QUO VADIS, MINDANAO?

I remember the phrase “QUO VADIS”. The old Romans used this in asking “where to?” or “where are you going?” It was popularized by a movie title bearing those two words in the 60’s.
I now ask the same question: QOU VADIS MINDANAO?”
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AFTER SMOKE CLEARS –In Zamboanga City as of this writing, (and the fighting has not totally stopped yet) already about 1000 buildings and houses had been destroyed, 80,000 evacuees displaced from their homes and a bit less than 100 killed. It is not only this physical destruction and damage that ruined Zamboanga City. More devastating is its moral and metaphysical loss and sufferings. It is like puncturing a hole in one’s soul. It hit the core, the heart of its whole being.
How to “repair” Zamboanga City back to normalcy is the difficult task after the smoke clears. Even if we end the crisis situation there right now and everyone goes back home after the nightmare, things will never be the same again.

OLD WOUNDS OPEN — Now that Misuari’s MNLF had crossed the line with its new declaration of Mindanao independence, will it be coterminus with the end of the Zamboanga incident? Or will this be a countinuing and pestering wound that will continue to bleed the body politic? The old scars had been scratched and the wounds had been re-opened. To heal these wounds, we need nurturing.
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MORE RADICAL– Will this incident radicalize some more another young generation — on both sides of the spectrum — whose fathers or mothers became victims or had died? Too much blood had been spilled. We are again polarized as a people. We need resiliency and cohesion in the face of our diversity as an island region. I am terribly worried about the future.

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WHAT PEACE? —What about the peace process with the MILF? Even if an agreement is signed, will there be sustainable peace? How can we now craft a roadmap that will be inclusive to all Mindanao stakeholders?
For sure, things will not be easy hereon. And mind you, it’s not only Zamboanga. It’s the whole of Mindanao that needs healing. And we all need to know where we Mindanaoans are all going to. Only time will tell. But what we all do — or fail to do — today will determine the answer
to the big question: ‘QUO VADIS MINDANAO?”