Thousands participate in MILF Bangsamoro assembly

MAGUINDANAO - Thousands joined the consultative assembly on the Bangsamoro Organic Law on Sunday in the main enclave of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in central Mindanao.The MILF organized the assembly in Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao for its members and supporters to discuss the intricacies of the law, premised on their two compacts with the government - the 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.President Rodrigo Duterte signed last week the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which will pave the way for the replacement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more empowered Bangsamoro government.It is the enabling measure for the setting up of an MILF-led self-governing political entity, a product of 21 years of talks between the rebel group and Malacañang via a third party facilitator, the government of Malaysia.Peace talks between the government and the MILF, which splintered from the Moro National Liberation Front in the early 1980s, started on January 7, 1997.The overture, however, got stalled repeatedly by misunderstandings by both sides and armed conflicts amid an interim truce meant to ensure the cordiality of the negotiation.The MILF’s figurehead, Hadji Murad Ebrahim, reiterated on Sunday the readiness of their members to decommission once the Bangsamoro government is in place.Representatives from the MNLF under former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema and Yusoph Jikiri, erstwhile governor of Sulu, were also present in the assembly.The group broke away in 2000 from what was then the monolithic MNLF, founded by Nur Misuari in the early 1970s, due to loss of confidence in his leadership.The split came just four years after the MNLF forged a final peace accord with the government brokered by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim states, including petroleum exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa.Misuari has since been leading another MNLF group comprised of loyal followers, mostly residents of the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.The group of Sema and Jikiri was involved in the crafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, now known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law, through its representatives in the MILF-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission.MILF officials had called on participants to the assembly to patiently support the implementation of Bangsamoro Organic Law, the charter for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.It shall supersede ARMM’s charter, the Republic Act 9054 that established in 1991 an autonomous government with an executive department under the Office of the Regional Governor and a 24-member Regional Assembly, touted as the region’s Little Congress. ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, now in his second term as chief executive of the autonomous region, said Sunday his administration is ready to facilitate a transition from the present regional government to the new Bangsamoro outfit.Hataman also assured to support the setting up of the Bangsamoro government based on its charter, also known as the Republic Act11054.