Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Philippine National Police Chief Benjamin Acorda joined National Security Adviser Eduardo Año on Monday in warning those pushing for Mindanao’s secession from the republic.

Acorda belittled the secession talk, saying, “Everybody talks about it, but I think it’s not such a big group to worry about.”

“I want to clarify that if you would do that, it would lead to chaos. But as of now, looking at the situation, there’s no cause for alarm,” he said.

But should chaos reign, the police force “would do what has to be done,” he stressed. “There are provisions of the law that define the criminal acts relative to this.”

“As I’ve repeatedly said, as policemen, we will always uphold the law. That’s the only thing that the police force should do, and it’s all defined,” he said.

Teodoro, on the other hand, issued a terse statement in stark contrast to the one made by Año last Sunday.

He warned the state would use force to blunt any actual secession move.

“The mandate of the Department of National Defense is to secure the sovereignty of the state and the integrity of the national territory as enshrined in the Constitution,” Teodoro said.

“We will strictly enforce this mandate whether externally or internally,” he added.

Like Singapore

Last week, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who had been attacking the Marcos administration on a number of issues, said during a rally in Davao City that it may be better for Mindanao to break away from the Philippines like Singapore did from Malaysia in 1965.

Duterte took issue with the efforts being exerted by people associated with Speaker Martin Romualdez to amend the Constitution to push, according to government critics, for term extensions under the guise of revamping the Charter’s economic provisions.

Previously, Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a cousin of Romualdez, had swapped accusations of being substance abusers.

In a press briefing on Monday, Acorda underscored the sacrifices Filipinos made to establish the Philippines as an independent nation, only for some to call for its division.

“These are defined in our Constitution, our territory and sovereignty. It’s not good after all the sacrifices of our heroes,” Acorda said.