DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 28 February) – Exactly four Tuesdays after he called for Mindanao independence, former President Rodrigo Duterte made a turnaround and urged people to stop talking about separating from the Philippines, claiming his call was just a “tickler,” a “pitik” (flick), a “panghadlok” (scare) and a “pangatik” (joke).
“Tickler lang yan,” he replied to the first question asked about his plan to separate Mindanao from the Republic of the Philippines.
He said he just wanted to say that so that “when you think of legislation, when you think of your work there as a Secretary, or as a Senator or Congressman, or whatever, think always of the Republic of the Philippines. Huwag ninyong pabor-paboran yan kasi hindi lang kayo ang Pilipino” (Don’t play favorite because you are not the only Filipino).
“Pampitik lang yun (It was just a flick), reminder, gentle reminder na, you know, shape up because, hindi pa naman tayo magkatribo lahat” (we are not of the same tribe), he said in a press conference Tuesday night at the Pavilion 2 of the Harana Restaurant.
Exactly four weeks earlier, on January 30, Duterte told a press conference at the Blue Chateau of the Grand Men Seng Hotel that an independent Mindanao will not be a bloody separation from the Philippines, that they would gather signatures and go all the way to the United Nations.
He said he wants former House Speaker and now Davao del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez, who was seated beside him, to lead the “Davao grouping, not necessarily a party” to start the machinery that would campaign for Mindanao independence.
He said he chose Alvarez because he among the first advocates of the “desirability of Mindanao seceding from the Republic of the Philippines.”
Duterte provided vague details about what the still unnamed “party” would do and what their timeline is. “We will take our time. We are not in a hurry,” he said.
After the press conference, he told MindaNews he does not expect an independent Mindanao to happen within his lifetime.
No takers
When MindaNews asked during the February 27 presscon if he was saying “tickler” and “pitik” now because his call had no takers, he replied: “Well, that was really, that was a legit dream of the old, yung mga taga Mindanao. You know, because Mindanao is a frontier country. It is not inhabited by originals except the natives and the Moro people here. So yung dream of a separate, they were looking at a certain place like my father and mother, migrating toward an island called Mindanao for a better future for the children. Yun ang dream.”
But he added, “if it causes a rupture in our entire system sa Republika, I will not go for it. I will not. Meaning, I will not go for a forced carving out of Mindanao out of the Philippines.”
He said he made that call because he just wanted to say “give us a better deal for Mindanao” as it has always been a “poor relative vis-a-vis with the entire country.”
For so many years, he said, Mindanao has been consistently getting the lowest in public funds for infrastructure “kaya tayo pinaka-late nag bloom” (that’s why we were the last to bloom). “And that was the complaint. Kaya it fueled the revolution. It encouraged people and some Christians joined the Moro people in clamoring for an independent Mindanao,” he said, adding that most of the national leaders, the Presidents, have always been based in the north.
Duterte, the 16th Philippine President and the first Mindanawon to lead the nation, described his winning the Presidency as “nakatsamba” (by chance) but he acknowledged he was unable to push for a “radical change” in Mindanao.
“Pero ganon pa man, there was never really a radical change in Mindanao. I’ll just be frank with you and everybody here. When I became President, there was never the slightest moment that I was thinking of placing the interests of Mindanao over and above of the entire needs of the entire country,” he said.
But whatever the economic planners and the Department of Highways said about priorities were followed “because I am not as bright as anybody else. I might be a lawyer, good in memorizing, hanggang diyan lang, memorize. Pero to be an enterprising thing about governance, malayo” (until there only, memorize. But to ben an enterprising thing about governance, far off).
No to dismemberment
In response to another question on separating Mindanao, he said: “I do not want my country dismembered. I do not want a part of my country taken away. I do not want my country to be disturbed physically even the slightest. It goes for Luzon hanggang Jolo. Yung nagising ako sa mundong ito, Republic of the Philippines. For as long as I live, it would be the same Republic of the Philippines.”
He dismissed talks on separating or seceding. “Separate? Unsa man nang separate? Unsa na, mag-tiayon kay mag separate?” (Separate? What separate? What is that, a married couple that will separate?)
“Panghadlok lang man na” (That’s just to scare them).
