MILF: “Without the BBL, the CAB will never be fully implemented”: Iqbal

Posted to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Website (Mar 29): “Without the BBL, the CAB will never be fully implemented”: Iqbal



Cotabato City – The 2nd Anniversary of the signing of Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) was commemorated yesterday, March 28 at the Notre Dame University Gym, Cotabato City with the theme, “STAND UP FOR PEACE, LONG LIVE THE CAB’.

The occasion was attended by GPH Peace panel Chair Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer and Mohagher Iqbal, Chair of the MILF Peace Panel, OPAPP, members of the Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT), Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (ADJAG), International Monitoring Team (IMT), Joint Normalization Committee (JNC), Commissioners and some staff of Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC),  FASTRAC, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), various INGO’s and NGO’s, and other prominent stakeholders.

The program was sponsored by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) headed by Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles who also graced the occasion.

In his message, Chairman Iqbal said, “We are all agreed that without the BBL, the CAB will never be fully implemented. While some aspects of CAB can be started, yet we will never agree that we just only observe the ceasefire and socio-economic initiatives without seeing the fulfillment of the political track”.

“Without the BBL, the CAB can never become the solution to the Bangsamoro Problem or Question,” Iqbal further said.

The CAB was signed by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on March 27, 2014 at Kalayaan Garden, Malacañan Palace, Manila.

“There are people who see the needs not to commemorate the CAB over the non-passage of the BBL by the 16th Philippine Congress which only mean for them a totally diminishes the value of the CAB”, the MILF Chief Negotiator said.
“There may be germ of truth to this opinion,” Iqbal said.

Iqbal made a sharp criticism against what he describes as vested interests groups who are insatiable with wealth and power and enslave by religious bigotry that caused the defeat of the BBL in Congress.

The 16th Congress adjourned its session on February without passing the BBL that would have pave a way for the creation of a new political identity called “Bangsamoro’  aimed at ending the decades-old conflict in Southern Philippines.

“It was the BLBAR that died, not the BBL that is based on the CAB.” Iqbal explained.

Earlier in her message, GPH Peace panel Chair Ferrer acknowledged the contributions of various ceasefire mechanisms such as the CCCH, ADJAG, IMT, among others. At the later part of the program, Certificate of Appreciations were awarded to members of groups or committees created in support to GPH-MILF Peace Process.

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