Just back from some time in Lanao del Sur, one of those places the Embassy tells you to never ever even think about going. Wasn't there for research, or to reach any deep conclusions, but there was a bit of casual observation...

Awake early one morning, before dawn, up on a hill watching lights come on down on the plateau in the town of Wao. Inevitably the scratchy loudspeaker as the muezzin emerges with morning prayers, followed by a series of community announcements... and after that, a rousing if distorted recording of Lady Gaga doing Bad Romance. Muslim Filipinos are still Filipinos, and if anyone in Saudi Arabia is sending money to bring that particular mosque over to Wahhabi austerities, they aren't getting their money's worth.

Wao isn't really typical of anything, but in Central Mindanao the atypical is typical. The town occupies a corner of Lanao del Sur, between Bukidnon (dominated by Christian settlers) and Muslim-dominated North Cotabato. It's cut off from the heavily MILF-dominated easterm portion of Lanao del Sur by a densely forested mountain range. The once dominant Muslim Maranao are now about 30% of the population. The other 70% is an ethnolinguistic halo-halo of settlers from around the country and a few thoroughly downtrodden remnants of indigenous hill tribes.

Local officialdom is quick to claim an exception to the rule, with Christian settlers and Muslims living peacefully side by side. They still think it necessary to supply outsiders with armed escorts; in our case a dozen or so militiamen. Their fondness for alcohol was a bit disturbing, but at least they didn't have the magically bullet-proofing amulets and glazed over stares I've seen elsewhere. I don't know if they were there because the officials thought them necessary or because they thought we thought them necessary... they did not seem to be expecting trouble, and their presence seemed pretty perfunctory.

Muslims and Christians lived in geographically distinct neighborhoods in town, in separate villages in the countryside. Some visible blending, but still a very distinct separation at the most basic level. Local officials were pretty diplomatic, but the militiamen were pretty blunt about the perception that the place is peaceful because they (the Christian settlers) are warriors who take no $#!t from the Muslims and keep them in line.

I did slip the leash and get into town alone at one point. I tried to open some conversations with Muslim vendors and in a Halal eatery. Usually that's not too difficult; people are naturally curious about a white guy who speaks languages. The people I talked to seemed very reserved and even a bit suspicious; it was hard to get them even into the small talk stage, let alone relax things to a point where conversation could be directed... hence little observation of perception in that quarter.

The most visible dichotomy was not between Muslim and Christian, but between rich and poor. The area is extremely fertile: rolling plateau dominated by large fields of pineapple, corn, sugar cane, and rubber. One of the few places in the Philippines where I've seen large tractors and other agricultural equipment deployed on a large scale. Very little food production for local consumption, and rather low efficiency: no intercropping in rubber plantations, reject pineapples left to rot in the fields, etc. Despite substantial agricultural resources, the large majority that does not own land live in really abject poverty, a pretty dramatic contrast to the egalitarian, highly intensive, and hyper-efficient production up here in the northern tribal country.

In short, while the observations and conversations were generally casual, the impression I came away with was of a place where the inherent potential for tension between the many dirt-poor landless laborers and the few relatively affluent landowners is re-directed into enduring tension between indigenous Muslims and Christian settlers. As is the case in much of Mindnaao, this is encouraged by local elites on their sides, who would rather see their people directing fear and suspicion at "the other" than questioning the extreme economic inequalities that prevail within their own social groups.

Could say much more, but that's already probably too much...