Public urged to ignore rumors on Bangsamoro Law

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  --- Officials on Friday urged the public to wait for the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) and the Office of the President to reveal the details of the draft Basic Bangsamoro Law (BBL).

The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are bound by a communication protocol governing the dissemination of the processes in the GPH-MILF peace efforts.

Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said spreading rumors about the BBL could lend undue credence to malicious assertions by "spoilers" that there are certain provisions of the draft law  that are questionable and could prove to be detrimental to non-Moro inhabitants in the proposed Bangsamoro core territory.

“All sectors in Moro areas, the Moro people, the Christians and the lumads want their communities to rise in tranquility and become viably at par, politically and economy-wise, with more progressive areas around. Surely, the government and the MILF will not fail us. They will not `rock the boat’  to say it best," Hataman said.

Hataman said he has directed all members of his cabinet to continue engaging in healthy dialogues on the gains and dividends of the GPH-MILF talks with the communities they serve to correct spreading misconceptions about the BBL.

The BTC, chaired by Muhaquer Iqbal, who is the MILF’s chief negotiator, submitted the draft BBL to Malacañang last Tuesday, amid mounting clamors by certain groups for transparency about its contents.

Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, the only Moro provincial governor --- from among ARMM’s five --- who has been vocal of his support to the GPH-MILF peace overture, said he and his constituent-mayors are not bothered by insinuations that the draft BBL contains provisions that  are unconstitutional.

The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, which are both in Central Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

“How can we judge the draft BBL like that,  at this early, when it has not even been transmitted to Congress for deliberation and enactment? We just have to patiently wait. Malacañang will certainly study that draft BBL first before endorsing it to Congress as an urgent bill,” Mangudadatu said.

Hataman and Mangudadatu both said the draft BBL will become an open, public document once submitted by Malacañang to the House of Representatives for enactment.

“And we voted for our congressional representatives during the May 13, 2013 elections for them to stand and fight for our welfare and our rights in the House of Representatives so why get affected by rumors? We just have to wait patiently. This is a peace process," Mangudadatu said.

Mangudadatu said local officials, meantime, have to embark on various activities to boost the good will between the government and the MILF, and help  educate the public on the Mindanao peace process.

Mangudadatu and Hataman had also called on local executives and Moro traditional leaders to reach out and engage in discussions on the prospects of the peace process with communities outside of the proposed Bangsamoro core territory.

“What people outside of the Bangsamoro homeland think of the BBL, `positive, or otherwise,’ also affects the communities that stand to directly benefit from the final GPH-MILF peace accord and so we need to tell our neighbors outside of ARMM too about the (benefits) of the peace process," Hataman said.

The BBL, once enacted and ratified via a plebiscite replace the ARMM with a new MILF-led Bangsamoro political entity.

The government and MILF aim to conduct the referendum in the autonomous region and neighboring Moro-dominated areas in early 2015 for the transition, from the ARMM to the new Bangsamoro political entity, to take place even before the term of incumbent regional officials end on June 30, 2016.

“We must not forget that the BTC cordially reached out to us and explained its concept of a good, mutually acceptable solution to the Mindanao Moro problem, and its members attentively listened to our views and proposals too during those dialogues held before they drafted the BBL so let us just trust the BTC, Malacañang, the House of Representatives, and the Senate,” Mangudadatu said.