A Policy Paper on Integrating Muslim Filipino History on the Philippine Education Secondary History Textbooks

The purpose of this policy research is to examine the unsolved problems in Mindanao between the two largest religious groups- Muslims and Christians through looking deeper on the textbooks in the Philippines. It has been manifested for years that the problem of inaccuracy on Filipino Muslims' heritage by Majority Filipinos tends to be the root cause of the endless conflict. Once this policy research will be implemented, the goals and objectives of this paper will be one of the major keys to the solution in Mindanao problem, to make the Majority Filipinos appreciate the Muslim Filipinos, to lessen the societal problem between the Majority Filipinos and the Muslim Filipinos, to give a chance for the Muslim historians to write their history, and to know the cultural practices other than poIitica1 and economical histories. The researcher had researched personally the textbook approved by the government to look into its content. And based on the findings of the stated problem, the major stakeholders should be the Congress, students, Muslim Filipinos, National Historical Institute, textbook publishers, local school board, and the Department of Education. The research had started last August 2009 and was presented to the panels on November 2009 at the UP-NCPAG.