True or False. Those who trained the Moro also killed the Moro.
The correct answer and explanation is:
Correct Answer: True
The statement “Those who trained the Moro also killed the Moro” is true, particularly when viewed through the historical context of the United States’ military involvement in the Philippines during the early 20th century.
During the Philippine-American War (1899–1902) and the subsequent Moro Rebellion (1902–1913), the United States Army engaged in military campaigns against various groups in the Philippines, including the Moro people, who are Muslim ethnic groups living mainly in the southern islands such as Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.
Some American military officers initially worked with the Moro people to establish order and to train local constabularies. These efforts aimed to integrate the Moro communities into the broader colonial administration. However, these same military forces later engaged in violent suppression campaigns against the Moros when they resisted American control.
A notorious example is the Battle of Bud Dajo in 1906, also known as the First Battle of Bud Dajo, where American troops killed hundreds of Moro men, women, and children. The US forces were under the command of General Leonard Wood, a military officer who had earlier tried to establish peaceful relations with the Moros but eventually led brutal attacks against them.
This contradiction—training local groups for governance or military purposes, then turning against them when they resisted colonial policies—highlights the complex and often tragic dynamics of imperial rule. It also reflects how colonial powers often shifted from cooperation to repression depending on the level of control they wanted to maintain.
Therefore, the answer is true because it captures the dual role that American forces played in both training and later fighting the Moro people during the colonial period in the Philippines.