Bangsamoro region to correct ARMM flaws

From the Business World (Dec 2): Bangsamoro region to correct ARMM flaws

The new leadership of the future Bangsamoro region in Mindanao will overhaul and eradicate flaws of the existing autonomous Muslim region, a Moro rebel official said. "I appeal to all to support the Framework Agreement because we are optimistic that when this agreement is fully realized then it will usher in our long-sought entrenchment of a Bangsamoro Government," Ghazali Jaafar, vice-chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said in a statement.

Mr. Jaafar said establishing Islamic principles for the new government system is one of the main objectives of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro that the government and the MILF inked last October. "The MILF vision for a Bangsamoro government with a system characterized by good governance, transparency, of real democracy anchored on Islamic principles, rule of law, and guarantee of equal rights and responsibilities," he said. He said the system of governance is not new and possible to achieve under the Bangsamoro. "The Bangsamoro had lived up to that grandeur of governance during the regimes of the Moro sultanates," he said.

Both parties are now nearing to complete the agreement with the three annexes on wealth and power sharing, and the normalization process, where Moro fighters are expected to lay down their arms. The new region, which will replace the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) by 2016 as projected by the two parties, aims to respond to the aspiration of the Bangsamoro for self-determination through self-governance under a basic law.

Mr. Jaafar said the Bangsamoro government will weed out the traditional politics and politicians capitulated by political dynasties. "What we will build and restore is Bangsamoro government that is strong, popular and responsible. A government that is honest and accountable. A government that will really care and will not exploit its people," he added.

During a recent forum here, Johaira C. Wahab, the head of the government technical team who led the drafting of the agreement with the MILF, described the framework deal as a political document. She said the framework and planned basic law will rely more on principles rather than a mere enumeration of rights and duties to make the Bangsamoro autonomy workable and genuine.

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Nation&title=Bangsamoro-region-to-correct-ARMM-flaws&id=62315