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By EDD K. USMAN
(SDN) — Apparently in deference to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Chairman Ahod B. “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim has declined additional seats for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Bangsamoro Parliament.
In the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), the MILF was allocated 41 seats, which Ebrahim, the chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) being governed by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), wants to maintain, not increase the number.
The MILF, which previously fought for separation of Southern Philippines but later agreed to a stronger autonomy, had signed the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) peace treaty, putting an end to the over 40 years internecine conflict that devasted parts of Mindanao and killed over 100,000 people — soldiers, rebels, civilians and other non-combatants. Not to mention the destruction of buildings and other infrastructures, agricultural lands, and properties.
It was learned from a news report written by journalist Nash B. Maulana the proposed increase to the MILF seats is contained in Senate Bill 2214 authored by Senator Francis Tolentino. His proposed bill extending the life of the BTA to three more years until 2025 would get rid of sector- and district-seat allocations as well as the ones given to MNLF leaders and Basilan’s legislative district in the BARMM.
(Earlier news reports on the SB 2214 indicated that Tolentino and Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and other senators have agreed to not touch the allocations of the BARMM parliamentary seats, just focus on the extension of the BTA members’ term and moving the regional polls from May 2022 to May 2025.)
Interior Minister Naguib G. Sinarimbo, spokesman of the BARMM, said that’s exactly what the regional government’s leadership has been requesting Congress, to simplify the BOL’s amendment.
He said Ebrahim has declined a provision in SB 2214 adding six seats for MILF representation, but a detriment MNLF representation.
Simplifying amendment of Bangsamoro Organic Law
BARMM Parliament Speaker Ali Pangalian Balindong agreed, emphasizing the only “workable solution was to simplify things up there to avoid complication.”
Ebrahim on June 15, 2021 made his report to the Bangsamoro with his address to the regional Parliament on its third regular session on what the BTA has already implemented and achieved relating to various issues it’s confronted with.
Related: BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Al-Hajj Murad” Ebrahim Report to Bangsamoro Parliament
The BARMM chief minister also assured the clamor for extension is not about power.
“We reiterate, especially to the naysayers, that the extension of the transition period is never about power. It is about ensuring the successful implementation of the Bangsamoro Peace Process.”
He added, “This is not just the legacy of the MILF or of the Duterte Administration but the legacy of this generation and a gift to the next generations of the Bangsamoro…We cannot afford to fail them.”
Two of the MNLF representatives in the Parliament, Ministers Omar Sema and Jose Lorena, both lawyers, told Mindanao-based reporters that both the MNLF and the MILF would much prefer merely amending the regional election from May 2022 to May 2025.
Sema and Lorena insisted that “a proposed extension is about completing the transition of having to build a new autonomous bureaucracy, as well as the transition to completing the decommissioning and normalization (of MILF weapons and combatants) to transform revolutionary people (to becoming) more productive members of the society.”
In his report to the Bangsamoro, he first acknowledged the achievements of the Parliament as the legislative body passed key legislations, one of them the Bangsamoro Education Code.
Bangsamoro gov’t will not a abandon Marawi City, Maranao people
Ebrahim did not let the day passed without mentioning in his address the BARMM efforts to address the needs and wellbeing of Marawi City and its still long-suffering people impacted by the four-year-old Marawi Siege.
He said the Bangsamoro commemorated the siege’s fourth year on May 23, 2021. “To reiterate my message during the remembrance, tens of thousands are still displaced, and layers of challenges are piling on, exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic.”
Ebrahim assured the People of the Lake the Bangsamoro government will not “turn it’s back on our Maranao brothers.”
He emphasized that the painful experience from the siege “is the very reason why we have consistently pushed for the rehabilitation of Marawi as part of our priority agenda and overall development goal.”
The BARMM chief minister said that as of May 2021, the Bangsamoro’s Marawi Rehabilitation Program (MRP) already approved over Php947 million in development initiatives, such as livelihood assistance, resettlement housing projects, healthcare services, cash for work, water, sanitation and hygiene projects, and other infrastructure projects.
He also mentioned a project in tandem with the Lanao del Sur provincial government to the tune of Php400 million to upgrade the Marawi Water System (MWS) to supply water to 40 barangays (villages) in the city.
Ebrahim also cited development initiatives for Tawi-Tawi province.
The BARMM is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as 63 villages in North Cotabato.
Ebrahim sounded optimistic on the extension.
“The President and the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives are giving us the nod that the extension of the transition period will happen,” he said.
In the Senate, the extension bill is apparently moving, but still stymied in the House of Representatives.
Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III urged the BARMM leadership to speak with congressmen to move the extension measure. He indicated there’s no worries with the Senate. (EKU/SDN) — (✓)