OPAPP Secretary Teresita “Ging” Quintos Deles poses with the youth volunteers from CMYM on July 26, 2015, a day before the last SONA of the President.
A group of Marawi City-based youth leaders that gathered more than half a million signatures of Mindanaoans supporting the passage into law of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) today warned politicians that they would lose the votes of millions of Mindanaoans who want peace in the South if these politicians would vote against the law.
“We are giving these signatures to our political leaders to remind them that at least 500,000 of their constituents support the BBL. They should think twice before using the Bangsamoro for their political agenda because they could lose the support of half a million people,” Coalition of Moro Youth Movement (CMYM) chair Marjanie Macasalong said.
The group, which gathered and verified the 500,000 signatures in three months with no funding, had traveled in Manila to submit to the country’s political leaders the copies of the signatures in time for President Benigno S. Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).
CMYM held a press conference on July 24, 2015 in Greenhills, together with other Bangsamoro law advocates. After the Islamic Friday prayer, the group further opened a signature campaign where hundreds of individuals signed support to the BBL passage, on top of the half-million signatures the group already collected and documented. This happened simultaneously in Greenhills mosque and Golden Mosque in Quiapo.
Afterwards, the group proceeded to the Senate with a pro-BBL caravan of 100 vehicles to show support of Muslim communities in Metro Manila to the Bangsamoro law.
“We understand that both the House of Representatives and the Senate are still in the middle of the BBL legislative process. We hope that, with the help of these signatures, they will pass a BBL that responds to the genuine aspirations of our people,” Macasalong added.
The CMYM began collecting signatures early in March 2015 in response to declarations from legislators critical of the BBL that it does not have enough support among Filipinos, especially among Mindanaoans.
Stung by such statements, the members of the youth group decided to launch a signature campaign all around Mindanao. It took them three months to secure at least 500,000 unique signatures and another month to validate the authenticity of these signatures and the persons who signed them.
“The people of Mindanao are tired of war. They will vote for politicians who are for peace. If we were able to gather 500,000 signatures in three months without financial support from anyone, can you just imagine how many people are actually supportive of the peace process?” Macasalong noted.
“The election in 2016 will be decided by the youth. And the youth are for peace. Those who want to win must also be for peace.”
Macasalong, in a manifesto accompanying the signatures, said that they are “aware that the biases, prejudices, and discrimination, and calls for an all-out war against the Bangsamoro people, are not the solution to the conflicts in Mindanao.”
After the infamous Mamasapano incident, a botched law enforcement operation wherein more than 60 were killed, including 44 members of elite police unit PNP Special Action Force, the whole Bangsamoro peace process was put under question.
Several senators, foremost among them Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, went on unrelenting tirade for weeks against the MILF and the peace process, triggering so much resentment among Muslim Filipinos in general and raising fears the BBL may fail to be passed into law, Macasalong noted.
“[T]he perpetuation of such… will worsen the situation, deepen the wounds, and widen the chasm of indifference and hatred among our people, and that it will be us, the youth, who will bear the burden and suffer the most,” the group’s manifesto continued.
“We are now in Manila because we want to show the leaders of this country that people from the ground clamor the passage of a BBL that is in consonance with the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB),” said Macasalong.
The CAB is the peace accord signed between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF in 2014. It served as the basis for the drafting of the BBL, and contains provisions for the decommissioning of MILF forces and the transformation of conflict-affected areas into peaceful, productive communities.
Bangsamoro dream
Included in the group’s manifesto is the call “for a deep study and understanding of the Bangsamoro narrative to discover and learn the reasons and justifications of their struggle for self-determination that began with the coming of the Spaniards up to this time in accordance with the expressed provision [in] the Constitution.”
The 1987 Philippine Constitution mandates the establishment of autonomous regions in the Cordilleras and in Muslim Mindanao in order to accommodate the unique histories and cultures of their people and to provide them with genuine self-rule while remaining part of the Republic.
