Duterte expected to attend Bangsamoro Assembly in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO — All is set for the Bangsamoro Assembly on Monday where Moro communities are to renew support to the peace overture between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.The assembly, an activity of the MILF, will be held at the old Maguindanao provincial capitol in Barangay Simuay in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.Members of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces and personnel of the Army’s 603rd Brigade and the Maguindanao provincial police are now positioned around the venue of the activity.Ghazali Jaafar, first vice chairman of the MILF, said on Sunday that they are expecting President Rodrigo Duterte to address the participants to the assembly on Monday. We are also expecting representatives from embassies of member-states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to come and witness the event, said Jaafar, chairman of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.The international bloc, comprised of more than 50 Muslim states, including petroleum-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa, is supporting all peaceful efforts of putting closure to the southern Mindanao Moro rebellion.Organizers said the assembly is partly meant to show to the Duterte administration the commitment of the MILF and its supporters from across Mindanao to Malacañang’s southern peace process.Jaafar said the gathering is also intended to highlight the support of Mindanao’s Moro communities to the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, now pending in Congress.The bill is the enabling measure for the replacement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more politically and administratively empowered MILF-led Bangsamoro government.The setting up of the entity is premised on two compacts between the government and the MILF—the 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.Jaafar said Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza would also attend the Bangsamoro Assembly.