ADIONG LAMENTS POLITICS BEHIND MINDANAO SPLIT
A lawmaker from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) asked the proponents of the Mindanao secession not to use the proposal as a political slogan to express dismay over their personal or political circumstances.
In a press conference at the House of Representatives, Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, one of the members of Young Guns or a coalition of young and reform-minded legislators, bucked the calls of former President Rodrigo Duterte and ex-Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for Mindanao to secede from the Philippine Republic.
Adiong said this is an an “insult” to the memory of those who died in the Moro struggle for self-determination.
“I guess my calling to our leaders, be more circumspect. We should not use independence or the issue of secession of Mindanao as a political slogan. We should not use that loosely in order to express our dismay politically,” Adiong said.
He said that the issue of secession has killed “more than a thousand great men,” and that it should not be loosely used to express frustration.
“Huwag ho natin gamitin ito na political slogan or tirahin because we are frustrated personally or politically sa mga nakaupong mga lider. Huwag po. Kasi it adds insult to the memory of those fallen and to the troops who have sacrificed their lives in order to protect the Philippines,” Adiong said.
He gave a brief history of the Moro struggle for the right to self-determination and self-governance, starting with the rebellion of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the secessionist movement of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), both of which ended in peace.
