Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel (left), former president Rodrigo Duterte (Facebook, Malacañang photo)

You don't own Mindanao. 

This was Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel's simple message to former president Rodrigo Duterte amid the latter's call to have the region separate itself from the rest of the Philippines. 

For the Makabayan congressman, Duterte is merely floating the proposal in an attempt to save his own hide from International Criminal Court (ICC), which is breathing down his neck. 

This is in connection with the bloody war on illegal drugs that supposedly claimed thousands of lives during his administration. 

"Pagsalba lang ito sa balwarte nila para protektahan ang kanilang poder. Hindi nila pagmamay-ari ang Mindanao, yan ang gusto nating sabihin kay Rodrigo Duterte," Manuel said in a virtual press conference Friday, Feb. 2. 

(He's merely doing this to save his bailiwick and protect his turf. You people don't own Mindanao, that's what I want to tell Rodrigo Duterte.) 

"Sa katunayan ay nais lang gawing escape bunker ng mga Duterte ang Mindanao sa panahong tugisin na sila ng ICC kapag umusad ang imbestigasyon at mahatulan sila sa kanilang mga krimen sa mamamayang Pilipino," he said. 

(In truth, the Dutertes just want to turn Mindanao into an escape bunker when the time comes that the ICC probe proceeds and they end up getting sentenced for their crimes against the Filipino people.) 

Before his term as president from 2016 to 2022, Duterte was a longtime mayor of Davao City in Mindanao.