The logics of insurgency in the Bangsamoro

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over sixty years of conflict in the Southern Philippines, between the government and separatist groups, have made Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago an area prone to violence. Armed groups in Bangsamoro and their historical antecedents have often local origins. Even the original rebellion of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) from which the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) emerged, the largest rebel force in the area and current leader of a transition government in the Bangsamoro, was a coalition of armed elements across Mindanao that organized together before becoming a stronger united front. The following article will describe the evolution of the armed rebellion in Mindanao and analyse its subsequent trajectory, proposing four reinforcing lenses to understand the various Moro insurgencies and explain local splintering and contradictions within the rebel movement.