Over these recent years, we have been witness to a gruesome event unprecedented in the history of Sulu: the rape of our women by our own men. In the last five years alone, 25 cases have been recorded in sketchy reports, and perhaps, if we were brave enough to know more, we would have learned of more painful truths. For now we only know that there must be scores of other undocumented cases. The last victim who spoke up, a 17-year old college student, told us that in the house where she was taken to be gang-raped, two other servant girls were kept who told her that her rapists had taken many other girls there, some of whom they shot and dumped dead. In another report, the victim was a 72-year old woman with four teenagers as perpetrators, and in another case, a 12-year old girl.
In our hearts we feel that this is an evil visitation, work of saitan, and we ask ourselves: How could this happen to our beloved homeland? What has become of us that our men could go this low? And what does it say of us, women, that such profanity could be done to us? Finally, what does it say of our government, our local officials and trusted protectors, that they could allow their own sons and brothers to get away from doing this ugly thing to us without penalty? If we let this injustice happen without a fight, what does it say of us as a people?
But as though this were not enough, just very recently, the military and the US forces once again swooped down on us. On December 07, 2010, at two o’ clock in the morning, the Special Action Forces of the PNP, in a joint dragnet operation with US soldiers, woke the entire barangay of Upper Sampunay in Parang, Sulu and dragged each one, young and old, out of their houses and made them kneel and lie face down under the barrels of their guns as they handcuffed each one, man and woman, and didn’t let them stand until nine o’ clock, when they had 37 people taken to a police camp. We know that this kind of military abuse go on in the interior barangays, whether there is an official war declaration against Muslim insurgents in the islands or none, and each time this thing happens, the anger in our bellies grows. We only feel sad that these acts are continually sanctioned by those tasked to govern and look after us.
Another bad news we have to deal with has to do with the oil drillings in our sea, a presage to a more systematic rape of the last of our riches. No less than Exxon Mobil of the world’s most powerful country has sealed a new deal with our leaders. In the offing is a projected yield of 750 million barrels of oil, envisioned by the project’s apologists as the ultimate bringer of progress to the poor islands. Images of wealthy Arabs are now being conjured and peddled even by enlightened Tausug intellectuals, forgetting, it seems, that the US had always been enemy state to the Bangsamoro people until very recently when, guided by our local rulers, US troops started building mosques and madrasahs in the wake of a USAID-led conflict transformation project.
What we must remember is that these same leaders who now want us to give up the last of our sovereign rights to our land are the same collaborators who let big foreign vessels comb our shores of fish and allowed our fishermen to starve; the very same traitors who welcomed fascist forces to decimate the bravest of our mujahideen, burn villages, loot houses, abduct, and kill civilians; the same greedy politicians who abandoned our youth to narcotics and lives of self-destruction just to have a share of the devil’s money.
All this and more, our brothers and sisters, confront us.
In the old days when knights in shining armours took up their weapons that they may protect their kings, women who did not wield the sword, died by the sword. In the countless wars against the Philippine state that our men fought, we Bangsamoro women have always stood by our men. But nowadays when our oppressors are many, some of them right here in our land, it now seems that our collective courage is not enough to guard us from our guardians.
Sisters and fellow believers in the faith, we need not take up the sword this time. We are stronger than that. But we need to know and decide who we are before we can unbind the rope of fears and confusion that ties us. The struggle for justice is a long rough road, and we have only each other to hold on to.
Let’s step forward and be counted!
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