The Malisbong Masjid or H. Hamsa Tacbil Mosque massacre, also called the Palimbang massacre, was the

mass murder Mass murder is the violent crime of murder, killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more ...

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Moros In Greek mythology, Moros /ˈmɔːrɒs/ or Morus /ˈmɔːrəs/ (Ancient Greek: Μόρος means 'doom, fate') is the personified spirit of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate. It was also said that Moros gave people the abi ...

by units of the Philippine military on September 24, 1974, in the coastal village of Malisbong in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat,

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

. Accounts compiled by the Moro Women's Center in

General Santos General Santos, officially the City of General Santos and abbreviated as GenSan, is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Regions of the Philippines, region of Soccsksargen, Philippines. According to ...

state that 1,500 male Moros aged 11–70 were killed inside a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, 3,000 women and children aged 9–60 were detained – with the women being raped – and that 300 houses were razed by the government forces. The massacre occurred two years after

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

declared

martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

in September 1972. The massacre started after the first four days on the fast of

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

when members of the

Philippine Army The Philippine Army (PA) () is the main, oldest and largest branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), responsible for ground warfare. , it had an estimated strength of 143,100 soldiers The service branch was established on December ...

arrived and captured barangay officials along with 1,000 other Muslims. For more than a month, the military murdered residents of the area. Testimonies show that victims were made to strip and dig their own graves before being killed by gunshot.

Remuneration for victims

In 2011, the

Moro Islamic Liberation Front The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF; ) is an Islamist group based in Mindanao, Philippines, which sought an autonomous region of the Moro people from the central government. The group has a presence in the Bangsamoro region of Mindanao, t ...

sought compensation for the Moro victims of martial law violence in the wake of the distribution of $7.5 million in compensation for more than 1,000 individuals who filed a class action suit against the Marcoses. The MILF claimed that thousands of Moros were killed in massacres such as what took place in Malisbong, perpetrated by soldiers and state-sponsored paramilitary forces during martial law. These included the Manili massacre,

Tacub massacre The Tacub massacre was the mass murder of a group of Muslim Moros by Philippine government troops at a military checkpoint on October 24, 1971. The Moros were returning from attempting to vote in a special election; they had been turned away b ...

Patikul massacre The Patikul massacre refers to an event that took place on October 10, 1977 in Patikul, Sulu province in the Philippines. Thirty-five officers and men of the Philippine Army were killed by elements of the Moro National Liberation Front under Us ...

, and Pata Island massacre. In 2014, the

Philippine government The government of the Philippines () has three interdependent branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The Philippines is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative and democratic constitutional repub ...

finally recognized 1,500 Moro residents of Malisbong village killed in the massacre as martial law victims. Representatives of the

Commission on Human Rights A human rights commission, also known as a human relations commission, is a body set up to investigate, promote or protect human rights. The term may refer to international, national or subnational bodies set up for this purpose, such as nationa ...

helped facilitate the claims of the survivors and the families of the massacre victims to the

Php PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

10 billion fund set by the government for the

indemnification In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

victims during the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos, in keeping with the provisions of Republic Act No. 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013.

In popular culture

'' Forbidden Memory'' is a 2016 film based on the Malisbong massacre, directed by Davao-based

Maguindanao Maguindanao (; Maguindanaon: ''Dairat nu Magindanaw''; Iranun: ''Perobinsia a Magindanao''; ) was a province of the Philippines located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). From 2014 to 2022, its provincial capital ...

filmmaker Gutierrez Mangansakan. It won Best Documentary from the three finalists in the 12th

Cinema One Originals The Cinema One Originals Film Festival, commonly known as Cinema One Originals, was an independent film festival in the Philippines organized by ABS-CBN Films. The festival was held annually in the month of November in Quezon City, showcasin ...

, the annual film festival sponsored by

Cinema One Cinema One (also called C1 and stylized as C1NEMAONE) is a Philippine pay television channel targeted to the Filipino diaspora. It is owned by Creative Programs Inc., a subsidiary of Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN Corporation. Its prog ...

Denial

Rigoberto Tiglao Rigoberto "Bobi" Dikit Tiglao (born August 27, 1952) is a Filipino activist and opinion columnist. He was previously editor-in-chief of Inq7.net, a website jointly owned by the Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA Network before resigning his po ...

and

Juan Ponce Enrile Juan Valentin Furagganan Ponce Enrile Sr., (born Juan Valentin Furagganan; February 14, 1924), also referred to by his initials JPE, is a Filipino politician and lawyer who served as 21st President of the Senate of the Philippines from 2008 to ...

have denied that the massacre had ever happened.

References

{{Moro conflict 1974 murders in the Philippines September 1974 in Asia 20th-century mass murder in the Philippines Mosque massacres in Asia 1970s in Islam Massacres in 1974 History of Sultan Kudarat Violence against men in Asia Violence against women in the Philippines Crime in Mindanao Massacres under the Marcos dictatorship 1974 mass shootings in Asia Mass shootings in the Philippines Mosque shootings Wartime sexual violence in Asia Moro conflict Attacks on buildings and structures in 1974 Attacks on religious buildings and structures in the Philippines 20th-century attacks on mosques