This piece is one of the finalists for the I Am Mindanao Essay Writing Contest with the theme ‘Mindanao: My Identity, My Island, My Purpose.
The sun rose behind the Musuan Peak one Sunday morning as my mother and I were on the highway of Maramag. The windshields were open and the cold remnants of the receding dawn breezed through the car window as she narrated what life had been like in this municipality when she was a child.
“I grew up here,” she said, giddy and often breaking in sobs on the driver seat as she reminisced running with her playmates over the lush fields that we now passed on each side. The highway was paved in gray cement, but it traversed between vast green grasses and trees that extended beyond my drowsy eyes could see. Back in Valencia’s garden suite, my sister was savouring the comfort of her pillow and bed for this family vacation where she took a day off from her occupation in a hospital.
As the sunlight’s glare brightened the vicinity, everything seemed to be clear and I could tell why my mother, whose family moved to Cagayan de Oro a few years before she entered into early adolescence, rediscovered her solace and bliss in this place.
The land provided what was needed. Trees bore the sweetest papaya and corn sprouted from the red earth where daisies and wild sunflowers grew.
Along the road, some of the locals hauled baskets filled with various crops and vegetables – cassava, sweet potato, white corn, bound malunggay leaves, a sack of tomatoes and many more which I hadn’t recognized at first glance. Upon the fields, water buffalos grazed while their masters’ backs bent to examine the rice paddies which provide the community the necessary staple food and the means for livelihood.
“We didn’t have to go to the market as everything we needed already grew at our backyard,” my mother shared, slowing down the vehicle’s speed as she pointed to a cluster of houses – some were huts capped by thatched roofs while others had already been renovated into wooden bungalows topped by galvanized steel. “Our neighbors would also share to us what they had grown and harvested, and we’d do the same in return,” she said.
A truck loaded with sugar cane sped past us and I remembered tasting one during the immersion I had with the Talaandig Tribe back in college when we spent two days at Lantapan, within the same province where she spent most of her childhood.
To many, Bukidnon remains their home despite living elsewhere. It is a province that holds memories to everyone who grew up and still reside in the place. But more than the sentiments it relates to its people, it takes pride by its contribution to the country. Its arable fields provide products that are exported throughout the Philippines – pineapple as the leading demand. But the province of Bukidnon, no matter how rich in resources and grand in scenery, only composes a significant part of a bigger whole.
Like my mother, I was born on the island of Mindanao. I may have spent most of my life growing up in the island’s northern region where my mother’s family settled for good in the latter part of the 20th century, and where she met my father who was born and raised in Lanao del Norte (despite both their ancestors coming from the islands in the Visayas before immigrating for economic and familial opportunities into this land of promise), my identity, like my mother’s, is rooted in my home.
Acknowledging the defenders’ legacy
I may be a Filipino by nationality, but I am a Mindanaoan by identity. It takes beyond listening to loved ones talk about their fondest memories to grasp and highlight this reality. More than the products and resources exported from this island and transported to major cities in the Philippines, I take pride in knowing that civilization, culture and heritage in Mindanao had already existed long before the nation was discovered, unified by its colonizers, and freed by its heroes.
When I was in the elementary and high school, history classes mostly involved the noble deeds of heroes in Luzon and the Visayas. I was very much familiar of how Lapu-Lapu repelled the first Spanish expedition, why Jose Rizal chose to take the bullets for the cause of the nation’s freedom instead of fleeing abroad and relishing in the proceeds of his literary and revolutionary magnum opus, and when Emilio Aguinaldo raised and waved the flag which marked the country’s independence.
Possibly unbeknownst to some, however, were heroes in Mindanao who fought for the same cause and won similar legacies for the preservation and freedom of their people. A history class I had in college required a reflection paper about Filipino heroes. When I did my research on the internet, I discovered that Mindanao also had its share of noble martyrs.
Sultan Muhammed Kudarat remained steadfast with his people’s belief and culture when he fought against the early Spanish invaders terrorizing the island back in the 17th Century. His name was honored for a current province in the SOCCSKSARGEN Region with some of its people retaining the tradition and religion dating back before the nation’s colonization. If it weren’t for the brave hearts like Kudarat, Mindanao could not have been as diverse and culturally enriched as it is today.
