On the eve of Ramadan, Filipino Muslims perform Dhuhr or midnoon prayer at Golden Mosque in Globo de Oro in Quiapo Manila. Muslims in the world will celebrate a monthlong Ramadan where they perform fasting and other Islamic rites to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad according to Islamic belief. INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
NORTH COTABATO 鈥� A week before the start of Ramadan, Saguila Kandong had stacked up on bullets for his Armalite rifle.
The 54-year-old Kandong is a member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in one of the towns of the province.
鈥淚t has become our tradition to greet the start of Ramadan with gunfire,鈥� he said.
By Kandong鈥檚 account, the firing of guns should have started on Thursday in his village.
But not a single shot had been fired on that day and no one will fire his gun, too, on Friday, he said.
鈥淲ell, the kanduli (thanksgiving banquet) pushed through on Thursday but no more firing today and on Friday,鈥� he said.
Kandong said what made him decide not to fire his gun was President Rodrigo Duterte鈥檚 declaration of martial law.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l never know. My village is not an MNLF camp so if we fired our gun, the soldiers might come,鈥� he said.
Kandong said his neighbors and fellow MNLF members were also not firing any bullet.
Amir Tugas, who lived in an adjacent village from Kandong鈥檚, was a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) member.
Like Kandong, he, too, did not dare fire his gun.
鈥淚t鈥檚 better this way,鈥� Tugas said at the pre-Ramadan feast that he and Kandong attended, adding that his father had told him how soldiers came in their village in 1972 and searched all over the place.
鈥淭he situation might get repeated if the Army heard us firing our guns,鈥� he said.
In nearby Maguindanao, guns appear to have been silent, too.
鈥淚f there was any gun fired, it might have been in far-away villages that we never heard any,鈥� said Abdul Kapiton, who worked in a banana plantation near Datu Paglas town. 鈥擜LLAN NAWAL, CHARLIE SE脩ASE