the united states' insular government of the philippine islands had only been in existence for two years in 1903 when it initiated the "homestead program," which was meant to encourage migration of landless populations from non-muslim areas of the country into the muslim-majority areas in mindanao. lanao and cotabato in particular saw an influx of migrants from luzon and visayas. this influx of migrants led to tensions about land ownership and disenfranchisement of lumads and muslims, because the mostly-christian migrants established claims on the land, whereas the native peoples of mindanao didn't have a land titling system in place at the time. this us-led "homestead program," which was later continued or copied by philippine administrations after independence, is therefore often cited as one of the root-causes of what would later become the larger moro conflict.