“We are not MILF. But we support the peace initiatives put forward by the MILF with the Government of the Philippines because it is clear to us that the MILF is representing the Bangsamoro’s hopes and dreams,” Macasalong said.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/new/item/527-half-a-million-pro-bbl-signatures-submitted-to-pnoy-senate-and-congress
The group, which gathered and verified the 500,000 signatures in three months with no funding, had traveled in Manila to submit to the country’s political leaders the copies of the signatures in time for President Benigno S. Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).
CMYM held a press conference on July 24, 2015 in Greenhills, together with other Bangsamoro law advocates. After the Islamic Friday prayer, the group further opened a signature campaign where hundreds of individuals signed support to the BBL passage, on top of the half-million signatures the group already collected and documented. This happened simultaneously in Greenhills mosque and Golden Mosque in Quiapo.
Afterwards, the group proceeded to the Senate with a pro-BBL caravan of 100 vehicles to show support of Muslim communities in Metro Manila to the Bangsamoro law.
“We understand that both the House of Representatives and the Senate are still in the middle of the BBL legislative process. We hope that, with the help of these signatures, they will pass a BBL that responds to the genuine aspirations of our people,” Macasalong added.
The CMYM began collecting signatures early in March 2015 in response to declarations from legislators critical of the BBL that it does not have enough support among Filipinos, especially among Mindanaoans.
Stung by such statements, the members of the youth group decided to launch a signature campaign all around Mindanao. It took them three months to secure at least 500,000 unique signatures and another month to validate the authenticity of these signatures and the persons who signed them.
“The people of Mindanao are tired of war. They will vote for politicians who are for peace. If we were able to gather 500,000 signatures in three months without financial support from anyone, can you just imagine how many people are actually supportive of the peace process?” Macasalong noted.
“The election in 2016 will be decided by the youth. And the youth are for peace. Those who want to win must also be for peace.”
Macasalong, in a manifesto accompanying the signatures, said that they are “aware that the biases, prejudices, and discrimination, and calls for an all-out war against the Bangsamoro people, are not the solution to the conflicts in Mindanao.”
After the infamous Mamasapano incident, a botched law enforcement operation wherein more than 60 were killed, including 44 members of elite police unit PNP Special Action Force, the whole Bangsamoro peace process was put under question.
Several senators, foremost among them Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, went on unrelenting tirade for weeks against the MILF and the peace process, triggering so much resentment among Muslim Filipinos in general and raising fears the BBL may fail to be passed into law, Macasalong noted.
“[T]he perpetuation of such… will worsen the situation, deepen the wounds, and widen the chasm of indifference and hatred among our people, and that it will be us, the youth, who will bear the burden and suffer the most,” the group’s manifesto continued.
“We are now in Manila because we want to show the leaders of this country that people from the ground clamor the passage of a BBL that is in consonance with the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB),” said Macasalong.
The CAB is the peace accord signed between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF in 2014. It served as the basis for the drafting of the BBL, and contains provisions for the decommissioning of MILF forces and the transformation of conflict-affected areas into peaceful, productive communities.
Bangsamoro dream
Included in the group’s manifesto is the call “for a deep study and understanding of the Bangsamoro narrative to discover and learn the reasons and justifications of their struggle for self-determination that began with the coming of the Spaniards up to this time in accordance with the expressed provision [in] the Constitution.”
The 1987 Philippine Constitution mandates the establishment of autonomous regions in the Cordilleras and in Muslim Mindanao in order to accommodate the unique histories and cultures of their people and to provide them with genuine self-rule while remaining part of the Republic.
“We are not MILF. But we support the peace initiatives put forward by the MILF with the Government of the Philippines because it is clear to us that the MILF is representing the Bangsamoro’s hopes and dreams,” Macasalong said.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/new/item/527-half-a-million-pro-bbl-signatures-submitted-to-pnoy-senate-and-congress
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.