Marawi strife bolsters need to adopt BBL – Hataman
COTABATO CITY – Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Mujiv Hataman urged Congress to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) as one of the vital keys towards attaining lasting peace in Southern Philippines, and addressing squarely the threats of violent extremism.
In his seventh State-of-the-Region Address (SORA), Hataman said the Marawi City siege, which sparked five months of fighting, and caused a heavy toll in human lives and infrastructures, bolstered the significance of the BBL.
The 16th Congress shelved the old BBL draft as a result of public outrage over the death of 44 terrorist-hunting police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25, 2015, forestalling the Aquino administration’s commitment to flesh out the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) it inked with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014.
“Naging dahilan man para sa iilan ang nangyari sa Mamasapano upangmaudlot ang pagpasa ng Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), nawa’y sa pagkakataong ito magbunga ang pangyayarisa Marawi ng isang realisasyon sa ating (mga) mambabatas upang maging mas mabilis ang kanilang pagpasa ng BBL (The Mamasapano incident may have been the reason why our lawmakers did not pass the BBL. I hope that, this time, what happened in Marawi will give them the reason to immediately pass the BBL),” Hataman said.
He said the BBL was “one of the keys for peace and order in ARMM and the whole country.”
This portion of Hataman’s SORA drew resounding applause from the thousands of civilians, and government, police and military officials inside the refurbished ShariffKabunsuan Cultural Complex (SKCC) here.
Notably present was Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) First Vice Chairman Ghazali Jaafar, who attended the anniversary celebration for the first time.
The SORA delivery capped Monday’s festive activities marking the ARMM’s 28th foundation anniversary celebration. It enumerated prominent gains and concerns in ARMM, a geopolitical unit sought for replacement by a Bangsamoro autonomous region under the BBL.
In his close to one-hour address, Hataman said the military has liberated Marawi from occupying extremist forces in five months of fighting, but more has to be done to reconstruct lives and socio-economic infrastructures in the city, especially in preventing a repeat of the bloody.
“Natapos man ang putukan limang buwan matapos ang unang engkwentro sa Marawi, at nakabalik man sa kanilang mga kabahayan ang ilan sa ating mga kababayan, hindi pa ritonatatapos ang ating tungkulin natulungan ang ating mga kababayan at tugunan ang kanilang mga pangangailangan (Fighting may have stopped after five months in Marawi, and the people may have been finally been able to return to their homes, but our job to help them and respond to their needs has not stopped),” Hataman said.
Since the third day of fighting in Marawi, he said, the ARMM government has been extending relief and psycho-social interventions among hundreds of thousands of evacuees, in collaboration with the local government units of the city and Lanao del Sur.