EDITORIAL - Secessionist aspirations

After initially ignoring the call for Mindanao secession aired by his predecessor, President Marcos said it was “anchored on a false premise” and is a “sheer constitutional travesty.” Any Mindanao secession is “doomed to fail,” the President said, as he reiterated that the national territory “will not be diminished, even by one square inch.”

He subsequently emphasized that a stronger Mindanao will mean a stronger Philippines. And a critical component of a stronger Mindanao, he said, is making the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao stronger. The BARMM sprung from secessionist aspirations of the group now in control of its government, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose leaders have rejected the call of former president Rodrigo Duterte for Mindanao secession.

With the BARMM administration getting billions in funding from the national government, to do largely as it pleases under the autonomous arrangement, it would be counterproductive for the region to support any secessionist aspiration, especially one that springs from political warfare rather than from a genuine dream of carving out an independent state.

The MILF has been down the secessionist path for decades, along with the original separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front. The MNLF forged a peace pact with the government and its leaders were given autonomous control over the original ARMM.

As MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari famously lamented, however, rebellion was easier than governance. He became enmeshed in corruption, and when his hold on power was threatened, he staged a mini rebellion that exacerbated the problems in Mindanao. The ARMM bred warlords led by the Ampatuans, who had the impunity to massacre 58 people in a single assault when their stranglehold on power was challenged.

Today the BARMM remains the poorest region in the country, with poverty incidence at 37.2 percent as of 2022. With the poverty are its concomitant elements: inadequate health care, malnutrition and undernutrition as well as undereducation. Armed violence remains high, keeping away tourists and investors who can be drivers of economic growth.

Transparency, accountability and good governance are critical in creating a stronger BARMM. But studies have shown a low capacity for effective governance among those in charge of the region. The regional leadership is given an overly wide discretion, with little accountability, in the utilization of public funds, including those billions provided by the national government.

Poverty, underdevelopment and social injustice fuel desperation and drive people to take up arms. If the BARMM goes the way of the ARMM, secession can be revived in the region. Preventing this from happening is the best way to ensure that aspirations for secession will be eliminated in Mindanao.