THE draft Bangsamoro Basic Law crafted by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission, which is pending in Congress, is in need of a sponsor to push for its enactment, Malacañang said Friday.
The Palace made the statement even as Moro National Liberation Front chairman Nur Misuari reiterated his commitment to further participate in the peace process.
“The draft bill has been submitted to Congress [but it needs] congressional sponsorship,” Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra told reporters in a chance interview.
Misuari, who met with Duterte Thursday night, “reiterated the commitment of the MNLF to participate in very peaceful means in the determination of the Bangsamoro,” Guevarra said.
Misuari likewise vowed to “cooperate with the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, criminality and terrorism in Mindanao,” the Palace said in a statement.
While the MILF-led BTC had submitted its version of the bill in July, Misuari’s MNLF has yet to prepare its draft and submit it to Duterte.
Duterte had earlier vowed to support the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law as long as it remained faithful to the Constitution.
The submission of the new BBL to President Rodrigo Duterte will be the end of the MILF’s active role in its formulation of the new bill, as all stakeholders would have to wait for the discussions in Congress, which the MILF expects to be finished around the first quarter of 2018.
