4 senators assure support for Bangsamoro Basic Law

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The four senators who presided over the public hearing on the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law here Thursday assured stakeholders to see through its enactment into law within the year.

 

Leaders of Moro, Lumad and Christian sectors took turns telling Senators Miguel Zubiri, JV Ejercito, Rissa Hontiveros and Juan Edgardo Angara on Thursday their wish for the unimpeded passage of the proposed law.

 

The draft BBL, crafted jointly by representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the national government, is premised on two compacts reached by both sides after 17 years of talks — the 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

 

The four senators were accompanied by Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command to the MILF's main camp in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao for a dialogue with members of the group’s central committee prior to the public hearing.

 

The public hearing, hosted by the executive department of ARMM, was held at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex inside the 32-hectare autonomous regional government capitol in southeast of Cotabato City.

 

Hadji Murad Ebrahim, MILF chairman, told visiting senators he is worried that public frustration over non-passage of the BBL before 2019 will boost the expansion of Islamic State-inspired blocs in the south.

 

He said militants can capitalize on sentiments of frustrated Mindanao residents supporting the BBL to foment animosity to the government to lure recruits into their ranks.

Zubiri said he recognizes the aspiration of the Moro people for peace and development through self-governance.

 

He said he is optimistic of the approval of the draft BBL without hitches.

 

"We need a long term political solution achievable only with a new political landscape," Zubiri said.

 

In separate statements Friday, Galvez, the most senior military official present in the public hearing, and Hataman both expressed gratitude to the Moro, Lumad and Christian leaders who participated in the activity.

 

Hataman had said during the hearing that he and members of his regional cabinet patronizes the draft BBL jointly drafted by the MILF and representatives of Malacañang.

 

He also reiterated his readiness to facilitate a transition from ARMM to an MILF-led Bangsamoro government if a duly-approved BBL will cut his three-year elective tenure short.

 

Hataman was elected to a second term as ARMM’s chief executive in May 2016 and ought to serve until June 30, 2019.

 

Zubiri, Estrada, Hontiveros and Angara all assured their support for the enactment into law of the BBL, the enabling measure for the replacement of ARMM with a Bangsamoro regional entity as agreed by the MILF and the national government.

 

Estrada and Alan Peter Cayetano were the first senators to withdraw their signatures from an earlier version of the BBL after the Mamasapano encounter in January of that year. Around 60 Filipinos, including 44 members of the police Special Action Force, died in the clash that followed a covert operation against terrorists in a remote town in Maguindanao.

 

A police audit of the operation found that the operation had suffered from poor planning and a failure to coordinate with the military and a ceasefire mechanism with the MILF.