Is the government in Manila driving Mindanao to a civil war between Christians and Muslims?

This seems to be the drift after Presidential Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. allegedly told North Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Piñol that if the pact with the Moros to create a separate state does not push through, the military would not be able to protect Christian Mindanao from Moro attacks.

If he was quoted right, then he’s driving the Mindanao Christians to arm themselves!

That was the most irresponsible statement a top government official – and a peace adviser at that – could make!

As a former military officer who spent most of his years in the service in Mindanao, he should have known that without government intervention, there would have been carnage in the second biggest island a long time ago with the Christian majority having the upper hand.

What the Muslims are capable of doing, the Mindanao Christians can do eight times better or worse since Muslims comprise only 20 percent of the population in the island.

The silent Christian majority has been holding its peace and leaving it to the government to control the seemingly intractable Moro minority.

But if the government in Manila leaves the Christians to fend for themselves, all hell would break loose. It’s frightening to imagine the amount of blood that would be spilled in the island paradise.

Being from Mindanao, this writer knows the bad blood between the Christians and Muslims in the region, despite pronouncements by the government in Imperial Manila that the war in the south is political and not cultural in nature.

So please, Mr. Esperon, don’t add gasoline to the smoldering mutual hatred with irresponsible statements such as the one you allegedly made to Vice Governor Piñol!

Since you’re from Luzon, you don’t care about Mindanao. All you care about is finishing your job of negotiating with the Muslims for a lasting peace.

Mr. Esperon, you’re wrong to believe the Christian majority will swallow bitter medicine rammed down their throats by the government in Manila.

If you force the “medicine” on Christian Mindanao, you’re driving them to declare their own independence from the Republic of the Philippines.

Already, many local government officials have expressed their interest to join the Movement for Federal Republic of Mindanao of former Davao del Norte Congressman and Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez.

You’ll be surprised at the personalities who support the movement by Christian Mindanao to secede from the Republic.

I should know. I saw prominent Mindanawons at a conference of the movement that I attended as a guest last year at the Eden Farm in Davao City.

The participants agreed in principle to quietly bring their independence aspiration before the United Nations.

A few wanted to discuss the possibility of forming a “Mindanao self defense force,” but the majority voted it down, fearing charges of sedition from the government.

But with Esperon’s thoughtless statement, things might change and the self-defense force could be formed.

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A rabid administration defender, newly appointed Overseas Workers Welfare Administration chief Prospero Pichay says the government pact with the Moros is a “sellout.”

In a phone interview with this writer Wednesday, Pichay, a former Surigao del Sur congressman, says that although he won’t break away from the Gloria government, he won’t allow Mindanao to be divided either.

“The President got the wrong advice on the proposed agreement with the MILF,” said Pichay.