Sulu leaders sign manifesto indicating utmost support for BOL

COTABATO CITY --- More than 40 political leaders in Sulu have pledged support to the Bangsamoro Organic Law, disproving claims that residents there are rabidly against it.Key leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said Tuesday among the signatories to the document were Benjamin Loong, a former regional vice governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and two erstwhile Sulu provincial vice governors -- Abdel Anni and Munib Estino.Incumbent mayors of five large towns, Indanan, Talipao, Luuk, Estino and Tongkil, and Sulu Rep. Monir Arbison also affixed their signatures to the manifestoThey promised to campaign for a yes vote for the BOL during the January 21, 2019 plebiscite that would seal its fate.The plebiscite shall be administered by the Commission on Elections in all five provinces of ARMM - Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi - and in several towns Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato.Sammy Gambar, secretary-general of the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party, said Tuesday they are grateful to Loong and the rest for overtly endorsing the BOL. We are thankful to these peace-loving Tausug leaders, he said.Von Al-Haq, spokesman of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, said there is still enough time for Sulu-based politicians to disseminate to their constituents the benefits of voting in favor of the BOL during the January 21 referendum.Among those who signed the pro-BOL manifesto were representatives of Sulu’s Tulawie, Amin, Arbison and Omar clans from vote-rich towns in the island province.Copies of the manifesto, drafted last November 23, were received by different media outfits in Central Mindanao only last Monday.For peace-advocacy blocs in central Mindanao, the document was contrary to assertions by former Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan, Sr. that voters in the province are against the inclusion of Sulu into the proposed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM.The BOL, if ratified via a plebiscite, shall pave the way for the replacement of ARMM with an MILF-led BARMM, which is to have a wider scope of political, fiscal and administrative powers.Loong, whose brother, the late Hadji Tupay, had served as Sulu governor and congressman, said they are certain that the BOL will address the Moro secessionist issue hounding Southern Mindanao for five decades now.Tan’s son, the incumbent governor of Sulu, Abdusakur, Jr., had asked the Supreme Court to junk the BOL for being unconstitutional.The BOL was approved by the bicameral committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives in early August.Bobby Benito of ARMM’s Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission said Tuesday the gesture of the Tausug leaders is a big boost to efforts of the MILF and President Rodrigo Duterte to put a negotiated closure to the now 50-year Moro quest for self-governance based on constitutional parameters. This peace process is inclusive. It involves all Moro communities, the Christian and the Lumad sectors, he said.Benito said even Mindanao’s top Catholic parochial leader, Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, former archbishop of the Diocese of Cotabato, is a staunch endorser of the government-MILF peace process.The MILF had forged two compacts with Malacañang, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.