The Moros Of Mindanao In Southern Philippines

Datu Utto belonged to the old ruling family of Buayan, the most prestigious in Sa-Raya. According to Saleeby, at some unspecified time in the recent past there had been a split in the Buayan Sultanate after the death of Sultan Maytum. Bayaw, the younger son of Maytum, succeeded to Kudarangan and all the northern half of Buayan, and he was known as the Sultan of Kudarangan. Marajanum, Utto's father, succeeded to the capital itself and all the country lying on the left bank of the Pulangi and Sapakan (Dansalan) rivers, including the vital areas extending to lakes Liguasan and Buluan. 1 The split in the Sultanate accounts for the fact that Utto's power base is usually named Bakat, rather than Buayan, to distinguish it from the original Sultanate's northern half, Kudarangan. The territory directly controlled by Datu Utto was Bakat. This was his district, where his ancestors had resided. But his renown rests mainly on his success in subordinating to himself all the sultans and datus in the upper valley up to Matincauan in the northeast, which was the upper limit of Magindanao settlement, and down to Sarangani bay at the southern tip of Mindanao. Morever, Utto had ties with several Muslim principalities in the vicinity: there were the Illanuns to the northeast and the Sulus (Taosugs) farther beyond. Each of the areas in and out of Magindanao where Utto's influence was felt had a part to play in the waxing and waning of his power. The relationships between these areas will be examined in this chapter.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  The Bangsamoro Organic Law is the Duterte administration's landmark legislative achievement to date.  This law, if effectively implemented, will devolve significant powers to the new Bangsamoro government and could create a real regional autonomous government for Muslim Mindanao.  Previous attempts to create an effectively autonomous regional government in Muslim Mindanao show that the passage into law is the easier part. Effective implementation is the hard and so far unsuccessful part.  The three biggest challenges to address so that history does not repeat itself are: o Resolving local divisions over the Bangsamoro Organic Law in Muslim Mindanao; o Improving state capacity in Muslim Mindanao, and; o Ensuring national government support for the regional autonomous government.

The Rise of the Philippines for the Fall of the Bangsamoro A Critical Essay on "The Bangsamoro Question and the National Democratic Option" by Jun Valila, and "The State-Moro Armed Conflict in the Philippines" Unresolved national question or question of governance? by Rizal Buendia In partial fulfilment of the academic requirements in the subject Readings in Philippine History under Professor Jun Valila Written by Danzig James A. Orcales

Islam was the first cultural trend in the archipelago and Islamic culture had and has a dramatic role in Philippine civilization. Despite being known as the only predominantly Christian country in Asia, the Philippines was similarly the easternmost edge of the classical Islamic world. The contact with the Spaniards and the legacy of al-Andalus will prove an essential element in defining Islamicity in the Philippines. Nowadays, modernity has triggered a conundrum of identity for Muslims in the Philippines. From armed conflict to new conversions, Filipino Muslims have struggled to define a coherent history in the context of Asia. This book is an attempt to analyze in a broad sense the capital elements towards an Islamic identity in the Philippine islands, in order to have a synopsis that can reconcile Philippine Islam within the history of Islamic civilization.

In this review of James Francis Warren’s Iranun and Balangingi: Globalization, Maritime Raiding and the Birth of Ethnicity, I will argue that Warren was able to vindicate the Iranun and Balangingi from the “savage myth” appended to their name by showing in rich detail how they are victims of the ironies of their time.

This research explores a concept of flourishing and its implications for social development among ethnic Yakan, people indigenous to Basilan Island, Mindanao, Philippines who have adapted their lives to the ebb and flow of conflicts and disadvantages. Undergirded by gross domestic product and problem solving as a primary means of development, traditional development is incongruent with local ideals of a good life. The research was done using multi-methods of qualitative and quantitative approaches using focus group discussions, nominal group techniques, key informant interviews, and survey.  A rights based capabilities framework as well as crosscutting themes were developed and used to pose social development policy and practice suggestions.

This study examines the various historiographical trends that have shaped the intellectual and political integration of Filipino Muslims into a developing national narrative over the past century in the Philippines. By exploring notions of religious, cultural, and national identities, this piece highlights the various intersections and points of contention that frame a negotiated exchange between majority and minority populations in the Philippines. Questions of cultural and national authenticity, imperial conquest, and post-colonial economic and bureaucratic modernity create widely differing visions of a sharply contested “Filipino nation.” These essential questions form the foundations of a meaningful inter-ethnic/religious dialogue among the various participants of the “Moro Integration Conflict.”

