Monday, July 21, 2014

MILF: President Aquino, Chairman Murad to meet again on watered-down BBL

From the MILF Website (Jul 21): President Aquino, Chairman Murad to meet again on watered-down BBL

Another meeting between President Benigno Aquino III and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chair Murad Ebrahim will soon take place in yet to be determined venue before the president deliver his State of the Nation Address (SONA) before a joint session of Congress on July 28.
   
The meeting is necessary in threshing out issues confronting both sides on the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, an enabling act for the establishment of Bangsamoro new autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao. The purpose of the proposed meeting is to save the peace process in the light of major alterations made by Malacañang legal team on the draft BBL.
The draft BBL was crafted by the 15-man Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC headed by the MILF Peace Panel chair Mohagher Iqbal. The Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) was signed by the two panels last March 27, 2014 at the ground of the presidential palace in the presence of Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Najib Razak, President Aquino, other government officials, foreign diplomats, MILF officials  and representatives of international and local non-government organizations. 

According to a report by Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 20, quoting its source, the Manila leg of the five-day “workshop” being done by government and MILF negotiators had a rough start on Friday, July 18.

The workshop appeared to be a review of the annexes on power, wealth sharing, normalization, and transitional modalities that made up the peace agreement against the long list of comments of the President’s legal team on the draft law, the report further said.

Just like the “workshop” held in Kuala Lumpur a week ago, the Manila workshop started off with some tense moments between the two panels, the source said as quoted by Inquirer.

But Murad had told Iqbal and the rest of the MILF panel not to give up on the efforts to save the draft law.  “Chairman Murad told the MILF panel to stay put, keep engaged and temper their emotions,” Inquirer further quoted its source.

http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/1096-president-aquino-chairman-murad-to-meet-again-on-watered-down-bbl

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