New BBL draft signing re-set anew

In this July 11, 2016 file photo, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Ghadzali Jaafar, the MILF vice chairman for political affairs, and Lawyer Randolf Parcasio of the MNLF talk during the Mindanao Hariraya Eid’l Fitr in Davao City.  (Presidential Photographers Division/Rene B. Lumawag)

MANILA — The schedule of the formal submission of the new draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) to President Duterte has been moved yet again, with Malacañang citing the unavailability of Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on June 28.

The new “tentative” schedule is on July 10 after the June 28 schedule was postponed, according to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on its official site, luwaran.com.

The MILF considers Pimentel and Alvarez as the “two most important personalities as far as legislation, and for this matter, the passage of BBL in Congress, are concerned.”

BTC chairman, MILF vice chairman Ghadzali Jaafar, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer last week that he hoped Mr. Duterte would make the draft BBL a priority bill and endorse it for Congress’ passage in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 24.

The MILF said the first proposed schedule to submit the proposed BBL was on June 1 but the BTC was still debating on the draft measure.

At a meeting between President Duterte and the MILF leadership on May 29, Jaafar suggested June 14 and 15 as the dates of submission, estimating that by then, the BTC would be finalized and signed by the
commissioners.

There was no concurrence on the dates by the Office of the President, the MILF said.

The dates June 16, 22, and 24 were also mentioned. Then the OP itself suggested June 28, only to postpone it to July 10, the MILF said.

The MILF said “such a litany of postponements do not bode well” for the ordinary Moro even if government had the final say on the schedule and the BTC could wait.

“The ghost of the previous BBL still lingers well in their minds. If there was Mamasapano then, now we have Marawi City. What an unhappy consequence!” the MILF said.

In an official statement for Eid’l Fitr, MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim urged the Bangsamoro to be “more patient” amid the painstaking slow implementation of the peace process.

“On this blessed occasion of Eidul Fitre or Feast of Breaking the Fast, I once again reiterate that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has never, and will never, abandon the legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro people,” Murad said.

“We will not stop in asserting and struggling for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the best product thus far of the negotiated political settlement,” Murad said.

He stressed that this was what his predecessor, Salamat Hashim, “has described as the most civilized way of resolving conflict.”

Murad also urged the Bangsamoro to “counter the spread of violent extremism and political beliefs that bring more harm than good to the Bangsamoro.”

He also advised the “young ones who may have been attracted to extremist propaganda… to seek guidance and knowledge from your elders who have preceded you in the struggle and have ‘seen and tasted it all’.”  SFM