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March 1990, four FPM guerrillas machine-gunned a Moros and colonial administrators (first Spanish and
bus carrying U.S. personnel, injuring eight soldiers. later American) were frequent.
The group has also claimed involvement in an attack In the 1950s and 1960s, the Philippine government
on a Peace Corps office in December 1988 and began to encourage Christians to migrate to the south-
another military bus bombing in February 1989 that ern island of Mindanao, the second largest island of
wounded three soldiers. the Philippines and one of the richest in natural
In February 1990, the Sandinista government in resources. Mindanao’s Muslim inhabitants, however,
Nicaragua was replaced with a U.S.-backed govern- are among the country’s poorest. By the late 1960s,
ment, which demobilized the Contras in June. The on many islands and on parts of Mindanao itself,
FPM now had no possibility of support from the Christians had become the majority population. Many
Nicaraguan government; in addition, the United States Muslims felt that the government—in encouraging the
had begun a gradual withdrawal from the region, and Christian migration—was deliberately attempting to
by the following year the FPM appeared to have dis- push them out of their homes.
banded. However, two bombings in the Honduran The MNLF was founded by Nur Misuari as a
capital of Tegucigalpa in 1992 and 1994 have been Muslim advocacy group in the late 1960s. In 1972,
linked to the group. No one was hurt in either bomb- Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos declared
ing. Both bombs were accompanied by propaganda martial law and attempted to disarm the Muslim pop-
critical of the U.S. and Honduran military presence. ulation. Misuari and the MNLF went to war against
The recent stability in Honduras, coupled with U.S. the government, hoping to establish an independent
disengagement, appears to have substantially lessened Muslim state.
the threat of violence by the FPM. During the early 1970s, the MNLF army was
50,000 strong; the Philippine Army numbered about
Further Reading 60,000. By 1972, Marcos had vastly expanded the
armed forces in response to the secessionist threat,
Childress, Michael T. The Effectiveness of U.S. Training
Efforts in Internal Defense and Development: The Cases committing about 80 percent of the country’s troops to
of El Salvador and Honduras. Santa Monica, CA: Mindanao and the surrounding islands. During those
RAND, 1995. bloody years, tens of thousands of people were killed
Morazanist Patriotic Front Profile. International Policy and the MNLF made substantial territorial gains. In
Institute for Counter-Terrorism. http://www.ict.org.il/. 1976, the rebels and the government signed a Libyan-
“Morazanist Patriotic Front (FPM) Profile” Patterns of brokered truce under which the MNLF would integrate
Global Terrorism. U.S. Department of State, 1994. http:// its forces with the Philippine Army and the Muslim
web.nps.navy.mil/~library/tgp/fpm.htm. provinces would become economically and politically
autonomous but remain part of the Philippines.
Once the agreement was signed, Marcos did noth-
MORO NATIONAL ing to implement it. In 1978, dissatisfaction with the
LIBERATION FRONT accord caused a split within the MNLF; Misuari’s
second-in-command, Hashim Salamat, formed the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Salamat’s
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is a group of 10,000 to 15,000 men was more Islamist in
Muslim separatist group that waged a 24-year guer- outlook. The MILF rejected limited autonomy, holding
rilla war against the Philippine government. out for complete independence. Operating separately,
The MNLF traces it origins to a 400-year conflict the two groups continued attacking government forces
between Muslims and Christians in the Philippines. throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s; neither the
Sixteenth-century Spanish colonizers converted the government nor the rebels was able to gain the upper
majority of the country’s native inhabitants to Chris- hand.
tianity. However, the southern islands of the archipel- In 1986, Marcos, widely regarded as corrupt, was
ago had a large Muslim community (today estimated at overthrown by the Philippine military and presidential
5 percent of the country’s total population) that did not candidate Corazon Aquino, widow of a martyred
convert. The Spaniards called these people “Moros” (as opposition leader. Aquino began negotiations with
in Moor, or Muslim) and they became a despised and the MNLF, and violence decreased briefly. Conflicts
often persecuted minority. Violent clashes between over which provinces would become autonomous soon