United We Must Stand

United We Must Stand
By Erick San Juan

The election fever is heating up in line with what the weather agency’s forecast of an early hot season because of the coming El Nino phenomenon. Amidst the “hot” season, I would like to divert the attention of our readers to something as important as the inevitable balkanization of our country. The too hot to handle issue of whether the secessionist group from the south will have their long-sought after “freedom and self-determination” is still in the offing.
This writer can’t help but notice the article at the Daily Tribune written by Mr. Ken Fuller. Quoting the editorial that came out from the MILF’s website – Luwaran entitled Good Bye! Madame Ambassador dated November 23, 2009. Of course, they are referring to the good US Ambassador, Kristie Kenney, whom the MILF will miss as she will be replaced soon by Ambassador Harry Thomas,Jr.
The sentiment-filled editorial only showed why several US officials kept on playing the Mindanao card, as if there's a done deal between the MILF and the US government alone in pursuing the so-called “peace talks” which has the glaring reality of partitioning Mindanao through the BJE (Bangsamoro Juridical Entity) section via the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD). The American government seems to owe the MILF their freedom and right to self-determination because for them, the US gave the Moros to the Filipinos for governance in 1946. As much as I want to understand this line of thinking by a few Bangsamoro leaders, where does Malaysia configure in this scenario that they are building with the Americans? After all, US is not part of the formal frameworks of the GRP-MILF panel. Does Malaysia really still play a key role in the peace talks? Why pursue a weak stand against the whole country’s future? Is the MILF being forgetful, the fact that it is very clearly written in our Constitution that they cannot remove that part of the country they wanted to integrate with their “foreign friends”?
“….the conflict will not die; on the contrary, it will degenerate and become more complicated and noxious (deadly) in the years ahead unless a true solution comes into the scene” as the line goes from the MILF which sounded like a threat, to the Americans and so much more to our country as a whole. How can this be? After all these years and after all the sacrifices that our ancestors did to maintain the sovereignty , the islands of Luzon , Visayas and Mindanao ? Or is there much more, like a hidden agenda to strike a deal with the colonialists to partake in the riches of this land? The Minsupala area is no doubt holding a vast wealth that can only belong to the Filipino people.
Let us not waste precious lives from whatever camp or nationality it may be, there is only one Philippines and let this be the battlecry of all patriotic Filipinos that -"united we must stand in order to survive all crisis that will befall this nation." God bless the Philippines!