The Ilaga (Visayan: rat) is a Christian militia in the Philippines that operated during the 1970s in Southern Mindanao that fought against Moro Islamist militia.[1] Increased tensions in the Philippines since 2008 have since seen the reemergence of the armed vigilante group calling themselves the Bag-ong Ilaga (Visayan: New Ilaga).[2] Since 2008 violence flared up with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Armed Forces of the Philippines after the Supreme Court of the Philippines overruled the proposed treaty for an Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. [1] [3] The group committed its bloodiest act in June 1971 when it massacred 65 civilians in a mosque. [4]
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Violence attributed to the Ilaga reached its bloodiest in June 1971 with the massacre of 65 men, women and children inside a mosque at Barangay Manili in Carmen, North Cotabato. The group was composed of untrained villagers used by the military to attack Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) communities. Some members reportedly cut off the ears of dead Muslims and wore them around their necks as trophies. One senior member, Norberto Manero, aka Kumander Bukay, also gained notoriety in the 1980s after he was convicted of murdering Italian priest Tullio Favali whom he had suspected of having links with communist insurgents. Santiago (spokesperson of the Reform Ilaga Movement), who is in his mid-60s, claimed that his group had at least 10,000 armed members and 10,000 more supporters. At the press conference, the Philippine Daily Inquirer saw some 300 armed men present. Some fighters had amulets, which, Santiago said, “came from their elders during the time of Commander Toothpick.” The amulets are believed to lose their powers when a person using it had done something bad. “Our instruction to them is not to go to battle if they have done something wrong against other people. To follow God’s commandments to avoid accidents that may lead to their deaths,” Santiago said.