BBL is not dead: MILF’s reply to Enrile

• Feb 17, 2016
• Gandhi Kinjiyo
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“The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is not dead – and will never die,” the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said in the editorial of its official website luwaran.com negating the statement of Senate Minority Leader Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

Enrile recently said in a forum that the BBL “is dead and it will still be dead, unless they recast it” as quoted in the Saturday issue of the Manila Times.


“Or to say the least, the fundamental elements of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) will not die. They are the heart and soul of the struggle of the Moros for right to self-determination,” the editorial said and stressed that “No law or not anyone can extinguish them.”


The editorial said the Front will continue to assert those in power and tell government not to continue to renege on their obligations contained in signed agreements. 

The Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the MILF, representing the Bangsamoro people, have signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro and CAB which call for the creation of the autonomous region named Bangsamoro that will replace the current Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

President Aquino described the ARMM as a “failed experiment.”

The editorial said, “It is unfortunate or fortunate that Enrile would not be around to continue to deny Moros their fair share of powers and resources in a genuine autonomous entity.” Enrile would no longer be part of the next Senate.


“We do not know whether he can still be made accountable for his bloody role during Martial Law where thousands upon thousands of Moros died in series of massacres,” said the editorial and pointed out, “His hands are full of Moro blood!”

Enrile was then martial law administrator and subsequently defence secretary.
 

“We thought that even for the last remaining few years of his life, he would temper his thesis that Moros, if given the opportunity, would secede from this country. It is an outdated idea that does not fare well in the 21st century or in matured democracies such as in Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, and Finland. But it seems he never changed,” the editorial further said.

Sessions in the Lower House adjourned on February 3 without passing the BBL. Legislating the proposed Bangsamoro law is the unilateral obligation of the government as stipulated in the GPH-MILF peace deal.

 

In the recent special meeting of the government and MILF peace panels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on February 10 to 11, the two parties expressed their disappointment on the failure of Congress to pass the BBL.

 

MILF peace panel Chairman Mohagher Iqbal said in the meeting that the measure can still be refiled in the 17th Congress.

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