CBCP Public Affairs Chair Bishop Pabillo is right: BBL can wait

WE have no objection to the notion that the pursuit of lasting peace in Mindanao must not cease until it is achieved. But we reject the Malacañang campaign—supported by the Foreign Powers and the United Nations—that the so-called “peace process” has reached the penultimate step to achieving peace in Mindanao because the Bangsamoro Basic Law bill has reached Congress and MUST be passed even with its unconstitutional provisions.

The 44 heroes of the PNP-Special Action Force were massacred in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, last Sunday by Moro Islamic Liberation Front soldiers, supported by an army of the jihadist Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. The MILF leaders call the BIFF a break-away group but BIFF actions show they are not. President B. S. Aquino and his people mealy-mouthedly call the massacre of the 44 PNP-heroes a “misencounter.”