Malaysian observer here to help gov’t, MILF thresh out differences

Bangsamoro supporters. RICHEL V. UMEL / INQUIRER MINDANAO

MANILA, Philippines—The Malaysian facilitator in the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) arrived Saturday afternoon to observe the meeting between the two peace panels aimed at threshing out their differences over the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the Inquirer has learned.

The Inquirer source said Tengku Datu Abdul Ghafar Tengku bin Mohamed would be observing the special meeting along with members of the International Contact Group (ICG). The source requested anonymity for lack of authority to speak to the media but is privy to the long-drawn out peace process between the two parties.

Both Tengku and the ICG, composed of representatives of the United Kingdom, Japan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have been instrumental in helping the government and MILF panels resolve contentious issues throughout the peace negotiations.

The peace panels are hoping to arrive at an “agreed version” of the draft BBL which would be submitted to Congress.

The MILF official site, luwaran.com, said in its weekly editorial that the Malacañang review team had “insisted” on its revisions in the draft BBL, changing some settled issues such as ancestral domain to ancestral domains, Bangsamoro people to Bangsamoro peoples, and central government to national government.

Until the Luwaran editorial, there were no specific contentious issues made public.

“The OP’s (Office of the President) comments on the BBL, which is essentially the position pursued by the government peace panel, dilutes the text and had in many instances departed from the letter and spirit of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its Annexes, which is the basis for the crafting of the BBL,” the MILF said.

“Moreover, the OP adopted a very conservative interpretation of the Constitution, which is a radical departure from what the government had been saying—and promised—that the flexibility of the Constitution would enable it to implement the FAB and its Annexes. Fourth, many of the delays were caused by issues that were already settled in the FAB and its Annexes but kept coming back and forth at the instance of the GPH (Government of the Philippines), e.g., ancestral domain to ancestral domains, central to national, Bangsamoro people to Bangsamoro peoples, etc.,” the editorial said.

President Benigno Aquino III, with his advisers and the peace panel, met with the members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) on Thursday. He urged both parties to work together to achieve the common goal of attaining a law that would finally establish peace in Mindanao.

However, MILF chief negotiator and BTC chair Mohagher Iqbal was conspicuously absent from the meeting in Malacañang.

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