Women from War Torn Mindanao

Women from War Torn Mindanao

Life stories of migration as escape from an atrocious state of society

Aida has spent her life in relentless poverty. She did not know exactly why the war was waged in their small community in Kabakan, North Cotabato, but she knows for certain how the war affected her life. She and her family suffered extreme poverty that she had to work as a child for everyday sustenance. This, amid constant fear of the seemingly unending war in Mindanao.

The impoverished lives of women and people intensify as the war waged in Mindanao persists. The government’s military have unceasingly lodged in Mindanao in search of the ‘rebel groups’ Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front and the ‘terrorist group’ Abu Sayaff. As the battle ensues, countless families in Mindanao endure the aggravating poverty and restlessness due to constant evacuation in the hope of evading the ruthless war.

Thus, aside from gender issues, women in war torn Mindanao confront more injustice in economic and social issues. Amid the ensuing war and destitution, women face a bigger challenge to survive. Even in lieu of shattered households and broken families, they opted to migrate for the urgent need to survive.

From the outskirts of Mindanao, countless Muslim women have migrated and sought justice against poverty and militarization in Manila and even overseas.

Massive poverty in Muslim Mindanao has persisted regime after regime. The government’s execution of war in Mindanao even intensified the condition of residents in the area. In militarized Mindanao, apparent poverty is even more magnified. Thus, women leave Mindanao and sees going abroad as a solution.

Urban Migration

Three Muslim women, who tried to escape landlessness, poverty and militarization from different war zones in Cotabato, shared their life stories. Momentarily, they reside in a Muslim community in Culiat, Quezon City. Culiat is a community known as a transitory residence of Muslims from Mindanao, who are planning to work abroad. Muslim women, from time to time, come in and out of the community.

Women from Mindanao usually migrate to Muslim communities in Manila. Culiat is one of the few communities that accommodate Moros. Almost the whole population of Culiat consists of Muslims. However, Culiat is only a transitory community for Muslims who are applying for work abroad and for those who have returned to the country.

Although Muslim men and women tried to escape restlessness due to militarization, they still experience such cruelty and harassment from men-in-uniform in Culiat. Due to the stigma linked with Muslims as ‘terrorists’ the military often target and raid Muslim community, Culiat, every time an act of terrorism (e.g. bus bombing) occurs. The police or the military often raid houses in Culiat and apprehend suspected Muslim terrorists. Aside from these, the Moros are also confronted with threats of demolition. This incites trauma of the lack of security and frequent evacuation they experienced with the war in Mindanao.

Life stories of three Moro women

The lives of the three women have things in common: militarization that aggravated their impoverished condition in Mindanao led them to internal migration and external migration. Aside from poverty, violence, and harassment, these women beset one problem in common – militarization.

(1) Aida Silayan

Age: 48 years old

Residence: Kabakan, North Cotabato

Like most children in the war-stricken Mindanao, Aida did not experience a peaceful childhood and the luxury of a peaceful and steady schooling. In North Cotabato, where she spent almost all her lifetime, encounters between the ‘rebel groups’ and the government’s military have been a constant scenario. Aida recounted how every now and then, her family, her neighbors, and the whole barangay would evacuate from their area like nomads every time the military would attack their barangay in search for the ‘Muslim rebels.’ She did not know what the war was all about, but she knew exactly how painstaking it was for them to move from one place to another in order to evade bullets firing across their homes.

Aida recounted how three families would squeeze themselves in a cavernous makeshift shelter below the ground. They would store food for a week-supply, while hiding from bullets dispatched by the military and the ‘Muslim rebels.’

She recalled how the military would arbitrarily arrested civilians in their barangay. She felt grief and terror when the military would apprehend, harass and beat her fellow Muslims in their area. She also cited incidents when the military would search for community tax certificate (CTC) from the residents of their barangay. If they cannot produce a CTC, the military would ask them to write their names. However, as most of the people there were illiterate, the military would then give them untoward orders like singing and dancing.

