The Moros' Bittersweet Way of Existence

 An Analysis of a 21st Century Philippine Literature entitled

Green Sanctuary

by Antonio Enriquez

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever thought of going to Zamboanga?

 BACKGROUND

ANTONIO REYES ENRIQUEZ

Biographical / Authorial Information:

• Antonio Reyes Enriquez

• Born at Barangay Labuan, Zamboanga City - Region IX

• He went to a local Jesuit School and pursued college in one of the prestigious universities in Manila to study medicine, unluckily he didn’t finish his studies and went home to his hometown. He also had a liberal degree in creative writing in Silliman University. Currently, he and his wife, with their five grandchildren were living in Cagayan de Oro City but then he died at the age of 78 in 2014. 

AWARDS:

• Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Novel in English (1993 and 1982)

• Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Short Story (1969 and 1973)

• Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas Award for Fiction in English given by the Unyon ng Mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL, or the Writers Union of the Philippines -1996) 

WRITTEN LITERARY WORKS:

• Subanons (1999)

• Unseen war (1996)

• The Living and the Dead (1994)

• Spots on Their Wings (1973)

• Dance a White Horse to Sleep (1977)

• The Activist (2011)

• The Survivors (2011)

• Twice-told Subanon Tales (2013)

Textual information:

• It was published in 2003.

Sociocultural information:

• The infamous Manili Massacre, which occurred 49 years ago on June 19, 1971, just months before Martial Law was declared.

• Battle of the Buliok Complex that took place on 11 February 2003.

Green Sanctuary

BY ANTONIO ENRIQUEZ 

                    Pikit was the oldest town in Cotabato, they said. And the townsfolk said too that hundred of years ago, a Spanish ship had dropped anchor in the Pulanggi River, and while the awed Moros watched, Spanish soldiers in iron clothes (mail coat) came down her gangplank and discovered the town behind the cogon grass and under the great balete trees. The Spanish soldiers' faces were white as paper, with straight high noses and glistening, unstained teeth which bore no reddish stain from the juice of mama (betel nut chew). The Spaniards apparently had not stayed long in Pikit, for Alberto had not seen a mestizo or mestizo in town since his arrival some three months ago. This was not all like his hometown, Zamboanga, where the Spanish conquistadores (and licentious friars) had sown so many seeds that mestizos bloomed vividly like bougainvillaea flowers, and the old spoke fluent Castellano and the streets were named after saints or places in Spain.  

                    Not so long ago the commercial bus never stopped in Pikit; not even long enough for its cloud of dust to settle back on the highway. Instead, it disgorged its passengers at the nearest small village, and they had to walk about two kilometers to the town proper carrying their baggage on their backs. Those who refused to get off, or asked for a fare refund, were kicked off the bus by the conductors, divested of their luggage or cargo, and were forced to walk barefoot to the nearest barrio where they brought slippers or rubber shoes.

                    If a bus stopped in Pikit, they said the Moros there deflated the tires with their wooden clubs, smashed the lights and windshields to smithereens. Then, marketgoers and store owners stripped off its wooden parts and burned them for fuel; the townsfolk dismantled the chassis and engine and sold the metal by the kilo in Cotabato City over a hundred kilometers away. Only the skeleton of the bus was left on the road to rust and corrode under the sun and rain, and for the naked children to play all sorts of games on. But what the children loved to play most was being grown-ups, replaying the parts the townsfolk had in dismantling the bus.

                     Up along the road and just before the market-place, an abandoned truck-chassis, or what was left of it, was covered with vines and climbers whose tentacles wound round and intertwined with its steel and iron frame. They grew thick and luxuriously green, and here and there flowers bloomed as though on abandoned and forgotten graves. The flowers were orange, yellow, and red, and early in the morning their tiny petals glistened under beads of dew and were wonderful to look at. Long before the Cerdeza Surveying Company men came, they said the bus had been hastily abandoned on the highway when a datu from Matalam ordered the Christians down and raked the side of the bus with bullets. The automatic carbine went tat-tat-tat-tat and made holes on the side of the bus as big as thumbs. A four-year old child abandoned by the mother died there on the bus, his head blown-off and his scalp plastered on the wooden backrest of his chair.

                     At six o'clock every evening, the sari-sari stores and carinderias along the road were closed and barred with wooden boards. No one walked there after this hour, and the policeman on beat changed his uniform into civilian clothes and drank with his buddies in one of the tuba stores far from the town proper. And then the rats and tomcats emerged from their hiding, and the dogs scavenged the garbage dumps for crumbs. Only Datu Mantel, they said, walked the main hit, his 45-calibre handgun hanging low from his hip.

