survey

May we ask for a bit of your time to fill up a questionnaire on Elections in Mindanao or the Bangsa Moro society? This is an academic exercise to better understand elections in Mindanao or among the Bangsa Moro.Thank you.Please click: https://forms.gle/TAKWyvz1vTDarM6M9

Marawi: Destroyed by Filipinos, To be rebuilt by the Chinese

Marawi was truly a fantastic strategy for the Philippine government leaders. They got to destroy a city inhabited by people unlike them ( the Other,  i.e., Muslims, not Christians like them) with the blessings of the whole world including the oppressed people's own rebel forces. And after destroying and looting the city, they will get to …

Eid al-Adha is on 10th Dhu’l Hijjah based on local time, not Makkah time.

For several years now, there has been a move to have a Universal Hijri Calendar — one calendar to serve for the whole Ummah. Saudi Arabia wants to be the one to fix the dates of the Universal Calendar. But Turkey, the former Ottoman Empire, also wants to be the center of this calendar. The …

Duterte’s cousins joined ISIS / Maute gang!

FLASHBACK!!! President Duterte admitted, even boasted - on national TV - that his cousins joined ISIS/Maute gang; and he did not have them arrested. And the Mass Media and the public as a whole did not give a damn! Yet the Philippine government bombed and totally destroyed the town proper of Marawi City supposedly to …

Politics is a numbers game

Politics is a numbers game. The propaganda team and supporters of President Duterte keep on repeating that 16.6 million people voted for him for president. But that is NOT even a majority vote. Mr. Duterte got only 39.01% of the electoral votes. MORE people voted AGAINST him. Ex-President Aquino got a much bigger percentage -- …

Bangsa Moro Homeland — the Impossible Dream

Would you negotiate with a pushover? Yes, but only to get even more advantages. The Spaniards only negotiated with the Moro sultanates when they realized they couldn't defeat them. The Americans signed treaties with the Sulu Sultanate when their hands were full with the Philippine revolution in Luzon. Afterwards, they massacred the people of Sulu …

Media coverage of Marawi “Siege”

by Jamal Ashley Abbas A UP Journalism student doing her thesis on the Marawi "Siege" interviewed me on my thoughts about it. (I use quotation marks because I am not sure who the media refers to as those doing the siege and those being besieged.) Weeks after the personal interview, she emailed me additional questions. …

ASEAN silent on the Rape of Marawi

    As expected, the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, as well as world leaders like American President Donald Trump, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang were silent on the just concluded Rape of Marawi as well as the genocide of Rohingyas and the Extrajudicial Killings in Manila and …

Marawi Tragedy is a humanitarian concern – Abbas

FROM: RANAO STAR PHILIPPINES Sultan Abbas told EU officials: "There must be something wrong" on the Peace Process MANILA, October 17 -- Sultan Firdausi Ismail Yahya Abbas, Sultan of Lanao and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Bangsa Mranaw Congress (BMC) met last October 13, 2017 with officials of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium …

…and no one was left to speak

First they came for the Abu Sayyaf;           and I did not speak out because I was not an Abu. Then they came for the allegedly ISIS-linked Maute clan;           and I did not speak out because I was not a Maute. Then they came for the Communists / Leftists;          and I did …