MINOR BIO-DATA - SULU

Pursuant a comment I left on his blog, e-kvetcher writes:


If I don't see some auto-biographical posts on this blog that talk about all the stuff that happened to you in your life and depriving your readers of some quality reading material, I am going to drag your Dutch ass to Den Haag to stand trial for Crimes against Humanity!

Inquiring minds want to know!

[The comment was this: "Oh, and by the way - I used to be able to speak Tausug. I was in Sulu back in the mid-eighties, when I was younger and stupider."]

This post is for e-kvetcher. In partial response to his kvetch, and the kvittel therein.



ABOUT TAUSUG AND PHILIPPINOS

Tausug is a fairly standard variation on the Visayan language pattern, albeit with a vocabulary that in its deviation from Visayan roots shares words of a more Malay and Indonesian derivation. And like many of the dialects spoken by Muslims, it also borrows from Arabic.

During the eighties I knew a fair number of Manilenyos and Cebuanos, due to a "family connection", as well as a number of other Philippinos. So when I went to the Philippines it wasn't exactly as a stranger. In that I had been reading up on the place for ages before I arrived, and spoke Tagalog (errrm, Taglish - more English than anything taggish), Indonesian (tolerably well) and Tamarao (quite lyrically and eloquently), I was perhaps somewhat better prepared than most visitors.

[Indonesian is a relative of the Philippino languages, Tamarao is a language from Eastern Borneo which shares a number of cognates with Yakan, Samal, and Tausug (southern Philippino languages). Yakan and Samal rather resemble Indonesian dialects. Do not get me started on Nabaloi - it is northern (and upland-tribal), and hence not at all relevant to this post.]



MABAKTI IN TAO MUSLIM HA BANGSA NIYA
[Devoted is the Muslim to his nation]

Jolo, at that time, was newly open to travelers after the unrest during the seventies when the irredentists and the Philippine Constabulary (PC) had their difference of opinion. And it was mercifully free of NPA (New Peoples Army - the Philippine Communist Guerillas), so it was one of the places in the south where one could travel without fear of being whacked as a CIA agent. The Moros where rather appreciative of our efforts in Afghanistan.

[In February of 1974 the Philippine Army had retaken Jolo in house-to-house fighting that destroyed the larger part of the city. Many of those who did not leave their houses before the fighting started were not alive when the fighting ended.]

JOLO

The centre of Jolo city still showed the scars of the reconquest by Marcos' troops. There were "vacant lots". The central mosque had been burned but was still standing, many of the buildings were bullet-marked, and there was a strong police presence at China Pier. The entire city was occupied by the troops of the South West Command division (SoWeCom), headquartered in Zamboanga.

Can't remember the name of the place where I stayed, but it was Chinese owned. And noisy. The walls ended about one foot from the ceiling, where wooden rods took over - for ventilation. Which meant that every snore, borborigmus, cough, hiccup, and gut-ventilation in the entire building contributed to a general sense of murmuring, babbling, gasping life.

The centre of the Island (from Buwalo and Adjid all the way to Talipao) was not precisely off-limits, but not advisable to visit either. Some of the settlements apparently were quite flat, and being kept so by periodic visits from the army. Because of separatist activity.

There was a firefight outside of Silangkan (west-coast of the island, about six miles or so from Jolo city) while I was in Jolo. There was another incident either on Pangutaran or Teomabal (both islands to the north of Jolo city), and some very minor violence in Talipao involving a man on a scooter with a gunman sitting behind him, and some PeeCees.
Kabukaan and Bubuan (islands visible from the harbour) were considered risky.

Maimbung (south-southwest coast) had been burnt by government troops in the seventies - it had not recovered.


I tried to get to Siasi while I was in the area. And I was told it was possible to get there. But no boat was going there, and no one knew anyone who planned to go, nor would anyone admit to ever having been there. A few days later I heard that there had been a fierce battle on the island, and half the town had been destroyed.

Didn't bother trying to get to Tankil, where the Samal had fought so desperately against the Spaniards more than a century ago - a scene of that much sadness (most of the Tankil Samal had been killed, the survivors had been taken into exile) is perhaps not good to visit.


TAWI TAWI & BONGAO

Bongao City, on an island just off the tip of Tawi Tawi, further towards Borneo, had once been described as a charming stilt-village, with a smaller permanent settlement on the shore. When I saw it, it no longer matched that description in the slightest, having been destroyed during the war, then over-run by Tagalogs and Visayans. In the mid-eighties it was occupied by Philippine military with their families and hangers-on. Probably about fifty thousand non-natives, whose waste and garbage polluted the waters and choked the streets. A very smelly place, the residents of which, native and non-native alike, were stressed, tense, and fearful.
This was a city of nastiness and paranoia.

[In Tamarao the name Tawi-Tawi means 'choral song'. A very poetic appellation. I suspect that in Samal and Badjao it must mean something very similar.]


Directly south of Tawi Tawi and Bongao were several small islands on the Tii-Tii (tee-hee tee-hee) reefs. All had been thoroughly brutalized by the PC, who since then used them as bases for smuggling, casual violence against whatever locals were within easy reach, and similar gifts of civilization.

Out in the smaller Islands there was an old American whose family had been there since before the war. He was half Moro, and had adopted Islam. Which allowed him to have four wives (in addition to having several non-wives in various places). A rich man by local standards, and well-connected among the natives, his principal wife being the daughter of an important dato (chiefly) lineage, and another wife being dumato (chiefly class from the Pulangi area on Mindanao). He was visiting one of his wives in California while I was there, with much of his household. But I would have liked to have met him.


BADJAO STILT DWELLINGS IN THE SEA

Its about thirty miles south-west from Bongao to Sibuto and Tumindao, where there are picturesque stilt-villages built on the reefs, from Sitangkai at the tip of Tumindao to Tong Tong out in the water, even as far as Bulo Bulo. The Badjao who live there harvest trepang, agar-agar, kelp, and reef-fish. The water is very flat, and on cloudy days one can see lightening along the edges of the horizon.
It is best to travel these waters in swift Tausug craft, as Badjao and Samal sikayangs are easily captured. But do not go out too far, as the Philippine military regard all native boats here as legitimate targets - they will shoot everyone on board and take the smuggled goods to sell in Zamboanga, Cebu, and Manila. Most of the time this area is off-limits, because of the proximity to Borneo, where everyone has relatives.



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