Group launches radio program on Bangsamoro Basic Law

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The foreign-assisted Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) will launch on September 18 a periodic radio forum meant to generate awareness on the intricacies of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Lawyer Benedicto Bacani, executive director of IAG, said all is set for their first ever “Talkshop Series on Bangsamoro” at the Notre Dame University (NDU) in Cotabato City.

The IAG’s peace advocacy programs in Mindanao are being assisted by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany.

Bacani said the forum will be aired simultaneously by the sister Catholic stations dxMS and dxND in the cities of Cotabato and Kidapawan, respectively.

Bacani said their maiden radio forum at the Tanghalang Michael Clark of NDU, which is Central Mindanao’s biggest Catholic school, will involve representatives from the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Bacani said they are expecting participants to extensively talk about the first topic of the radio dialogue, “political autonomy and Bangsamoro government,” based on the contents of the draft BBL.

The draft BBL, now in Congress, is the enabling measure for the establishment of a new Bangsamoro political entity, as stated in the final government-MILF peace compact, the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

The BBL, once enacted into law and ratified via a plebiscite in selected areas in the south, will repeal the Republic Act 9054, which is the charter of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, to give way to the establishment of a more politically and administratively empowered Bangsamoro government.

Bacani said the IAG has invited the government’s lead peace broker, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, and her MILF counterpart, Muhaquer Iqbal, to the September 18 radio forum.

Iqbal is chair of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, which drafted the proposed law. The commission is composed of seven representatives each from the government and the MILF.   

A representative from the academe, Edmund Tayao, executive director of the Local Government Development Foundation, was also invited to talk about the “national perspective” of the draft BBL.

Tayao is teaching political science at the University of Santo Tomas.

“Basically, this `talkshop series’ is intended to educate the public on the contents of the draft BBL,” Bacani said.

The government and MILF panels are expecting the enactment of the draft BBL before yearend.