Aquino: Hastening passage of Bangsamoro law was main topic with MILF chief

By: Nestor P. Burgos Jr. - 10 years ago

A HISTORIC DAY IN OCTOBER President Aquino and Moro Islamic Liberation Front chair Murad Ebrahim meet for a second time for peace in Malacañang. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

ILOILO CITY, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III disclosed here Friday that he and Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chairman Murad Ebrahim discussed at a meeting in Japan how to hasten the passage of the proposed Bangsamoro basic law.

“Basically we discussed the output of the (Bangsamoro) Transition Commission,” the President told reporters in Iloilo City when asked what transpired during his meeting with Murad in Hiroshima, Japan, last Tuesday.

The unscheduled meeting took place before the President addressed an international conference on peace at the Hiroshima Sheraton Hotel.

Mr. Aquino described the meeting as “fast,” during a 10-minute gap in his schedule, and said it dealt on “broad strokes on how to come up with the basic law that will ensure swift passage in Congress.”

“We are now putting the details,” the President said.

He said he asked Murad for a meeting next week to be attended by both of them or their representatives or panels of both parties.

The meeting is aimed at threshing out details to come up with a refined draft law to submit to Congress even before the President’s State of the Nation Address in July.

The Philippine government and MILF signed on March 27 a peace agreement aimed at ending the decades-long war that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced thousands of families.

Asked what was delaying the drafting of the bill and its submission to Congress, President Aquino said it was due to interpretation of how the framework principles should be articulated by both parties.

“I don’t think there is a disagreement on the guiding principles. There is a need to further refine the language so that it really states a meeting of the minds of both parties,” the President said.

He said he expects the process to move faster toward “a proposed measure that both parties can fully support.”

President Aquino, however, was non-committal when asked whether the special law would be passed before the end of the year.

“I have to work with a co-equal branch (Congress). But I can assure the Filipino people that we will exert all efforts that this special law is passed in a timely manner because the dream still is to give the new Bangsamoro government time to demonstrate its abilities,” he said.

He said the new Bangsamoro government needs a minimum of a year and six months to prepare.

“We are hoping that all the steps will be done that they can sit in office by January 2015, the President added.

Aquino denied that the delay was due to constitutional questions.

“From the start the Constitution was a guiding document in crafting this framework agreement, so the basic law that gives the details should also be consistent,” he said.