Book of Abstracts: July 2013 Paliwanagan sa UP Diliman July 2013 | Page 11

THE BANGSAMORO: FRAMING PHILIPPINE NATION-BUILDING,
REFORM, AND MORO STRUGGLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION
Julkipli M. Wadi
This paper explores Philippine nation-building, reform and self-determination in
Moro society including the complexity of their relationship and their oftentimes
diverging postulates whose contesting expressions impact heavily on the country
particularly in the Muslim community. The paper argues that while there are spaces
and sub-spaces of reform in Muslim Mindanao that mediate the relation between
Philippine nation-building and Moro self-determination, they however face many
challenges since the political relationship of the Philippines as a State and the Moro
community is generally unstable and contentious. Those sub-spaces are
determined by two essentially varying assumptions of Philippine nation-building,
on the one hand, and Moro struggle for self-determination, on the other, politicizing
therefore any reform initiatives and how well their visions and efforts for social
and political change are made to converge on some grounds. Where governmentinitiated reform and institutions had already created history on their own, the
varying orientation and different ways in doing reform and running institutions
could usually fix problems in short-term, but are often prolonged and aggravated
with new problems in long-term.
Doing reform is usually easy if the political relationship with communities is relatively
harmonious; but if it is highly contested, reform can face many problems. Where
the relationship between State and contending community like the Moros is highly
contested and polarized, it is important to examine their contrasting and intersecting
positions as they provide a canvass with which to measure nation-building, its
limits and range; reform, its viability and options; and self-determination, its contour
and possibility. More particularly, questions must be raised as to why Moro areas
have to be subjected to a continuing cycle of reforms, tier-making and tier-changing
by the Philippine government in different phases of history. If it may be hinted, the
fact that reform has to be continuously resorted to shows that problems there
have continued to recur and past solutions and government programs have
altogether been wanting. The recent Malacañang declaration that the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is a “failed experiment” is not so much a
bombshell as it is a revelation how the national government has, for a long time,
molded the ARMM into a political laboratory. The question is not when the experiment
will succeed but when it will end to make reform obsolete in Moro society.

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About the Presenter
Julkipli M. Wadi, Associate Professor and Dean of the UP Institute of Islamic
Studies, has written extensively about the Bangsamoro struggle and Mindanao
peace process.
About the Institute of Islamic Studies
The Institute of Islamic Studies was created on 22 November 1973 by Presidential
Decree 342 as an integral part of the Philippine Center for Advanced Studies
(PCAS). With the abolition of PCAS by Executive Order No. 543 issued by the
President of the Philippines on 9 July 1979, the Institute was re-established as a
separate unit of the University. The Institute aims to provide University students,
both Muslims and non-Muslims, an opportunity to participate more fully in national
life and development. More specifically, it intends to create deeper understanding
and more rapport between the Muslims of the Philippines and the rest of the
University of the Philippines national community. Moreover, it aims to shed light on
certain portions of Philippine history and to place in proper perspective the role of
the Islamic cultural heritage in shaping the Philippines and neighboring Southeast
Asian countries. It is envisioned that the Institute will serve as a meeting place for
scholars interested in Islamic history and culture from Asia and other parts of the
world. (Source: http://iis.upd.edu.ph/?page_id=112)

UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF PHILIPPINE MUSIC NOTATIONS
IN THE UP COLLEGE OF MUSIC LIBRARY
José S. Buenconsejo
Constrained by the limited number of musicologists in the country and by ideological
priorities that underscored the dominant musicological research paradigm in the
Philippines since 1950s (which was ethnomusicological), the scholarly study of
Philippine music sources was set aside and became a neglected theoretical area.
In effect, we do not have a solid foundational knowledge of Philippine music
history, particularly in the realm of music literacy that produces music sources or
notations as documents of particular histories of Philippine cultures, notably urban.
These cultures were once prolifically composing for colonial church rituals, for
town fiesta wind bands, for private-public domestic piano salon music, even for
the world market when Filipino sheet music (popular music) was exported globally
during a brief period before the onslaught of 20th century mass media.

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