For a long time, one of my dreams was to describe the nature of uncertainty axiomatically, and it looks like I've finally done it in my co∼eventum mechanics! Now it remains for me to explain to everyone the co∼eventum mechanics in the most approachable way. This is what I'm trying to do in this work. The co∼eventum mechanics is another name for the co∼event theory, i.e., for the theory of experience and chance which I axiomatized in 2016 [1, 2]. In my opinion, this name best reflects the co∼event-based idea of the new dual theory of uncertainty, which combines the probability theory as a theory of chance, with its dual half, the believability theory as a theory of experience. In addition, I like this new name indicates a direct connection between the co∼event theory and quantum mechanics, which is intended for the physical explanation and description of the conict between quantum observers and quantum observations [4]. Since my theory of uncertainty satises the Kolmogorov axioms of probability theory, to explain this co∼eventum mechanics I will use a way analogous to the already tested one, which explains the theory of probability as a theory of chance describing the results of a random experiment. The simplest example of a random experiment in probability theory is the " tossing a coin ". Therefore, I decided to use this the simplest random experiment itself, as well as the two its analogies: the " "flipping a coin " and the " spinning a coin " to explain the co∼eventum mechanics, which describes the results of a combined experienced random experiment. I would like to resort to the usual for the probability theory " coin-based " analogy to explain (and first of all for myself) the logic of the co∼eventum mechanics as a logic of experience and chance. Of course, this analogy one may seem strange if not crazy. But I did not come up with a better way of tying the explanations of the logic of the co∼eventum mechanics to the coin-based explanations that are commonly used in probability theory to explain at least for myself the logic of the chance through a simple visual " coin-based " model that clarifies what occurs as a result of a combined experienced random experiment in which the experience of observer faces the chance of observation. I hope this analogy can be useful not only for me in understanding the co∼eventum mechanics.

"Saya melihat dengan girang sudah ada usaha-usaha yang diarahkan untuk menuju kepada penulisan sejarah Aceh yang sebenarnya. Beberapa buku yang keluar pada waktu akhir-akhir ini sudah memperlihatkan kegiatan yang selayaknya harus mendapat pujian dan sambutan, baik yang merupakan buah tangan dari putera-putera Aceh sendiri, maupun oleh saudara-saudaranya dari daerah luar Aceh, yang saya hargakan tinggi."

– Penulis (Prof. Dr. Aboebakar Aceh)

""The first attributed attack by the Abu Sayyaf Group, an Islamic terrorist group operating in the southern Philippines, was a grenade assault at a concert hosted by the crew of the MV Doulos in August 1991. This attack on Christian NGO workers, killing 2 women and injuring 36 others, represented the debut of an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist movement that was later responsible for over 100 violent incidents and which became one of the primary targets for the US 'War on Terror' incursion Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines. This talk presents a first-hand account of the speaker's experience of the event and an examination of how such terrorist attacks are remembered, both at the time and (often misremembered) in the  historical narrative of Abu Sayyaf and political violence in Southeast Asia.

Presented at a student seminar for the CENTRE FOR GLOBAL SECURITY AND GOVERNANCE at the University of Aberdeen."

THIS IS THE RAW SCRIPT USED FOR PRESENTING THIS TALK. IT IS NOT INTENDED FOR PUBLICATION AND CONTAINS NO REFERENCES OR SOURCES.

Muslim armed resistance against the Philippine state has deep historical roots. The conflict has been fought over two competing rights: the right to self-determination and the right of the sovereign state. In spite of several attempts to address the conflict politically, dialogue has not proved very fruitful for more than five decades. The Muslim secessionists, who prefer to be called Moros, 1 believe that they have never been part of the Philippines and their current struggle is a continuation of their ancestors' war for independence, first launched against Spanish and American rule, and presently under the post-colonial " Filipino-run Philippine state. " On the other side, the state contends that " independence " could be substantially resolved through the country's constitutional provisions on political autonomy and self-governance. This chapter examines two competing perspectives in nation-state building espoused by the Muslim minorities and Philippine state. It traces the historical antecedents and consequences of Moro-state conflict, the vicissitudes in the conceptual creation of the Bangsa Moro (Moro Nation) and Bangsamoro 2 identity and consciousness, and the contentious process in resolving the age-old conflict and re-establishing a Moro homeland. It concludes that the armed conflict between the Moros and the state is a contestation for a more responsive, relevant, and democratic space where expansive and interactive governance can function and thrive for the Muslims and non-Muslims alike reflective of their respective political, social, and cultural domains.

