EDITORIAL - Kiss the south goodbye

Ever heard of the saying that begins with "you give them an inch ... ?" Well, Malacañang, or a panel it has created, has just signed away to the MILF another concession that will eventually give the separatist group the Bangsamoro it has long coveted.

To date, Malacañang has already signed three concessions to the MILF -- transitional arrangements and wealth sharing. Signed in Malaysia Sunday night was another concession, this time on power sharing. It won't be long now before Aquino, in the short six years of his term, will sign away our patrimony and history.

Getting those concessions used to be the hard part. Surprisingly, it looked too easy with Aquino. It seems that nobody is raising a howl. Maybe the Filipino people have grown weary of the troubled south and have finally decided it is best to be rid of it.

Aquino has promised to help the MILF create the Bangsamoro, and no doubt he will keep that promise with immense help from an apathetic Filipino nation. Once the Bangsamoro is created within Aquino's term, it becomes all too easy for the Bangsamoro to solicit sovereign recognition from other states.

To be sure, all this needs popular approval in a referendum. But a referendum in an area that has always been known to swing elections one way or the other, depending on who does the swinging, is no stumbling block to any driven purpose.

Unless something truly drastic happens between now and the creation of the Bangsamoro, the Philippines may as well kiss the south goodbye. Then it might also kiss other areas goodbye, considering that other regions with large ethnic minorities have been watching the Bangsamoro experiment keenly, in the hope of learning some.

And while the Philippines is breaking up internally, it is also watching helplessly as its external edges are getting crimped and stolen by aggressive neighbors who realize only too keenly how ready for the picking the Philippines really is.

Today it is only China that is encroaching on our borders and stealing our islands. Tomorrow others could follow suit on seeing how helpless we are in protecting and preserving our patrimony and history. Pretty soon we will be a country too small for our dignity.