Duterte junks BBL, approves ‘Roadmap for Peace’

MANILA, Philippines – The Duterte administration has junked the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) as the President approved a “Roadmap for Peace” on Monday evening, presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza bared yesterday.

The BBL is the legal translation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB), which the Aquino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed in March 2014 as part of the peace process in Mindanao.

Dureza explained that while the Duterte administration junked the BBL, the President respects the mechanisms placed under the CAB.

“The BBL is the implementing mechanism that did not pass Congress. We are going to implement the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro,” he said.

Dureza noted that under the peace roadmap, the Duterte administration would pursue peace talks on all fronts.

“The main context of the approach now in the peace negotiations, for example, with the Bangsamoro is already to declare that the time for negotiations is already over,” he said.

“We are now in the process therefore of implementing the peace agreements that have been signed, first, in 1996 with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of Nur Misuari, then we have the recent CAB with the MILF,” he explained.

The President will soon be looking at the appointments in the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, which will form the enabling law for peace. The BBL will be thrown in the wastebasket since it failed scrutiny in the 16th Congress, Dureza added.

Duterte also aims to deal with the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao covered by Republic Act 9054.

“And perhaps we can put also in the same level the concerns of the indigenous peoples or lumads as covered by the IPRA Law (Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997),” Dureza said.

“There will be inclusivity, henceforth, under the Duterte Roadmap for Peace where all the Bangsamoro factions, groups will have to come under one roof so that there will be inclusivity in the implementation of all these particular agreements.