38 Years Later, Jabidah Still Haunts a Persecuted People

Thirty-eight years ago, the Marcos military murdered dozens of Moro men in a carnage that sparked the Islamic rebellion in the Philippines. The anguish and the outrage remain to this day.

Related story: The Songs of Jabidah�

By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY � Almost four decades later, the anguish and the thirst for justice remained.

Today, March 18, the country�s Moros commemorate the killing by the Philippine military of 28 Moro men on the island of Corregidor 38 years ago, in a carnage that has come to be known as the Jabidah Massacre.

The men had been trained by the dictator Marcos to take part in his plot, called Operation Merdeka, to invade Sabah, a state on the northern part of Malaysia, just south of the Philippines. According to various accounts, when the men found out about Merdeka, they refused to participate and were promptly slain by the military. Several of the men were not accounted for and are presumed dead.

One man, Jirin Arula, survived the slaughter, however, and went on to expose the massacre, which subsequently fueled the rebellion led by Nur Misuari, founding chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front. To this day, the fire ignited by the massacre still burns, according to Moro leaders.

The massacre, according to the IQRAA Islam Foundation, which held a rally here on Friday to commemorate the incident, “ignited the flame of the Bangsamoro people’s legitimate struggle for their right to self-determination.”
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