A discussion paper using Erik Erikson's Ego Psychology and Karen Horney's  Psychoanalytic Social Theory in describing the personality of Jaafar, a character from Ibrahim Jubaira's 1941 work, Blue Blood of the Big Astana. For the partial fulfillment of requirements of Psychology 150 - Personality, under Asst. Prof. Marie Rose Morales, MA of the Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, UP Diliman.

In un mondo globalizzato come quello odierno dove l'informazione è al centro della vita quotidiana, risultano comunque numerosi i fatti storici e di attualità trascurati dalla stampa internazionale e dai principali organi di informazione. E, come spesso è accaduto nella storia dell'uomo, a farne le spese e a non essere ricordate sono proprio quelle minoranze di persone che per un motivo o per un altro sono state sopraffatte dall’élite politica al potere e non tutelati dalla maggioranza etnica residente nell’area geografica limitrofa.

The American occupation of the Philippines began in war against Spain but quickly became one of the United States’ most overt and then most forgotten experiments in colonial rule outside the Western Hemisphere. This paper illustrates the importance of religious arguments as justifications for actions taken by various parties during the Philippine-American War, highlighting especially how Spanish and American attitudes differed in religious preference but shared the same basis in pre-Enlightenment views on civilization. Operating on the basis that even the islands’ Catholic majority was insufficiently Christian, some Americans like McKinley and Taft portrayed the occupation as both a mission of “uplift” and a stepping stone to greater Protestant presence in mainland China. Filipino revolutionaries held much more diverse views reflecting their vastly different backgrounds, including European-educated ilustrados; syncretic and animist practitioners throughout the islands; breakaway sects like the Iglesia Filipina Independiente; and Muslim-majority polities in Mindanao and Sulu.

Within the order of the Augustinian Recollects, one of the most prominent figures was a Portuguese cleric named Fr. Agustin de San Pedro (1599-1660). Dubbed "El Padre Capitan," he spent more than half of his life in this far-flung Spanish colony. Aside from being a priest, he had an engineering background. He served the people of Romblon in Central Philippines in his dual career as a spiritual leader and military figure. Besides countering Moro raids, he built structures, such as a local church and fortresses, which stand until today.

This paper seeks to highlight two major points: (1) the Recollect missions put the peripheral province of Romblon in the map of Philippine colonial history under Spain, and (2) Fr. Agustin de San Pedro deserves recognition and a distinct place in the annals of Romblon.

Keywords: El Padre Capitan, Augustinian Recollects, Moro Wars, Sto. Nino, Romblon

(MODERN AMBIVALENCES: WAR, COMMERCE, AND PIRACY IN THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINES AND THE NEIGHBORING SULTANATES AT THE END OF THE 18th CENTURY) // Eberhard Crailsheim, “Ambivalencias modernas. Guerra, comercio y ‘piratería’ en las relaciones entre Filipinas y los sultanatos colindantes a finales del siglo XVIII,” in: María Dolores Elizalde and Xavier Huetz de Lemps (eds.), Anhelos de cambio. Reformas y modernisación en las Filipinas del siglo XIX (Madrid, Polifemo, 2021) (ISBN: 9788416335756), pp. 513–542.

“Missionaries and Commanders: The Jesuits in Mindanao, 1718-68,” in Journal of Jesuit Studies 9 (2022) (https://brill.com/view/journals/jjs/9/2/article-p207_207.xml, open access) (ISSN: 2214-1324) (SJR2020: 0.100), 207-228. // ABSTRACT: In the Philippines, at the fringes of the Spanish empire, the Society of Jesus took on a difficult task, the mission and pastoral work on the Island of Mindanao, which was ruled mostly by Muslim polities. In the frontier zone between Spanish and Islamic spheres of influence, Jesuit missionaries, in symbiosis with Spanish and native Christian troops, tried to expand their zone of influence and force Islam back. Thereby, the priests participated actively in defensive and offensive military tasks. This article gives an overview of the Jesuits' presence in the south of the Philippines and then, by studying printed Jesuit sources, analyzes the image cultivation of the local members of the order. Putting the topic in the context of the anti-Jesuit discussion in Europe, the article reasons that the communication strategy of the Jesuits in the middle of the eighteenth century was particularly aimed at highlighting the usefulness of the missionaries to the colony and the empire in general.

