MILF: “BBL not designed to benefit the MILF alone”: OPAPP

Posted to the MILF Website (May 1): “BBL not designed to benefit the MILF alone”: OPAPP

“The proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is not designed to benefit the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) alone”, Jose Lorena, Undersecretary for Bangsamoro Affairs of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) said.

He said that the BBL seeks to address the clamor for genuine autonomy in Mindanao and not to appease any revolutionary group.

"The BBL is not for MILF alone. BBL should be equated with meaningful autonomy, which is to capture the articulation not only of the Moro fronts but the Muslims in Southern Philippines," said Lorena, who served as a panel discussant on the historical perspective and context of the Bangsamoro peace process during the launching of the "Pro-POLITICS for Peace."

"It is not a negotiation with the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front), neither it is a negotiation with the MILF. It is the recognition of the just causes of the Muslims in southern Philippines for meaningful autonomy, and therefore it should be inclusive," he added.

According to Lorena, the gains of previous peace agreements have been incorporated in the draft BBL, which is the product of the government's peace negotiations with the MILF.

"I would correct the impression that the law that we are crafting loses sight of the historical past because if you look into the draft law, there is the linking of the powers achieved in the 1996 Final Peace Agreement to the present agreement," Lorena said.

"Any law that will be crafted now would not be for the MILF, neither will it be for the MNLF, that is why the MILF and MNLF have always said that they are the vanguards of the Muslim people and therefore the representatives of the Bangsamoro people."

The current Bangsamoro peace process, he noted, is now on the legislative process.

Once enacted by congress and ratified by the people in the proposed area of autonomy, BBL will put in place the new autonomous region called Bangsamoro.

"Negotiation is really a power vested in the executive, but legislation to make the resolution in a negotiated settlement permanent is to be legislated and the power of legislation is the power of Congress, because it will become an institutional policy for the governance of Southern Philippines," Lorena said.

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