"Childlike Empress" said:
President Duterte said:
Duterte blamed the US for the long-standing peace problem in the Mindanao region. He argued that the Philippines inherited the problem from the US when the latter invaded the country.
Really, Duterte said that? I'm not sure if I should praise his brilliance or curse his dishonesty.
This is the real reason. My anti American College History professor said the same thing, in case Childlike Empress doubts this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabidah_massacre
The Jabidah massacre was the alleged killing of Moro soldiers by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on 18 March 1968.[3] It is also known as the Corregidor massacre as the killing took place on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
In 1967, President Ferdinand Marcos secretly authorized Major Eduardo "Abdul Latif" Martelino, a Muslim convert, to take charge of the operations of a secret commando unit code-named "Jabidah" and embark on an operation called "Project Merdeka" (merdeka means "freedom" in Malay) to destabilize and take over Sabah.[20] The alleged mastermind, however, included leading generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Defense Undersecretary Manuel Syquio, and Marcos himself.[5]
It was during the second phase of the operation that the massacre took place. After 180 young Tausugs from Sulu received basic training, they were transported to a remote section of Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay[10] where they were further trained in guerrilla operations and jungle warfare. Once on the island, the code name was changed to ‘Jabidah’.[5] The real purpose of the formation of Jabidah was never publicised therefore leading to wide speculations and controversies regarding this top secret military plan.[4]
To summarize:
1) The Philippine government had/has a claim to the Island of Sabah near Malaysia. This was still an issue as of 2013, when Muslim Guerrillas from Mindanao clashed with Malaysians. When I was on vacation in Sabah, I was quite surprised to discover that a lot of them also knew Tagalog.
2) Former President Marcos and the AFP set up a unit of Muslim Guerrilas to infiltrate Sabah, destabilize it and provide a reason for The Philippines to invade and reclaim it.
3) Tensions arose between the AFP and the Guerillas, and the AFP massacred them. Word reached the Muslims in Mindanao, and they formed resistance groups to fight for Muslim autonomy.
The key point is number 2. The real root cause was Former President Marcos and his plan, and the resulting massacre. Marcos, your garden variety American backed Cold war "strong man" was deposed in 1986 by the EDSA revolution. His family and supporters are still at large in the country today, and Marcos' son who is every bit a snake like his father was ran for the vice presidency in the recent election. He was surprisingly very popular, and there are a lot of conspiracy theories that the election was "rigged" against him. Anyway, the point is that Marcos loyalists and the Marcos family are among Duterte's strongest supporters. And he knows it, which is why he supports having Former president and dictator Marcos buried in the military cemetary, despite a
lot of the late dictator's victims protesting against it. This statement is nothing less than President Duterte
lying by shifting the blame to the US from former president Marcos, whose loyalists are among his strongest supporters. It's a lie, but he manages to dupe and stroke Anti Americans and appease his base by whitewashing their hero. It's a masterstroke, but I'm not sure how to take it.
