STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY FOR THE BANGSAMORO AND COMMITMENT TO CONTINUE ACCOMPANYING THE PEACE PROCESS

STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY FOR THE BANGSAMORO

AND COMMITMENT TO CONTINUE ACCOMPANYING THE PEACE PROCESS

We come together in solidarity with the Bangsamoro people as they push forward with the quest for meaningful self-governance in areas in Mindanao and the archipelago that are part of their homeland in historical and contemporary times.

This quest has been kept alive through the decades by countless sacrifices, including lives. Today, there is a beacon of hope the Moro people’s aspiration can become a reality through peaceful means.

That hope lie in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that has taken government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) seventeen painstaking years to muster. This landmark peace pact is currently being translated into a law that would become charter of the Bangsamoro government. The proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) now pending in Congress seeks to embody the Moro people’s hopes and dreams to be captains of their own future.

During his recent visit to Bolivia, Pope Francis said: “The world peoples want to be artisan of their own destiny… They do not want forms of tutelage or interference by which those with greater power subordinate those with less. They want their culture, their language, their social processes and their religious traditions to be respected.”

As such, we hereby affirm that the recognition of their identity, respect for their right to self-determination as a people, and the need to address legitimate grievances and historical injustices must be the cornerstones in building a new and meaningful socio-political setup for the Bangsamoro.

It is in this spirit that we are closely following the process of enacting the BBL, starting with that in the House Ad Hoc Committee on the BBL, and the public pronouncements of legislators regarding the measure.

We are saddened that prejudice, bias, and deep-bigotry appears to be the main driver of the debates on the BBL, whether inside and outside the halls of the House of Representatives and the Senate. This is not the type of exercise needed to shape a new reality for a people and region long mired in conflict and underdevelopment. We therefore call on the members of Congress to rise above themselves in the interest of social justice.

We note here highly welcome enhancement to the BBL that were introduced especially those dealing on the empowerment of women, and providing a platform for the participation of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the transition process, a gesture of expanding its political inclusiveness.

We acknowledge the importance of treating fully the rights of non-Moro indigenous peoples inside the Bangsamoro. While these are already enshrined in the proposed BBL, we recognize the need for continuing the dialogues between the indigenous peoples and the Moros in the spirit of kinship

The road to a peaceful and progressive Mindanao is still long, and probably winding, and thorny. Nevertheless, we commit to continue treading this road as long as it takes.

Mindanao is in the cusp of historic change. Today, we seized that moment. 

ArchBishop Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro City, Convenor, Tulay Kami, speaks before the participants. At left, Charlito "Kaloy" Manlupig, Chief Emeritus, Balay Mindanaw, Cagayan de Oro City