THE SIGNING of the
Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro on March 27, 2014 by the Philippine
government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a cause for celebration not
only for the Bangsamoro of Mindanao but the whole Filipino people. This event
signals a new chapter in war-torn Mindanao and should make all people there
hope for a better future.
“No more war, no more
children scampering for safety, no more evacuees, no more lost school days or
school months, no more injustice, no more misgovernance, no more poverty, no
more fear. Tama na, we are all tired of it,” Presidential Adviser on the
Peace Process Teresita Quintos Deles said.
“A new dawn has come, the
dawn for books not bullets, for paintbrushes not knives, for whole communities
not evacuation centers, and for rewarding toil not endless strife,” Deles
added.
MILF chair Al Haj Murad
Ebrahim tabbed the CAB the “crowning glory” of their struggle as he stressed
that the CAB would not spawn a government of the MILF but that of the
Bangsamoro.
He added: “After all, the CAB
is not only for the MILF, it is for the MNLF as well as much as it is for all
the Muslim ethnic tribes, the Christian settlers and the indigenous peoples in
the prospective Bangsamoro territories.
I would like to impress upon all of you that the MILF does not and will never
claim sole ownership of the CAB.”
Pres. Benigno Simeon C.
Aquino III, who said his face-to-face meeting with the MILF chief in Japan
jumpstarted the peace process, warned those who plan to derail and sabotage the
agreement, emphasizing: “. I will not let peace be snatched from my people
again.”
The road to the CAB was
perilous and fraught with tensions. Just last year, a faction of the Moro
National Liberation Front invaded Zamboanga to express their disagreement with
the CAB. On March 27, however, new MNLF chairman Datu HJ. Abul Khayr Alonto,
who also attended the signing, threw his support behind the creation of the
Bangsamoro political entity.
Still, there is still a tough
road ahead as a basic law on the CAB must be passed by Congress then a
referendum would be held for the ratification of the said law on areas
concerned.
And as it is, this boils down
to the political will of the President to make his allies in Congress work
faster to realize this dream. Whatever the agreement becomes in the future it
would be anchored on the sincerity of both sides to do what they pledged to do.
And should they become true to their words, the elusive peace for Mindanao
might just soon become a reality.
Comments
Post a Comment