United Nationalist Alliance presidential bet Vice President Jejomar Binay declared that strife-torn Mindanao will find no peace under an administration led by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte whose platform promote fighting crimes with violence and violations of human rights.
“We Muslims and Christians have the moral responsibility not to vote for Duterte,” he said during his meeting in Zamboanga City with the Grand Mufti and Ustadz of Region 9 and Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.
To ensure that lasting peace is finally achieved in Mindanao, Binay said that a decisive and compassionate leadership was needed.
“We will always pursue peace. I will talk with anybody and continue negotiations. The effort toward a Bangsamoro Basic Law will be wasted even if it was not passed [by Congress] because that will be part of our dialogue,” Binay said.
Binay opposed the BBL while it was being deliberated in Congress because of legal infirmities in the Palace version of the bill, which eventually became the reason for its defeat in the 16th Congress.
Binay had earlier assailed Duterte for supporting acts of violence against Davao City’s poor citizens who have been suspected of committing crimes.
Duterte has even boasted to the media to “being the Davao Death Squad [DDS],” a vigilante group known for committing extra-judicial killings. The United Nations, Amnesty International, and other human rights groups have tagged the DDS for the deaths of thousands of civilians, including minors.
The mayor has also admitted to the media his involvement in the murder of 1,700 individuals, 1,000 more than the 700 earlier estimated by Amnesty International.
In an earlier campaign sortie in Lanao del Norte, Binay had pledged to put up a “Malacañang in Mindanao” to help Muslims feel decentralization in government.
“I promise you that I will personally address the problems besetting Mindanao. My plan is to establish a Malacañang in Cebu. Similarly, I will build a Malacañang here in Mindanao,” Binay said.
“In order to understand your problems here, I will hold office here in Mindanao so I can watch over local governments will experience the true meaning of decentralization and devolution. I will administer local autonomy,” Binay pledged.