Rep. Mujiv Hataman of AMIN Party List and Rep. Faysah RPM Dumarpa of Lanao del Sur had filed two different bills on anti-Discrimination. Their bills are now being consolidated into one.
This consolidated bill is now on the process of being formulated and framed. We would like to hear your views about this bill and help contirbute to its construction by making your comments on its draft posted here.
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Jabidah Massacre truth remains elusive 40 years after By BEN R. ROSARIO
CORREGIDOR ISLAND — The truth behind the Jabidah Massacre that occurred 40 years ago has continued to elude the country’s Islamic leaders who believed that the bloodbath triggered Muslim secessionist rebellion in Mindanao.
On Tuesday, 40 years after the massacre of 34 young Muslim men who trained to become soldiers, Anak Mindanao party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman sought a closure to the investigation to determine what really happened on March 18, 1968.
Hataman said the House of Representivates and Senate that initiated separate investigations into the incident that also stirred RP-Malaysia diplomatic relations failed to ferret out the truth into the carnage that was allegedly perpetrated by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Jiben Arula, the lone survivor of the massacre, said he no longer wants another investigation that might open a new round of controversies.
Arula resurfaced to attend the ceremonies commemorating the bloodbath that occurred at the Kindley airstrip here.
Recounting his ordeal and showing reporters the scar of a bullet wound he sustained in his escape, Arula appeared not convinced that the truth will ever come out.
He said even the actual number of dead Muslims who were trained for "Operation: Merdeka," an alleged Philippine military plot to forcibly take over the contested Sabah territory, could not be ascertained.
Arula, Hataman, and other Muslim leaders led over 200 Filipinos in commemorating the martyrdom of Jabidah (beautiful lady) victims.
Among those present in the event were representatives from the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Mindanao Youth Caravan for Peace, and the Mindanao People’s Caucus.
Hataman urged government to take immediate steps in considering the approval of various peace proposals that have been presented in negotiating tables attended by the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Remembering the Jabidah massacre By Sammy Martin, Correspondent Wednesday, March 19, 2008
DURING Tuesday’s commemoration of the infamous Jabidah massacre in Corregidor Island, the only survivor of the carnage recounts how he barely survived to tell the world about the atrocity, which helped spark the Muslim rebellion in Mindanao.
“If I didn’t swim after I fell into the 40-foot ravine, I would be dead by now,” Jibin Arula, the lone survivor of the massacre, said in Filipino.
The number of young Muslim soldier-trainees who were killed in the carnage, which took place 40 years ago varies, ranging to over 100 to less than 70.
Arula told reporters that he saw his fellow Muslims being gunned down, which prompted him to scamper for safety. Soldiers indiscriminately fired at him when they saw him, but missed. Luckily, Arula was able to swim to sea, and after more than four hours, a passing fisherman saw him and brought him somewhere in Cavite.
He was brought to then Governor Justiniano Montano of Cavite, to whom he narrated his ordeal. The local chief believed his story and decided to bring him to a remote area to fully recover.
But Martial Law was about to be declared and Montano advised him to look for another place to hide, preferably in the Visayas, and to seek a new life.
Arula claimed that it was their training officers who handed the orders to eliminate them after Oplan Merdeka was exposed. Marcos denied the existence of Oplan Merdeka, an intricate plan to invade Sabah, which was a hot dispute between Malaysia and the Philippines at that time.
Closure to the case
A party-list lawmaker on Tuesday said he is planning to file a resolution that will put a closure to the controversial Jabidah massacre.
Anak Mindanao party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman said that he will ask his lawyers to draft the resolution that will give a closure to the matter, which he described as an “unwanted event” and “unfinished business.”
At Corregidor, the commemoration of the Jabidah massacre was held with the unveiling of an emblem at the Kindley Airfield of the island, where the massacre took place, according to a Muslim group.
The Muslim youths were brought to the island in January 1968 for training in guerrilla warfare.
Hataman said the gruesome massacre sparked the Muslim rebellion in Mindanao and was the reckoning date of the founding of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which was founded three years after the incident.
Up to this day, the Muslim rebellion has yet to cease, even if the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which was formed by a breakaway group from the MNLF, is the one carrying on the battle.
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