The Jabidah massacre on March 18, 1968, was the purported assassinations or executions of Moro army recruits who allegedly mutinied upon learning the true nature of their mission.

[4][5] Author Cesar Adib Majul notes that the administration of Ferdinand Marcos had suppressed press coverage of the affair[6] which led to a lack of documentation about the incident and varying accounts of the number of trainees killed, from 11 to 68.

[11] During the process of decolonization by the British after World War II from 1946, Sabah was integrated as part of the Malaysian Federation in 1963 under the Malaysia Agreement.

[17] In 1967, President Ferdinand Marcos secretly authorized Major Eduardo "Abdul Latif" Martelino, a Muslim convert, to take charge of the operations of a secret commando unit code-named "Jabidah" and embark on an operation called "Project Merdeka" (merdeka means "freedom" in Malay) to destabilize and take over Sabah.

[18] The alleged masterminds, however, included leading generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Defense Undersecretary Manuel Syquio, and Marcos himself.

[7] The first phase of the operation saw Martelino, with an advance party of some 17 agents entering Sabah three times to conduct reconnaissance and psychological warfare.

[7] The real purpose of the formation of Jabidah was never publicized therefore leading to wide speculations and controversies regarding this top secret military plan.

[6] The Oplan Merdeka and the Jabidah Massacre first came to public attention on March 18, 1968, when two fishermen rescued a Muslim man named Jibin Arula from the waters just off Caballo Island in Manila Bay.

They discovered that he had suffered gunshot wounds, and he later recounted that he was the lone survivor of an attempt by members of the armed forces to kill a group of Muslim army recruits.

[6][7][17] Another school of thought posits that the project, code-named Jabidah involved the recruitment of Muslims trainees who were supposed to be trained to infiltrate and cause chaos in Sabah to strengthen Philippines' territorial claim.

[19] These trainees were informed beforehand that they were joining the AFP to fight "communists", but subsequently learned the true nature of their mission during the latter part of their training.

delivered at the Legislative Building on March 28, 1968, Aquino submitted the following conclusion:This morning, the Manila Times, in its banner headline, quoted me as saying that I believed there was no mass massacre on Corregidor island.

[25] Then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, also condemned the Philippine government and requested for congressional trial against the officers involved in the massacre.

[5] Despite undergoing numerous trials and hearings, the officers related to the massacre were never convicted which served as a clear indication to the Muslim community that the Christian government had little regard for them.

[7] In May 1968, former Cotabato governor Datu Udtog Matalam announced the formation of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM) which was regarded by observers as the spontaneous backlash of the Jabidah Massacre.

[5] The strong feelings and unity of the Muslim intellectuals were seen as the immediate reaction to the establishment of the MIM[32] which carried far-reaching impacts such as the formation of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and continued armed struggle in the Southern Philippines.

[35] Bangsamoro Liberation Organization (BMLO) founders were Rashid Lucman, Salipada Pendatun, Domocao Alonto, Hamid Kamlian, Sayyid Sharif Capt.

Macapantun Abbas Jr.[33][34] On September 23, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos announced that he had placed the entirety of the Philippines, including Muslim Mindanao, under Martial law.

While Matalam's MIM was already defunct, one of its former members, Nur Misuari, established the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) a month after the declaration of Martial Law, on October 21, 1972.