The Mindanao Settler: few collective identities are as complicated and yet as poorly introspected upon and discussed. Marginalized in the National narrative while paradoxically also guilty of sociocultural oppression in the land of our birth, the Settler's condition is at once archetypal of the problematique of the Filipino identity and uniquely positioned in the turbulent discourse of Mindanao.

This essay seeks to look into the complications of Mindanao discourse, and see where a positive Settler identity can be asserted.

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo principal explicar la historia del islam en el archipiélago filipino desde las propias coordenadas islámicas y dentro del fenómeno de la expansión islámica en el mundo. En tal sentido, se realiza un análisis de la ruta comercial de China y la historia del océano Índico, elementos capitales en la posterior islamización del sudeste asiático. Se estudian las diferentes claves que permitieron a población malaya adoptar el sultanato islámico como estructura política, y cómo población del archipiélago filipino fue islamizándose para constituir el extremo oriental del islam. Como lugar de frontera ―más aún después de la llegada de la población heredera de la cultura andalusí, y donde todavía vivían los moriscos―, el islam filipino será de una sorprendente originalidad. Nuestro propósito es por tanto estudiar los valores y elementos que hacen única esta realidad islámica, y dignificar su posición dentro de una identidad filipina que debe construir su modernidad atendiendo a los rasgos singulares de su historia, historia que le hizo ser uno de los extremos en el encuentro de las civilizaciones universales, siendo el otro extremo la península Ibérica.

The continuing struggle of the Moro secessionist movement in the Philippines is one of Southeast Asia's longest armed conflicts. The tenacity of the conflict lies in two competing concerns: the assertion of self-determination rights of the Moro separatist movement; and the affirmation of the Philippines' sovereign right to territorial integrity. However, beneath these rights are crucial issues that remain unanswered both by the contending forces—problems where internecine violence and conflict emanate from. This article argues that self-determination rights can be adequately exercised by people who have clearly defined their national identity and concept of a nation. Unfortunately, the Moro multi-ethnic national identity has yet to be crystallised while the idea of a Bangsamoro (Bangsa Nation) remains weak. On the other hand, the state has yet to address the Moros' legitimate demands of political autonomy, socioeconomic development, and social justice and discrimination. Without underestimating the ethnic component of secessionism, the article concludes that poor governance has prolonged, complicated, and further justified the Moros' quest to secede from the Republic.

In this brief philosophical exposé, I will narrate the events as well as my personal and ecospiritual reflections pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic which began in Wuhan, China sometime in November 2019 and have spread sporadically across countries and continents wreaking havoc medically, politically, and individually, as it claimed more than three hundred thousand lives and had virally infected more than four million of the global population. This phenomenon had led us to confront inevitable eschatological questions: Is this a sign of the end times? Will this efface the vulnerable human race? Will this disrupt the global economy as capitalism had collapsed worldwide? Do these events signal a new political era, perhaps the dawn of socialism and communism, as countries worldwide are led to confront its own deficiencies and inadequacies? Which social and political systems and worldviews are efficient particularly in this age of globalization? What are our chances for human survival? These apocalyptic questions had led me to my reflections on Enrique Dussel’s philosophy of liberation, particularly on his concept of Christian ethics and the moral theology of liberation. In so doing, the paper incorporates a holistic outlook on the pandemic trying to look at the bigger picture in a global scale and considers an all-inclusive interpretation on the pandemic that ranges from the environmental, civic, cultural, political, and socioeconomic concerns. I shall try to sew and patch the pieces together into a much wider, integrated, and comprehensive outlook that includes both the global and the peripheral human experiences.

