The Muslims armed themselves to face such horrible assaults, for the purpose of self-defense, but the government considered it insurgency and rebellion. This was a mere pretext to annihilate Muslim Filipinos.

The Philippine regular army marched to the south to suppress the Muslims.
Muslims raised the slogan of “Islamic unity” and called for the independence of the Muslim regions. They also appealed for the Muslim world and the United Nations to defend them and protect them from the Philippine authorities. The fighting between the two parties was triggered. Muslim Filipinos displayed commendable steadfastness and resistance which forced the Philippine government to negotiate. These negotiations resulted in the establishment of autonomy in the Southern Philippines and this was at the beginning of 1397 AH /1977 AD.

However, these negotiations and this convention were only a pretext to offer Philippine President Marcos the opportunity to re-organize his forces and prepare himself to wage a decisive battle aiming at destroying the Muslims for good and abort the Filipino Muslim armed struggle.

In addition, the Philippine government exploited the situation to obtain oil, material and financial support from other countries. Four months after signing the agreement, the government of President Marcos proclaimed giving up all their previous commitments. The Philippine government violated the terms of the Tripoli agreement and proceeded with its military operations, which did not actually stop except for a few days.

Now, Muslim Filipinos are staggering under extremely difficult conditions. They suffer from instability in the political, economic, social, health, cultural, and educational fields. They do not enjoy any of their due legitimate rights as human beings. Low-quality education is a distinguishing feature of the Philippines, from which all Filipinos suffer at all social levels. The economic situation is extremely bad and Muslim Filipinos suffer from the peril of diluting their Islamic identity; because of the currents of Westernization, internally and externally.
See the following link from Islam Online:
http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/arabic/Browse.asp?hGuestID=2hD8qI