FORMER president Rodrigo Duterte's idea of an independent Mindanao is "not a travesty of the Constitution," as it is "covered by the guarantee of freedom of speech or of expression," his former top legal counsel Salvador Panelo said Saturday.

Panelo issued the statement after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that calls for a separate Mindanao were "doomed to fail" for they were "anchored on a false premise."

Panelo said that Marcos "has been swayed to adopt such [a] misplaced response."

"It is amusing that the reaction to the opposition to the idea of the secession of Mindanao floated by PRRD (former president Duterte's initials) has gone ballistic from over-reaction to the utterly absurd," Panelo said.

"A forgotten idea that birthed 40 years ago owing to government's neglect of Mindanao has been resurrected by PRRD evidently as a peripheral reaction to the discredited and graft-clothed people's initiative surreptitiously initiated by power-hungry politicians," he added.

The former Palace spokesman insisted that an idea of a Mindanao secession "can not be absolutely said to be doomed to fail," saying that "any advocacy or a concept must pass the crucible of a debate prior to the determination of its success or failure."

"Espousing an idea, no matter how outrageous, the matter of secession is certainly not, cannot be a travesty of the Constitution. It is covered by the guarantee of freedom of speech or of expression," Panelo said.

He said that what is violative of the Constitution "is the espousal of violence and intimidation of the people to bring the downfall of the government and the prevention of the enforcement of laws, as well as defying the constituted authorities."

"Neither is such advocacy a crime of sedition, which is rising tumultuously and publicly by means of violence or intimidation to prevent, among others, the promulgation and execution of laws and the exercise of the powers and duties of government officials," he said.

"Nor is it [a] rebellion, which is rising publicly and taking arms against the government," he added.

Panelo, a lawyer, said "a secession by an overwhelming majority of a part of a population and a territory of a country done peacefully is sanctioned by — and not prohibited by international law."

This, he said, was exemplified by the secession of Singapore from Malaysia, Sukovo from Serbia and East Timor from Indonesia.

"The secession is anchored on the principle that the people have the right to self-determination. They have the right to choose the kind of government they want, to choose the officials who will govern them and to determine their future," he said.

Panelo also said the Constitution "enshrined the principle: Sovereignty resides in the people, and all authority emanates from them."

"If the sovereign people of Mindanao opt to secede and establish its own state in a peaceful manner, it has that inherent right. Such is premised on the principle of 'Salud populi est supremacy lex' (The welfare of the people is the supreme law),'" Panelo said.

"If it is the welfare of the people of Mindanao to create its own republic for the reason that the present system does not work to their welfare, then they cannot be deprived of their right to self-determination," he added.

Panelo said an idea "can not be crushed by threat or intimidation" as "it can only be supplanted by a better idea."

"You do not crush an idea. You crush a rebellion or an uprising," the former Palace spokesman said.

"The oppositors to the idea of a secession instead of lashing at the proponent should determine its whys and wherefores then provide the appropriate and effective response," he added. (Log on to www.manilatimes.net for the full statement of Salvador Panelo, former legal counsel of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte, on Mindanao secession.)