                     One night a drunkard lost his way home, and on the main street Datu Mantel shot him neatly between his eyes. Like the bodies of other murdered men, the drunkard's corpse was not found the next day, and the chief of police did not send a policeman after the datu. Because one evening, a week before the murder, while two of them were drinking in a bar, Datu Mantel slapped him across the face and challenged him to draw his gun. The chief of police knew that with one hand Datu Mantel could draw and at the same time cock his 45-calibre handgun while it was still in its holster, as though it were a toy gun. Said Datu Mantel to chief of the police, "Now I am the chief of the police." That was how, they said, Datu Mantel became unofficially the chief of police of Pikit without an appointment from the governor. And the next day, the townsfolk saw him wearing the khaki uniform of the police chief, although he never wore a badge. There was no place to go in Pikit after nightfall, and the one movie house opened in the morning and closed in the afternoon. It showed double-program war features. In one film, Fernando Poe Jr., the Golden Boy of action pictures, with an automatic machine gun, mowed hundreds of Moros on a slope. Upon seeing this massacre on the picture screen, Datu Mantel stood up from his wooden bench, drew his .45-calibre gun, and promptly perforated the picture seen. There!" he said to one in particular, "you are now dead!" Everyone scampered for safety and the movie house owner stopped showing films again in Pikit; thereafter they said, he showed only American war movies. When the fans of Fernando Poe Jr. demanded to see their movie idol, the owner of the movie house said they all knew he was shot dead by Datu Mantel and now lay buried in the hills of Pulanggi.

ANALYSIS

Literary Genre

                Fiction is defined as any original works, mainly a narrative work, that depicts people, events, or locations in imaginative ways that are not necessarily based on history or reality. Green Sanctuary is an example of this literary genre. Not only, the author himself is a known fictionist but of how Green Sanctuary is creatively constructed by the author. As we read the first paragraph of the excerpt, we can be a little confused about the details if it really happened or not in Pikit, Cotabato. But, since a fictional genre uses a lot of imagery/illustrations to be able for the readers to understand the text, we can see in the part of how Spaniards are creatively described, the bus of the tourists are dismantled and attacked by gun shots with sound effects, that the text is really a fictional type of literary genre.  Furthermore, as we continue reading the excerpt, not only illustrations are used but also symbolisms that expose the other sides of Mindanao, particularly, in Cotabato, that it has long been associated with exoticism, antagonism, and strife, making it a "strange."An example of a symbol that was mentioned in the text is the character, Datu Mantel, who represents the locality of pikit in their culture dialogue.

Analysis Guides

1. The excerpt of the novel immediately locates the setting. Look up "Pikit, Cotabato" on the Internet and cut out a map showing where it is located Paste it in the space provided:
2. The excerpt immediately provides some bits of the town’s colonial history, as the townsfolk know it. What were those details and how did the Pikit natives perceive the foreign invaders?

• From the first part/paragraph, it says that ‘A Spanish ship anchored in the Pulanggi River in Cotabato many years ago. The Moros’ noticed Spanish soldiers in iron armor descending from the ship. Behind the cogon grass and beneath the balete trees, they located a town. They described those Spaniards as mestizo and mestiza because of their facial features such as straight high noses, white complexion and glistening unstained teeth which bore no reddish stain from the juice of mama (betel nut chew)’.

      3. The excerpt also provides an impression of Zamboanga, where Alberto came from. A comparison was suggested between Pikit and Zamboanga. Fill in the columns below and compare the two towns based on Alberto’s impressions. 

PIKIT	ZAMBOANGA
The population is pure legitimate Pikit citizens and do not have any relations with Spaniards even though they were colonized by them.	Populations are composed of mixed pure legitimate citizens and Spanish-blood citizens since they were also colonized by them. Old’s spoke fluent Castellano Streets are named after  various saints and places in Spain.

    4. How were the Moro inhabitants of Pikit and its surrounding locales characterized in this excerpt? What does this passage suggest in relation to some of its inhabitants: “Not so long ago the commercial bus never stopped in Pikit… Instead, it disgorged its passengers at the nearest small village, and they had to walk about two kilometers to the town proper carrying their baggage on their backs”?

• The Moro inhabitants of Pikit were characterized as  people who bring fear and they are not a welcoming community that shows hospitality and humbleness to their guests and tourists, like what unnecessary things they did on the commercial bus.

    5. By the way of inference, why was violence the constant element in the way Moro responded to “external” presence?

• They do so because they value their own traditions and want to retain it as much as possible. And, for Moro, they only recognized violence or hard treatment to others as the only known way to protect what they have.

  6. If allowed to make some conjectures, how do you think this dynamic has affected Pikit? Speculate the condition of the following in the aspects of Pikit life circumstances of the excerpt:

Governance	In terms of governance, it may have a significant impact on Pikit because, if you think about it, there are many violated laws, some of which have murdered innocent people.
Economy	In terms of economy, it is evident that the main effect of it was that most places/streets are not fully developed. Making Pikit, behind what kind of lifestyle a community or a citizen should have.
Culture	In terms of culture, we can say that their culture is so great that they continue to protect and preserve it, which has resulted in them being intolerant of visitors to their town.
Environment	The environment, however, we think had a big impact also, since it’s where most of the citizens in Pikit gain ideas and insights of what life should be in their place. For example, if violence and chaos is always the situation that happens there, then they will adapt to it.
Peace and order	Above all the four dynamics that had been said, peace and order will have the most influence in Pikit. It will terminate fear and trauma from a lot of citizens, and be able to teach lessons to other citizens who do not show respect to governments’ rules and regulations. Lastly, it will help Pikit develop a community or place that feels like homeland and improve it for the sake of its people.

