Philippines: February 21, 2005

Archives

Fighting Moslem separatists in the south this month has left 30 soldiers and over 40 rebels dead so far. This fighting is the latest violence in several centuries of  battles between Moslem and non-Moslem peoples in the region. The Moslem population in the southern Philippines resent the Christian Filipinos who have been settling in the area for the last century. Another point of conflict is the corruption and lack of jobs in the region. The corruption is a national problem, but was made worse when the government made peace with one group of Moslem separatists in the 1990s, with the promise of economic aid to the south. There was money made available, but most of it was wasted, or stolen, by government officials. These included former Moslem separatist leaders who had been given government jobs. This, in turn, caused Islamic radicalism to become more popular, as many southerners now believed only radical social change could break the cycle of corruption and economic backwardness. But this is only a minority opinion, with most of the Moslem population hostile to Islamic radicalism.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close