship and has been carried on by successive Filipino regimes.  In the present context, though, warlordism has undergone a new facelift through the facade of electoral democracy; hence, it has morphed into political warlordism. And this is what exists now in the Bangsamoro homeland.

As a Philippine colony, the colonial governance of the Bangsamoro homeland is subject to the caprices of political patronage. The so-called ARMM is an example. Moros who have passed the litmus test of loyalty to the sitting regime in Manila are groomed to be surrogates of the occupants of Malacañang. They serve as implementers of colonial policies, defenders of the sitting regime, and their private armies (which they are allowed to organize) act as paramilitary auxiliaries of the AFP in the colonial wars against the Moro mujahideen revolutionaries of the MILF and before this, the MNLF.

In return for this subservience, their shenanigans, including corruption, are tolerated. They wield unbridled political power and given the freedom of impunity, which my senior brother in the MILF Peace Panel, Atty. Michael Mastura, aptly calls the “culture of impunity”. They can carve out small fiefdoms for their family members, establish dynasties, and even name new municipalities or towns after themselves. They can amass wealth and squander public money for their extravagant way of life. No questions are asked. Their involvement in crimes such as the illegal drug trade is also ignored.

In recent times, their utility to their political patrons in Manila has found added usefulness by delivering ghost votes during elections. It is a public knowledge that ARMM provides the ‘swing votes’ that could catapult a candidate to the highest government office in the Philippine nation-state. This is the reason why Filipino presidential and vice-presidential or even senatorial wannabes are enamored with the top warlord that could accomplish this feat.

Nevertheless, what is worse is that these political warlords can get away with murdering innocent people and even flaunt their evil deeds in public to terrorize the masses. The Maguindanao Massacre says it all.

Warlordism, or aptly political warlordism, is a scourge, an evil that has to be extirpated. It has no place in any civilized society let alone an Islamic one. But to accomplish that needs an overhaul – nay, an end - to the colonial relationship that prevails between the Bangsamoro nation and the Philippine state.

The systemic evil that Philippine colonialism has entrenched has to go first. Only then can we seal the fate of warlordism for good and prevent another Maguindanao Massacre from happening elsewhere in the Bangsamoro homeland.

-end-