WE have had two serious Mindanao-centric secessionist movements in our history. Nur Misuari, a contemporary of the late Jose Ma. Sison at the University of the Philippines, wrote down the seminal — and markedly secular — ideological and organizational outlines of the Moro National Liberation (MNLF) while at the university. The second was the MNLF's spinoff, the religiously inclined Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The leaders of both groups may have not abandoned their secessionist dreams even after so many deaths and so much bloodletting. But for all intents and purposes, the two are both moribund organizations supplanted by extremely violent and scorch-the-earth Islamist forces.

I asked a dozen university students if they know something about the MNLF and MILF. They instead told me to ask them this question: 'Why did the Eras Tour skip Manila?' — and they promised to give me comprehensive answers covering both civics and musicology.