As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuhu!
Friends, companions, my fellow citizens of Zamboanga, honoured guests and dignitaries, ladies and gentlemen, Buenas Dias con el todo!
This day, we mark the celebration of Bonifacio Day, the natal day of one of our bravest and most courageous national hero, Gat Andres Bonifacio, a true leader who had symbolized nationalism and liberty with so much fervor and intensity that in our history, no other personage had lived such blazing life as he had lived. He is one great hero that always remind us that the road towards peace and freedom is often the most daunting and perilous, as Bonifacio himself had lost his life, in the most brutal of manner, towards the cause of his Filipino brethren, for freedom and honor of Motherland.
It is but a consolation to say, as a Filipino bereft of any foreign control and subjugation - we all can say that Bonifacio’s death had not gone to naught after all.
Today also, in this very moment and time, we stand upon this ground that have been thrown into the whirlwind of confusion, into the bitter hands of conflict and chaos; Firstly, due to one woeful memory that had occurred just merely three years past, where in 2013, the Siege of Zamboanga was said to have been staged from this very island from where we all stand now, among several other outlying areas, within this island of Simariki, where armed MNLF combatants have first staged their insidious plan of attack, which in the days after, had proven to be tremendously destructive, ultimately disparaging and long-suffering; that on that one fateful dawn, when the sky was not yet kissed by the morning sun, the city had awaken to the rudest of all awakening, of what was seemingly the coming of a peaceful morning, had turned into the precursor of hellish troubles as blasting sound of gunfire swooshed into the early morning sky and the most terrible panic shook the hearts of the city’s citizen.
And yet, in this land of us, in the southern tip of the nation, the land of Mindanao continues to struggle for freedom, from violence and misunderstanding and disunity.
In a time of greatest communication, of advancement in space and Internet, we have belabored and had hoped to the fullest that peace and understanding could be attained finally, that we have finally reached our destination.
And yet the Siege of Zamboanga still had to happen; despite these arduous efforts towards the pursuit for lasting peace among men of different tribes and creed in our Island of Mindanao – this seemingly endless pursuit for peace and unity.
In a time of artful technology, the potentialities of human skill, of what the human mind could achieve, humankind had indeed achieve so many things, more than what was expected even by the most intelligent of men in decades past. Now we communicate through gadgets so small we hold it in our palms, converse even through the farthest lands, across the widest oceans. We have built satellites and voyagers that reached the farthest planets. We are even close to creating humans out of the cloned roots of a sheep.
Yet, in these times of advancement – have we achieve what every gadgetry and what every human wealth could not? Despite the advancement in human skills and abilities – have we achieved peace and understanding amongst us, amongst peoples, amongst different tribes and amongst different religion?
This is the longing question that asked and longed for an answer for so long now. I am not one to berate anyone else, or any other for these dissensions; in fact, I myself could be attributed how peace and conflicts still remains within our midst.
Yet, we do not choose to fail; we do not choose to retreat, for no matter how long is the path to peace, I believe that we should hold still, that no amount of armed conflict could dissuade us from reaching our destination, our ultimate goal of peace in our Fatherland.
Like a sailboat amidst gorging wind in a stormy weather, we will hold our sail down if we need to hold it down, and we will just let it fly again, and let sail if the rain and storm had stopped and calmed, and with the sunny weather, we will keep on sailing, and voyaging until we reach our promised land.
This long quest for peace reminds me of the journeys of my forefathers, the tribe of Samal-Banguingui, who had journeyed long distances throughout the seas of Southeast Asia, that had brought so many of us, including me, to these shores that we all live now.
If it would not be so much of a disturbance to you, let me narrate the humble beginnings and the ardous journeys that had been taken by my forefathers.
Simariki is also close to me and my family, and among the Samal banguingui tribesmen, as this is one of the known point of arrivals for the Banguingui tribesmen, coming from a journey of a thousand miles and a thousand waves, of a wave of emigration that began in the farthest part of Southeast Asia, from the Riau Islands of Indonesia, towards historically known localities that had served as land bridges that had finally brought us here in the flower city of Zamboanga, from Buan and Panglima Sugala in Tawi-Tawi, to Talipao and Tongkil islands in Sulu, towards here, and then even to a well-known island at the south of Mindanao, named after the tribe, the Samal island in Davao del Norte.
In fact, one of my forefathers, Baharaim Bandaying was buried here and holds great remembrance for me and members of my clan.
Our tribe, the Samal- Banguingui, is known to be peace-loving and civilized tribe that it is so infrequent that any of us might be heard to have created chaos or disturbance in the community. Humility and respect to others are traits that we hold dear in our hearts, learned from our elders, who scold us with bitterest and vilest of words if we happen to disrespect any of our fellowmen.
Yet, despite of these claims, which could be self-serving the most, and may you excuse me for my excesses if there would be – our tribe have also been embroiled in ancient conflicts and turmoil, the most memorable of which was the involvement of the Sultanate of Sulu in the civil war that had enveloped the Sultanate of Sulu in 1660, where in order to aid the besieged Sultan of Brunei Sultan Muhyiddin, then Sultan of Sulu Sultan Salahud-Din Bakhtiar had ordered his naval forces to come to the aid of the Bruneian sultan and according to historical narrative, it was this military aid that had become the key to turn the civil war into the side of the Bruneian sultanate, quelling rebellion and challenge to his throne that thereon, as a sign of greatest gratitude, the Sultan Muhyiddin had ceded the entire state of Sabah, one of its tributary, to the Sultan Bakhtiar.
The Samal-Banguingui were fervent voyager of the sea, zealous and comfortable with the sea wind that throughout the ancient histories of our lands, they have thrive as seafarers and sea traders, and had even been embroiled in not a few times, in the perilous occupation of sea pirates, creating havoc and chaos in the old seas of Southeast Asis, invoking fear and terror to navigators and shippers that had plied the routes within those seas.
During Spanish colonization, whence the Spanish military had repeatedly and incessantly attempted to take hold of the territories in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, the Sultan of Sulu had depended on his navy, the Samal-Banguinguis to quell these invasions, staging countermoves towards the shoes of Zamboanga and even as far away as Luzon up north.
And yet, this is not to unduly shore up our tribe my dear fellows, but it is with humility that I relay to you the struggles and challenges that had been faced by my forefathers, just in order to reach a destination of a thousand miles, of a thousand tears, of a thousand longings and sufferings - of a journey of the Samal-Banguingui tribe, that had begun hundreds of years ago in the Indonesian islands of Rhiu, per account by expert historians, towards the shore of Sabah, then in Buan island in Tawi-tawi, through the strongholds in Tongkil, then Basilan, and then here in Zamboanga, who along with the Subanens, we have been the original dwellers of these lands.
A journey that had led some of us towards Olutanga and then in Samal Island off the coast of Davao.
My friends and companions, it is my hope that our quest for peace, our aim for understanding amongst different tribe, race and religion, will find its long-sought destination, no matter how long and arduous the path may be, no matter if the seas connotes storms and hurricanes that bring our sails down, for in every storm, there would be calm and windy weather to come, and our voyage towards peace shall continue once again. Thank you very much to one and all!
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