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Duterte pledges enactment of Bangsamoro bill after House deferment
MANILA, Philippines — Fulfilling his promise of a higher budget for Mindanao, President Rodrigo Duterte said that he will sign the proposed Bangsamoro Organic Law.
During his third State of the Nation Address, the president asked for two days to sign the landmark measure, which the House of Representatives failed to ratify before adjourning its session Monday morning.
"When the approved version is transmitted and received by my own office, the law has been passed actually, and I intend to give me 48 hours to sign it and ratify the law," Duterte said in his speech.
The passage of the BOL, originally called the Bangsamoro Basic Law, would make available funds which have always been allotted to "Imperial Manila," as he said Mindanaons refer to the capital.
The president lamented how national projects in Metro Manila have been funded, "leaving a pittance to Mindanao."
"Mindanao was dubbed as the land of promise and Mindanaoans say in the region that is so because what it got from the government through the years of promises, promises and more promises," he said.
Duterte made a commitment to the Filipino Muslim community that they will see the "promise of Mindanao" before his term ends.
"Despite all that has been said, or against the Bangsamoro Organic Law by all sectoral groups, I make this solemn commitment that this administration will never deny our Muslim brothers and sisters the basic legal tools to chart their own destiny within the constitutional framework of our country," the president said.
While the Senate ratified the proposed BOL, the House of Representatives failed to do so as it abruptly ended its session amid a looming change in leadership.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the failure of the House to ratify the bill was a "temporary setback."
"We, however, remain confident that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte will sign the Bangsamoro Organic Law as soon as both houses of Congress finally ratify the bill," Roque said.
Mujiv Hataman, regional governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said he is confident there will be no interruption of reforms and government services during a transition to a proposed Bangsamoro region that will replace the ARMM.
He added regional officials will meet on a potential transition that will happen if the Bangsamoro Basic Law is passed.
"I want them to know that I started from a problematic regional government. Ayaw ko maranasan nila (Bangsamoro Transition Authority) ) ang naranasan ko noong nag-transition ako," Hataman, who was caretaker governor from 2011 to 2013, said. He was elected regional governor in 2013 and again in 2016.
The first of 11 planned Joint Peace and Security Team barracks has been turned over to the Joint Peace and Security Committee, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process says.
The JPST will be tasked with safeguarding decommissioned weapones from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, OPAPP says.
The barracks will be put up in seven provinces in Mindanao and are being builty through the OPAPP, with funding support by the UN Development Programme.
Decommissioning of MILF weapons and combatants is part of the normalization tracks of the peace agreement with the former rebel group.
A contingent of police and military personnel are in Parang, Maguindanao for deployment with Joint Peace and Security Teams that will be jointly staffed with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process says.
It says 77 members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and 96 from the Philippine National Police will be joined by 152 from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front - Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces for training with the JPSTs.
"The JPST training is a unique community policing training where contingents from the AFP, PNP and MILF-BIAF shall undergo a one-month training program to enable them to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes to make them a capable and dependable force to protect the gains of the peace process," Police Lt.Col. Arnold Razote, training director, says in the OPAPP release.
Two soldiers were wounded as government troops clashed against the New People Army rebels and overran teir camp in the jungle of Lumba Bayabao town, Lanao del Sur on Sunday, a military official says.
The troops were tracking down about 180 NPA rebels who had eluded combat operations in Bukidnon and slipped away to Lanao del Sur to conduct training when they encounter 10 armed rebels at Barangay Sabala Bantayao, Brig. Gen. Romeo Brawber, commander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade, says.
Brawner says they had received reports that about 180 NPA rebels from Guerilla Front 12 of Sub-regional Committee 5 entered the town of Lumba Bayabao to conduct training while also taking supplies from locals.
He says soldiers from the 49th, 55th, and 82nd Infantry Battalions, and the 15th Division Reconnaissance Company launched an operation in response and engaged the rebels believed to be deployed as front line defense in a firefught.
Brawner says the firefight that erupted about 9:15a.m Sunday raged for several minutes leaving undetermined rebels, and two soldiers, wounded. — The STAR/Roel Pareño
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