Duterte’s call for Mindanao independence failed to take off as national leaders and those coming from Mindanao and specifically from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, rejected the call.
He said like them, he would not go for separatism. “Labi na ko.. Ayaw nila. Mas lalo ako. Mas matanda ako nila. Buang sila” (Especially me. If they don’t like, the more reason I don’t like to), I really don’t. I am older than them. They’re crazy).
He said leaders can craft legislation that would “go into a deeper local autonomy” or do whatever it is that they want to do but “let it remain a Republic of the Philippines.”
He stressed that distribution of the national wealth is a problem. “If you studied your history, lahat tayo, alam natin (all of us know that) Mindanao was really a poor relative of the national government.”
He said Mindanao was given attention when he became President from 2016 to 2022. But as President, he said, he had to be fair to all regions because giving Mindanao an advantage was “ain’t the way of being a Filipino.”
Duterte said what is good for the Joloano must be good for the Ifugao, must be good for the Tagalog. And must be good for the Visayan because that is how it is to “remain a republic.”
“Stop this separate separate,” he said, adding that since the day he was born, “this was a republic” and taking away even half a hectare or a hectare of land from Samal would spell trouble.
“Yung bayan ko, yan huwag mong galawin kundi magkagyera tayo” (Do not touch my country or we will be at war).
In response to another question on the Mindanao independence bid, said his call for Mindanao independence was “pangatik lang yun” (that was just a joke).
“Kung hindi mo ganunin kasi yung mga taga Maynila, parang sipain mo yung paa. ma-trip. Put___ ina mo hindi lang ikaw ang Pilipino ha.” (If you don’t do that to those in Manila, like kick their feet so they would trip, Put__ mo you are not the only Filipino), he said.
“Doomed to fail”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on February 8 said Duterte’s call for a separate Mindanao was “doomed to fail” because it is “anchored on a false premise, not to mention a sheer constitutional travesty.”
“I strongly appeal to all concerned to stop this call for a separate Mindanao” because this is a “grave violation of the Constitution,” he told the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) to commemorate Constitution Day. The 1987 Constitution was ratified in a plebiscite on February 2 that year and proclaimed in force on February 11. “Hindi ito ang Bagong Pilipinas na ating hinuhubog. Bagkus, ito ay pagwasak mismo sa ating bansang Pilipinas” (This is not the New Philippines that we are creating. Rather, it is the destruction of our Philippines), Marcos said.
Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said nobody heeded Duterte’s call for secession. Not the military and police as they would violate the Constitution and their oath of office, not the local government units that will stand to lose their national tax allotments, not the businessmen who will have to pay higher tariff to export goods, not the judiciary.
“If you call for secession, it’s so outrageous nobody will follow you,” Carpio said at a forum in Davao City on February 25, commemorating the 38th anniversary of the People Power Revolution.
“Insane“
In his column in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) News on February 17, Mindanao’s lone Cardinal, Orlando B. Quevedo, said if the reason for an independent Mindanao is economic, Duterte, a Mindanawon “could certainly have persuaded Congress to enact the laws necessary to provide development funds” and politicians from Mindanao in the House of Representatives and in the Senate “could have collaborated towards this objective. That they did not do so could well mean disinterestedness or lack of prioritization.”
Duterte was in full control of Congress during his Presidency, particularly in the first half of his six-year term as his political party, the Partido ng Demokratikong Piipino, was a “super majority.” The Senate President, Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Alvarez were also Mindanawons.
“What is certainly needed,” according to Cardinal Sin is for the national government to provide more funds for the economic and social development of Mindanao, “especially for the Indigenous Peoples who are the most neglected.”
“It is in Mindanao where poverty and underdevelopment are the worst. It is high time for imperial Manila to consider Mindanao as the central focus of economic development,” he said.
Quevedo said the Mindanao Bishops have not yet issued a consensus statement on the call for Mindanao independence. “Perhaps they think, as I do, that the idea of an independent Mindanao is insane and simply to be put aside.”
Mindanao, the country’s food basket and richest in mineral and oil resources, has a population of 26.3 million as of the May 2020 national census, spread across 28 provinces and 33 cities in six regions. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)