Politics from the Heart: Personal Choices, the War in Mindanao, and Social Structure

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to analyze the war in Mindanao from an alternative perspective. By viewing history and its contemporary developments as a product of emotional choices, this dissertation argues that not only do we alter the way in which the history of Mindanao is looked at, but also the way the history of the Philippines is written. Drawing from three sets of data, this dissertation starts off with an analysis of historical documents from the American Colonial Period, then moves onto to an analysis of the fierce political scene in Manila, the "Center" over Mindanao, to finally an examination of the emotional choices that people living in a displaced community make. These three chapters explore how emotional choices help perpetuate the structures that lead to war.