The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leadership convened its political party, the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), on Saturday in preparation for its maiden participation in electoral processes under the Duterte administration and beyond, the Bulletin learned yesterday.
MILF Chair Hadji Murad Ebrahim presided over the first-ever general meeting of the UBJP with 300 national, regional, provincial, and municipal party officials and members at the MILF’s Camp Darapanan headquarters in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo said.
The UBJP was formed two years ago as MILF’s official political party, and has been registered with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) since October 2015.
Sinarimbo said Murad urged the UBJP officials and members to continue strengthening the party’s mass base at the barangay level to ensure its substantial clout when the time comes for the party to field candidates in “local electoral exercises.”
But it was agreed at the meeting that the UBJP participation in government-sponsored polls will happen only after the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) shall have been officially established functionally, he said.
The BJE has been envisaged in the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) signed by the MILF and government peace panels in March, 2014.
It was designed to replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which the Aquino government had deemed as a “failed experiment” or “failed autonomy.”
It was supposed to be established upon the passage in Congress of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) within the timeline set by the Aquino administration between January and March, 2015.
But the plan was overtaken by the January 25, 2015 bloody clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao that left 44 terrorist-hunting police commandos killed alongside more than 20 MILF cadres and civilian residents. The public outrage over the incident forced the 16th Congress to revise the BBL substantially, and eventually shelve it.
Sinarimbo, a former executive secretary of ARMM, said the MILF leadership and its political party renewed during Saturday’s meeting their support to President Duterte’s commitment to implement all peace accords forged by the government with the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
He said the MILF leadership was “open” to the move of the Duterte government to craft and adopt an “Inclusive” BBL that encompasses the aspirations of the MILF, the MNLF and other concerned sectors.
http://www.mb.com.ph/milf-political-party-gears-for-participation-in-polls/
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