Wanted: Lawmaker to sponsor bill on Bangsamoro Region

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has hit the Duterte administration for “noncompliance” with signed peace agreements with the rebel group, warning once again that failure to deal with legitimate grievances of the Bangsamoro people could fuel discontent and, ultimately, violence.

In a statement on its official website, luwaran.com, the MILF on Saturday pointed out that no lawmaker has sponsored the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the “legal interpretation” of the 2014 peace agreement between the government and the rebel group, two weeks after Malacañang transmitted the bill to Congress.

Not priority

Worse for the MILF, the draft BBL was not listed among the Duterte administration’s priority measures during a meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council on Tuesday.

The MILF, however, said it remained hopeful that President Rodrigo Duterte would keep his campaign promise that he would make the proposed Bangsamoro autonomous region a “template for federalism in this country.”

The envisioned autonomous region can only be established with the passage of the BBL, after it is ratified by the provinces concerned.

The MILF said the “continued noncompliance of [the] government [with] signed agreements will put the MILF in a very tight and odd situation.”

“Consequently, the MILF will be torn between two unholy situations: partnership with a government that does not fulfill commitments and fighting terrorist groups whose pathways and ideological lines are based on twisted interpretations of Islam.”

“The right course of action for the MILF is: Hold the government accountable for its noncompliance [with] agreements and continue the assertion and, at the same time, continue to defend the MILF, as an organization, the people, and fight tooth and nail the spread of terrorism, anarchy and intrigues,” the MILF said.

To fight terrorists

The group said it would continue to fight Islamic State-inspired groups. Recently, it reported that around 100 suspected Maute terrorists were sighted in Buldon, Maguindanao province.

The MILF has been helping the government in rescuing residents trapped in Marawi since fighting between state forces and terrorists from the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups for control of the city erupted in late May.

But the MILF reiterated its warning that “failure to address the legitimate grievances of the Moros of Mindanao, the conflict in Mindanao will stay with us.”

“The use of brute force will only aggravate the problem. Of course, it will multiply the numbers of victims, but at the same time it will also increase the numbers of those resisting the government,” it said.

“Given this as backdrop, the spillover of the Marawi crisis is the natural consequence of an illness not addressed properly. It is an unfortunate situation,” the MILF said.

President Duterte has acknowledged the risk to peace posed by the delay in the passage of the proposed BBL.

Speaking to reporters in Davao City late on Saturday after attending the birthday celebration of Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles, Mr. Duterte said conflict in Mindanao would continue unless the region was politically reconfigured in a way acceptable to all groups there.

Nograles said it was wrong to say the passage of the proposed BBL was not a priority of the Duterte administration.

He said the bill, along with other proposals not included in the first group of priority measures, would be put on the second list. —With reports from Allan Nawal and Jeoffrey Maitem