Bangsamoro gov’t expected in place by 2016 – MILF negotiator

By: Nikko Dizon - 10 years ago

MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—While no draft Bangsamoro Basic Law would be sent to Congress as it opens next week, a Bangsamoro government should still be in place before President Benigno Aquino III steps down in June 2016, Moro Islamic Liberation Front chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said Tuesday.

“Our timeline is still the Bangsamoro government shall be delivered within the term of (President) Aquino. That is the commitment of the President and we see it as the best situation that would happen,” Iqbal told the Inquirer in an interview.

Both the government and MILF panels have been working on an “agreed version” of the Bangsamoro Basic Law after the Office of the President practically left nothing in the original version of the draft untouched by its comments and proposed revisions.

The Office of the President’s comments rankled not a few members of the MILF negotiating panel and the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, which drafted the law. Iqbal himself chaired the BTC.

The BTC signed a resolution elevating the review of the BBL draft to the peace panels.

The panels had special meetings in Kuala Lumpur two weeks ago and in Manila, which ended on Monday.

An Inquirer source said the MILF was not aware that Monday’s meeting had already ended before noon, as Iqbal and the rest of the negotiators waited for the government panel to return after what was supposed to be a brief break.

The source said it was not clear to the MILF panel when they would hold another special meeting with the government to finally complete the BBL draft.

Iqbal declined to comment on the allegedly abrupt ending of Monday’s meeting. Instead, he said, he was willing to work on the draft law, even if it would take both panel days, and even while all the Muslims involved in the special meeting were fasting during Ramadan.

Iqbal, however, stressed the non-negotiables for the MILF at the special meetings to fine-tune the draft law.

“We registered our position in Kuala Lumpur: First, that all the issues that have been settled and signed documents will no longer be the subject of renegotiation… Second, all those languages that are settled in the signed documents will no longer be the subject of renegotiation,” Iqbal said.

Iqbal said that while both panels want to fast-track the completion of the agreed version of the draft BBL and submit it “immediately” after President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address, the MILF maintained that both panels would not “sacrifice the quality” of the draft law.