By Junex Doronio
MANILA — Without naming former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte as the instigator of the new secessionist movement in Mindanao, Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. has warned the public against supporting the campaign.
This developed as political science professor Dennis Coronacion on Saturday said the revival of talks of Mindanao independence is meant to show that Duterte and his allies still influence parts of the Philippines.
“Let us turn away from any call or movement that aims to destabilize our beloved nation, especially to separate Mindanao from the rest of the country,” Galvez said on Friday (02 Feb 2024).
Galvez once served as a military commander in what is now the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Coronacion, however, said he believes any actual move to split the Philippines’ second-largest island from the republic will likely not prosper.
The chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) said that the talk of secession shows “how far [politicians] are willing to go just to serve their interest.”
(el Amigo/MNM)