PRRD optimistic of congressional nod on Bangsamoro law by May

MAGUINDANAO ---- President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday promised to make Mindanao a genuine land reform area to solve the Moro issue and other domestic decades-old conflicts blamed on poverty and neglect.While in Buluan town in Maguindanao, Duterte also announced that he will resign if Congress fails to approve by May the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, meant to put a durable closure to the nagging Moro issue hounding Mindanao since the 1960s.The bill, crafted by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the government, is a product of 18 years of talks that were repeatedly punctuated by deadlocks over thorny issues and hostilities in conflict flashpoint areas amid a ceasefire intended to ensure cordiality between both sides.Duterte was in Buluan, capital of Maguindanao, to inspect 938 assorted firearms voluntarily turned in by local government units in recent weeks in support of the Balik Baril Program of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.The Wednesday sortie of Duterte in Buluan, hometown of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, the interim president for the province of the administration’s Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan party, was his second since his election in May 2016.In a message, Duterte repeatedly called on residents of Maguindanao to continue helping push his southern Mindanao peace initiatives forward.He said his administration’s peace overtures with Moro communities will not succeed without cross-section support. A good Moro must provide a good future for his children, Duterte said.He said he will make the whole of Mindanao a land reform area to hasten the socio-economic growth of local sectors, many wallowing in poverty due to conflicts and other woes blamed on lack of access to supposedly productive lands.He said he will include in his planned land reform thrust the distribution to landless southerners of large swaths of arable areas in military reservations in the south.The president said he wants the draft BBL enacted into law by May as an initial stride to the resolution of the Moro quest for self-governance.The proposed BBL, if approved and ratified via a plebiscite, shall pave the way for the replacement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more politically and administratively empowered MILF-led Bangsamoro self-governing entity.Mangudadatu and ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman have previously announced that they are ready to vacate their posts if the transition from ARMM to a new Bangsamoro regional government would necessitate.Hataman was among the key public officials who helped Mangudadatu host Duterte’s visit to Buluan on Wednesday. I am willing na pag mag transition man, o wala pa, I will declare the whole of Mindanao a land reform area. Lahat ibigay ko, pati ‘yung lupa ng gobyerno. ‘Yung bukid na mataniman mo ng rubber, mataniman mo ng palm oil. Ibigay ko, Duterte said while at the Buluan municipal gymnasium.The 5,000-seater gymnasium was the venue of the the symbolic launching of the Balik Baril Program in Maguindanao.In a welcome message, Mangudadatu told the president that the provincial peace and order council started its version of firearm reduction campaign, along with the Police Regional Office-ARMM and the 6thInfantry Division, long before Malacañang launched its Balik Baril Program early this year. Early on, Maguindanao province hit the local, national and foreign news for achieving a big feat ---that of Buldon municipality, that once accounted for most number of bloody rido, or vendetta conflicts among local clans in the province, made a `rido free’ municipality, Mangudadatu said.He said the achievement was a result of the joint settlement by the mayor of Buldon, Abolais Manalao, the provincial governor’s office, the PRO-ARMM and the 6thID of all rido (clan wars) in the area. That paved the way for the surrender of dozens upon dozens of firearms by local residents, realizing they don’t need firearms anymore as protection from adversaries, said Mangudadatu, now in his third and last term as governor.Mangudadatu said his administration and the office of Hataman have also been cooperating in addressing underdevelopment in far-flung areas in the province through joint infrastructure and socio-economic interventions. The executive department of ARMM and my administration are partners in many other peace and development initiatives. In disaster and calamity response and in providing communities in Maguindanao with infrastructures needed to boost the productivity of our agriculture and fishery sectors, Mangudadatu said.Besides the presentation of the firearms surrendered by Maguindanao residents, Duterte’s engagement in Buluan was also capped off with the grant of education and livelihood packages to four members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters who surrendered to 6thID commander Major Gen. Arnel Dela Vega early this month.The BIFF, which operates in the fashion of the Islamic State, is not covered by all security agreements between the government and the MILF.Even so, the 6thID, covering Maguindanao and the nearby Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato provinces in Region 12, has been trying to entice BIFF militants to reintegrate into mainstream society and reform through rehabilitation support the office of Mangudadatu and the executive department of ARMM can readily provide.