DATU GUMBAY PIANG
Book Reference
Baclagon, Uldarico S. (Col. Infantry) (1988). Christian-Moslem Guerrillas of Mindanao. Manila. Lord Avenue
Printing Press.
Not long after the Japanese struck at Davao, Gen. Vachon called for Capt. Gumbay Piang and Lt. Salipada
K. Pendatun to report at the Division Headquarters for conference. During the conference he made known his decision to
organize military units composed purely of Mohammedan Filipinos. Being a member of the 101st Division, Capt. Piang
was immediately designated as the spokesman of Gen. Vachon in taking up the matter with the Moslem inhabitants of
Mindanao. (Page 52)
Officially designated as Commanding Officer of the entire Bolo Battalion was Capt. Gumbay Piang. Acting
as his Liaison Officer and Second in Command was 1st Lt. Salipada K. Pendatun ... (Page 59)
The principal organizer of the 119th Infantry was Capt. Gumbay Piang, one of the originators of the Bolo
Battalion. (Page 225)
Being in the staff of the 101st Division under Gen. Vachon, Capt. Piang was among those who had to
surrender and was concentrated as a prisoner of war in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
In September 1943 he decided to organize his own guerrilla unit. Due to his background as an academic
supervisor of the Bureau of Education before the war and as a leader of the Bolo Battalion before the USAFFE surrender,
he soon had sizeable force. In no time, Capt. Piang became the undisputed leader of the guerrillas in western Cotabato.
Capt. Piang's organization reached the attention of Headquarters, 10th Military District, which immediately
absorbed his unit and assigned it to the 106th Division. Designated as the 119th Infantry regiment, Piang's unit thus
became one of the major units of the division, with the responsibility of covering the western Cotabato area.
"(c) The 119th Infantry is assigned the remaining part of Cotabato province not incorporated into the 108th
Division. It includes the northern part of Bulawan west of the Daang Tumbao, Kolangan, Supangon, Balut, Parang,
Bugsang, Baria, Buldon municipal districts and the municipality of Cotabato." (Page 229)
Gowing, Peter Gordon (1979). Muslim Filipinos - Heritage and Horizon. New Day Publishers of the Christian
Literature Society of the Philippines, Inc.
The Moros were fearful of the consequences of control by their old enemies. They had come to rely on the
generally good intentions of the Americans and felt they could trust the Americans to carry out their promises. But Christian
Filipinos were another matter. The Moros did not trust them. Gumbay Piang (cited in Thomas, 1971:131), younger son of
the famous Maguindanao leader, Datu Piang, summed up these sentiments in a speech in 1926 in which he criticized
both
American and Filipino policy towards the Moros. Speaking of the Christian Filipinos he said:
"... Filipinos, influenced by centuries of Spanish domination over them, have also hidden motives which
every non-Filipino [i.e., every Muslim] knows: to stamp out Moro ideals and traditions. The Filipinos also need Mindanao
for economic and territorial expansion." From the Moro standpoint, it was one thing to acquiesce in the government of
Americans who had defeated them time and time again in battle; it was another thing to acquiesce in the government of
Christian Filipinos who, as soldier under the Spaniards, had never effectively conquered them after three centuries of
trying. Thus, as Christian Filipinos gained increasing power in Mindanao and Sulu under the Filipinization policy, Moro
alienation from the government grew. (Page 168)
Knox, Ralph M. (2002). The Emperor's Angry Guest: A World War II Prisoner of the Japanese Speaks Out.
Trafford Printing.
A Moro chieftain named Piang met us when we were only 50 kilometers or so from Carmen Ferry.
Somehow, he knew we were coming and welcomed us with homemade cigars, which he distributed as gifts. He and his
men escorted us the rest of the way. We immediately designated him an honorary captain. (Page 85)
Milligan, Jeffrey Ayala (2005). Islamic Identity, Postcoloniality and Educational Policy: Schooling and Ethno -
Religious Conflict in the Southern Philippines. Palgrave MacMillan.
The voices of Muslim Filipinos were largely unheard in this debate between Americans and Christian
Filipinos over the future of Mindanao. The sentiments of many of them were expressed by young Maguindanaoan datu,
Gumbay Piang, at a predominantly Christian Filipino gathering called to express opposition to Bacon Bill, which proposed
separating Mindanao and Sulu and was then before the U.S. Congress. Datu Piang noted that Filipino Muslims only heard
"loud talk of brotherhood for the Moros" from the Philippine Legislature when there was some threat for the Philippines of
losing Mindanao. He was, he said, "inclined to believe that the Filipinos were treating the Moros as their colonial subjects
with no real interest for the progress of the subject people." He described the Moros' predicament as being positioned
"between two fearful and objectionable daggers, Americans at one side and Filipinos at another," charging that the
Filipinos' policy of colonization would result in the extermination of Muslim Filipinos just as the U.S. colonization of the
American West had led to the virtual extermination of the American Indian.
