Pagpati'ut - Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

security and development context to galvanize support for their respective
political agenda. Hence, groups like the MNLF and the ASG continue to
operate and have proven to be resilient in Sulu.
At the risk of sounding simplistic, but the formula that seems to be
emerging is simple -- for as long as the armed hostilities among clans
continue, state and social institutions will have limited capacity to provide
services and opportunities in the affected communities. The net effect
of underdevelopment and insecurity is that communities become the
breeding ground for radicalized dissent, which politicized groups use to
recruit members and galvanize support for their cause. Using this formula,
it becomes easier to identify the players who would want to preserve the
It is therefore delicate and complicated to label the nature and character of
process. Technically, most of the ingredients considered in the peace
generations, and holding back the progress of the province for decades.
Only two crucial elements are missing – one, most of the groups are
disparate, and are not operating under one command; and two, in most
determination, but the self-motivated agenda of warring families.
P R E S E N T A T I O N & A N A L Y S I S O F F I N D I N G S
resources and political power. But the heart of it begins with control over
land.
Note the ‘nuancing’ over the terminologies ‘control’ and ‘ownership’
when discussing land disputes. Moros have always valued communal/
clan ownership versus individual ownership of land. It was the colonial
government, and later on the Philippine state, that instituted and imposed
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