Hardships abound for Muslims in Manila

"Upfront" article feature by Mr. Alastair McIndoe
(Phil. Correspondent in Manila)
published on STRAITS TIMES (October 2006 - Singapore)

Miss the Blue Mosque on the way to Quiapo Dos ans the warren of tin-roof shanties looks much like any of the other slums strewn across Manila.

There are no public services here.

Electricity comes from crude illegal connections; water is brought in by tanker and sold by the bucket.

"We don't know if it's drinkable so we have to boil it first," complains an elderly resident.

Some 500 families live in cramped houses made from concrete hollow blocks and waste material salvaged from building sites.

Work is hard to find, and the jobs to be had seldom pay enough to make ends meet.

Quiapo Dos is a Muslim community. And being poor and Muslim in this predominantly Chrisitan city piles on the hardships.

"The Muslims living in Manila came here looking for jobs, but we are often turned down by employers when they hear our names," says Mr. Sagka Abdulfatah, a neighbourhood leader who ledt his hometown of Cotabato in Muslim Minadanao in the early 1980's.

Few women here wear Islamic headscarves outside formal occasions, so that they do not draw attention to themselves when moving about inthe metropolis, says Mr. Abdulfattah. Around a million Muslims are thought to live in Manila, a city of 12 million.

Most came to escape the economic deprivation in the southern Philippines...