MANILA: We are Filipino and Bangsamoro. This was the answer Nur Misuari, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, gave when asked if Moros consider themselves Filipinos.

In an exclusive interview with The Inquirer, Misuari said: “Our people would like to call themselves as Filipino and a Bangsamoro citizen. They cannot do away with their identity as a Moro or as a Bangsamoro. We are Filipinos at the same time Bangsamoro. We are Bangsamoro at the same time Filipinos. We are part of a larger nation.” “That’s how we look at ourselves. We cannot do away with our identity as Bangsamoro people even as we say we are also Filipinos,” he added.

“Officially, we are citizens of the Philippines. But if you ask our people and also many knowledgeable Filipinos, they will tell you that this country is composed of two nations, the Filipino nation and the Bangsamoro nation that was born much, much longer. We were very much ahead in this part of the world. This is the reality here,” he said.

Misuari recognized that the question of identity is at the heart of the conflict in Mindanao, and progress to the country’s poorest population is key to solving this conflict. “I think it is not useful to raise this very sensitive question. It is important we live in harmony with each other to promote peace, economic progress, and prosperity, make citizens happy, harmonious, contented, so on and so forth,” he said.

“But if we allow our people to remain in the backwater of economic and social and cultural development, with money to be concentrated in Luzon and Visayas at the expense of Mindanao when we are contributing a huge portion to budget, people should expect there will be perpetual crisis in Mindanao,” he added. Misuari called for the establishment of a more equitable system that treats everyone fairly. “That’s why we are proposing that changes should lead to the creation of an egalitarian state where there is no more discrimination, no more exploitation, that no single sector will say we are superior, more educated, etc. That should not be allowed to come to the fore because (that would) instigate some kind of reaction. Government should treat us with justice,” he said.