Revisiting the Bangsamoro Struggle: Contested Identities and Elusive Peace

Abstract

This article revisits the issue of the quest for the “Bangsamoro” since its first articulations in the 1960s. It examines the dynamics of identity in the history of this struggle and how these dynamics have shaped the Muslim separatist movements in the Philippines. Given the diverging trajectories of “Moro” groups that took up the “Bangsamoro” struggle and the contemporary developments that have since unfolded over the years, the paper argues that the issue of identity is a tenuous factor undergirding the fight for a “Bangsamoro” homeland. It is tenuous for many reasons: one of these is the construction of a “Moro” identity, which has come to mean different things to the many multi-ethnic and multi-lingual groups. The other is divisive history of the various ethnic groups who have wanted to be part of the envisioned separate state called the “Bangsamoro.”

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