Autonomy

Autonomy? My Muslim fellowmen in my country are asking for this autonomy in the vast plains of Mindanao. It is a fact that majority of Muslims in the Philippines resides in Mindanao and particularly at Southern Mindanao. They've been wanting such autonomy for purposes that are still unclear to me. Why? Because they've been fighting for decades and plenty of negotiations where already made but still the war never ends. Solutions have been implemented, but why does this solution don't last.

Sometimes I question myself, what do they really need. I've been circling to and fro South Mindanao and North Mindanao and I've observed a lot of communities where Muslims and Christians live in harmony, and I myself have friends under the religion of Islam. Is the issue of autonomy really relevant today, or this is just a reason to camouflage hidden self centered interest by few people. Because as we all can see many of these towns under this autonomy where still undeveloped or if it where, the development crawls like a turtle on the land. It's one reason why cities in Mindanao never want to be bounded by this autonomy. And much more you don't want to roam around Philippines with a passport just because you live in a place which is so called under autonomy!

We're in a modern world now. The world itself is getting smaller and smaller as technology advances to the next stage. Technologies that strips off every wall that divides each one of us and converting it into a bridge that makes us understand one another. And this idea of autonomy is just to irrelevant for today!

This internal affair is crippling the country right from the oust of President Estrada. The dollar price is aching right from that point, and another from oil price hike, and now this war that gets useless as it gets longer, is bracing the torque to pull this nation to "kangkongan" (A vegetable that grows on a swampy soil).

This bloodshed is getting worst and useless as soldiers of both sides die like a dog. Have we had enough, this issue is no longer of religion. We belong in the same country, why not work together for the betterment of this country for the Filipino nation and not for the few! Why not build a bridge instead of a wall.