The Burning

Here in Dagupan, where I might give in to a boding flu, I read Cris's article on her most recent trip to Zamboanga, her homeland in Mindanao. Again, I am reminded of one of her first two novels, which detailed a failed coup that ended with the destruction of what was then a progressive Muslim province.

My heart still aches for Sulu, and now, Zamboanga.

"Who knows what was going on in the mind of an old man who had gone progressively delusional, but who among a segment of his people retains a charisma, a filial honor of tradition? In Sulu, he could still hold fort if he wants to; as for the rest of Mindanao, the tragic adventure in Zamboanga revealed that beneath the surface of an aspiration for a common Moro land, the reality of ethnic differences divide them. Unlike before, the Maguindanaoans and the Maranaos did not come to the fight of the Tausugs." - Misuari's journey: from the burning of Sulu to the siege in Zamboanga, GMAnews.tv

I am still awaiting the third part of this series. Its a good read; emotional at some parts. But the insights pull a string in the gut. - 9/29/2013