Lobregat objects to MILF campaigning with arms during Bangsamoro polls

Would gun-toting members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) be running around Mindanao during the election of new officials for the envisioned Bangsamoro region?

Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat, one of the most vocal critics of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), posed the question as he raised fears about the decommissioning of the MILF, which would run through four stages, including the Bangsamoro elections.

He said the normalization process under the peace agreement between the government and the MILF would effectively allow members of the group to continue wielding arms even during the elections.

“They formed themselves into a political party, but that’s the first time I’ve heard of a political party that is actually allowed to hold arms in elections,” Lobregat said.

“I’m not going to say they might do something but they will be armed,” he said in a phone interview.

Lobregat’s remarks feed off lingering anti-MILF sentiments in the wake of the Jan. 25 carnage in Mamasapano in Maguindanao, resulting from a clash between MILF fighters and Special Action Force police commandos, which left more than 60 dead.

On Tuesday, the MILF began the initial phase of decommissioning by turning over 75 high-powered weapons and 145 combatants to the government in what has been touted as a confidence-building measure.

The passage of the BBL will complete the political component of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) signed in March last year by the government and the MILF.

Under that agreement, the second phase of the decommissioning process will take place upon the passage and ratification of the BBL, and will involve 30 percent of the MILF’s firearms and combatants.

The third phase will involve decommissioning 65 percent of MILF forces upon the establishment of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), and the fourth and last phase will have 100 percent of the MILF forces decommissioned upon the election of new Bangsamoro officials.

But Lobregat said this meant that the MILF would in effect still be holding 70 percent of its arms during the campaigning for the new Bangsamoro officials.

He said it was clear that the government peace panel had agreed to certain provisions they should never have agreed to in the first place.

In an earlier interview, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who chaired the House panel on the BBL, said critics of the bill, especially those in the Senate, should take cognizance of the fact that the second and latter phases of the decommissioning could only proceed if Congress was able to pass the BBL.

In the worst-case scenario, he said the House and the Senate could find themselves in a deadlock at the bicameral conference committee, resulting in no BBL being passed.

“The House will insist on our version, which is why we appeal to the Senate to take a look at the BBL instead of just amending Republic Act 9054,” Rodriguez said, referring to the law creating the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., chair of the Senate’s local government committee, earlier said he would rather amend the ARMM law than approve the “flawed” draft BBL, raising questions about its constitutionality.

Lobregat cited other problems, such as the possibility of new conflict with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the group the MILF had split from after the former forged a peace deal with government in 1996.

The BBL will repeal Republic Act 9054, which created the ARMM, based on the MNLF peace deal. Lobregat said the passage of BBL could be construed by the MNLF as a betrayal of the earlier peace agreement, whose terms had not even been fully implemented.

Asked if he supported moves in the Senate to just amend the ARMM law, he said it would depend on how major the amendments would be. He said it would not be so simple to change the existing ARMM government.

The BBL is still under the period of interpellation at the House, which will resume deliberations after President Aquino delivers his State of the Nation Address before a joint session of Congress in July.

Upon approval on second reading, there will be a period of amendments, then voting on third reading, and transmittal to the Senate, which will go through the same process. The two versions will be reconciled in the bicameral conference and then sent back to the two chambers for ratification, and then signing by the President into law.

Lobregat said he would continue raising questions “based on reason, logic, and the Constitution” during the plenary deliberations.

But he admitted the majority would be able to muster the numbers needed to approve the BBL by September or October. The question, according to him, is what the Senate will do.