THE government plans to convene an “All-Moro Convention” to merge its two separate peace agreements and between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front to finally answer the “Bangsamoro question,” which has been the root of the centuries-old conflict in Mindanao, a senior Cabinet official said Friday.
Following the ongoing siege of Marawi by the Maute terrorists, Mindanao Development Authority Secretary Abul Kahyr Alonto said the failure to address the Bangsamoro Question “has invited the invasion of foreign Daesh extremism such as ISIS.”
“Towards this end, aware of the two conflicting tracts in the separate peace process involving the MILF and the MNLF of brother Nur Misuari, and their concomitant complexities apropos convergence”•we are determined immediately to convene, with the official blessings of the President, the All-Moro Convention to expedite inclusivity or the participation of all sectors of the Bangsamoro,” Alonto said.
The former Marawi city mayor and MNLF leader said the convergence of the two separate peace tracks in the Bangsamoro peace accords would be beneficial should the government proceed with its plan to form a federal type of government for Mindanao.
“The All-Moro Convention will prepare the common Moro platform in the form of a proposed consolidated and comprehensive Moro law based on consensus, inclusivity and convergence in line and in preparation for federalism, which the Convention will submit to the Constitutional Commission that will prepare the draft of the new Constitution of the Federal Republic of the Philippines,” Alonto said.
The MILF has finished its draft for its Bangsamoro Basic Law through the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and it is up for Duterte’s signature before being sent to Congress.
The administration, meanwhile, is engaging with the MNLF through a separate five-man panel, which has yet to lay down their proposals for the intended Bangsamoro federal region.
Duterte had earlier said that Misuari was not receptive to joining the MILF-led BTC due to their differences, but had expressed willingness to work with the new government.
Alonto, however, who leads a separate MNLF faction, said the Marawi tragedy should propel Moro groups to look at the merits of federalism as proposed by Duterte, who is trying to address the failed peace process in the previous administrations.