MILF leader calls on Aquino to exercise political will for BBL

From the Manila Bulletin (Nov 6): MILF leader calls on Aquino to exercise political will for BBL

The second-ranking leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) called on President Aquino to exercise and show political will to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

 

”Maybe the President is serious and sincere, but…you still have to address the Mindanao issue. The Bangsamoro needs a government,” Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for Political Affairs, said.

He made the call as the proposed law designed to establish a Bangsamoro government continues to face uncertainties in the halls of Congress.

Jaafar said it is not the Qur’an (Islamic Law), “we are not asking for independence.”

The President, he added, has “many commitments, hopefully he will have the political will. Can he exercise political will over his allies, can he do that?”

Jaafar recalled that Aquino made a commitment to certify as urgent the BBL, but he has not done it yet.

“We still hold on to the peace process; but everything has an end, only God has no end. Today, the Bangsamoro are patient, suffering. It’s been 38 years,” the MILF leader said, referring to the struggle of the Philippine Muslims.

He spoke at the Tycoon News Forum in Malate, Manila, also reading a long statement on the background of the Bangsamoro Question since the time of the Spanish Occupation up to the American occupation of the Philippines.

Jaafar did not say it, but one can sense that at least some leaders of the MILF are now starting to doubt the President’s sincerity, or his political will in steering the BBL to its proper conclusion, a law enacted and signed by him.

“In my personal view of the President, maybe he is truly committed; he is the President of the Philippines; because he is the President of the Philippines it is important he is not detached from his allies,” the MILF leader said.

“So, the way I see it, if he were asked to choose between us the Bangsamoro and his allies in governance, it is safe to say he will choose his allies over us,”
Jaafar said that secondly, Aquino has only one term that ends after the May 2016 election. He will no longer have powers like today.

On the BBL, Jaafar said the President’s commitments will just remained verbal commitments unless fulfilled. “Even if he issues commitments everyday in public but only in words and he does not fulfill it, there is no solving any problem.”

“The MILF did not ask the President to certify as urgent the BBL, it was he who committed it,” the MILF leader said, noting that what Aquino did was only made the BBL a priority legislation.

In the statement that he read, Jaafar assured that the proposed Bangsamoro government “is inclusive and adheres to the principles of democracy, transparency and accountability that respects and respond to both the rights of the majority and the minority.”

He said the Bangsamoro provides a strong and meaningful autonomy.

“The BBL if fully implemented as envisioned in the CAB (Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro), will dramatically and positively change the socio-economic conditions of the people in the region and other armed groups fighting the government will also be benefited,” the MILF leader said.

http://www.mb.com.ph/milf-leader-calls-on-aquino-to-exercise-political-will-for-bbl/