Friday, August 1, 2014

MILF: Moro Youth Rally for Basic Law Passage

From the MILF Website (Aug 1): Moro Youth Rally for Basic Law Passage



Hundreds of Bangsamoro youth representing several organizations gathered July 28 at the Cotabato City plaza after the Eid’l Fit’r (Feast of the Breaking of Fast) prayer to urge President Benigno Aquino III for the immediate passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
  
Specifically, they wanted the BBL drafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) and not, as they claimed, the “OPAPP draft.”

Calling themselves the Sulong Bangsamoro Movement, speakers took turn in venting their impatience and ire over what they perceived as dilution of the BTC-drafted BBL by the legal review team of the Office of the President.

Days before the rally, the group is believed responsible for the hanging of tarpaulins and streamers in major crossroads of Cotabato City urging for the immediate implementation of the terms of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), among several appeals.

    A representative of the Young Advocates for Peace and Development Network (YAPDN) claimed that the OP legal team has no right to change the draft BBL because only the BTC has the mandate to do so.

Some speakers also singled out the OPAPP, or the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, as the “source of the problem”, referring to the delay of the submission of the basic law to Congress which resumed session July 28.

In its manifesto, the Sulong Bangsamoro Movement said that the “CSOs are deeply worried of the possible negative consequences if the major issues in the agreement are not resolved in due time and that the review will reduce significantly the substance of the agreement.”

The manifesto also stated that a “basic law that does not auger well in responding to the demand for self-government and the big challenges of reforms and development in the Bangsamoro will be a hindrance to peace.”

The rallyists asserted that the BTC has already carefully and meticulously framed the original draft, seeing to it that each provision religiously complies with the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) which was signed just this March 27. 

Incidentally, Eid’l Fitr happened on the day President Aquino delivered his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA).

As it turned out, hopes and expectations were dampened when the President mentioned the BBL in few lines only in his 44-page SONA.

“Kung maisasabatas nga po ang Bangsamoro Basic Law bago matapos ang taon at maisasagawa ang kinakailangang plebesito, mabibigyan ng isa’t kalahating taon ang Bangsamoro Transition Authority para ipakita ang positibong pagbabago. Kung maaantala naman ito, natural pong iikli rin ang panahon para mapatunayan na tama nga ang landas ng kapayapaang tinatahak natin,” Aquino said of the timeline of the peace process which many fear is getting short.

The rallyists came from the barangays of Cotabato City, Iranon areas (Parang, Matanog, Barira & Buldon), Kapatagan (LDS), Maguindanao and South Cotabato towns and students of USM Kabacan.

Sulong Bangsamoro Movement is an advocacy organized by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) based in Central Mindanao. The member-organizations are YAPDN, DYAM (Development Youth Assembly in Mindanao), KBMMPD (Kutawato Bangsamoro Movement for Peace & Dev’t), MYROi (Moro Youth Religious Organization, Inc.), MWDECC (Moro Women Development & Cultural Center), MAPD (Mindanao Action for Peace & Dev’t), UNYPHIL (United Youth of the Philippines), Free Bangsamoro Advocates (FBA), Kabalikat Civicom-Bangsamoro, AFADMin (Action for the Advancement of Development in Mindanao), Bangsamoro Center for Just Peace  (BCJP), Muslim Youth Brotherhood (MYB)  and Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS).

http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/1119-moro-youth-rally-for-basic-law-passage

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