CAMP Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) warned on Thursday that a new Muslim rebel group would emerge if Congress fails to pass into law the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ibrahim called on the Senate and the House of Representatives to pass the BBL crafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC).
The Senate subcommittee on BBL, chaired by Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, held a dialog with MILF leaders yesterday to assure them of the upper chamber’s full support for the passage of the proposed Bangsamoro law.
Zubiri, together with panel members Senators Juan Edgaedo Angara, Joseph Victor Ejercito, and Risa Hontiveros, conducted a public hearing in Cotabato City to get the pulse of the concerned sectors to be affected by BBL.
The BBL aims to abolish the Autonomous Region Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that will be replaced by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BAR).
Ibrahim noted that the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) was formed when the government failed to implement the 1996 peace agreement with the MNLF. The ASG was a splinter group from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
He also said the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) is a breakaway group from the MILF.
The BIFF was formed when the Memorandum of Agreement-Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD), the expected output of the proposed BBL during the Arroyo administration, was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
“This Marawi incident was an offshoot of the last administration’s (Aquino) failure to pass the BBL. Suddenly, the Maute group emerged,” Ibrahim said.
BTC Chairman Ghadzali Jaafar also appealed to Congress to pass its version of BBL.
“We recognize the process of lawmaking. But we appeal to Congress not to water it down,” Jaafar said.