Time for Cebu to explore other ‘options’

On Feb. 12, 2004, just two months before the May 10, 2004 elections, I was in a luncheon with Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland at the Grand Majestic and around our table was 18 of Cebu’s top business executives. Of course, we talked about the coming elections and the consequences if the losers would refuse to accept the election results; the consequences included a coup d’etat, another people power revolt or a revolutionary government.

Well, as recent history has shown, the camp of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) refused to believe that President Arroyo won the presidency despite the fact that the exit polls and all pre-election surveys revealed or should I say, predicted that she would win that electoral contest. Well, a year has passed and last week’s brouhaha proved that the sore losers are still very much at it and it ain’t over yet!

In that luncheon with the Canadian ambassador, we did explain to him certain realities that Cebu (and I guess, it goes for the rest of the country as well) wasn’t happy with how the politicians of Imperial Manila were handling the nation. When the Canadian ambassador queried us as to where we could all be headed for, we suggested that it could even worsen to the point that Cebuanos might just declare independence if nothing was working or if a military junta was put in place. To show that this was the true sentiment of many Cebuanos, I asked our friends around the table to raise their hands if they wanted Cebu to be independent. Would you believe that everyone raised their hands? I will not forget the reaction of Ambassador Sutherland whose jaw dropped in total surprise!

Sure, a few businessmen weren’t really representative of the whole Cebuano population, but Ambassador Sutherland was quite taken aback at how strongly we felt about this. To calm him down, I told him that this was just a joke, but someone murmured, "It may be a joke today, but someday, it won’t be." I never wrote about this incident, but I won’t forget that day because after the luncheon, I interviewed Ambassador Sutherland in my talk show Straight from the Sky.

But like it or not, a lot of Cebuanos talk like this during luncheon meetings or parties because yes, thanks to very dirty politics, we are all frustrated by the fact that nothing has gone well for this country even if we have already removed the Marcos dictatorship, which we all found to be the biggest stumbling block to our economic growth.

The last time Cebuanos seriously talked about being independent of Imperial Manila was at the height of the attempt to impeach Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. where hundreds of angry Cebuanos trooped to the ABS-CBN studio in Maguikay, Mandaue for that nationwide television interview on Dong Puno Live. Behind the cameras, grumbling Cebuanos asked me why don’t we just separate Cebu from the rest of the Philippines? My reply to them was simply "Don’t talk about independence unless you’re willing to die for it!" Surprisingly, some people responded with a yes to that call, although I thought that they were just emotional.

Well, if nothing concrete has come out of that, it is only because Cebuanos have always been a "team player" in this country. At this point in time, no one in Cebu has called for a Cebu Independence Movement (CIM)... at least not yet. But last Tuesday, a similar threat was given prominence on the front page of The Philippine STAR when Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Prospero Nograles came up with a not-so-veiled-threat, saying, "We are fed up with people in Imperial Manila deciding the fate of the country for us…Enough of it! That if Metro Manila politicos continue to play around, they may just call for a separate "Mindanao Republic."

Let me remind you that this threat isn’t coming from Al Haj Murad of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but from staunch supporters of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA). Just think about what would happen if the officialdom of Davao City truly pushed for an independent Mindanao. I’m sure Reuben Canoy of Cagayan de Oro City who once printed the Mindanao dollar would be ecstatic and like it or not, because of the armed presence of the Muslim separatists in Mindanao, they just might be able to defend Mindanao if push comes to shove. Let me point out that this is no longer a joking matter... but serious business!

There’s no question that we should take Mayor Duterte seriously because like many of us, he is a very frustrated man, frustrated that this country isn’t going anywhere because of ugly politics. At this point, I believe that we are still far away from a scenario that would "Balkanize" the Philippines for as long as the situation doesn’t deteriorate any further. I personally believe that the Philippines, as a nation, has been deeply accepted into the national psyche, even if we’re a nation with diverse cultures and languages.

But with the nation facing political turmoil after turmoil, including the years of martial rule and two successful, but peaceful people power revolts, the question of whether the Philippines should continue as one nation has once more resurfaced, this time it comes from frustrated, but sane political leaders of Mindanao like Duterte and not from Muslim separatists!

Indeed, I used to write about this in jest... lest we be tagged as seditious or calling for a break-up of our country. But when our political leaders can no longer hack it... and the alternative is even worse... a military junta or revolutionary government as what T/Sgt. Vidal Doble was saying, therefore, like our friends in Davao, I would like to believe that it is also time for us Cebuanos to look for other "options" that would be beneficial for Cebu... options which no doubt have crossed the hearts and minds of many Cebuanos who speak about these in the privacy of their offices or homes.

Shouldn’t we also send the same message to Imperial Manila to either shape up or ship out? I think Cebuanos by now should consider the possibility of calling for a Cebu Independence Movement (CIM) as a warning to Imperial Manila that if Mindanao frees itself from the rotten Philippine Republic (that the late President Manuel L. Quezon cursed that he’d rather have, run like hell by Filipinos), then I say that we should now think along similar lines. * * * For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.