MARCH BACKWARD: Sometimes we have to make one step backward before making two steps forward. That, we understand.

But the Cha-cha boys of President Gloria Arroyo are furiously beating the drums to stampede the country into taking not one back step or two forward steps but to MARCH BACKWARDS all the way to an ill-defined federal system of government.

The dream and direction of most developing nations is to gather scattered elements and meld them into one unified state despite their cultural diversity.

The Arroyo administration, however, wants the Philippine Republic to go in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION! It wants to cut up the country into several states and then salvage the situation by pulling them together under a federal umbrella.

While other countries are striving hard to unite, tayo, we are trying to divide ourselves.

The irony is that our own leaders are the ones moving to dismember the nation. What for? To advance their own political agenda.

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MORO RAMPAGE: Maybe it is providential that the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front has taken off its mask and bared is bloody fangs.

Continuing their rampage in Lanao yesterday, MILF fighters hacked or shot to death at least a dozen persons and took several hostages, burned houses, and battled government troops and policemen rushing in to enforce the law and restore order.

In the face of this virtual declaration of war, President Gloria Arroyo, the Commander-in-Chief, ordered government forces to “defend every inch of Philippine territory,” protect the population and maintain the majesty of the law.

She called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council yesterday. After the meeting, we will know if naiveté still characterizes official policy and the handling of rebellion.

Another thing to watch for is the usual call for a ceasefire when the rebels start to feel the pressure. Intended or not, a lull gives the rebels a chance to lick their wounds, regroup and spring back to action.

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APPEASEMENT: The Arroyo administration had trusted the MILF enough to sit down with it in a so-called “peace process” while negotiating an agreement laying the basis for a Bangsamoro state.

There are reports that Malacanang only accommodated a White House request to lend an ear to the MILF. This was after the United States -- looking for a Muslim group to use -- excluded the MILF from its list of terrorist organizations.

This is the same “liberation front” that Malaysia -- pretending to be a neutral Third Party Facilitator -- has encouraged to break away from the Philippine Republic.

To the MILF and like-minded Moro bands, “peace” apparently means appeasement, or even surrender, on the part of the government.

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TRUE VOICE: The MILF rampage validates the point made in Postscript that it was a mistake for the government to have recognized the secessionist group as an equal at the negotiating table and accepted it as the authentic representative of the peace-loving Muslim population.

Corollary to this is another point, also made in Postscript, that the democratically elected leaders of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao -- not the MILF -- are the true voice of Moros in the South.

How come it never occurred to the White House, or to Malacanang, to consider talking instead to the elected leaders of the ARMM?

History is replete with lessons, including this latest warpath of the MILF, on the need to be cautious when dealing with terrorists.

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BERNAS AD: Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, may want to make a more categorical statement about his role in preparing that full-page newspaper advertisement defending the government position on its MoA with the MILF on the Moro ancestral domain.

As it is, his name was placed prominently like a validating signature at the bottom of the ad, giving the impression that he was the authority making all those misleading statements in that MoA “Executive Summary.”

The MoA summary in the Bernas ad touched superficially on the subjects of Concept, Territory, Resources and Governance in the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity sought to be created. The text did not reflect the full and true content of the MoA.

With his name used as authority, Father Bernas has become a party to the deception. If the good priest and Malacanang really want to help enlighten the public, they should publish the full text of those subjects instead of truncated paraphrases.

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HALF-TRUTHS: Under Territory, for instance, the Bernas ad merely said that the Ancestral Domain in question consists of the present ARMM, some 721 barangays adjacent to it, and those in listed provinces covered by the proposed plebiscite.

His ad conveniently omitted saying that the MoA mentions ancestral lands in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan. The reader gets the true picture only when he sees the Minsupala mentioned, instead of nameless barangays and provinces in the ad.

Father Bernas, dean emeritus of the Ateneo Law School, should not lend his name, that of the Ateneo and the Society of Jesus to half-truths.

Another point, already made in Postscript but which bears repeating, is that the dismembering of the Republic is too serious a matter to be left to lawyers to decide. Or even to the Supreme Court. They will approach the questions, and the SC will rule on the issues, only on the basis of law.

But we know that this matter is more than a question of law. An act may be legal but not necessarily right.

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