Julio Nalundasan killed by a Marcos bullet.
Jose Mariano killed by a Marcos bullet.
Lisa Balando killed by a Marcos bullet.
Edjop killed by a Marcos bullet.
Abdulla Gumbay killed by a Marcos bullet.
Ninoy Aquino killed by a Marcos bullet.
Mahasari Padukka Mawlana as-Sultan Mohammed Jamalul A’lam bin al-Marhum Mahasari Padukka as-Sultan Pulalun (there may not seem to be a connection between the person with this long name and Marcos but there is) was the Sultan of Sulu in 1878 when he ceded Sulu possessions in Borneo to the British North Borneo Company. He was paid $5,000 a year in Mexican currency for this hunk of territory. In exchange for the money, Mohammed Jamalul A’lam granted Baron Von Overbeck and the English merchant Mr. Alfred Dent ownership of the territory that would later become known as Sabah. The area we’re talking about has a coastline of over 300 miles and consists of over 30, 000 square miles. Something in Dent drove him to seek from the British Parliament a charter for the British North Borneo Company and obtain sovereign authority over Northern Borneo, which included the land he acquired from Mohammed Jamalul A’lam. The Sulus were united at the time and formed one entity and were loyal to the Sultan. But over them was Spain, who claimed that Mohammed Jamalul A’lam as a Spanish vassal couldn’t dispose of any of his territory without her consent. Then too, as in every instance, there was more than one way of looking at it.
The Sultan’s pen moved across the page as he wrote, “we” …he always used the royal “we” when he referred to himself … “irrefutably have nominated and appointed the said Baron Von Overbeck supreme and independent ruler of the above-named territories, with the title of Datu Bandahara and Rajah of Sandakan, with absolute power over life and death of the inhabitants of the country, with all of the absolute rights of property over the soil of the country vested in us and the rights to dispose of same over the production of the country, whether mineral, vegetable or animal, with the rights of making laws, coining money, creating an army and navy, levying custom dues on home and foreign trade, and shipping and other dues and taxes on the inhabitants as to him may seem good or expedient.” Thus the Sultan bestowed upon the baron more power than he ever dreamed of having. Separate interpretations of this move would bring the Philippines and Malaysia to the brink of war. There were few things Marcos ever did that were more pathetic than beating this drum and the subsequent massacre of Moro youth. To this atrocity we should add many others, but it was this massacre on Corregidor that radicalized so many future Jihadist. What could’ve halted Marcos? No one knows. It was definitely a tragedy. He was following a pattern that was established years before when he murdered his first man (Julio Nalundasan), but no one in the whole world could’ve conjured up what it would lead to. In vain he tried to stop the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. In vain others have also tried.
It’s hard to know what Mohammed Jamalul A’lam thought when he put down his pen. A Moro through and through he had every reason to hate and fear Spanish domination and by selling a portion of his territory to a British company maybe he hoped that he could strengthen his hand. It is ridiculous to think that he needed money, while those who knew him knew that he was a bold tactician. Then too maybe the money distracted him because later he accepted almost an equal amount from the Spanish in their attempt to buy peace. He could look out of his lattice-work window and as far as he could see know that he had dominion over all he could see (except the garrison and maybe the town). Standing on top of his walls he could see even further and knew with certainly that he was lord of the sea. He considered the Spanish garrison merely an intrusion and resented the invasion from the start. He didn’t believe that there would be peace until the Spanish were driven out. All of his subjects wanted them gone, none of them wanted what the Spanish had to offer. The Sultan listened to his people’s complaints. He remained opened to them and considered becoming a Juramentado and a martyr himself. There was no way of knowing what would’ve happened if he had. As it was common people didn’t wait for word from him to pick up their krises or barongs and hurl themselves at Spanish soldiers wherever they ran into them. And always did this in the name of Allah. And Mohammed Jamalul A’lam encouraged this and for years resisted all attempts to bring peace to the Sulus while his detractors, with the peculiar logic that peace was workable, urged him to sign a treaty with the Spanish.
Randy Ford