ABSTRACT:
The contemporary liberation movements in Mindanao have sprung up since the independence of the Philippines in 1945. These liberation movements were formed as a direct consequence to the brutal policies, such as the Jabidah Massacre and the ILAGA-related massacres, perpetuated by the military forces and government-backed vigilante groups. The research has been undertaken with the objective of exploring various factors that sustain the long struggle of the Bangsamoro people for self-determination. Through numerous sources and surveys, it was found that Islam has been the thrusting force behind the liberation movements in Mindanao. The Bangsamoro people in general support any movement that epitomizes Islam in its cause. The researcher employs qualitative and quantitative approaches in the study. Historical-analytical method is also used for the brief and concise background of the study. Data for this research are collected both from primary and secondary sources such as books, articles, journals, newspapers, government reports, non-governmental organization’s reports, policy statements, press releases, signed-agreements, and feedback from the questionnaires carried out by the researcher.

The report by Nava Nuraniyah and the IPAC team shows how Salafism, the ultrapuritan stream of Islam, has been making major inroads in the new autonomous region known as BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. This could lead to greater social conservatism, affecting education, the role of women and minority rights.

The paper looks at four pro-ISIS groups in the Philippines --  Abu Sayyaf-Basilan; AKP; the Maute group; and BIFF -- and their links, historical and current, to Indonesia and Malaysia. It then looks at what setbacks for ISIS in the Middle East might mean for extremist violence in SE Asia.

Eberhard Crailsheim, "Trading with the Enemy. Commerce between Spaniards and ‘Moros’ in the Early Modern Philippines," Vegueta: Anuario de la Facultad de Geografía e Historia 20 (2020) (eISSN: 2341-1112), pp. 81-111.

Dossier: Conexiones filipinas: La afluencia de rutas marítimas en torno a un Archipiélago (siglos XVI-XVIII) / Special edition: Philippine Connections: The Abundance of Maritime Routes Around an Archipelago (16th–18th Centuries), edited by Guadalupe Pinzón Ríos, Eberhard Crailsheim, María Baudot Monroy.

This is a short story that I taught this past semester, Spring 2017, from the late Professor Jeff Hadler's class and syllabus on Southeast Asian History. I don't know how else to share this short story online, for the voices of Muslim writers from Southern Philippines to be heard, so I am posting it here temporarily until I figure out how to share this another way for those who may be interested.

In this brief philosophical exposé, I will narrate the events as well as my personal and ecospiritual reflections pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic which began in Wuhan, China sometime in November 2019 and have spread sporadically across countries and continents wreaking havoc medically, politically, and individually, as it claimed more than three hundred thousand lives and had virally infected more than four million of the global population. This phenomenon had led us to confront inevitable eschatological questions: Is this a sign of the end times? Will this efface the vulnerable human race? Will this disrupt the global economy as capitalism had collapsed worldwide? Do these events signal a new political era, perhaps the dawn of socialism and communism, as countries worldwide are led to confront its own deficiencies and inadequacies? Which social and political systems and worldviews are efficient particularly in this age of globalization? What are our chances for human survival? These apocalyptic questions had led me to my reflections on Enrique Dussel’s philosophy of liberation, particularly on his concept of Christian ethics and the moral theology of liberation. In so doing, the paper incorporates a holistic outlook on the pandemic trying to look at the bigger picture in a global scale and considers an all-inclusive interpretation on the pandemic that ranges from the environmental, civic, cultural, political, and socioeconomic concerns. I shall try to sew and patch the pieces together into a much wider, integrated, and comprehensive outlook that includes both the global and the peripheral human experiences.

“Negotiating Peace and Faith. Jesuit Mediators in the Inter-Polity Relations between Christians and Muslims in the 17th-Century Philippines,” in: Philippiniana Sacra 66.168 (May-August, 2021) (https://philsacra.ust.edu.ph/, open access) (ISSN: 0115-9577), pp. 375-408. // ABSTRACT: In the overlay of Muslim and Christian geopolitical interest zones in the early modern Philippines, the missionaries of the Society of Jesus got to play a unique role as cultural intermediaries. This article analyzes some outstanding episodes of Jesuit diplomatic activities between the Spanish colonial government and the rulers on the islands of Mindanao and Jolo. In the setting of the Southeast Asian world, Spain found itself in a hostile environment in which the Muslim polities were a permanent factor. Slave raiders from both islands threatened the coastal villages of the Spanish Visayas, while on the other hand, Spanish imperial plans compromised the sovereignty of the sultans. By investigating Jesuit chronicles and additional contemporary sources, this study focuses on the Spanish side of this relation. It will contextualize the role of the Jesuits as ambassadors and, at the same time, as promoters of their own missionary interests. Thereby, it will assess the geostrategic considerations of the Jesuit order and their similarities with and differences from those of the colonial government in Manila. This article argues that in spite of a general overlap of interests, discrepancies existed and increased over the years, eventually effecting the outcome of negotiations.

