MILF launches political party

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is converting itself into a political party to be able to take part in elections in the envisioned Bangsamoro government.

It has sought accreditation from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the new United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) to field candidates for local positions.

Last Wednesday, thousands of MILF fighters and supporters converged at Camp Darapanan in this province in a show of force and to highlight the launching of UBJP.

Sammy Al-Mansour, UBJP secretary-general, said the gathering of “volunteers” at Camp Darapanan is an initial decentralization stride meant to organize community-based partisan blocs to help educate the public on their party’s peace and development objectives.

“This is the start of the MILF’s evolution from an armed revolutionary group into a political organization that would continue struggling for peace and development in the homeland in another arena – governance and politics,” he said.

Among the prominent people who showed up for the UBJP’s first ever conclave were former ARMM vice governor Benjamin Loong and several Tausug leaders from Sulu.

Loong is the younger sibling of Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong, a member of the 75-member House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the Bangsamoro bill.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Mujiv Hataman said he is elated with the MILF’s entry into politics to pursue its development agenda for Moro communities.

“That’s a move worthy of our support, far from being bloody and disastrous,” he said.

Hataman said he has ordered the ARMM police to help secure the gathering of UBJP volunteers through the joint government-MILF ceasefire coordinating committee.

Congress is expected to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law next year.

It would replace the ARMM with a more administratively empowered MILF-led Bangsamoro government.

The ARMM comprises Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in mainland Mindanao and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The ARMM provinces will form part of the central core territory of the proposed Bangsamoro government.

Its creation is part of the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro, the final peace agreement between the government and the MILF.

Next year, the House of Representatives ad hoc committee will start to tackle the different sentiments about the Bangsamoro Basic Law gathered this year.

Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal told The STAR they are collating all the data gathered from the 34 consultations and hearings conducted nationwide.

Oaminal, who served as ad hoc committee vice chairman, said all pros and cons will be on the ad hoc committee’s agenda when it meets again.

“But we will meet first in January the different factions of the Moro National Liberation Front,” he said. “Then the executive committee will ascertain all the inputs.”

Oaminal said the Bangsamoro Consolidation Forum of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other Bangsamoro entities are trying “to get their act together.”

The general sentiment in the core territory of the Bangsamoro is in favor of the proposed basic law.

However, some adjacent areas are opposed to some provisions of the bill, he added.

Zamboanga City and Iligan City are two of the adjacent areas whose leaders have voiced strong opposition during the series of hearings and consultations this year, Oaminal said. – With Gerry Lee Gorit