Meanwhile, Aida did not experience normal schooling, as classes would be suspended for weeks every time war was waged in their area. Aside from this, she also had to work as a child in order to help the family and have some money to pay expenses in school. She would work as a helper to neighbors, cleaning their houses and washing their clothes. Her parents worked as farmers, planting mais and palay. Her parents sell them in a bodega afterwards. However, their income was not enough to send her and all her siblings to school. Aida is the fifth child in a family of seven. Her parents and her older siblings would stop working in the farm whenever the war heightened.

The situation of Aida’s family worsened when her father died during her fourth grade in elementary. Due to poverty and constant war in their area, Aida had to stop after her second year in high school when her father died.

Present Condition

Poverty and unrest in Cotabato remained even when Aida got married and had a family of her own. She wanted to send all her children to school but she cannot find a decent-paying job in Mindanao. Aida, having not finished schooling, decided to go to Manila in 2004 to apply for a job as a domestic helper abroad. However, she had problems with health, and she was not allowed to work abroad. She instead decided to work in Manila so she can send some amount to her family in Mindanao. At present, while still hoping for a contract abroad, she works as a saleslady in a sari-sari store so she could send money to her children back home.

Although she could send a bigger amount (than what she used to earn in Mindanao) to her family, she still longs to be with her family and hopes that the war in Mindanao to end. She believes that if the war in Mindanao ends, the condition in Mindanao would be a lot better.

(2) Maimona B. Pendaliday

a.ka.Babylab A. Kali

Age: 24 years old

Residence: Bongo Island, Parang North Cotabato

Life has also been tough for Babylab. Her parents have encountered the hardships and pains of the war so they decided to raise their children in a secluded area where they could less witness and suffer the strains of war.

Her parents worked as farmers in a plantation of copra. The landowner permitted them to live in that farm. Babylab’s parents would only get one third of the total income while the landowner would get two thirds. Instead of hiring workers to help him plant and harvest copras, Babylab’s father would ask her and her siblings to help in the fields in order to earn more. Babylab is the fifth child of the nine children in the family. Sometimes, Babylab’s family would also plant palay, kamote and other vegetables they can eat and sell especially when they have more expenses in school.

Although Babylab’s place is far from the war zone, she said that there is also military presence in their area. Soldiers were assigned in every barangay to make rounds and guard the area and search for the ‘Muslim rebels.’ Although she has not experienced military harassment yet, she said that they are constantly afraid of the soldiers. They fear any form of harassment from the soldiers. They are also afraid that the encounters may take place in their area due to military presence.

Schooling was not smooth sailing for Babylab either. Although their house was located in a relatively safer place, she had to endure two-hour walks everyday going to school. It was also not a steady schooling because every time the war sparks at the area of the school, classes are always suspended and students were asked to stay at home so that they will not be harmed in the war.

Every time a war ensues, Babylab’s residence becomes an evacuation center. About 200 people from Litayen would seek shelter from the Pendaliday residence up to a week every time war and encounters erupt. She said that they had to endure a sitting position while sleeping because they had to accommodate all those evacuees. Other evacuees, meanwhile, bear to sleep on the cold grounds outside their house.

Babylab is the only one in the family to finish high school. Her siblings have worked in an early age to help sustain their family. She wanted to continue her studies to college but she was not able to avail of a scholarship. At the age of 21, she decided to go abroad and work as a domestic helper.

Life abroad

Babylab said that most women in their place have been going abroad as domestic helpers in order to financially assist their families. Going abroad has been a trend for women in their area. Most of them have been earning their living as farmers. Even children are helping their parents in the farm.

Women affected by war in their place chose to go abroad seeking for a better livelihood. She said that it was easier for women to get a contract as domestic helpers abroad compared to men. Men should have skills for construction and other requirements so it is harder for them to get a job compared to women. Babylab said that 99 percent of women in their place go abroad to work.

Babylab has left the country twice to work as a domestic helper. She said she used an Christian pseudonym so she would not have problems with her muslim identity in working abroad. She worked for two and a half years in Kuwait and two months in Jeddah. She said that she was lucky to have good employers. She has endured to finish all her contracts, doing chores for other people and taking care of her employer’s mentally sick child. Two of her younger siblings can now go to school.

