NEWS




2August
At the podium, MILF Peace Implementing Panel Chair Mohagher Iqbal speaking to participants during a gathering of CSO leaders at Pagana Native Restaurant, Cotabato City. Photo by Tu Alfonso

CSOs urge Pres. Duterte to implement all Bangsamoro peace agreements with Moro fronts

COTABATO City – The Federation of Bangsamoro Civil Society Organizations (FBCSO) and the Women’s Organizations Movement of the Bangsamoro (WOMB) has urged President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to immediately implement all peace agreements the Philippine Government signed with the Bangsamoro people through the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). 

The call was made during a one-day gathering of 60 CSO leaders in Pagana Kutawato, Cotabato City on July 30, 2017.

The call was made through a resolution to be submitted to the Office of the President, the Senate, Congress, the Supreme Court, Central Committees of the MILF and MNLF, and other stakeholders. 

In their resolution, the FBCSO and WOMB expressed their full support to the Duterte’s administration and the Moro revolutionary organizations (MILF and MNLF) for a peaceful, lasting, and final resolution of the Bangsamoro questions in Mindanao.

They strongly urged President Duterte for the immediate submission to Congress of the new draft Bangsamoro basic Law (BBL) and certify it as urgent measure. The CSO leaders also called on the government and MILF to agree for immediate implementation of the signed peace agreements through the passage of Bangsamoro Law thereby establishing the Bangsamoro government ahead of planned Federal government.

The participants coming from all-over Mindanao region believed that immediate implementation of signed agreements will bring peaceful political settlement of the Bangsamoro question, thus it will bring about socio economic-development in war-thorn areas and prevent the spread of violent extremism in the country.

The FBCSO and WOMB also expressed their commitment to uphold the GPH-MILF Peace Implementing Panels formulated joint communication plan, the first in history of the peace process that could help in effective advocacy of BBL, the Plebiscite and the Exit Agreement, the latter to be signed once all-agreements are fully implemented.

They also called on and appealed to all Filipino and Moro political leaders, Church leaders and other sectors to help push for the creation of peaceful and developed Bangsamoro society.