Dayuhan: I) The Black Shirts were the first organised paramilitary, having been officaly formed in 1969. The Ilaga on the other hand, despite the Muslim propaganda that imagines them to have been created by a group of Ilonggo mayors, only coalesced under the PC in late 1970 so there isn't a question there. Prior to that sanctioning by the PC there were sporadic acts of violence but they were devoid of political ideology and context. You are correct that both sides targetted non-combatants but only on side did so without provocation, the Black Shirts. Each Ilaga atrocity was a reaction to a specific atrocity commited by the Black Shirts, and later the Barakuda, and then the MNLF. This simple gameplan was imposed upon them by their PC handlers. They weren't handed rifles and unleashed (well, not in the MNLF Era anyway).

II) Yes, Feliciano Luces, the infamous Kumander Toothpick. He is still alive and farming ube in Maguindanao. Not suprisingly he is left alone.

III) On land ownership and "settlement." The main problem is that the issue really only boils down to competing claims within the MILF AOR in Central Mindanao, yet the MNLF and MILF have portrayed it as island wide. Muslims, despite their claims, never controlled more than a very small amount of land on Mainland Mindanao. In modern terms the land in question comprises parts of N.Cotabato, Maguindanao, slivers of Bukidnon, S.Cotabato, Sarangani, and virtually all of Lanao del Sur Provinces. Within those areas the land was controlled by Sultans, Rajahs and their lesser Datus. There was no private ownership.

At the dawn of the American Colonial Era all groups were offered the chance to formally register their ancestral lands. Much has been made about the lower maximum amounts permitted for Muslims but the rationale was that if given free rein, the Tribal Aristocracy would compel its subjects to register land that would then be under the de facto control of the aristocracy. The Americans of course envisioned a Western style system of private land ownership that would enable the peasantry, as well as the aristocracy, to own land. Of course in reality the Americans allowed gross abuse of their own system by American owned corporations and investors but that is neither here nor there. The point being that the system now in place, first implemented by the Americans, sought to empower all groups.

Unregistered lands became Public Lands, which were then used in re-settlement scemes beginning with the Colorums but reaching full stride under Magsaysay in his anti-Huk COIN programme. I cannot speak on the Cordillera, at least authoritatively, but on Mindanao it is a bit more complicated. The Islamicised Tribes existed under a very different system of governance. The Lumad, the Animists, were non-sedentary so that becomes an easier subject to approach and if the Government ever reconciles its schizoid Mineral Rights policies I do believe it will go a long way towards solving that end of the equation. In the Islamicised areas however, the aristocracy owned everything ("owned" as in "controlled"). This is never going to reconcile with a Western based system of land ownership.

I believe that if the Government were ever willng and able to offer reparations in the form of socio-economic entitlements, it would neutralise most of the Muslim arguments over land. You never see conflict breaking out over fallow land. It is only cultivated, productive land, and to a lesser degree land under speculation for development. This is because unlike the Lumad, whose worldview and religion are intrinsically tied to specific geographic locales, the Islamicised Tribes view land as an indicator of wealth, or more specifically, productive land. IF a socio-economic package were offered in lieu of specific, tenable claims on land parcels it would stop a whole lot of the bloodshed.

"Ilonggo Land Grabbing Association." That is an incredibly widespread belief and repeated by Islamic groups as a mantra, especially the MILF/BIAF. I have been hearing that for as long as I can remember.

"The influx of non-Muslims into Central Mindanao during the Magsaysay Era caused the violence.": Surely you know that that region has never been devoid of incessant warfare. Datu Ali? Or in Lanao, the SE corner of the Lake? They have been attacking and slaughtering non Muslims for as long as written history has existed on the island. General Rufino (an Insurrecto operating out of Oroquieta in what is now Misamis Occidental) was dealing with the very same dynamic in 1902. If you couch it as "the influx aggravated the conflict" I would be in agreement but it didn't cause it. What caused it was the inability of Muslims to co-exist with non-Muslims, as Politically Incorrect as that may be.

Dapitan, Karaga, Surigao, and Misamis were all Christianised when Central Mindanao was Islamicised. Muslims do not pre-date any other group and never formed a cohesive society, nor exerted unified control. Challenging the right of a sovereign government to utilise Public Lands at the expense of a tyrannical ogliarchy like the disparate Islamicised aristocracies is non-sensical. There is a lot to be said about how the government handled, or mis-handled the issue(s) but when all is said and done the Muslims are fighting over formerly unused land that just happened to sit within one or another petty ruler's line of sight. In more than a few cases, such as with Luces, Christians and Lumads purchased tracts from Muslims (in Luces case his father bought their rocky hillside from Andal Ampatuan Sr's father) only to have the Muslims re-claim it by force once it was cleared and productive.

When the Muslims refer to all Christians as "settlers," there can never be peace. I have never met a single Christian on Mindanao who denied that Muslims have a right to live in Central Mindanao. Conversely, I have never met a single Muslim on Mindanao who would concede that all Christians are NOT "settlers." Using that as a barometer I think it is possible to assign a greater responsibility to Filipino-Muslims. Co-existence is inevitable, Christian Mindanowans are not going to flee en masse. If the Filipino-Muslims refuse to co-exist then yes, I place the onus on them.