Yours truly, Abdel Aziz Dimapunong

Thank you for visiting my pulpit in Cyberspace. This blog is about self-defense
concerning malicious postings. It is also about the world of Islamic banking and
the Islamic bankers. And many more.

Wednesday,
Wednesday, February 21, 2007

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
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.
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.

Posted by Abdel Aziz Dimapunong at 8:28 PM

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About Me

Abdel Aziz Dimapunong

Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines
Founding chairman and c.e.o., Al Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the
Philippines; Chancellor, Islamic Banking Research Institute, Chairman, Muslim
Filipino Chamber of Agriculture and Fisheries, Inc. Imam, Masjid Al Khairi,
Maharlika, Manila.
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Yours truly, Abdel Dimapunong

My weblinks
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Blog Archive
• ▼ 2009 (1)
o ▼ February (1)

The most captivating declaration in America

• ► 2007 (14)
o ► June (3)

Fitting the Islamic Bank in the Arab Emirates

Fitting the Islamic Bank in the Arab Emirates

Kampac Oil agreement with Islamic Bank
o ► May (1)

Votes of confidence for President Arroyo
o ► April (3)

The General Banking Law of 2000 and Islamic bankin...

Marketing Phantasma

Get well wish card for Mike Arroyo
o ► March (2)

Mr. Diesel and the original biofuel visionaries ...

Senator Tamano and Islamic banking
o ► February (3)

My Fairbanks and Deutz

Maranaw, a province that never was

700 years of Muslim identity in Philippines
o ► January (2)

Sambolayang, Maranaw flag of pageantry

My feel of Masjid al Haram

• ► 2006 (16)
o ► December (3)

Eidul Adha, a Muslim holiday

Eidul Adha, a Muslim holiday

Christmas Greetings
o ► November (2)

Growing travel restrictions

The Islamic Bank as a chartered bank
o ► October (3)

Ahmad Muhammad Ali, banker par excellence

Muhammad Faisal, banker par excellence

Saleh Abdullah Kamel, banker par excellence
o ► September (4)

Pope Benedict XVI regrets

Rejoinder on Islamic Bank in RP

Issues about Amanah Islamic Bank

The Islamic Bank as Investment House
o ► August (4)

Privatizing the Amanah Islamic Bank

Islamic Banking in Philippines

My Jewish good friends,

Yours truly, Abdel

Allah
Allaho Ahad

Abdel Dimapunong

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