Historic rally marks start of BOL ratification campaign

COTABATO CITY - Some 200,000 supporters of the Bangsamoro Organic Law joined the symbolic launching here Monday of the campaign for its ratification via a plebiscite on January 21, 2019.The event was held inside the 32-hectare regional capitol here of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.It was capped off with separate endorsements of the BOL by the figurehead of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Hadji Murad Ebrahim, Muhaquer Iqbal of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Murad and Hataman separately urged voters in the autonomous region and in the cities of Cotabato, the administrative capital of ARMM, and in Isabela in Basilan to vote in favor of the BOL on January 21.It was the first appearance ever of Murad, chairman of the MILF's central committee, in a public gathering outside of a rebel enclave since he became a Moro guerilla in the early 1970s.The Commission on Elections will administer the plebiscite, to seal the fate of the BOL, in all of the ARMM’s five provinces --- Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi --- and in several towns in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte.The plebiscite shall also be held in the cities of Cotabato and in Isabela, which are under Administrative Regions 12 and 9, respectively.Hataman, now in his second term as ARMM regional governor, was one of the speakers in a pro-BOL forum in Al-Barka town in Basilan two days before.Former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, who belongs to one of two factions in the Moro National Liberation Front, and senior officials of the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party, Al-Mansour Gambar and lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, were also present in the large gathering inside the ARMM compound.Once ratified, the BOL, also known as the Republic Act 11054, will pave the way for the replacement of the now 29-year ARMM with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM.An MILF transitory body will manage the BARMM pending the election of its pioneer batch of officials.The BOL was approved last July by the bicameral committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate.It was a product of 20 years of peace talks between the government and the MILF, premised on two compacts forged by both sides --- the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoroand, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.