From Four Nodes of History: The Human Rights Challenge in the Philippine Security Sector
produce ships for a time. They also were able to
cart a large cache of cannons, muskets and ammunition in this raid and take hundreds of prisoners which they sold as slaves.
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In 1629, he sent his right hand man, Datu Acheh
(a Datu from Borneo), to conduct a series of raids
in Spanish settlements in Camarines, Samar, Leyte
and Bohol.
After repelling a major attack from Spanish forces led by Lorenzo de Olaso on Jolo on March 17,
1630, Wasit retaliated with an expeditionary force
the following year and attacked and sacked Leyte,
the location of the Spanish government for the Visayas.
In his own sultanate, Sultan Kudarat tapped at least two of his
brothers to be his commanders. One of them, Datu Tagal, was
the sultanate’s commander of operations in the Visayas. One
of Tagal’s exploits was carrying out an eight-month military
expedition in the Visayas. He was however killed, together
with his brother and 300 Maguindanao warriors, when their
small contingent was intercepted by a Spanish fleet. They
were on their way home after a victorious military campaign
some time in the latter half of the 1630s.
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Sultan Kudarat holds the distinction of uniting the datus of
Lake Lanao against the Spanish forces that were initially able
to make inroads in the Lanao Lake area. Muslim chieftains,
in order to avoid a war, agreed to pay tributes and allow the
Jesuits to do missionary work in the area.
The crippling effects of the unified Moro wars under Sultan
Kudarat, together with external developments that threatened Spain, led Spanish forces to abandon Mindanao and the
Sulu archipelago from 1663-1718.
Sultan Kudarat demonstrated total devotion in marshalling
Moro warriors in protecting the Moro lands from foreign control. He gave the Philippine military one of the finest traditions in protecting the people.
After Sultan Kudarat, no successor with the caliber of his vision that looked beyond Sultanate interests emerged in the
struggle against Spanish colonialism.
Today, Sultan Kudarat is recognized as a hero of the Filipino
people. He personifies the finest Moro tradition in the Philippine military. But a lot of Filipinos and soldiers do not know
who he is and what he stands for.