Campaign for Bangsamoro law ratification kicks off

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Some 200,000 supporters of the Bangsamoro Organic Law kicked off the campaign on Monday for its ratification by plebiscite on January 21, 2019.

The event was held inside the 32-hectare regional capitol of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

It was capped off with endorsements of the BOL by Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, Mohagher Iqbal of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and ARMM Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

Murad and Hataman, in separate statements, urged voters in the autonomous region and in the cities of Cotabato—the administrative capital of ARMM—and Isabela in Basilan to vote in favor of the BOL on January 21.

It was the first appearance ever of Murad, chairman of the MILF's central committee, in a public gathering outside of an MILF camp since he became a Moro guerrilla in the early 1970s.

The Commission on Elections will administer the plebiscite, to seal the fate of the BOL, in all of the ARMM’s five provinces — Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi — and in several towns in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte.

The plebiscite will also be held in the cities of Cotabato and in Isabela, which are under Administrative Regions 12 and 9, respectively.

Hataman, now in his second term as ARMM regional governor, was one of the speakers in a pro-BOL forum in Al-Barka town in Basilan two days before.

Former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, who belongs to one of two factions in the Moro National Liberation Front, and senior officials of the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party, Al-Mansour Gambar and lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, were also present in the large gathering inside the ARMM compound.

Once ratified, the BOL, also known as the Republic Act 11054, will pave the way for the replacement of the now 29-year ARMM with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM.

An MILF transitory body will manage the BARMM pending the election of officials.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who promised to shepherd the bill through Congress, signed the bill into law in July. The BOL was a product of 20 years of peace talks between the government and the MILF.