Collective and Social Identities in Philippine Peacebuilding: Does a Superordinate Bangsamoro Social Identity Mediate the Effects of Collective Ethnic Identity?

Abstract

When Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed the Comprehensive Agreement for the Bangsamoro in 2014, the country found itself looking at a possible end to the centuries-old Muslim-Christian conflict in Mindanao. The agreement proposed a Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), establishing a self-governing territory for Islamised ethnic groups in Mindanao. Moro refers to a Filipino Muslim. The proposed law asserted the unified identity of Muslim constituencies in Mindanao as a 'bangsa' Moro, or Moro nation. With distinguishable governing and identity provisions, the proposed BBL aimed to end intergroup violence between Christians and Muslims on the southern island of Mindanao. Unsurprisingly, many Christian Filipinos opposed the BBL, because of its provisions of power and wealth sharing in territories carved out for the Bangsamoro. However, what surprised BBL supporters was resistance among Moros themselves. In the western region of the proposed Bangsamoro areas, for instance, Moro leaders blocked the BBL on the grounds that they were excluded from the peace process. The Mindanao conflict has often been branded as a religious conflict between Muslims and Christians. We argue, however, that apparently religious conflicts go beyond differences in religious identities. (As noted in Ferguson and McKeown, the Northern Irish conflict between Catholics and Protestants also goes beyond differences in religious identities.) In many cases, underlying conflict during a peace process emerges from the differences in tribal identities like, for example, the ethnic identities of the Moro people. Using identity theory, more specifically, the concepts of collective and superordinate social identities, we aim to understand why those belonging to the Moro group are divided in their support of the BBL, in spite of their religious homogeneity as Muslims. In order to understand the play of collective and social identities among Mindanao's Islamised ethnic groups, we first need to review a brief history of the Mindanao conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)