(Eagle News)–The Department of the Interior and Local Government bucked a proposal for Mindanao to secede from the country, saying it is “not the answer to (its) concerns.”
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said “the Philippines must remain united and undivided” instead to ensure long-lasting and continued peace, progress and development in the southern Philippines.
He added secession “would violate the fundamental tenets of our Constitution.”
“It would destroy the territorial integrity of the Philippines, and disrupt decades of painstaking effort to build a stronger union among all our peoples and ethnicities,” he said.
According to Abalos, the peoples of Mindanao indeed “have the freedom to make political choices or pursue economic, social, and cultural progress,” adding that “various mechanisms make manifest the government’s respect and recognition for the development needs of Mindanao..”
He said these include the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“The BARMM is a powerful example of addressing historical grievances and providing self-governance within the bounds of Philippine law,” he added.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday put forward the idea of Mindanao’s secession from the Philippines via a people’s initiative signature campaign.
He said it was Davao Del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez who first pushed for the “desirability of Mindanao seceding from the Republic of the Philippines.”
Such calls have been opposed by BARMM leaders, who said they would continue to adhere to the provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement of the Bangsamoro “towards the right to self-determination.”
