Hotdog. “Not again,” I muttered to myself as I sat down for breakfast at the urban chef cafeteria in Maxim Philippines Operating Corporation where I am having my on the job training in Cavite. I was contemplating they prospects of yet another boring breakfast when an equally bored-looking Ilokano student took his seat in front of me. He watched his plate, took a few bits of hotdog. Then pushed it away and shook his head. Obviously, tired of having to eat almost the same stuff every morning, he looked at me and then started to ask in tagalong. “Where you from?” “From Iligan,” I said. His eyes grew wide. From the way he looked at me, I could guess what his next question would be. “Ah, a bisaya!” he exclaimed, his voice brimming with excitement as if he had found the answer to an eternal question that was bothering him for a long time. Then between chewing his hotdog and drinking his coffee, he asked me conspiratorially. “Are you a muslim?” I pretended not to have heard anything, this guy was obviously misinformed bout our religious statistics, which was quite pardonable since our provinces are distance apart. What is more outrageous is when someone from imperial manila looks at you with suspicion because you happen to have told him you came from Mindanao. This happened to me many times before. People tended to keep their distance when I told them I was from Lanao del Norte, thinking that I was a muslim. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with being a muslim. What pisses me off are the  shallow perceptions of some people from Luzon that all muslims are war freaks and are bound to run amok. That is prejudice pure and simple. The Ilokano student ignored my silence and asked his next question: “Are you a muslim:” “Are you an Abu Sayyaf? or an MILF?”The mention of Abu Sayyaf and MILF woke me up from my dreamless stupor. “Nope,” I replied. “And granting that I am, do you have a problem with that?” surprised by my heated response, he took his plate and transferred to the next table. “Serves him right,” I told to myself. I could not blame him though. It all started when the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped Ces Drilon, an ABS-CBN news anchor early this year which gave a big impact to the world of showbiz industry. Meaning, news are messing around every time. Also, the bombing and killing of innocent people in kauswagan Lanao del Norte which happens to be a distant place from Iligan City. Again, by the MILF. I reassured myself that news like these happened very rarely. When was the last time we got really bad publicity in the country media? Was it during the manila film fest scam? Or was it when Manny Pacquiao loses his fight? When such stories come out, people around the Philippines talked about Mindanao for a fleeting moment and then went on with their lives. I never imagined there would be bigger stories that would be featured by every major news magazine around the world, giving our very own Mindanao a reputation as one of the world’s dangerous places to live in.