Voter registration Saturday for MILF

INSIDE Camp Darapanan, the main Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) camp, billboards like this one are conspicuously hung to remind members of MILF and their families about the Bangsamoro Basic Law. The camp will be the venue today of a mass registration of MILF members as voters to be held by the Commission on Elections. NASH B. MAULANA/INQUIRER MINDANAO

DAVAO CITY — At least 2,000 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are expected to take the next step to the group’s transition from a revolutionary to a political organization as they register as voters Saturday.

The Commission on Elections is bringing the registration process to Camp Darapanan, MILF’s main camp, to pave the way for MILF members’ entry into the political arena as voters.

MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, at a roundtable discussion on Thursday with journalists hosted by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said he considered the mass registration to be proof of MILF’s commitment to peace and its continuing plea for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

BBL would put in place a new autonomous setup in Mindanao to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and require elections for officials who would lead the new autonomous government.

Iqbal said he himself had already registered as a voter back in 2013.

“See? I’m registered,” Iqbal said as he flashed his voter’s ID before journalists here.

MILF, he said, continues to commit itself to the peace agreement it signed with the Aquino administration recently despite setbacks brought by the Jan. 25 Mamasapano debacle that killed 44 police commandos, 18 MILF members and five civilians.

“We are still hoping that at the end of the day the BBL will be passed,” Iqbal said.

He admitted that MILF doesn’t have a “plan B” for BBL.

MILF’s optimism about BBL’s passage is shown by its transition from being a purely armed revolutionary movement to a legal institution under the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) which was signed in October 2012. FAB lead to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the basis for BBL, which was signed on March 27 last year.

By abandoning separatism and the use of force, Iqbal said MILF has committed itself to decommissioning its armed wing—Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces—and forming a political party.

Since its forming in 1984 as a breakaway group of the Moro National Liberation Front, MILF has shunned elections as a policy. Its members, though, are not prevented from participating in elections as individuals.

The plebiscite for BBL, which MILF expects to be held middle of this year, would be the first time MILF is officially sanctioning participation in an electoral exercise.

Iqbal reiterated an appeal for reason to prevail in the discussion about the Bangsamoro.

Biases against the Moro people, he said, are threatening to undermine 17 years of work by peace negotiators.

“We are back to choosing between trust and mistrust,” Iqbal said. “And we know where mistrust has taken us before,” he added.

Iqbal also appealed to media to put context, instead of just highlighting emotions, on reports about the Jan. 25 debacle.

“Why ask for justice only for the SAF (Special Action Force) 44? This is why the Moros feel they do not belong to this country,” Iqbal said.

“Real justice is not only for the powerful but should be for the weak and powerless,” Iqbal said.

Macabangkit Lanto, former justice undersecretary, said in a separate interview that there seemed to be a disinformation campaign aimed at putting BBL down.

He said legislators should look at the BBL and the Mamasapano debacle separately because “the noble purpose of BBL, a roadmap to peace, will be beclouded.” Ryan Rosauro, Karlos Manlupig and JB Deveza, Inquirer Mindanao