Duterte warns of war in Mindanao if BBL will not be passed

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (SIMEON CELI JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday warned that war would happen in Mindanao if Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) will not be passed.

“Kung walang mangyayari nito sa BBL ngayon (If nothing will happen to BBL now) or we change the Constitution or do not change the Constitution at all, there will be war in Mindanao. I can assure you, mamili kayo (you have to choose),” President said in his speech during the launching of the Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank) at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila.

“Hindi ko na ma-control ‘yan (I can no longer control that) and at this time, I said, it would be a double whammy because my enemy would be their friends, and who got – what would that be? It’s the ISIS,” he added.

President Duterte said it was about time to correct the “historical injustice” committed against the Moro people.

“Ang gusto ng Moro (what the Moro want), a sort of a severe form of decentralization,” Duterte said.

He said the decentralization was proposed to Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chairman Nur Misuari during the time of former President Corazon ‘Cory’ Aquino.

“Hindi akin ‘yan (it did not come from me), those were promises made to the Moro all these years. Ako lang kasi, nakikita ko, (for me, what I can see) with the rise of ISIS, it becomes doubly troubling for us now,” the President said.

The proposed BBL is now being tackled in Congress with the House of Representatives assuring it will be passed by March this year.

In the Senate, the subcommittee on BBL chairman Juan Miguel Zubiri said his panel would hold separate hearings beginning next week in Cotabato and Marawi City on the proposed Bangsamoro bill.

Meanwhile, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque has confirmed that Duterte has told Zubiri that the President would certify BBL as urgent.

“It is certified urgent,” Roque said in a text message to the Palace reporters.

Roque has said in previous media interview that President Duterte prefers to see BBL enacted first before Congress will take on another proposal to amend the Constitution.

(PNA)