Lately, there has been much talk about Mindanao supposedly seceding from the Republic. It’s not really a new idea. I first heard of it from Atty. Reuben Canoy, my father’s friend from the then (in)famous United Nations Walkers Club, a loose association of prominent people of diverse political leanings casually headquartered at the former Hilton Hotel along United Nations Avenue in Ermita, Manila (hence the name).

Among the other Mindanaoans who were regulars at the club’s informal weekly meetings were Homobono (“call me Bono, not Homo) Adaza, Mayor Cesar Climaco, and former Senator Rodolfo Ganzon. Even during the 1970s, there were already rumblings about constituting Mindanao into a separate state, amidst grumblings about what they termed as “Imperial Manila” sucking up most of the country’s wealth.

At the time, there were already armed secessionist movements (the predecessors of today’s MNLF, MILF and BIFF), but they were mostly contained. The Philippines’ armed forces then were stronger than today’s, and as Bono pragmatically intoned, one deterrent for separatism was that Marcos Sr. would brook no such move and would not have hesitated to send in the full force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to crush it.

When I was in law school, some of my classmates from Mindanao also had such ideas, even declaring that once they became lawyers, they would use their legal learning to try to make a new country out of Mindanao. Perhaps to get others used to the idea (or to rattle our “terror” professors, I don’t know), they even circulated mock passports of the “Republic of Mindanao.”

Fast forward to recent events. Parts of Mindanao (the ones dominated by Muslims) have gotten many concessions from the national government, designed precisely to quell the long-standing Muslim separatist movement. But it would seem that even the Christian areas of Mindanao have been chafing at what they perceive to be the unchanging pattern of Manila in Luzon holding much of the political power and using much of the resources of the country, neglecting that part that produces much of the food for the country, among other necessities. Hence, the renewed calls for Mindanao to break away.

To be sure, under prevailing laws (including customary international laws) which must be followed if a new country is to gain legitimacy, minting a nascent state is much easier said than done. Just look at the example of the newest country, Timor Leste. Their people had to go through a civil war, invasion by a foreign power, mass displacement of citizens, thousands of deaths — among major ordeals — before their efforts gained fruition.

Indeed, International Law does not make it easy for a people to affect what is called Non-Colonial Secession. Neither is a unilateral declaration of independence looked upon kindly, either by the world community or the “mother” country. Just look at Catalan, whose independence leaders were prosecuted and jailed after a failed parliamentary secession.

It would seem that secession, which is defined as “the action of withdrawing formally from membership in a federation or body, especially a political state,” has much in common with a C-section, which is described as “delivering a baby through surgical incisions made in the abdomen and uterus.” Both are painful and bloody, have to be done well and skillfully in order to succeed, are not default choices but extraordinary options, but they ultimately give birth to new life. I must add that both usually happen after someone gets screwed.

Perhaps what the present leadership must do, in order for a substantial part of the country not to resort to a C-section — er, a secession — is to take care of Mindanao and not make it feel like a second-class region.

That is the only way to prevent a miscarriage of governance and the cutting off of its umbilical cord from the rest of the nation.