Early history and arrival of Islam ,
Maguindanao and Lanao For the most part of Philippines' history, the region and most of
Mindanao have been a separate territory, which enabled it to develop its own culture and identity. The westernmost and west-central areas have been the traditional homeland of
Muslim Filipinos since the 15th century, even before the arrival of the Spanish, who began to colonize most of the Philippines in 1565. The majority of Mindanao was the homeland of indigenous
Lumad groups, who were neither
Christians nor
Muslims. Sunni Sufi scholars from the
Ba 'Alawi sada who were also
merchant arrived in
Tawi-Tawi in 1380 and started doing business while also preaching Islam teaching to the native of the area which led to the conversion of the native population to
Islam. In 1457, the
Sultanate of Sulu was founded, and not long after that, the sultanates of
Maguindanao and
Buayan were also established. At the time when most of the Philippines was under
Spanish rule, these sultanates maintained their independence and regularly challenged Spanish domination of the Philippines by conducting raids on Spanish coastal towns in the north and repulsing repeated Spanish incursions in their territory. It was not until the last quarter of the 19th century that the Sultanate of Sulu formally recognized Spanish
suzerainty, but these areas remained loosely controlled by the Spanish as their sovereignty was limited to military stations and garrisons and pockets of civilian settlements in
Zamboanga and
Cotabato, until they had to abandon the region as a consequence of their defeat in the
Spanish–American War.
Spanish and American colonial rule (Palace of Flowers) in
Maimbung,
Sulu before it was destroyed by a typhoon in 1932. The
Moros had a history of resistance against Spanish, American, and Japanese rule for over 400 years. The violent armed struggle against the
Japanese,
Filipinos,
Spanish, and
Americans is considered by modern Moro Muslim leaders as part of the four centuries long "national liberation movement" of the Bangsamoro (Moro Nation), although the term is only used in mainland Mindanao as those in the
Sulu archipelago had a much distinct culture. The 400-year-long resistance against the Japanese, Americans, and Spanish by the Moro Muslims persisted and morphed into a war for independence against the Philippine state. The Filipinos in the northern and central Philippines either volunteered or were forced to surrender the existing city-states to become a part of the Spanish regime except for the islands occupied by the Muslims in the southern Philippines. The three-century rule of the Spaniards did not result in the full conquest of the archipelago due to the resistance of the Moros. The violence and brutality of the Spaniards in their attempts to suppress the Moro groups have resulted in killing numerous families and setting villages on fire. The United States'
Insular Government of the Philippine Islands had only been in existence for two years in 1903 when it initiated the "Homestead Program," which was meant to encourage migration of landless populations from non-Muslim areas of the country into the Muslim-majority areas in Mindanao.
Lanao and
Cotabato in particular saw an influx of migrants from
Luzon and
Visayas. This influx of migrants led to tensions about land ownership and disenfranchisement of Lumads and Muslims, because the mostly-Christian migrants established claims on the land, whereas the native peoples of Mindanao did not have a land titling system in place at the time. This US-led
Homestead Program, which was later continued or copied by Philippine administrations after independence, is therefore often cited as one of the root-causes of what would later become the larger
Moro conflict. In 1942, during the early stages of the
Pacific War of the Second World War, troops of the
Japanese Imperial Forces invaded and overran Mindanao, and the native
Moro Muslims waged an insurgency against the Japanese. Three years later, in 1945, combined
United States and
Philippine Commonwealth Army troops
liberated Mindanao, and with the help of local guerrilla units, ultimately defeated the Japanese forces occupying the region.