Never forgotten by a handful in my home in Cagayan de Oro City was Col. Apolinar Velez’s brave leadership for an army of Filipinos who fought against the Americans in the early 20th century where the defenders of the region – in a rare instance during the Filipino-American war – triumphed. The Battle of the Makahambus Hill was a testament to this and though this significant event may have stayed in memory and is recorded in the works of local and national historians, the remains of those who died in the battle are now memorialized beneath the Bonifacio Monument in Plaza Divisoria.
The legacy of these Mindanaoan heroes like Sultan Kudarat and Col. Velez is where pride of the island and its people is magnified. They are the testament that Mindanaoans are among the Filipinos who cannot easily be tampered with – aiming to be victors instead of victims, conquerors rather than colonized. They believed this land and its value are for its original people whose liberty is worth fighting for.
While national heroes have been lauded for their noble deeds throughout the country, those who come from Mindanao deserve the same recognition as their cause remains prevalent today to combat on-going oppression against the island’s marginalized and the present conflict that transpired from cultural stigma.
Combating ensuing conflicts
It cannot be denied that, despite the island’s fertility and abundance, a plague that had claimed countless lives continues to strike; and not as a natural phenomenon.
The on-going conflict – this time no longer waged by colonizers but by the privileged and the oppressed, the military and the insurgents of a nation that had achieved its independence – resulted to farmers receiving bullets instead of rice in Kipadawan last year at the height of a drought, soldiers ambushed in Mamasapo, and journalists hostaged and inhumanely slaughtered in Maguindanao eight years ago.
These tragic incidents are devastating effects of perpetual socio-political issues that involve misconception, misunderstanding and abuse against those who dare to stand against greed and corruption. Extremism, misusing the façade of religion to hide the desire for power, has been on the rise, tearing the island apart and destroying its renown across the globe.
But like the struggles of Sultan Kudarat and Col. Velez, these conflicts can be resolved. This time, however, the shedding of the blood must cease. Mindanao’s soil is fertile, but so should be the hearts of its people. To cultivate empathy so peace can be harvested is one way to end conflict.
During the immersion with the Talaandig community in Lantapan, Bukidnon for my major class back in college, I started to learn about their culture and the sanctity of their home. It has long been their tradition to care for the environment as they are the scions of the original inhabitants of the land, and to understand their situation and hear their perspective about the treatment they receive from those in power are ways to ignite empathy.
This is a challenge for a Development Communication graduate to amplify the stories of the unheard, oppressed, and the abused. For many years in Mindanao, the silencing of marginalized people had provoked extremism to perpetuate, spreading and influencing ideologies built on hatred and based on twisted facts that will force bloody conflicts to tear the island apart.
Communication is one effective way to unite people. This may involve listening to concerns, spreading information based on these by available and efficient tools such as social media, and advocating for the rights of the marginalized and stigmatized. Every Mindanaoan deserves the right to be heard with the innate voice to express.
The locals, and those who consider Mindanao their home, all have their stories to share and it is a responsibility to listen and adhere to them. If conscience guides the action, farmers could acquire the fruits of their labor; soldiers will peacefully return home to their families; and journalists will be lauded for the truth they expose.
Remembering home
The sun was high in the sky this time as the vehicle sped on the highway. We were to go back to where we stayed for this vacation, and to spend the rest of the morning with my sister. We passed by the Musuan Peak, its cone-shaped mound looming above the lush field beside the road.
My mother asked me to take a photo of the view. I did with my phone. “This is the place I will never forget,” she said. “It used to be home.”
“It still is, Ma,” I responded as I caught a glimpse of the sun beyond the vehicle’s windshield, thinking about a new topic to write for a local newspaper which I regularly contribute to.
But as thoughts came in my mind, I realized that the light shines not only for Bukidnon’s morning, but for Mindanao’s day as well.
It’s the same light which its heroes had seen in the past, glaring rays from which the extremists and insurgents cower and hide from, and emanating brightness for fellow Mindanaoans to look forward to every day.
The light continues to shine just as Mindanao has always been the home of its people. It will always be as long as lives, no matter how diverse, are valued as much as this abundant land.
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