Thousands attend first MILF political party launching

SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao -- Thousands of guerillas and supporters of the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front converged at Camp Darapanan here on Wednesday to show force
and highlight the launching of the MILF’s pioneering United Bangsamoro Justice
Party (UBJP).The MILF already sought accreditation for the UBJP from the Commission
on Elections to enable the party to pit candidates for local positions and
elective posts in the upcoming Bangsamoro government during the 2016 electoral
exercise.

Sammy Al-Mansoor, UBJP secretary-general, said the gathering of volunteers” at Camp Darapanan is an initial decentralization
stride meant to organize community-based partisan blocs that can help educate
the public on the peace and development objectives of the newly-formed political party.

This is the start of the MILF’s evolution from an armed revolutionary
group into a political organization that would continue struggling for peace
and development in the homeland in another arena -- governance and politics,”
Al-Mansour said.Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, said UBJP is not exclusive to the MILF but is open to anyone who would like to join the party.

The MILF is so upbeat on the creation of the Bangsamoro
government via a legislative measure, the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which isnow in Congress and is expected to be passed and ratified
via a plebiscite by early 2015.

The bill's enactment into law will pave the way for the replacement of the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more administratively empowered MILF-led Bangsamoro government.

Among the politically prominent people that showed up for the UBJP’s first ever conclave
at Camp Darapanan, the MILF’s main bastion located in Sultan Kudarat town in
Maguindanao, was former ARMM Vice Gov. Benjamin Loong and several Tausog
leaders from the island province of Sulu.

Loong
is younger sibling of incumbent Sulu Rep. Tupay Loong, a member of the
75-member House committee handling the draft Bangsamoro bill.The ARMM ‘s incumbent chief executive, Mujiv Hataman, said he is elated
with the MILF’s entry into politics to pursue its development agenda for
Mindanao’s Moro communities.

That’s a move worthy of our support, far from being bloody and
disastrous,” said Hataman, even as the creation of the Bangsamoro government
could boot him out of power.

Hataman said he has ordered the ARMM’s police command to help secure the
gathering of the UBJP volunteers at Camp Darapanan through the joint
government-MILF ceasefire coordinating committee.The ARMM covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao
Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.The ARMM provinces will form part of the central core territory of the
proposed Bangsamoro government, whose creation is part of the final peace deal
between the government and the MILF, the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement
on Bangsamoro.