The ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law will address issues that hound Mindanao, Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu said.
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency during the 2018 National Anti-Drug Abuse Council Performance Award on Dec. 28, Mangudadatu said he has been campaigning hard for the BOL’s ratification.
“The BOL is one of the best roads towards prosperity in the southern Philippines. If this gets ratified and people accept it, I think 60 percent of the country’s problems will be addressed because the problems of the Republic of the Philippines are usually in southern Mindanao,” Mangudadatu said.
The governor said the BOL may provide long-term peace and solutions to problems in southern Mindanao.
The law has yet to be approved through a plebiscite in Muslim-populated regions in Mindanao. The Commission on Elections has scheduled the plebiscites for the ratification of the BOL from Jan. 21 to Feb. 6, 2019.
For his part, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a press briefing that the extension of martial law in Mindanao will greatly help the police and the military ensure the peaceful conduct of the plebiscite.
Considered as one of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s biggest legislative achievements, the BOL, previously known as the Bangsamoro Basic Law, seeks to give the Moro people basic legal tools to chart their own destiny within the country’s constitutional framework.
