1. Wolters reports a near-doubling of registered voters in the first fifteen years of independence, from 4.3 million in 1947 to 8.4 million in 1961 (1984, 143). A graph presented in Carl Lande's classic study of the structure of Philippine politics indicates a threefold increase in votes actually received by congressional candidates (from roughly 2.2 million to 6.5 million) within the same period (1965, 29). This expansion of the electorate in the postwar period (from 22 percent of the population in 1947 to 29 percent in 1959) was not due to a broadening of the criteria for inclusion—the poll tax and wealth requirement for voting were eliminated prior to the war—but apparently to an increase in voter registration in rural areas (Lande 1965; Wolters 1984). [BACK]

2. For a comprehensive survey of immigration to Mindanao from other parts of the Philippines from the Spanish period onward see Wernstedt and Simkins (1965). [BACK]

3. The seven agricultural colonies established by the Americans in Mindanao (six of them in Cotabato) included Muslims as well as Christian settlers. It was thought, in accord with the colonial "Moro Policy" outlined in the previous chapter, that Muslim farmers would learn more advanced methods (of both farming and family life) through imitation of their Christian neighbors (Pelzer 1945).

The agricultural colonies were relatively expensive to administer and had limited success. In 1918, colonial authorities instituted a new program that provided free transportation to selected prospective immigrants. Despite extensive advertising, this program also had disappointing results, primarily due to a shortage of immigrants willing to take up the offer of free land and free transportation (Wernstedt and Simkins 1965; Gowing 1979). One reason for their reluctance was undoubtedly the popular Filipino image of the untamed, bloodthirsty Moro. Advertising directed at prospective Christian homesteaders anticipated this problem by painting a very different picture of the indigenous inhabitants of Mindanao. The following passage (entitled "The Moro") from a brochure circa 1920 advertising immigration to Cotabato illustrates the attempt:

The Moro is first of all a farmer . . . Although entirely ignorant of the great world outside his rancheria he is a reasonable human being . . . Sometimes he evades the orders of the Government but when caught he meekly submits and considers it rather a joke on himself when punished . . . He welcomes the Christian Filipino colonist to his country, extends the hospitality of his home and table, and asks nothing but that his religion and tribal customs be not interfered with. ( Cotabato, Largest and Most Fertile Province in the Philippine Islands: Paradise of the Homeseeker from Over-crowded Luzon and Visayas , Bureau of Insular Affairs Records, file no. 26741 (Post-1914), National Archives)

4. Hukbalahap is an acronym for the Tagalog phrase Hukbo ng Bayan laban sa Hapon, meaning the People's Army to Fight the Japanese. [BACK]

5. The problem of titling already occupied land was aggravated by the acceleration of timber and pasture concessions granted by the Philippine government to corporations and individuals in the late 1960s to increase government revenues. Such leases were granted without apparent regard for the rights of prior inhabitants—usually Muslims or other ethnic minorities (George 1980). [BACK]

6. Both Hunt (1957) and Mastura (1979) note that the descendants of the earliest Christian residents of the city, the families of soldiers and "presiderios" from Zamboanga, still live in Manday, the majority Christian neighborhood that borders Campo Muslim. [BACK]

7. This Muslim-Christian geographic alignment is another instance of the river-versus-road residency pattern found throughout Cotabato. It exists, I imagine, for the same reason found elsewhere: because the indigenous Muslims were the first to occupy the riversides and the immigrant Christians were the first to occupy (or file for legal ownership of) the roadsides. This seems a more plausible explanation than the one often repeated by Christians in the city: that Muslims simply "like to live by water." [BACK]

8. It was reported in 1957 that a large part of the copra production of southern Mindanao and Sulu was being shipped to Borneo and exchanged for contraband goods, with American cigarettes the prime item of exchange (Hartendorp 1961). Trade figures from 1958 released by the Borneo government (Noble 1977, 67) show the Philippines ranking second only to Japan in its absorption of Bornean imports. According to Noble, that percentage was due primarily to the cigarettes and other items that left Borneo legally but entered the Philippines as contraband. [BACK]

9. For an account of the establishment of quality cigarette production in the Philippines and its effect on the smuggling trade see Lewis Gleeck's (1989) The Rise and Fall of Harry Stonehill in the Philippines . [BACK]

10. It was suggested by some that the mayor, who owned a fleet of cargo ships, may also have had a personal interest in the removal of Bird Island. [BACK]

11. In 1967, Mando Sinsuat lost the mayorship to a Christian candidate in a race where he was also opposed by his half-brother, Datu Mama Sinsuat. The combined number of votes of the two Sinsuat brothers was greater than that of the Christian winner of the election. [BACK]

12. The 1952 Cotabato Guidebook remarks of Datu Udtug's early career in his home municipality of Pagalungan that he "was very instrumental in helping the Christian settlers in getting homestead lots even if it was sometimes inimical to the interests of his brother Islams [ sic ]" (Millan 1952, 257). [BACK]

13. Until the mid-1950s, Cotabato and the other majority Muslim provinces of the South were governed as "special provinces" and had their highest officials appointed by the central government in Manila (Gowing 1979, 186). [BACK]

14. A front-page obituary for Datu Udtug in the Mindanao Cross (January 1, 1983) observes that under his governance "law and order was at its best in the province accented by close Christian-Muslim relation [ sic ]. Even in his official set up, his formula was: Muslim governor—Christian vice-governor—2 Christians to I Muslim in the 3-man provincial board." [BACK]

