Ateneo presidents rally lawmakers to pass a meaningful BBL

THE BANGSAMORO aspiration for self-determination and genuine autonomy as reflected in a meaningful Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and signed peace agreements with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) should be integrated into the country’s socio-political institutions, said research academic institution Ateneo University system.

“The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is proposed today not as ordinary legislation. Crafted to do social justice, it emerges from 17 years of peace negotiations for Muslim Mindanao. It seeks to rectify past errors, to reverse injustices committed in prejudice and hatred against Muslims in Mindanao,” said the Ateneo system in a paid advertisement that came out in select major newspapers recently.

“It charts a better future for the Bangsamoro peoples and cultures and thus for the people of the Philippines,” it continued.

The statement was signed by Ateneo de Davao University president Fr. Joel E Tabora, SJ; Ateneo de Manila University president Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin, SJ; Ateneo de Naga University president Fr. Primitivo E. Viray Jr., SJ; Ateneo de Zamboanga University president Fr. Karel S. San Juan, SJ; Xavier University president Fr. Roberto C. Yap, SJ.

The Ateneo presidents explained that with regard to the BBL, the legis- lators were not “only hewers of laws” but “builders of peace” and “architects of our future.” They also warned lawmakers against squandering “their fragile moment for building peace through absence from crucial legislative sessions, indifference, or fear.”

The statement was alluding to the lack of quorum that has plagued the House of Representatives plenary debate on the BBL. Since session resumed last July, quorum had only been achieved a few times causing further delay to the passage of the basic law that will establish a parliamentary Bangsamoro government to replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).