Duterte ready to give BBL to MILF
Moro Islamic Liberation Front. INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTO
CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao—There is enough land in the Philippines for everyone, including the Bangsamoro people, President Duterte declared on Friday.
Lauding Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader Al Haj Murad for deciding to pursue peace talks with the government, Mr. Duterte said that in the pursuit of peace, he was ready to give the MILF the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) it wanted but minus the contentious provisions deemed unconstitutional.
“I’d like to publicly salute Murad for opting, for choosing to talk further,” Mr. Duterte said as he addressed government troops at the 6th Infantry Division headquarters in Camp Siongco, Maguindanao.
The proposed BBL, written by government and MILF negotiators after the signing of a peace agreement in 2014, would establish an autonomous Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.
But an investigation of a clash between elite police forces and Moro rebels in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, in January last year that left 44 police commandos, 17 MILF fighters and three civilians dead delayed deliberations on the BBL in Congress, and the legislature adjourned in February without passing the proposed Bangsamoro charter.
Mr. Duterte noted that there were warnings of a return to war if Congress failed to pass the proposed BBL, making him visit the MILF camp during the presidential campaign to ask the secessionist group’s leaders to keep the ceasefire with the military so they could talk if he won the election.
The MILF stood by its promise to talk, Mr. Duterte said.
“I am ready to give the BBL minus the constitutional issues that are contentious and cannot be solved by an agreement between me [and the MILF],” he said.
One such issue is the proposed regional armed forces and regional police, which breaks the chain of command and cannot be allowed, the President said.
But Mr. Duterte said he was willing to grant the unquestioned provisions of the BBL, and the same goes for Nur Misuari’s faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996.
“Even if you give them that part of the territory (the proposed Bangsamoro region), there’s enough land in the Philippines. The Philippines is vast. As long as there is no fighting, everybody can be accommodated, and we can establish industrial zones,” the President said.
If there is no fighting, new investments will come into the Philippines, creating jobs, he said.
Mr. Duterte said the desire for industrial zones was the reason why he had misgivings about the Paris Agreement on climate change, which would limit carbon emissions.
Philippine industries are still developing, but the other signatories to the agreement are industrialized countries, he said.
The Duterte administration is continuing the implementation of the peace agreements with the MILF and the MNLF, officials said.
Earlier, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said the Bangsamoro Transition Commission would be reconstituted for the drafting of a new enabling law for the proposed Bangsamoro region. TVJ
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