BOL supporters kick off plebiscite campaign in Jolo

MANILA, Philippines – Tens of thousands of supporters of the Bangsamoro Organic Law attended a gathering in Jolo on Saturday to call for its ratification, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process said Sunday.

The rally, the first in a series, is meant to drum up support for the law ahead of a plebsicite to be held in most areas of the proposed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on January 21. Another plebiscite is scheduled on February 6 for the expanded areas, including six towns in Lanao del Norte and villages in North Cotabato.

Similar rallies are slated in Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi, OPAPP said.

Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., a retired military general who led the 6th Infantry Division and the Western Mindanao Command, told the crowd that while a battalion commander during the "all-out war" against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2000, he "experienced the pain of seeing the 'tears of a dying man.'"

"I don't want to hear such cries anymore because it is very deafening and painful," OPAPP quotes him as saying. 

The Bangsamoro Organic Law is meant to implement the 2014 peace agreement between the government and the MILF.

"The BOL is an antidote against terrorism and violent extremism," he said, as he also said that effectively running the future Bangsamoro government will cut the "generational chain of violence" in the region.

MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim said the BOL encompasses the governments peace agreements with the Moro National Liberation Front, not just the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

"The BOL is not a victory of the MILF but it is the victory of the entire Bangsamoro people. This is the fruit of our sacrifices. It is the result of our collective efforts," he said. "Inshallah, we will win in Sulu."

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Galvez also pointed out that the BOL was crafted with the help of the Tausugs, the predominant people of Sulu.

Four members of the 21-member Bangsamoro Transition Commission, which crafted the BOL, are from Sulu: Jose Lorena, former Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin, Raissa Jajurie, and Gafur Kanain. Deputy Presidential Peace Adviser Nabil Tan, who has been working in the peace process since the Ramos administration, also hails from Sulu, Galvez said.

"The BOL reflects the aspiration of the Tausugs for genuine autonomy over their ancestral lands," he said.

Also at the rally were former Sulu Gov. Benjamin Loong, former Rep. Maryam Arbison, former and incumbent mayors of Sulu, Notre Dame of Jolo College president Fr. Romeo Saniel and members of the BTC.