DIRGAHAYU

Back in high school, I have had classmates that has a group whom they called each other as 𝘑𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴. I never asked if their callsign was inspired by soon to be former capital of Indonesia. They're a group of nine, beautiful and intelligent that they even competing each other from rank two to ten. There was once our teacher (𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥😁) got mad listening to their callsign as it sounds like of a devil, accordingly.

Anyway, arriving in Jakarta is another story to tell. So vast, beautiful, and diverse. Everything has its variants and everyone varies. On the smaller islands, most administrative regions were created to coincide with traditional regions, the larger islands, by contrast, administrative boundaries were constructed to simplify complex traditional and cultural divisions while retaining a  unitary state.

It is not far in our Philippines keep being forced for unity while we are so diverse too. Geographically separated fighting with different struggles. Could you remember before when Aguinaldo proclaimed our independence in Kawit while some Filipinos in parts of Mindanao were still under the Spanish rule? We varied in language, perspectives, and even in skin complexion, there are light, dark and darker.

I know that "divided we fall" but having one united government, central Manila will always benefit more as before. Makati has a heart center while other regions have none. 𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘢 𝘳𝘢 𝘣𝘢 𝘯𝘢𝘢y 𝘴𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘵? So people flock to Manila for better treatment. The place too became congested until every 'over' sounds normal. Overtraffic streets, overoccupied, overcrowded, and even riding a bus is a challenge to stand in lines overtime.

I understand before why conflicts exist in Southern Philippines because they felt unattended. In the economic sphere, there is a gap in unemployment rate, wealth, in health and even discrimination and racism in the social arena. The creation of BARMM is no different of decentralizing Manila. It is also a way of giving chances to Filipino Moslems to run a government through the form they want. 

This can be done too for other regions so that we have no reason to push ourselves in Manila where fellow Filipinos make fun of our Tegeleg accent, where even fellow Filipino taxi drivers asking for high fares at short distance because they see us alien to the land we consider as our capital.