15. The Mindanao Cross obituary of Datu Udtug just cited (January 1, 1983) continues by noting that "Kudin Dataya, his longtime private secretary and later executive secretary, remembers him as top in man-to-man diplomacy. He seldom delivered speeches. He approached people personally." [BACK]

16. Numerous reports of the killing or wounding of members of prominent Muslim families in Cotabato may be found in issues of the Mindanao Cross from the 1950s and 1960s. Datu Adil related his personal involvement in a long, violent feud between his family and the Sinsuats beginning in 1949, in which his father was killed. For a vivid account of a similarly structured armed feud between the Masturas and Sinsuats in 1940, see Horn (1941, 166-68). [BACK]

17. In his analysis of political relations in Central Luzon, Wolters notes that the central state resources flowing to (or through) local officeholders in exchange for their delivery of votes were actually of two types: "The transactions that occurred under these vertical alliances showed a mix of personal and more public aspects: personal in the exchange of votes for private gain such as credit, protection, prevention of audits, renewal of licenses, etc.; more public in the channeling of credit to the network of party followers; and generally public in the bestowal of pork-barrel funds for the whole community, e.g., the building of roads and bridges, the delivery of concrete, the erection of schools." [BACK]

18. Autocratic rule at the local and provincial levels also removed much of the incentive to spend any significant proportion of the pork-barrel funds received for the benefit of the electorate, whose votes were, in most cases, simply appropriated from them. A story often told by ordinary Muslims in 1985 concerned a highway between Cotabato City and Marawi City that, according to official records, had been built three times but still did not exist in fact. [BACK]

19. The political positions of Pendatun and Datu Udtug did occasionally diverge. In the 1963 Cotabato mayor's race, Pendatun supported Datu Mando Sinsuat, the son of Datu Sinsuat, who was the official candidate of Pendatun's political party. Although nominally a member of the same party, Datu Udtug refused to back a Sinsuat—the Sinsuats having always been his political foes—and endorsed Datu Mando's Christian opponent instead. [BACK]

20. Philippine political parties date from the early American period. Only one of those early parties—the Nacionalistas—became a genuinely nationwide

entity. During the Commonwealth period it dominated electoral politics, but after independence in 1946 it was challenged by the Liberalistas, and a two-party political system developed, remaining in place until the declaration of martial law in 1972. In his well-known work on the Philippine two-party system, Lande (1965) finds it to be characterized by the extreme fluidity of party membership and weakness of intraparty solidarity; pronounced ideological similarities (including virtually identical official policies and internal structures) between the two major parties; and the virtual absence of any permanent rank-and-file party membership among the electorate. [BACK]

21. Although Datu Pendatun was also the son of a sultan, he was not identified nearly as strongly with that cultural legacy as was Datu Udtug. One ready example is the very different terms of reference used for the two men. Salipada Pendatun is virtually always referred to as General or Congressman Pendatun, while the term of reference for Udtug Matalam is invariably the traditional one—Datu Udtug. Another indicator is that while I was told a number of stories about the magical powers possessed by Datu Udtug—including the report that he had a sixth finger on the palm of his right hand, which he used to perform marvelous feats—virtually no specific accounts were given of the supernatural abilities of Congressman Pendatun. [BACK]

23. The use of the term "Muslim Filipinos" to denote Philippine Muslim populations was also adopted by a number of scholars of the Muslim Philippines—see, e.g., the titles of the works by Gowing (1979), Gowing and McAmis (1974), and Mastura (1984). By contrast, Cesar Majul's 1973 Muslim nationalist history is conspicuously entitled Muslims in the Philippines . [BACK]

24. Hadji (female: hadja ) is the honorific title given to a Muslim who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca ("Hajj"). I use the English spelling usually seen in contemporary Cotabato. As the Magindanaon language lacks either an initial "h" or a "j" sound, the title was formerly rendered as kagi and that version is still often heard today. [BACK]

25. The observations of Hunt about mosque attendance in Cotabato City in 1953 are relevant: "[O]nly a small percentage of the faithful attend group services with any degree of regularity . . . The worshippers give every evidence of piety, but they cannot comprise more than fifteen percent of the Moros in town at the time. Leading datus do not seem to feel that their position demands regular attendance at public services" ([1958] 1974, 202-3). [BACK]

26. Some of these, such as the "Knights of Mohammad," were clearly self-consciously Muslim versions of Philippine Christian voluntary organizations. [BACK]

27. Datu Adil, who was present at the 1955 MAP conference, recalls that Edward Kuder was one of its principal organizers. [BACK]

28. Datu Blah Sinsuat's introduction to the 1952 Cotabato Guidebook offers a narrative that illustrates some of the points discussed above. In that year, Datu Blah was serving as Cotabato's representative in the lower house of the Philippine Congress. A passage from his introduction demonstrates the manner

in which datu politicians presented themselves to Christians as both advocates for and supervisors of Cotabato Muslims.

I consider now the most opportune time to state that the unselfish Native who welcomed his Christian brother in years past should also receive the gratitude of the people of this province, all of whom are immensely enjoying the great opportunities here, the peace and quite [ sic ] that have been theirs since their coming. The harmonious relationship pervading among the populace of Cotabato is attributable only to the willingness of the Native to offer a little of his share of the natural wealth of his land of birth to his Christian brother so that both may not live in want.

In this single rather extraordinary passage, Congressman Sinsuat manages to reinforce Christian perceptions of Muslim cultural backwardness, to solicit resources to "improve" Muslim communities, and to insinuate that peace may not continue should his suggestions go unheeded. [BACK]