The above documentary from AlJazeera's youtube channel, The Rule of the Gun, presents one of the most nuanced views of the perilous situation in Muslim Mindanao that I've seen in quite a while. Jolo's infamous gun culture is seen from the points of view of warring clans on the tiny island of Tulayan and the law enforcers trying to stop the violence but left enfeebled by families better armed than they are.

The piece also features a chain-smoking clan leader named Amina Buklao, a colorful Muslim woman that one can't imagine leading an armed group in any other country. This lady certainly gives the impression that she can order a killing as cooly as she can order a chicken joy.

The Rule of the Gun was produced by a Filipino-American international correspondent working alone, Orlando de Guzman, who had the audacity to keep returning to Jolo to shoot his documentary. This was just months before Ces Drilon and her camera crew were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf, an incident which thrust the madness of Jolo back in the public's consciousness. But as Orlando reminds us, the main threat to security in Jolo is not the Abu Sayyaf or even banditry, but rido, the clan feuds that can shut down island societies, which is virtually what has happened on Tulayan where farmers can't till their fields without an M-16 slung across their backs. One clan member looks through his sniper's scope at his enemy clan members playing basketball and muses chillingly about how easy it is to kill them.

Orlando narrates: "The conflict here involves neither religion nor ideology, and the fighters' loyalties lie neither with the state nor with rebel armies. They belong to leaders of powerful clans." That's the way it is with many of the conflicts in Mindanao. While the national government is obsessed with striking a deal with the MILF (for motives that may have nothing to do with solving that region's immense problems), it is doing precious little to address the clan wars raging from Lanao to Jolo. No matter how the government and the MILF eventually decide to settle their differences, the main violent threat to life in those parts will remain.

Part two of Orlando's report:



Near the end, Jolo's governor brings warring families together to shake hands and presumably end their little war. Then the governor goes off to inspect a government project accompanied by his armed guards. The main threat to him? Neither bandits nor rebels but a rival clan.

(Orlando, by the way, is a longtime friend of mine and of my cameraman who has reported for the BBC, NPR and PBS. He recently started shooting his own work, and this powerful report was his first for AlJazeera.)