Delay in Bangsamoro law seen

From the Manila Bulletin (Nov 17): Delay in Bangsamoro law seen

Delay in the negotiations for a durable and comprehensive peace in Mindanao is hampering the crafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC).

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), now on its 16th year of peace process with the Philippine government (GPH), made this observation on Sunday.

The editorial on the MILF website (Luwaran.com) cited the pressure that is mounting as the peace process drags on and that the BTC was “hard pressed.”

It said the BTC was tasked to craft the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) designed to govern a new political entity called the Bangsamoro.

“Aware of its historic responsibility, the BTC had started to work as early as April last year. But it cannot fully discharge its task unless the parties sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA),” the MILF said.

A source told the Manila Bulletin on November 17 that the MILF peace panel has been scheduled to leave anytime this week for the 41st Round of Formal Exploratory Talks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

GPH and MILF negotiators led by Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer and Mohagher Iqbal, respectively, are expected to again try to hammer out remaining kinks hampering agreements on the Annex on Power Sharing and the Annex on Normalization.

The two panels already signed this year the Annex on Transitional Arrangements and Modalities and Annex on Wealth Sharing/Revenue Generation.

Once all annexes have been signed, they will be bundled with the Oct. 15, 2012 Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) to form the much-awaited CPA.

The MILF stressed that it “cannot accept a bad agreement, because a bad agreement is worse than no agreement at all. More seriously, the MILF leadership cannot force the Bangsamoro people and their leaders to swallow a bad agreement.”

Meanwhile, the Moro group also shared responsibility for the length of the peace process, saying “if the current negotiation takes too long to finish, one reason is that the MILF wants to be sure that any agreement with the government will really solve the Bangsamoro Question.”

http://www.mb.com.ph/delay-in-bangsamoro-law-seen/