Postwar era Under pressure to resolve agrarian unrest in various parts of the country and noting that Mindanao was rich in mineral resources and weather favorable to agriculture, later Philippine presidents continued the promotion of migration which the American colonial government began in 1903. Massive arrivals of non-Muslim migrants happened particularly during the Commonwealth period under President
Manuel Quezon and later under
right-wing presidents
Ramon Magsaysay and
Ferdinand Marcos. As a result, the proportion of indigenous peoples in Mindanao to shrink from majority in 1913 to minority by 1976. The resettlement programme was not entirely peaceful as some settlers managed to obtain land from the native Muslims through harassment and other violent efforts which drove the Muslims out of their own lands. The Muslims felt alienated by the Philippine government and felt threatened by the migrants' economic and political domination in their own homeland, the same way the Lumads were displaced centuries ago when Islam arrived in the Philippines. Some Muslim groups turned to extortion and violence to protect their land and avoid being displaced. These activities prevented the Muslims from easily integrating with the rest of the country. The Philippine government did not immediately recognize Islamic laws which resulted in the system of education and the socioeconomic development of the Muslims. Children studying in public schools were forced to learn about Christianity while the Bangsamoros struggled with their economy, land, and ownership, and the persistence of hostile and unjust actions compared to the Christian communities in Mindanao. These politicians lost much of the capabilities they had possessed initially to manage the Muslim populace.
Moro conflict In March 1968, fishermen in
Manila Bay rescued a Muslim man named Jibin Arula from the waters. They discovered that he had suffered from gunshot wounds, and he later recounted that he was the lone survivor of what would later be termed the "
Jabidah Massacre." According to Jibin Arula's account, the
Marcos administration had gathered a group of
Tausūg recruits for an operation called "Project Merdeka" (
merdeka being the Malay "freedom"). The military began training them on the island of
Corregidor to form a secret
commando unit called
Jabidah, which would destabilize and take over
Sabah. The trainees eventually rejected their mission, for reasons that are still debated by historians today. Jibin Arula said that whatever the reasons behind their objections, all of the recruits aside from him were killed, and he escaped only by pretending to be dead. In Lanao del Sur, Domocao Alonto established the Ansar El Islam (Helpers of Islam) along with Sayyid Sharif Capt. Kalingalan Caluang, Rashid Lucman, Salipada Pendatun, Hamid Kamlian, Udtog Matalam, and Atty. Macapantun Abbas Jr. Accordingly, "it is a mass movement for the preservation and development of Islam in the Philippines". The advocacy of Ansar El Islam would, later on, inspire the creation of the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the MILF. Then
Lanao del Sur congressman
Rashid Lucman called for
Congress to begin proceedings to
impeach President Marcos after the exposé implied that Marcos was ultimately responsible for the massacre. When his proposal didn't get enough congressional support, he became convinced that Muslims should rule themselves in Muslim Mindanao - a conviction which led him to eventually establish the Bangsamoro Liberation Organization (BMLO), which later joined forces with the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). saw the anger of the Muslim people of Mindanao and established the
Muslim Independence Movement (MIM), which openly called for the
secession of the region to create a Muslim state. The MIM did not last long because Datu Udtog Matalam negotiated with Marcos and accepted a post in his cabinet, but many of its members broke away and became the main force of the MNLF. On September 23, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos announced that he had placed the entirety of the Philippines, including Muslim Mindanao, under
martial law. During this tumultuous period, relationships and alliances played a critical role in shaping the events. Tun Mustapha, then Chief Minister of Sabah, shared a common lineage with Sayyid Capt. Kalingalan “Apuh Inggal” Caluang, both tracing their ancestry back to the Sultans of Sulu. This shared heritage fostered a close bond between the two leaders, promoting goodwill and cooperation between their respective territories. With Tun Mustapha's support, the first cadre of MNLF fighters, including figures like Al Hussein Caluang, received training in Sabah after their time in Luuk, Sulu (now known as Kalingalan Caluang). While Datu Udtog Matalam's MIM was already defunct, one of its former members,
Nur Misuari, established the MNLF a month after the declaration of Martial Law, on October 21, 1972.
