The Philippine government's peace pact with the MILF is not the first. About a decade ago, its former president Fidel Ramos made a peace pact with the Moro National Liberation (MNLF). The peace pact however, was not properly implemented and while it brought a lot of Muslim rebels back into the government's fold, the larger group called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was able to strengthen its ranks by attracting disgruntled MNLF members and fortifying its camps.
One of the most moving speeches that I've read. During grade school, this was the most often recited elocution piece in my school. Here it is, the text of Raul Manglapus' Land of Bondage, Land of the Free. Land of Bondage, Land of the Free By Raul Manglapus And yet, ladies and gentlemen, the tao is constitutionally free! No wonder, then, that the tao being a slave has acquired the habits of a slave. No wonder that after three centuries in chains, without freedom, without hope, he should lose the erect and fearless posture of a freeman, and become the bent, misshapen, indolent, vicious, pitiful thing that he is! Who dares accuse him now? Who dares rise up in judgement against this man, reduced to this subhuman level by three centuries of oppession? Ladies and gentlemen the tao does not come here tonight to be judged -- but to judge! Hear then his accusation and his sentence: I indict the Spanish encomendero for inventing taxes impossible to pay! I indict the usurer for s...
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