Maranaw, a province that never was

Maranaw

province in a dream

By Abdel Aziz Dimapunong

Photo credit: National Commission for Culture and the Arts

Saranao was the province where I was born in 1950. Saranaw was the word for Ranao in the verbiage of Maranao balladeers. Maranao may also be spelled as Maranaw or Meranao. To the general public, Saranao was simply Ranao. To those who come from somewhere else, Ranao was and still is Lanao. Like a coin, it has now two sides: Lanao Del Sur and Lanao Del Norte. There was supposedly a third side, the proposed Maranaw province under House Bill No. 3559 and later Republic Act No. 6406. But this law was never implemented. It was among the casualties of Martial law that was declared by President Ferdinand Marcos.

Saranao was the original Lanao Del Norte and Lanao Del Sur combined. It had a colorful history. When the Spaniards first explored Ranao in 1689, they found a community of Maranaws in Dansalan, the commercial center of Ranao. Dansalan is a Maranao word that indicates a place where the waves wash the shore. It is also the place where the boats converge, a port of call for the canoes. Dansalan was the place, beside lake Lanao, where Maranaos and their merchandise can enter or leave the market place of the people around Ranao.

Dansalan under the American Regime

The Spaniards merely explored Ranao in 1689. They were not able to penetrate this land-locked Moro territory. They were never able to established sovereignty in this part of the Philippines. They were turned off to find that the Maranaos were and still are Muslims whom they called Moros.

In 1898, a conflict in Cuba between the Spaniards and the Americans led to a war between them. It was an irony that this war was fought not in America nor in Spain nor in Cuba but in the Philippines. The Americans fought the Spaniards when Commodore George Dewey blasted Spain’s Far Eastern Fleet into oblivion on May 1, 1898. This is known as the Battle of Manila Bay. Eventually the Americans took over the Philippines after it was surrendered to them by the Spaniards on August 13, 1898. On that date, the Philippines was surrendered to the American forces by the Spaniards after that short “little war”.

But the United States was not alone in its interest in the Philippine Islands. European colonialism was at high tide in that era. Both Britain and Germany had potent naval forces in the area, ready for territorial grabbing of any loose land they could find. In order to preempt any other foreign interest, US President William McKinley issued his Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation on December 21, 1898. The Proclamation declared that USA would assume control and disposition of the government of the Philippines.

In December of 1898 a defeated Spain ceded the islands to the United States for a prize of US$ 20 million. America then took possession and decided to protect the Filipinos until they were ready for self-government. But the Filipinos, especially the Moros did not see it that way. They had been revolting against the Spaniards before the Americans arrived, and in February of 1899 they started shooting up the Americans as they did with the Spaniards.

Under the American regime, Dansalan became a municipality in 1907 and the province of Lanao was one of the districts of the Moro province. Lanao became a province itself in 1914 under the Department of Mindanao and Sulu.

Dansalan became a city in 1940. The inauguration did not take place because the Second World War intervened. Philippine sovereignty was handed back to the Filipinos only in 1946. After the war, Dansalan was officially inaugurated in 1950.

In 1956, Republic Act NO. 1352 changed the name of Dansalan to Marawi.

Clearly then, to the scholars of history, Ranao and Lanao are to Philippine history as Mumbai and Bombay are to the history of India. Bombay is now officially known as Mumbai. I wish that Lanao will one day be returned back to its origin as Ranao, if not Saranao or Maranaw. Only then would the Maranaws be able to retrieve what they seemed to have lost in history.

In May 1959, Lanao was divided into two provinces by virtue of Republic Act No. 2228. The division was done by creating the province of Lanao Del Norte out of the old province of Lanao. Iligan city became the capital of Lanao Del Norte. What remains of Lanao was then called Lanao Del Sur with Marawi City as its capital.

In 1971, House Bill No. 3559 was passed in the Congress of the Philippines for a proposal to create the proposed Maranaw Province. Years had passed but Maranaw province existed only in a congressional document, known as Republic Act No. 6406.

In 1980, Marawi city was renamed the Islamic City of Marawi, the only chartered city in the Philippines with a predominantly Muslim population. In a 1989 plebiscite, Lanao Del Sur voted to join the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) but Marawi City elected to remain outside of ARMM.

In 1993 the opinion of the Secretary of Justice on RA 6406 document was requested. Accordingly, the Secretary of Justice has given a positive opinion for the feasibility of the implementation of RA No. 6406, entitled “An Act dividing the Province of Lanao Del Sur into the Provinces of Maranaw and Lanao Del Sur”.

It has been more than three decades but Maranaw province existed only in a document. For this reason, Grande Dianaton of the Maranao Cultural Heritage believes that Republic Act No. 6406 should now belong to the site, the “MaranaoMuseum”. Below is a copy of Republic Act No. 6406.

Republic Act No. 6406

October 04, 1971

AN ACT DIVIDING THE PROVINCE OF LANAO DELS SUR INTO

THE PROVINCES OF MARANAW AND LANADO DEL SUR

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress Assembled:

Section 1. The Province of Lanao del Sur is hereby divided into two provinces to be known as Maranaw and Lanao del Sur, in the following manner: The Province of Maranaw shall consist of that portion of the present Province of Lanao del Sur which comprises the municipalities of Masiu, Poona-Bayabao, Lumba-Bayabao, Wao, Tamparan, Marantao, Kapai, Bubong, Ramain-Ditsaan, Mulondo, Saguiaran, Piagapo and Taraka. The Province of Lanao del Sur shall consist of that remaining portion of the present Province of Lanao del Sur which comprises the municipalities of Lumbatan, Butig, Binidayan, Bayang, Tubaran, Tugaya, Pagayawan, Pualas, Balabagan, Mala-bang, Ganassi, Madalum, Madamba, Bacolod Grande and Balindong.

Sec. 2. The capital of the Province of Maranaw shall be the City of Marawi, and that of the Province of Lanao del Sur shall be the Municipality of Malabang.

Sec. 3. Except as hereinafter provided, all provisions of the law now or hereafter applicable to regular provinces shall be applicable to the Provinces of Maranaw and LanaoDelSur.

Sec. 4. The new provinces as provided in this Act shall come into existence upon the election and qualification of their first elective provincial officials, who shall be elected in a special election simultaneously with the general elections of November, nineteen hundred and seventy-three.

Sec. 5. For purposes of the special election mentioned in Section four hereof, the provincial board of canvassers of the present Province of Lanao del Sur shall act as the provincial board of canvassers for the provinces herein created.

Sec. 6. For the purposes of congressional representation and provincial elections, the City of Marawi shall be included in the Province of Maranaw.

Sec. 7. The funds, obligations and the assets of all kinds of the present Province of Lanao del Sur subsisting at the time of the effectivity of the creation of the two provinces herein created shall be divided and distributed between the two provinces in proportion to the total income of the municipalities comprising each of these provinces for the fiscal year nineteen hundred seventy-two and nineteen hundred seventy-three: Provided, however, That if the obligation had been contracted to finance a project located in one of the two new provinces, the said province shall be responsible exclusively for such obligation.

Sec. 8. The present employees of the Province of Lanao del Sur whose salaries are paid out of provincial funds shall pertain to either of the provinces herein created according to the municipality wherein said employees are registered voters and actually voted therein during the general elections of nineteen hundred sixty-nine; otherwise, they shall pertain to the Province of Lanao del Sur.

Sec. 9. This Act shall take effect immediately upon its approval.

Approved, October 4, 1971.