The Moro Legacy The Sultan of Sulu arrives for the signing of the Bates Agreement. (c) Public domain 7. Why is it necessary to change the way most Filipinos think about “Moros”? There is a need for Christian Filipinos, including Filipino soldiers, to change their way of thinking towards the “Moros” (and vice versa) to facilitate the country’s journey to nationhood. Peace would be the by-product of this recognition and the correction of centuries of religious, social and economic injustices inflicted on the Moros. With the prevailing negative biases and prejudices bordering on hatred against “Moros”, the political leadership of the state and its armed instrument are likely to commit human rights violations in state policy and military operations against the “Moro” people. It was un-Filipino and anti-Muslim, for instance, for a past president to be involved in a lechon (roast pig) feast with soldiers inside the mosque of a conquered Muslim camp. Filipinos, including the Muslims of Mindanao, share a common cultural and economic history, ethnology and DNA; moreover, they have more in common with the rest of Southeast Asia than with the Spaniards and the Americans who were responsible for the crimes against humanity and the cause of the great divide between Christians and Muslims in the Philippines. 19