Maguindanao leaders back BOL ratification
BULUAN, Maguindanao – Leaders and residents in this province, constituting the largest and most dominant number of registered voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), have pledged support for the ratification of RA 11054, dispelling speculations that the provincial leadership was either adamant or opposed to the new law.
More than 3,500 participants to a recent forum here pledged to campaign and vote for the ratification of the new law in a show of support for autonomy in governance.
The show cum pledge of support was led by Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, who, along with majority mayors and other elected officials in the first district of Maguindanao, convened the forum on Tuesday at the air-conditioned gym here to keep their constituents informed on the provisions of RA 11054 also known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
The BOL, signed into law on July 27 by President Duterte, seeks to establish the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in replacement of the 28-year old ARMM.
The law is set for ratification in a plebiscite in February 2019 across ARMM as well as in Cotabato and Isabela cities, six towns in Lanao del Norte, and 39 villages in six North Cotabato municipalities.
ARMM comprises Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi- Tawi provinces and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan. An approval in referendum by simple majority of its 1,863,230registered voters will mean the inclusion of the entire region in the proposed BARMM.
Maguindanao constitutes the largest number of registered voters in ARMM at 634,323 (as of 2016 polls), followed by Lanao del Sur’s 484,435. The two mainland provinces’ combined registered voters stand at 1,118,758 or roughly 55 percent of the regional electorate.
Last month, majority of the elected officials in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City handed their separate manifestos of support for BOL ratification to Moro Islamic Liberation Front MILF (MILF) Chairman Hadji Murad Ebrahim at his headquarters in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
“Inshaallah (God willing), ARMM is definitely going to be part of BARMM,” one of the forum participant-representatives from the MILF told The Manila Bulletin during Tuesday’s gathering here.
Gov. Mangudadatu prodded proponents of the BARMM creation, notably the MILF and the government peace panels, to hold similar information campaign forum to drum up more support for the BOL ratification.
The governor and his younger siblings, ARMM Assemblyman Khadaffy Mangudadatu and influential former Buluan Mayor Ibrahim Mangudadatu admitted at the gathering having received information purporting that the MILF was suspecting the Mangudadatus of being inclined to campaign for the rejection of the BOL in a plebiscite.