The New Settlers: Mindanao Muslims Head North

Challenges

In Manila, many Muslims have seen their fortunes change. Their livelihoods have flourished and their finances have improved. Yet for many, life remains a constant struggle.

Amina and Mosrifah no longer worry about what food to put on the table. Instead they worry about their safety. Both claim to be abducted and held for ransom by members of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

On a late Sunday afternoon in May 2006, Amina was on her way home to Quezon City from a beach excursion in Cavite. While traversing Tandang Sora Avenue, a group of armed men waved to stop her vehicle. Five of them got up and demanded the driver to step out. The strangers quickly commandeered the van.

The men identified themselves as police officers and said they were arresting Amina for involvement in illegal drugs. None of them, however, showed an arrest warrant.

At the police station, another police officer who Amina alleges failed to identify himself, accused her of being a head of a drug syndicate in Tandang Sora’s Culiat village, known for Muslim settlers from Mindanao.

“Sabi niya, drug queen daw ako sa Barangay Culiat (The officer said I was a drug queen in Culiat village) ,” Amina recalls.

She was told that a criminal case had already been readied against her but that she could escape the charges if she handed over PhP 600,000 (USD 13,636).

Amina who claims never to have been involved in any illegal activity told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project that she was left frightened, confused and intimidated. She called her relatives and appealed for help. Together they raised more than PhP 300,000 (USD 6,818).

The police officer accepted the ‘offer’ and Amina found herself freed four days after her ‘arrest.’ No case was ever filed against her during her detention but she was threatened she would be killed if she reported the incident.

Mosrifah tells a similar story: One day, also in 2006, armed men suddenly jumped out of a maroon van parked outside her store and pushed her inside their vehicle.

With each brandishing a gun, the men took her jewelry, cellular phone and purse. Mosrifah reports being scared for her life believing any sudden or rash move she made might be her last. Her abductees introduced themselves as police officers who were arresting her for selling drugs — but that she would be freed and the charges dropped if she paid a million pesos (USD 22,727). She was driven around in the back of the van for what seemed like hours.

Luckily for her, her relatives had alerted the government’s Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA), which immediately got in touch with senior officials of the PNP. Mosrifah believes the officers in the front of the van must have gotten wind of an attempt by their superiors in the PNP to plant a trap for them and so she was dumped in Cubao without any ransom changing hands.