When Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law 17 months ago, one of his major justifications was that only drastic measures could crush the insurrections that were plaguing the islands. Since then he has suppressed all political opposition, imposed strict press censorship and outlawed private possession of guns. Yet violent opposition to his regime has not only continued but burgeoned.
Moslem insurgents in the southwestern Sulu Archipelago, where the population is 95% Moslem, have recently mounted their largest attacks ever against the Manila government. Early last month the insurgents occupied the towns of Parang and Maimbung on Jolo Island. Then at dawn two weeks ago several hundred Moslem guerrillas infiltrated Jolo city, the island's chief town, while more than 1,500 attacked from outside. Taking government forces by surprise, they quickly overran the airport, occupied the headquarters of the 1st Army Brigade, and captured nearby Notre Dame College. The government counterattacked with more than 5,000 troops and ordered the city —whose population had been swollen to 80,000 by refugees—to be strafed by F-86 Sabre jets and bombarded by gunboats in the Sulu Sea and army units using mortars and 105-mm. howitzers.
After 20 hours of fighting, the rebels retreated. In their wake they left hundreds dead; the central marketplace, the Roman Catholic Cathedral and more than half of the town were in smoldering ruins. More than 25,000 refugees were without shelter, water and rice; another 35,000 fled by boat to Zamboanga on Mindanao—an island that itself is racked with Moslem insurgency.
For more than 400 years, the Moslems in the southern Philippines, who now number about 2.5 million, have resisted attempts by the country's predominantly Christian administration to govern them. In recent years they have violently opposed Manila's policy of encouraging Christian settlers to migrate south and buy Moslem land. It was in part to end this violence that Marcos imposed martial law. At that time he demanded that all citizens turn in their guns to the government. Many Moslems balked and called for creation of an independent Moslem state. They took to the hills, where they seemingly have an unlimited supply of ammunition, Belgian-made automatic rifles, light-and heavy-caliber machine guns and British-made hand grenades. So well armed are the rebels that they shot down two F-86 jets attempting to chase them from the hills.
Maoist Rebound. Unless Marcos is willing either to meet some of the Moslems' demands for greater self-rule or to commit most of his 70,000-man armed forces to massive search-and-destroy operations, the insurrection is likely to continue for a long time. So far he has shown little inclination to grant even minimal autonomy to the Moslems.
Marcos confronts other knotty challenges elsewhere. In the hill country of southern Luzon, the Maoist "New People's Army," which was severely weakened in the first months of martial law, has rebounded.
With the membership up to around 2,000, the Maoists terrorize local officials and hold propaganda sessions in the villages to urge establishment of a Peking-style government.