EDITORIAL - Ayaw suwayi

Call it anything you want, but the "wild" idea of forming separate republics out of the Visayas and Mindanao is born of a legitimate grievance that people in the south have long held against "Imperial" Manila.

Of course it is fallacious thinking and ignorant expectation under present circumstances that policy decisions of national implication can be made anywhere but in Manila. After all, that is where the seat of government is.

But there is a growing trend or tendency among Filipinos living in the capital to embark on unilateral initiatives that, while not exactly illegal, exclude the participation of the rest of the nation even if the action imposes direct consequences on the country as a whole.

The president, for instance, can now be overthrown by a few thousand people in Metro Manila and replaced with a new one who will then exercise authority over the whole country even if the tens of millions of other Filipinos had absolutely nothing to do with his ascension.

It is this ability and actual exercise by the few in Metro Manila to make "life-altering" decisions for the rest of the Filipinos living outside the capital that people in the Visayas and Mindanao resent.

Today, the idea of forming separate republics out of the Visayas and Mindanao if the people in Metro Manila embark on another move to oust the existing leadership may seems to be nothing more than a limp and empty boast or threat.

But it is an idea that cannot be ruled out entirely either. There is always a limit to what a people can endure. Right now, that limit may still be too far to be breached. But it is not too far to be seen.

Indeed, the idea was born precisely because the people in the south can already see those limits. They are increasingly getting large on the horizon. The point has been reached where the question is no longer if but when.

Indeed, the regionalistic character of the Filipino nation does not mitigate the increasingly divisive feelings harbored by those who all too often end up holding the cup already filled by a drink that is not of their own choosing.

We love the Philippines for what it is. So we do not advocate an eventuality that is increasingly becoming, while still not a viable option, a nevertheless plausible fallback position. But as the people of the south would say, "ayaw suwayi."