The latest report by the IPAC team examines the Jolo bombing and what it shows us about the state of leadership, capacity and organisation of the pro-ISIS elements that took over Marawi. It also explores the issue of foreign fighters in Mindanao. It argues that the most important counter-terrorism measure the government and donors can take is to ensure the success of the new autonomous region, BARMM.

Qur’an manuscripts from Mindanao in U.S. Collections & Islamic manuscripts from the Philippines in U.S. collections: a preliminary listing, including two printed Qur’ans, both published in the web journal: Our own voice, April 2011: http://www.oovrag.com/essays/essay2011a-1.shtml

El kulintang y su orquesta forman la música más singular de las sociedades musulmanas
del sur del archipiélago Filipino. En este trabajo se estudia el significado social de la
música de kulintang, sus raíces preislámicas y sus roles en una sociedad islámica, desde las
descripciones históricas del siglo XVI hasta la actualidad. La finalidad es establecer la realidad
social de la música de kulintang históricamente y su posición actual en una sociedad filipina
que se enfrenta a un mundo global con fragilidad en su conciencia identitaria.

Kulintang and its ensembles represent the most unique music of the Muslim communities in the
Southern Philippines. This study examines the social significance of kulintang music, its pre-Islamic
roots and its roles in an Islamic society, from the historical descriptions dating back to sixteenth
century to the present. The article’s objective is to establish the social reality of kulintang music in
history and its present position in a Philippine society facing a global world with a fragile awareness
of identity.

The foreign aid, assistance and investment in Mindanao are gaining headways towards the quest to achieve a just and sustainable peace and development in southern Philippines. Noticeably, the common denominator among these foreign interventions is the burning desire to reduce poverty and support the national government's efforts to sustain peace and development in Mindanao.
Remarkably, the Official Development Assistance (ODA) programs and projects come in various forms from absolute loans, soft loans, tied and untied loans, grants and mixed credit intended to strengthen Mindanao's drive towards socio-economic development and poverty alleviation by meeting the island's infrastructure requirements and ensuring effective governance continue to pour in from various foreign donor communities.
As a matter of fact, by the end of 2001, the total ODA to the Philippines had reached to US$13.2 billion of which US$904.94 million, representing 6.9 percent of the pledges, went directly to Mindanao projects. (NEDA 2002 Report)
At one hand, based on the latest 2002 report from the National Economic and Development Authority - Public Investment Staff (NEDA-PIS), the total estimated value of ODA commitments and pipeline projects in Mindanao reached to US$261.2M and US$816.7M, respectively. These are project which are already for implementation in due time.
The primordial focus of the ODA programs and projects, in one way or the other, is to improve the socio-economic condition of Mindanao by addressing various problems such as poverty, peace and order, infrastructure, education, health, potable water, electrification, governance, livelihood and rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Roughly, indeed, the problems confronted by Mindanao can be answered through a two-pronged approach: relief and rehabilitation. Relief is the effort to immediately address the needs of people affected by the unrest and the "on and off" armed confrontation. Rehabilitation, on the other hand, connotes a long-term approach to the multi-faceted problems that beset the southern Philippines regions.
According to the 2002 report of the Mindanao Economic Development Council MEDCO), the Government of Japan (GOJ) is the largest source of assistance through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The GOJ contributed an estimated amount of US$1.17 billion for Mindanao. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) adds up the island's ODA investments by US$759.56 million while World Bank, in its continuing efforts towards poverty reduction and rural development also contributed a total amount of US$617.7 million. Other bilateral and multilateral donors include governments of Spain (US$50.2M), Italy (US$43M), Korea (US$35.7M), Kuwait (US$19.8M), among others.
The multifaceted official development assistance is significantly boosting the stride to achieve the long yearning for peace and development initiatives in Mindanao - an island beset with equally multifarious socio-economic and political mishaps.