Peace process On December 23, 1976, the
Tripoli Agreement was signed between the Philippine government and the
MNLF with the deal brokered by then-Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi. Under a deal an autonomous region was to be created in Mindanao. Marcos would later implement the agreement by creating two regional autonomous governments, rather than one, in Regions 9 and 12, In signing the 1976 Tripoli Agreement, however, Misuari did not consult one of the MNLF's key commanders,
Salamat Hashim. Salamat formed a
splinter faction along with 57 other MNLF ground commanders, which then became the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). A year after Marcos was ousted from power during the
People Power Revolution, the government under President
Corazon Aquino signed the 1987
Jeddah Accord in
Saudi Arabia with the MNLF, agreeing to hold further discussions on the proposal for autonomy to the entirety of Mindanao and not just the thirteen provinces stated in the 1976 Tripoli Agreement. In 1989, however, an act establishing the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was passed. The MNLF demanded that the thirteen Tripoli Agreement provinces, majority of which were Christian provinces, be included in the ARMM, but the government refused; eight of those provinces were predominantly
Christian. Shortly thereafter, the government held only four provinces as only
Lanao del Sur,
Maguindanao,
Sulu and
Tawi-tawi voted to be included in the ARMM. The four provinces were the only Muslim-majority provinces at the time. which included plans regarding the establishment of a new autonomous region. In 2012, Aquino announced intentions to establish a new autonomous political entity to be named
Bangsamoro to replace the
ARMM, which he called a "failed experiment". Under his administration, a draft for a Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) was formulated but failed to gain traction to become law, owing in part to the
Mamasapano clash that occurred in January 2015
Creation of Bangsamoro during the January 21 BOL plebiscite. Under the presidency of Aquino's successor,
Rodrigo Duterte, a new draft for the BBL was made and became legislated into law as the
Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) in 2018. The provincial government of
Sulu, where majority voted against inclusion, was also not in favor of the law, with its governor challenging the
constitutionality of the law before the
Supreme Court. Despite voting against inclusion, Sulu was still included in the Bangsamoro region due to rules stated in the BOL, sparking outrage from residents. In February 2019, the second round of the plebiscite was held in the province of
Lanao del Norte and some towns in
Cotabato. The plebiscite resulted in the inclusion of 63 of 67
barangays in Cotabato that participated. It also resulted in the rejection from the province of Lanao del Norte against the bid of six of its Muslim-majority towns to join the Bangsamoro, despite the six towns (
Balo-i,
Munai,
Nunungan,
Pantar,
Tagoloan and
Tangcal) opting to join the Bangsamoro by a sheer majority, with one town even voting for inclusion by 100%. A major camp of the MILF was within the Muslim areas of Lanao del Norte.
Transition process sounds the
agung during the inauguration of Bangsamoro. He is joined by Chief Minister
Murad Ebrahim. With the ratification of the BOL following the plebiscite on January 21, 2019, the abolition process of the ARMM began, paving way for the setting up of the Bangsamoro autonomous region. Under the BOL, a transitional body, the
Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), was organized pending the election of the new region's government officials in 2022. The second part of the plebiscite held on February 6, 2019, expanded the scope of the future Bangsamoro region to include 63 barangays in Cotabato. The members of the BTA took their oaths on February 22, 2019, along with the ceremonial confirmation of the plebiscite results of both the January 21, and February 6, 2019, votes. The official turnover from the ARMM to BARMM took place on February 26, 2019, which meant the full abolition of the former. The inauguration of BARMM and the inaugural session of the Bangsamoro Parliament took place on March 29, 2019.
Murad Ebrahim took office as the region's first chief minister. In 2020, the Bangsamoro parliament requested that the BTA be extended for an additional three years past 2022, to allow further time for the transition. On October 28, 2021, Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11593, postponing BARMM's first regular parliamentary elections from 2022 to 2025. The law also extended the transition period of the Bangsamoro until 2025. Following
a plebiscite on September 17, 2022,
Maguindanao was split into two provinces;
Maguindanao del Sur and
Maguindanao del Norte. On September 9, 2024, the
Supreme Court ruled against the constitutionality of the inclusion of
Sulu in BARMM due to the simple majority of residents voting against the province's inclusion in the region during the
2019 Bangsamoro autonomy plebiscite. The status of which administrative region Sulu belongs to is unclear although the
Commission on Elections en banc had the consensus that Sulu should revert to the
Zamboanga Peninsula, the region it belonged to prior its inclusion in the ARMM back in 1989. Sulu was formally reverted to Zamboanga Peninsula by the virtue of Executive Order No. 91, signed by President
Bongbong Marcos on July 30, 2025. ==Administrative divisions==