This Week’s Milestones: Jan. 19-25, 2020

Jan. 21, 2019

A plebiscite for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), the final step in a peace agreement signed in 2014 between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was held in the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the cities of Cotabato and Isabela.

About 85 percent of voters turned out for the poll that decided whether residents would join the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The “yes” won with 1,540,017 votes against 198,750 “no” votes in the ARMM. Some 144,640 voted in Basilan province to include Isabela, its former capital, as part of the new region, overwhelming the 8,487 no votes.

Isabela residents, however, voted against inclusion 22,441 to 19,032.

The yes won by a slim margin of 11,688 votes in Cotabato City. The second round of voting for ratification of BOL in 67 villages in Cotabato province and six towns in Lanao del Norte was held on Feb. 6, 2019.

Jan. 22, 2016

A 612-hectare area in the town of Magsaysay in Misamis Oriental province was designated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as a critical habitat for hawksbill turtles through an administrative order.

The area, which is known as the “Magsaysay Critical Habitat for Hawksbill Turtle,” is composed of parcels of land in the coastal villages of Candiis, San Isidro and Damayuhan where nesting sites had been found.

Hawksbill turtles are classified as critically endangered, or near extinction, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Compiled by Kathleen de Villa, Inquirer Research