A year on, Zamboanga’s tragedy continues

What has come to be known as the Siege of Zamboanga started exactly a year ago today, when heavily armed men materialized seemingly from out of nowhere and began to march to Zamboanga’s City Hall. The gunmen had planned to raise the flag of the Bangsamoro Republik, proclaimed in Sulu several days earlier by the founder and former moving spirit of the Moro National Liberation Front, Nur Misuari.

Misuari had sent fighters from his faction in the MNLF to Zamboanga to force a confrontation with the Aquino government, which was working on a peace agreement with the MNLF’s archrival, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Misuari was chafing at his being shoved off the stage of Mindanao politics, and wanted to prove that he still wielded enough power and influence to challenge the government.