The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper
Muslims want more consultations on BBL
MUSLIMS HAVE urged President Rodrigo Duterte to consult all different ent tribes tribes in in southern southern Philippines Philippines in in drafting drafting the the Bangsamoro Bangsamoro Basic Basic Law Law or or BBL BBL that that will will be be part part of of the the new new Federal Federal government government lawmak-lawmakers are proposing. dozen There Muslim are tribes over in a the provinces region, mostly of Basilan, in the Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao that comprise the autonomous region; and also in Palawan.
An estimated 11 million Muslims or approximately 11 percent of the Philippine population, not Bangsamoro well but represented their Transition leaders in the are Commission government has or put BTC up the to draft the BBL. Majority of the Muslims do not even know the provisions in the BBL and previous consultations in the time of the Aquino administrations were mostly staged with Muslim leaders saying they were not consulted. And to make matter worse, Christian lawmakers continue to challenge the provisions in the draft law by saying they are unconstitutional. Separate Muslim Region
Even provincial governors of the Muslim provinces were not part of the BTC which was chaired by Mohagher Iqbal, the vice chairman of the rebel
group Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed an interim peace deal with Manila in 2014. The MILF - whose influence is concentrated only in Maguindanao - now wanted to rule over the proposed new Bangsamoro homeland that would replace the Muslim autonomous region.
Muslims in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi and Palawan belong to two ethnic tribes – the Yakan in Basilan; and the Tausug in Sulu, Tawi-tawi and Palawan – and they do not want to be ruled by the MILF, of majority of its tribe and members. They wanted a separate autonomous region with Tausug as their leader; and for the revival of the Sultanate of Sulu and give political powers to their sultans.
“We do not know what the entirety of the BBL. But we want to manage our own affairs,” said one Muslim resident in Zamboanga City.
Sabah
Claims In May 2016, Duterte said he will press the Sultan’s claim to Sabah, now one of the states of Malaysia. The Sultanate of Sulu, up to this time, continues to lay claim to the mineral-rich Sabah which Malaysia strongly rejected, although it is paying the Sultanate of Sulu every year.
Also in April the same year, for the first time in the rich history of the Sultanate of Sulu, five influential sultans signed a covenant in an unprecedented move aimed at consolidating and strengthening their unity.
The signing ceremony held in Zamboanga City brought together Sultans Ibrahim Bahjin, Muizuddin Jainal Bahjin, Muedzul-lail Tan Kiram, Mohammad Venizar Julkarnain Jainal Abirin and Phugdalun Kiram to form the Royal Council of the Sulu Sultanate.
Sulu Governor Totoh Tan was one of the witnesses in the signing of the covenant along with the Grand Mufti Abdulbaqi Abubakar. It was attended by hundreds of supporters and members of the different Royal Houses of the Sultanate of Sulu, and religious leaders and representatives of various sectors not only in the province, but in the autonomous region.
Tan’s father, then the Sulu Vice Governor Dr. Sakur Tan, is a key figure in the unification of the sultans. He commissioned many respected Muslim scholars and educators from the University of the Philippines to help in crafting the unity covenant. The sultans also thanked the elder Tan for his efforts in unifying the Royal Houses of the Sultanate of Sulu. Tan, a philanthropist, is strongly advocating the revival of Sultanate of Sulu and promoting the rich and colorful tradition and culture of the Tausug people.
And in November 2016, the Tan patriarch - a staunch ally of Duterte – was conferred as Datu Shah Bandar by the Royal Council of the Sulu Sultanate and designated as Special Envoy.
Sulu
Sultanate The Sultanate of Sulu was founded in 1457 and is believed to exist as a sovereign nation for at least 442 years. It stretches from a part of the island of Mindanao in the east, to Sabah, in the west and south, and to Palawan, in the north.
It continues to lay claim to North Borneo, now Sabah in Malaysia after obtaining it from Brunei as a gift for helping put down a rebellion on Borneo Island.
The British leased Sabah and transferred control over the territory to Malaysia after the end of World War II. But the sultanate said it had merely leased North Borneo in 1878 to the British North Borneo Company for an annual payment of 5,000 Malayan dollars then, which was increased to 5,300 Malayan dollars in 1903.
North Borneo was annexed by Malaysia in 1963 after a referendum organized by the Cobbold Commission in 1962 saw the people of Sabah voting overwhelmingly to join Malaysia, but Kuala Lumpur continues paying the Sulu Sultanate some 5,300 ringgits a year on the basis of the Sulu royals’ ceding the Borneo state.
Malaysia
In February 2013, the ailing Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, sent about 200 followers headed by his brother Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram to Sabah to assert their claim to and supposed historical rights over the oil-rich state.
Jamalul’s group rejected Malaysian demand for them to surrender peacefully and fighting erupted in Lahad Datu town where more than 60 of the sultan’s men were killed and over 300 Filipinos arrested on suspicion that they were aiding the group of Raja Muda Agbimuddin.
Malaysia also put Jamalul and his brother on its wanted list and branded them as terrorists for intruding into Sabah and killing and decapitating 10 policemen and soldiers in separate clashes on the island.
Agbimuddin managed to escape the Malaysian assault in Sabah, while Sultan Jamalul died in October the same year from a lingering illness at age 75. Agbimuddin died from cardiac arrest in 2015 in Tawi-tawi province.