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National Geographic : 1977 Mar
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Far to the south of the forest, at the south western tip of Mindanao, lies a city whose name for me has always been pure magic Zamboanga. Those fluid syllables have a cer tain roll on the tongue-they suggest a place exotic and sensuous, and they also seem to suggest something vaguely sinister in the hot, moist air. When I reached the city, I found it lived up to all those expectations. Brightly painted tricycles-taxi motorcycles with sidecars buzzed around the flower-bordered streets like bees. In the harbor lay the great out rigger fishing boats called basnigs-high prowed, high-sterned, painted blue and gold and red and violet. Down at the wharf, barter boats were arriving from the ports of Borneo with batiks from Indonesia, beaded purses from Singapore, and fine soaps from England. Along the waterfront the Bajaus, itinerant sea gypsies, bobbed in their dugouts, hawking shells and coral in raucous voices.* And that sinister aura was there too, for since 1973 Zamboanga has been in the middle of a bloody rebellion. While most Filipinos are Christians, about two million of the people of Mindanao and the islands of the Sulu Sea are Muslims. These are the famous Moros, a proud and deter mined people whose long history is a chroni cle of piracy, smuggling, and ferocious war fare. For years they have been restive over the encroachment into their territory of land hungry immigrants from Luzon and the Visayas. Their anger flared again in 1973 when the government attempted to confiscate their guns-to which Moro men are extremely at tached. Rebels vowed that they would estab lish Mindanao and the Sulu islands as an independent Muslim nation. Since that time, from mountain redoubts, these Moros have waged a fierce guerrilla campaign against government troops. Muslims Respond to Fairer Treatment At the time of my visit the government was conciliatory, trying to convince the guerrillas to "return to the folds of the law" by offering them amnesty plus promises of jobs, scholar ships, and small-business loans. Thousands had responded to the government program, yet sporadic attacks and ambushes still oc curred. Travel by foreigners was restricted, and it was with difficulty that I wangled per mission to visit the island of Basilan, where the government was holding a peace rally. Two and a half hours from Zamboanga by ferry, Basilan is a big, rugged island, rich in coconut and timber. In the city of Isabela I rode by tricycle to the outdoor auditorium where the rally was taking place. Delegations of Muslims had come from *See "Sea Gypsies of the Philippines," by Anne de Henning Singh, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, May 1976. Warm rains hush the midday bustle of a marketplace in Cebu, the oldest and third largest city in the Philippines. It was here, in the heart of the archipelago, that the Spanish gained their first Christian converts and in 1565 established sovereignty. 387
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