Maguindanao execs to secure SC imprimatur for BOL

MAGUINDANAO --- The provincial peace and order council will petition the Supreme Court to dismiss all questions on the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Organic Law.Council members, among them representatives from the local government units in Maguindanao, the police, the military and other law-enforcement agencies, approved on Wednesday a resolution allowing Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu to initiate the move on the group’s behalf.The document was signed by members of the council, among them the governor’s younger sibling, Mayor Freddie of Mangudadatu town and president of the 36-member league of mayors in the province.Mangudadatu, whose third and last term as governor will end June 30 this year, said Thursday he has enlisted two lawyers --- Israelito Torreon and Abubakar Katambak --- to represent his office in seeking the dismissal of all petitions by dissenters for the Supreme Court to stop the implementation of the BOL.The BOL, or Republic Act 11054, was ratified via a plebiscite in provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao last January 21.The BOL is the enabling measure for the replacement of ARMM with a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM, as agreed by the peace panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.The peace talks between the government and the MILF was facilitated by Malaysia and assisted by international donor organizations, the European Union, Norway, Brunei and Indonesia.Among those who had asked the Supreme Court to stop the BOL’s implementation is Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan, Jr.The father of Tan, Abdusakur Sr., is known for his strong opposition to efforts of the national government and the MILF to put a negotiated closure to the now five-decade southern secessionist strife. We will start initiating legal moves next week. People in the ARMM provinces have spoken. They have voted in favor of the BOL during the January 21 plebiscite in the autonomous region. What is there to oppose? That was a democratic exercise and people voted freely, Mangudadatu said.Except for Sulu, voters in ARMM’s four other provinces, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi voted for the measure, a product of 22 years of talks between the government and the MILF.The older Tan, who had served as governor of the province for three consecutive terms prior to the election of his son in 2016, campaigned against the BOL’s ratification.Mangudadatu said members of the league of mayors in Maguindanao have promised to help pay for the lawyers enlisted to help secure the High Tribunal’s imprimatur for the BOL. We in Maguindanao do not fear anything about the BOL. It was drafted by representatives from the government and the MILF, approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate and was also approved by stakeholders to the Mindanao peace process via a plebiscite, Mangudadatu said.The BOL got an overwhelming approval vote from residents of Maguindanao.Mangudadatu said he and his constituent-leaders are certain that President Rodrigo Duterte, himself a lawyer, will not concede anything to the MILF that will compromise any provision of the Philippine Constitution.