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| The eastern province of Surigao del Sur, on the southern island of Mindanao, in the Philippines, is populated primarily by Christians. |
| Not too far southwest, Muslims dominate, and they have been fighting for independence from the Christian-controlled government in Manila since Magellan landed in 1521. The Spanish called the locals "Moros", after the Moors they had encountered in earlier times in Europe. Unlike the Moors, who were Arabs, Mindanaon muslims are converted people of Malay-Indonesian origin. There are numerous American military advisers in the area. |
| VIEW PHOTOS ( THE PEOPLE ) |
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| Brief Background History |
| Threats here are mostly limited to run-of-the-mill crime, banditry on the roads, and occasional attacks on buses and passenger vans by communist insurgents. Philippine Army posts are numerous although many are unmanned, while others feature young soldiers armed with machine guns. Road barricades, clearly marked with large STOP signs, do not impede traffic at highway speed. Drivers simply honk, presumably signaling that they are no threat. |
Bislig faces the Philippine Sea and is roughly 250 km northeast of Davao, the largest city in Mindanao, and 200 km south of Butuan, the port city in the north. While there is a good road connecting these two important places, the spur roads leading off to the sea from Compostela Valley are nothing but logging roads through the jungle, interrupted only by occasional short strips of concrete, which give false hope to the first-time traveller that the "shake, rattle and roll" ordeal is over. It takes three hours, six when it rains, from the main road to Bislig. The local Coca-Cola distributor talks about hundreds of broken bottles on every truck he brings to town; one of the many ways the condition of these roads affects life here. There is one mosque, compared with dozens of fundamentalist churches and the magnificent Catholic Church on the highest hill overlooking the bay.
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