However, she frequently fears that the war affects her family because the military operations heightened in their area when she left. She said that going abroad is the only way to alleviate her family’s condition. She plans to earn enough money so could continue studying. She plans to take midwifery and nursing. When asked if she would still go abroad after finishing studies, she said she will until she earns enough.

She said that given the country’s political condition and with the escalating prices of oil and basic commodities in the country, the only solution she knows is to work abroad. She added that she cannot feel the government’s support to develop their community.

(3) Rahma Indong

Age: 16 years old

Residence: Pikit, Cotabato

Rahma’s experience was no different to Aida’s stories about the war. At a young age, Rahma had to stop going to school and work to help her parents. Rahma’s parents are also farmers. Her parents income were not enough to sustain their family.

Like Aida, she has experienced frequent evacuation every time military operations are waged in Pikit. Military presence is also a frequent scenario in Pikit. She said that every time a war ensues in Pikit, her parents would stop working in the fields which resulted in less income for the family.

At an early age, she decided to stop studying and opted to work to help sustain the family. However, there are only limited jobs in Pikit and most jobs available are low-paying especially to those who have not finished a college or high school degree. Thus, she migrated to Culiat, while applying for a job abroad. While jobs that do not require a degree (e.g. domestic helper) are available abroad, Rahma is having problems with her age. Rahma, at the age of 16, is a minor and jobs abroad have particular age requirements. Persistent with her plan, she said that her recruiter might arrange her age in the papers for her to be admitted for a job abroad. Some of Rahma’s friends, meanwhile, have worked in Manila instead of going abroad.

Root Causes of Militarization

Different regimes have consistently declared war or ordered military operations in Mindanao in order to search for what the government call ‘muslim rebels,’ which include the groups Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, and the ‘terrorist group’ Abu Sayyaf.

Aida said she did not know exactly why the war ensues but she has seen the war from her childhood until she left Mindanao only three years ago. She hears about the war that affects her family up to now. Although she does not know the root causes of the war, she know very well the effects of the consistent military operations in Mindanao. She sharply pointed out that the war hindered their livelihood and the development of Mindanao in general, especially in the outskirts where they live. She also symphatizes with her fellow civilian muslims who are harassed and arbitrarily arrested by the military.

Babylab and Rahma had the same insights. Their work in the farms (which is their main source of livelihood) ceases every time military operations commence.

Social effects of militarization to women and children

All three women said that the military carried friendly countenance when they went to their communities. The military would even gather the people and explain that they would cause no harm in the community. However, all of them felt unwanted fear with the military presence. They said that although most of the military are friendly in approaching them, they still feel a certain trauma that the military might harass them. They also feared that the military presence in their place may also attract the MILF, MNLF or the Abu Sayyaf in their community.

Another glaring trend that transpired during the interview points to migration of women in order to work abroad. All of them said that the only solution to their financial problems was to work overseas. All of them have not finished their studies. Thus, aside from the fact that there are only limited jobs in Mindanao, having not finished an educational degree adds up to their deficiencies to land in a good job that could sustain their survival. It has been a trend that mostly women go abroad to work as domestic helpers because they have more potential in landing in a job than men. Employment abroad, for men, has more requirements than women.

Lastly, most children in war zones in Mindanao do not finish schooling because to the distraction caused by constant military operations in their place. Children in war zones do not experience normal schooling. They had to evacuate every time the war ensues. Most of the time, classes are suspended.

War on terrorism worsens the condition of women

The women did not cite any sexual abuse experiences that went along the war on terrorism. However, it is striking that most women in war-torn Mindanao have opted to work abroad as domestic helpers for the survival of their families. This heightens the co modification of women doing such dirty jobs abroad.

In the end the problems confronting women in war torn Mindanao are economic, social and political: the lack of decent employment, living in constant fear of the military and the war, and the heightening program of the government for ‘dirty jobs’ abroad for women.