MAIGO, Lanao del Norte — A Mindanao-wide “state of the nation” consultative meeting of town and city mayors under the Mayor’s Sara Duterte Alliance (MASADA) is set to be held on Saturday in Zamboanga City to discuss the current condition of the country and come up with a unified stand on pressing national issues, organizers announced Friday, 12 December.

Cesar Cuntapay, co-convenor of the consultative meetings, told DAILY TRIBUNE that several mayors from Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, the Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi are expected to attend the gathering.

“Mindanaoans will come up with a united stand on the current state of the country, which has practically isolated Mindanao in the political development of the nation,” Cuntapay said.

Cuntapay declined to elaborate on the agenda of the meetings, but a DAILY TRIBUNE source revealed that the consultation may serve as a prelude to the possible revival of the 1986 declaration of Mindanao independence.

Maigo Mayor Rafael Rizaldo also said that there is a growing sense of betrayal and abandonment among the people of Mindanao, with some believing that independence is the only path forward.

Some leaders have proposed reviving the April 26, 1986 declaration of Mindanao independence.

The original declaration was spearheaded by the late lawyer Reuben Canoy, who led a convention attended by 500 delegates from Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan, with around 5,000 residents present during the proclamation at the Southern Technical Institute. Copies of the declaration and a proposed constitution were submitted to the United Nations, but no independent country endorsed them.

In his book Quest for Mindanao Independence, Canoy recalled how Muslims from Brooke’s Point in Palawan, as well as tribal leaders from Bukidnon and Davao, expressed support for an independent Mindanao. On July 16, 1986, the movement formally submitted its petition for federal statehood to the UN Secretariat in New York.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) had also previously sought belligerency status, but the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said the UN never received the petition due to the requirement that it be sponsored by a recognized state.

The movement could be revived, sources said, if an independent country such as China or Russia recognizes Mindanao’s independence, which could elevate its status to a belligerent entity under international law. It was further suggested that an interim federal government, led by former President Rodrigo Duterte, could be established to formally pursue the petition before the UN.

“The 1986 convention, which ratified the Constitution and the declaration of independence, will be submitted to a friendly country for recognition and endorsement to the UN,” a source said.

Once a country such as China or Russia recognizes Mindanao, the UN would have no choice but to acknowledge its belligerency status, the source added, expressing belief that such recognition could make Mindanao’s independence a reality.

The source also claimed that Mindanao and Sulu were once an independent protectorate of the United States and were occupied through conquest or acts of war.

Another DAILY TRIBUNE source said Mindanao was not included in the declaration of independence made by President Emilio Aguinaldo in 1898 in Kawit, Cavite, as the territories of the new republic covered only Luzon and the Visayas.

“That was the reason why, on 4 July, 1902, US President Theodore Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring the end of the Philippine rebellion, except in Mindanao and Sulu,” the source said.

The source further claimed that the United States created the Department of Mindanao and Sulu in 1903 and launched a bloody pacification campaign against the Bangsamoro people until the uprising was contained.