Ethnic groups and tribal leaders will form part of an advisory council that will help provide guidance to the peace negotiations with the communist rebels and the creation of a Bangsamoro enabling law, Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza said on Friday.
An executive order, which will pave the way for the reconstitution of a more inclusive and more transparent Bangsamoro Transition Commission is now awaiting the signature of the President. It counts on ethnic minorities to play an important role in ensuring the success of the peace negotiations, Dureza said.
“[T]he IPs compose a very important sector in our work. I have already taken up that with the President and he approved,” Dureza said.
“[T]his will be the first that we will be having what we will call the IP advisory council that will advise the panels—panel that is handling the BTC, panels handling the CPP-NPA-NDF—so may inputs sila doon sa mangyayari [they have inputs on what would happen].”
Dureza maintained that the active participation of indigenous peoples’ is essential to ensure that the peace negotiations will culminate in the ending of armed insurgencies and the achievement of a just, sustainable peace across the country.
“They have an opportunity to express their intention to be included in the law so we will be creating an IP advisory council that will advise the OPAPP and provide inputs to all the panels,” he further explained.
“We cannot promise that all of their proposals will be realized but at least they will be heard and that there are actions that can be taken,” Dureza said.
Members of the IP community would be included in the 21-member Bangsamoro Transition Committee that will be formed through the President’s Executive Order.
Dureza said that the commission will be tasked to draft a new law to carry out all Bangsamoro agreements including the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF and the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) with the MILF.
“[The Bangsamoro] have to work out together the convergence of all their interests, of all these groups, and then if Congress will pass it, then they will pass it,” he said.
Dureza likewise said that the enabling law can be the pilot for the proposed federalism being espoused by President Duterte.
“The enabling law that will be passed coming from the BTC, the Bangsamoro themselves, in convergence, can be also a pilot federal state of the Bangsamoro as we move towards a nationwide federal setup later on,” he added.