During daily drills, Mangadta follows his commander's orders with confidence and ease. Then, when it is time to take a break from training, he seems rather shy as he sits in a corner. He is 19 years old but looks younger. The teenager is short and chubby, but his commander, Abu Saima, 30, swears that he is 'a tough man who can be trusted in the heat of a battle'.
Mangadta, who like some of his comrades did not want to give his full name, is a mujahedeen, an Islamic fighter of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the military wing of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Philippines' and Asia's largest rebel group.
He joined the MILF when he was 14. In a previous meeting, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu explained that 'only men are allowed to fight, but for Muslims, adulthood is reached at puberty and not on the celebration of their 18th birthday, as in most western countries'.
Mangadta said he attained manhood a long time ago, fighting in several battles and living for the past few years on a war footing. Once, he felt a bullet whizzing past him, and another time saw an enemy fall as he fired his rifle.
'I felt little. Fighting is normal,' he said. 'My father was a member of the MILF. I am a member of the MILF, and if one day I have a son, he will be a member of the MILF.'
Fighting is almost a family tradition in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Here, ethnicity, religion and historical grievances bind most of the 41/2 million Muslims into supporting one of various rebel groups that are active on the island. The MILF is the most prominent and the one that, during the past three decades, has led the struggle for an independent Bangsamoro, or 'land for the Moros', as the local Muslims are collectively known.