Though Datu Piang ultimately supported independence ... (Page 72)
Rosaldo, Renato (2003). Cultural Citizenship in Island Southeast Asia: Nation and Belonging in the
Hinterlands. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. University of California Press.
Thomas reports that, in 1926, Datu Gumbay Piang, a young Maguindanao leader, delivered a speech in
which he explained "why a Moro thinks he has the right to say he is not Filipino and cannot be called a traitor to the
Filipinos when he asks for separation" (1971,131). After having claimed Moro cultural and historical superiority with
respect to Filipinos, he concluded. "A Moro can be what he calls himself to be - a Filipino if he thinks he wants to be a
Filipino or simply a Moro if he thinks he would not feel comfortable under the Filipino flag!" Datu Piang's speech was both
threatening and conciliatory to his mostly Christian audience. While it stated that a Moro can be a Filipino, it also implicitly
stressed that this would be possible only under conditions of absolute parity and free choice. In fact, the Moros not only had
a separate and legitimate nationality but also could claim superiority over the Filipinos on the basis of their own specific
historical and cultural traditions.
The reflections and Moro awareness that emerged from Datu Piang's speech relate to a nationalistic
discourse that fed not simply on oppositional elements but also on values intrinsic to the Moros themselves. Such
reflections, however, were still the product of a member of the political and intellectual elite. One wonders whether other
Muslims who lived in remote areas and still identified with their localities could have shared the views of the Maguindanao
leader. They might have been mobilized against Filipinization, which was perceived as a threat for the continuity of their
cumtoms and their Islamic creed, but there is no evidence that they already had the sense of being "one people" with other
Muslims from different communities and ethnic groups. Moreover, notwithstanding indications of substantive Moro
consciousness, several major leaders began to assume ambiguous stances in relation to Filipinization. As it gradually
became clear that the United States would not follow up on the petitions for Moro separation, many Muslims, confronted
with the choice between a rebellion with uncertain results and a personally rewarding policy in favor of national integration,
chose the latter. Thus, while at the outset of the Filipinization process many Muslim leaders opposed Christian rule, few
resisted it later. Some important figures - like Hajji Butu of Sulu, Hajji Gulamu Rasul and his son, and later, even Datu
Piang - not only accepted the Christian government but also participated in it as senators or congressmen. (Page 55-56)
___ (1949). First Congress of the Republic of the Philippines. Official Directory of the House of
Representatives 1946 -1949. Manila Bureau of Printing.
Hon. Gumbay Piang was born in Dulawan, Cotabato, in 1905. After graduating from the Philippine Normal
School, he studied in the University of the Philippines where he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy. He finished
also the course in Anthropology in the same University.
During the war, Congressman Piang, in addition to other duties, organized and commanded the 21,000
Moro bolomen who engaged the enemy in Mindanao, holding the Japanese at Bay in Davao till the order of surrender in
May, 1942. He was very much commended through radio messages for his war services by the President of the United
States, the Secretary of War, and by General MacArthur. He organzed the 119th Infantry Regiment, Guerrilla USAFIP.
Congressman Piang is a life member to the National Education Association of the United states. He is also
a life member of the Society for the advancement of education, Inc. (U.S.A.). He was formerly an Academic Supervisor of
Schools and a member of the Committee on Textbooks.
In the last election, he launched his candidacy as Representative for the lone district of Cotabato under the
Nationalista Liberal Wing Party and won the election. He is not only a politician but also a farmer.
Congressman Piang is married with legal residence at Dulawan, Cotabato. At present, he is a member of
the following committees of the House: Agriculture, Appropriations, Economic Planning, Education, Guerrilla Affairs,
National Defense, National Language, and Health. He is the Chairman of the Committee on Mindanao & Special
Provinces. (Page 90)
___ (1980). Darangen: Epic of History. The Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation and
Development of Southern Philippines. Metro Manila.
Around 20,000 Muslims led by Datu Gumbay Piang swore by the Koran to resist the Japanese "to the last."
The Muslims "proved themselves of value" especially as forest fighters, wiping out small Japanese patrols. They were
partly responsible for holding back the Japanese advance in the Digos area in Cotabato. Piang's group, however, refused
to engage in large-scale battles, perhaps because they were not as well-armed as the enemy. (Page 88)
RELATED BOOKS:
Stuart, Florence Partello (1943). The Pledge of Piang. New York and London. D. Appleton-Century, Inc.
Notes:
This book may have been inspired by Datu Gumbay Piang.
