President Aquino and MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim during the launching of the 'Sajahatra Bangsamoro' on February 11, 2013. (Mindanao Examiner Photo - Mark Navales)
The former rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front is gearing up in preparation for the 2016 national elections and has formed its own political party called United Bangsamoro Justice Party.
Sammy Al-Mansoor, the MILF Chief of Staff, said they have registered the political party with the Securities and Exchange Commission and their lawyers are already preparing to submit the accreditation of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party with the Commission on Elections by next year.
“Yun mga lawyers namin ay pina-fine tune pa ang by-laws ng United Bangsamoro Justice Party bago namin itong ipa-accredit sa Commission on Elections and most likely by next year na ito kasi ngayon at busy ang lahat dahil patapos na ang taon,” Al-Mansoor told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said the United Bangsamoro Justice Party is supported by Muslims and non-Muslims in Mindanao and that they are preparing to hold a general assembly anytime soon to further strengthen their political party.
The MILF is currently busy in winning hearts and minds of residents of the Muslim autonomous region - composed of the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, including the cities of Marawi and Lamitan - in support to the Bangsamoro Basic Law and the peace agreement it signed in March this year with the Filipino government.
Opposition
Despite a massive government campaign for the BBL, many politicians are opposing it for fear that provisions in the proposed law may include their areas in the Bangsamoro regional government which would replace the current Muslim autonomous region. The MILF and the Aquino government have repeatedly assured that the BBL is legal and in accordance with the Constitution.
Christian groups and some Muslims and tribesmen were also opposing the BBL, especially in in Lanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat and Zamboanga and Iligan, including Isabela in Basilan, saying they are already at peace and living harmoniously with each other.
Villagers said shortly after the peace deal was signed in March 27, Muslim groups have emerged and started claiming farmlands owned by Christians as theirs and invoking their ancestral rights in Wao town in Lanao del Sur. Now, many residents have started arming themselves for fear that once the new Bangsamoro autonomous government is installed, Muslims will take away their lands which they inherited from their clan. Majority of the town’s 40,000 inhabitants is Christians, although Lanao del Sur is under the restive Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Some villagers claimed several groups of Maranao, one of several Muslim tribes in Mindanao, have started putting up markers and began claiming farmlands as their ancestral domain. The markers had been destroyed by landowners. In Sultan Kudarat province, villagers in the town of President Quirino were also facing the same dilemma, but many also have purchased illegal weapons to protect their families and lands from unjustified takeover by Muslims who warned them that they should leave the town immediately once the Bangsamoro autonomous region is installed because they would take over their farms.
Leaders of the Christian cities of Zamboanga and Isabela in Basilan also vowed to fight against their inclusion in the new Bangsamoro homeland, although many of the residents there are Muslims and supportive of the peace deal. Others were opposing the BBL because of vested interests, especially those who have huge landholdings in the autonomous region which was previously under the rule of the sultans.
Von Al-Haq, a spokesman for the MILF, said the BBL must be ratified and approved before the Bangsamoro regional government could take over the ARMM. He also said an audit is necessary before the Bangsamoro regional government takes over. “Talagang magkakaroon ng audit at normal naman iyan eh,” Al-Haq said in a separate interview.
Gov. Mujiv Hataman, of the Muslim autonomous region, is unlikely to be included in the new Bangsamoro leadership, even if President Aquino would insist that the politician, who is his close political ally, be appointed as caretaker of the Bangsamoro transitional government. “Ibang usapan na yan,” Al-Haq said when asked about this possible scenario.
This after some quarters fear that Aquino may appoint Hataman again in the Bangsamoro government following his appointment as caretaker of the Muslim autonomous regional government in the past.
Al-Mansoor said he was not aware of the reports. “Wala kaming naririnig na ganyan,” he said.
The creation of Bangsamoro autonomous region would have to be decided on a referendum in the autonomous region and in areas where there are large Muslim communities. The new Bangsamoro region will replace the current Muslim autonomous region that has suffered from decades of poverty, corruption, and conflict.
Bangsamoro homeland
The BBL will pave the way for the establishment of the Bangsamoro region in 2016.
Ghazali Jaafar, MILF Vice Chairman for Political Affairs, in his previous statement, doused fears by many groups about the BBL and said it is not an Islamic law. “The Bangsamoro Basic Law that is proposed is not an Islamic Law. These are rules on how to govern the Bangsamoro government. It’s not a law that will alienate the rights of the Filipino people but a law only to provide and facilitate the meaningful and fair implementation of the GPH and MILF Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” Jaafar said during an earlier multi-stakeholders forum on the CAB at the Ateneo de Davao University.
The mineral-rich region of Mindanao, once under the powerful rule of the sultans, is now home to minority Muslims – about 4 million from the region’s 18 million mostly Christian inhabitants.
The Philippine Statistics Authority describes Mindanao as an underdeveloped region with problems on peace and order to racism. “From Spanish era up to the present, it remains underdeveloped compared to Luzon. Problem on peace and order due to political conflict and racism issue had been seen as the main factors of the sluggish development of the island in view of the fact that beliefs and cultural diversities between native inhabitants and migrants are existing (sic) within it,” it said.
The MILF was a breakaway faction of the Moro National Liberation Front which signed a peace deal with Manila in September 1996.
http://www.mindanaoexaminer.net/2014/12/milf-gearing-up-for-2016-polls.html
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