7. What do you think does the character of Datu Mantel suggest about the locality?

• The image of Datu Mantel shows the urge of the Moro people to preserve their culture. They may not be as welcoming as others to visitors, they are only concerned about their culture and wish to preserve it as much as possible.

8. What do you think are the limitations in the representation of Datu Mantel? How does his characterization compare with widespread representations of Moros/Muslims in Philippine society and popular consciousness? Explain.

• The limitations in the presentation of Datu Mantel are his background information, the way he lived as a normal person, and also about his past life.  The Moros are those natives of the Philippines who are Mohammedans. They did not give themselves this name, nor do they use it among themselves; but they recognize it when applied to them by others. The Moros de refer themselves, generally, as Islam. The Moros have never been united, as Moros, under one Moro head, or one Moro government or even under an external Islamic rule. The Moro people are granted an autonomous area under the Philippine Constitution; yet, the formation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao did not meet the demands of rebel organizations.

9. How does the examination of Moro/Muslim representation through this novel excerpt make you think again about the collective perceptions of Mindanao and the cultures that inhabit it? Is this examination also relatable to global misrepresentations of people of different cultures?

• It stresses the power and behaviors of being a Datu, as well as the culture and way of life of the Moros. People who are interested in Moros should read this book. It is practically realistic and contains facts that can be shown in real life in Mindanao, and their culture is comparable to that of other Muslims from other countries, since there has been a war and a strict policy not only in Mindanao, but also in Pakistan and India.

10. In 2003, Pikit, Cotabato made headlines because of a so-called war between Muslim sepatists and the Armed Force of the Philippines. Do some research on this event and use this as a context for the story in answering this question: What can you say about the situation of Muslims in Mindanao, then and now?

• Honestly speaking, there is no difference in the situation of Muslims in Mindanao today compared to its past. If not war or chaotic incidents happen in Mindanao, abuse and violence in the household occurs. But, unlike in the past, today’s situation of Muslims is a bit lighter and freeing, compared to past incidents that happened in Mindanao.

Contextual Analysis

                         Antonio R. Enriquezs’ Green Sanctuary is set in Pikit, Cotabato. By using biographical context, it was discovered that the author once worked in a surveying company in Cotabato City where his experiences had given him the settings, characters and ideologies for his fictional novel. Also, even though the author didn’t finish college, he did get a liberal degree in creative writing; thus, had various work that involved writing newspapers and magazines. On the other hand, in using sociocultural context, after finding out that the novel was written in the year 2003, we found out that during the time the author was writing about it, there was a war in Cotabato. And, looking back to the novel, we can see that somehow it is related, since violence and chaos both occur to the society and novel.  

SUMMARY

                    A story that showcases an uncanny side of the society during medieval times. It tells how people have begun to live in fear out of a unique stereotype. It actually gives a vision of a rural place somewhere in Cotabato, a neighborhood that is quite regimented, but with a strong tyrant leader. Exhibits the awareness of the happening among the fellow Filipinos and how it differs from our culture. How people live in a culture that no one expected it would be, as portrayed, the place is intimidating due to a lot of forbidden superstition and the distinctiveness of their culture was mandatory to provide them their own authority known as the "Bangsamoro."

REFERENCES

These are the reliable sources from which we obtained the majority of the data for our paper.

Book

Sanchez, L. J. A., Lizada, M. A. N., Agustin, R. T. B. & Cuartero, J. M. B. (2016).

21st-century literature from the Philippines and the world. Vibal Group, Inc.: Gregorio Araneta Avenue, Quezon City.

Online Sources

Cuisia, A., & Garcia, J. (2018). Green sanctuary - Bookwright reviews. Retrieved from https://bookwrightreviews.home.blog/category/green-sanctuary/.

Zamora, J. (2016). Antonio Reyes Enriquez – A Filipino contemporary artist from Mindanao –

The 21st century literature. Retrieved from https://joeyzamora.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/first-blog-post/.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (2001). Green sanctuary. Retrieved from

https://www.worldcat.org/title/green-sanctuary/oclc/681638417.

Fernandez, E. (2020). Fighting between MILF leaders displaces 2K families. Retrieved from

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1105220.

Ang, B. (2013). Violence in Zamboanga and the Impact of Neglecting the MNLF in the Peace Process. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26351190.

Mawallil, A. (2020). 49 years later: Manili massacre still haunts us. Retrieved from

https://medium.com/@amirmawallil/49-years-later-manili-massacre-still-haunts-us-e5cae788dd2b. 

Ang, B. (2013). Violence in Zamboanga and the Impact of Neglecting the MNLF in the Peace Process. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26351190.