Manila House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, ally of President Rodrigo Duterte, filed a bill that called for the passage of a law that will create a stronger Filipino-Muslim autonomous region in the southern Philippines.
“The proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will help implement provisions of the peace settlement signed by the Philippine government and the 38-year-old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014,” said Alvarez.
It was the fourth bill filed at the lower house of Congress to resolve a three-year impasse in the implementation of the Philippine government-MILF peace settlement.
“I still have to discuss it with the rules committee,” said Alvarez when asked if the House will create a special ad hoc committee to discuss and vote on the issue.
In a meeting with MILF chief negotiator Mohaqher Iqbal at the presidential palace on Thursday, Duterte said he has endorsed as urgent the passage of BBL at the lower house of Congress.
Alvarez’s proposed law was patterned after the draft that was recently made by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) — it passed its version to the executive level on September 17.
Duterte said he is committed to bringing lasting peace in Mindanao during his term, which will end in 2030.
The 2014 Philippine government-MILF peace settlement has called for power and revenue sharing between the autonomous Filipino-Muslim area in the south, which is not allowed by the Philippine Constitution. Duterte has been advocating a shift from the presidential to a federal form of government, in order to accommodate the controversial provisions of the 2014 Philippine government-MILF peace settlement.
Three other congressmen have filed earlier separate bills for BBL’s passage. They were Congressman Mohammad Khalid Dimaporo of Lanao del Norte, southern Philippines; Congressman Ruby Sahali of Tawi Tawi, southern Philippines; and former President and Congresswoman Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga, central Luzon.
In 1978, the MILF became a faction of the 45-year-old Moro National Liberation Front after the Philippine government and the MNLF had forged the country’s first pro-autonomous peace settlement in Libya in 1976. About 150,000 were killed by the Filipino-Muslim secessionist armed struggle in the 70s.
The Philippine government and the MNLF forged again their second pro-autonomy peace settlement in 1996. This prompted Congress to amend in 2001 a law that allows referendum for the establishment of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The first referendum held in 1987 resulted in the creation of the ARMM with four provinces. With the second referendum in 2001, ARMM expanded with five provinces and one city as members.
When the Philippine government and the MILF held their first pro-autonomy peace talks from 1997 to 2014, they also agreed to expand the ARMM with 600 Muslim-dominated villages — whose residents voted to be part of the ARMM in 2001. They also agreed to change the ARMM into a new entity called Bangsamoro.
