{"id":55682,"date":"2015-07-14T16:08:34","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T08:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=55682"},"modified":"2015-07-14T16:09:22","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T08:09:22","slug":"cbcp-wants-bbl-guided-by-social-moral-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/07\/14\/cbcp-wants-bbl-guided-by-social-moral-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"CBCP wants BBL guided by ‘social moral principles’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Catholic<\/a>
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (Photo courtesy of CBCP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — The Catholic Bishops of the Philippines is eyeing for a\u00a0Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that is Constitutional and is based on “social moral principles.”<\/p>\n

“We do not intend to endorse or not endorse any draft BBL being discussed by \u00a0the Philippine Senate and the House of Representatives. But we intend to envision a BBL that is based on and guided by social moral principles,” the CBCP Plenary Assembly said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Catholic bishops of Mindanao added that they stand on the common moral ground of the issue.<\/p>\n

The statement also noted the major grievances of Muslim leaders including the “reduction of their ancestral territory, the erosion of their cultural identity, and the loss of self-determination in the development of their communities.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0bishops\u00a0added that\u00a0an all-out war is not the answer to the situation in Mindanao and that both Christians and Muslims in Mindanao aspire for peace.<\/p>\n

‘Mistrust’ and the Mamasapano debacle<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bishops added that biases and prejudices has been part of the deep mistrust between Christians and Muslims.<\/p>\n

And the said mistrust lead to the tragedy which killed 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos.<\/p>\n

“It is this climate of mistrust that the horrible human tragedy at Mamasapano, Maguindanao has resurrected. It has placed the peace process and the proposed BBL in limbo.”<\/p>\n

Following the incident, the\u00a0Social Weather Statitons (SWS) found a significant increase on the number of Filipinos who are against the passage of the proposed BBL.<\/p>\n

The survey conducted last March 20-23, 2015 showed 48 percent of Filipinos are against the approval of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law.<\/p>\n

It shows an increase from only 27 percent who stood against the law’s passage prior to the Mamasapano incident.<\/p>\n

The bishops, however, noted that \u00a0the Mamasapano incident must not affect the passage of the BBL.<\/p>\n

“But we believe that the Mamasapano disaster must not be equated with the BBL.”<\/p>\n

Not this BBL<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the same statement, the bishops also noted the kind of BBL that they do not want.<\/p>\n

“On our part, viewing the issues from a moral angle, we do not want a BBL that does not effectively address the root causes of social injustice.”<\/p>\n

The following are the cases that the bishops they do not want for a version of a BBL:<\/p>\n

– A BBL that does not achieve the centuries-old Bangsamoro aspiration for self-determination<\/p>\n

– A BBL that makes the proposed Bangsamoro area of determination less autonomous than the ARMM it is meant to replace<\/p>\n

– A BBL that discriminates by not effectively protecting and promoting the rights of minorities, indigenous or not.<\/p>\n

– A BBL that will foster ethnic, religious, political and economic discrimination<\/p>\n

BBL rooted in social justice<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bishops said\u00a0that the Bangsamoro framework must be rooted in the moral principle of social justice.<\/p>\n

“At the basis of the deep fundamental Bangsamoro aspiration to self-determination in an autonomus region is the moral principle of social justice,” it said.<\/p>\n

“Social justice implies the other moral principles of just peace and inter-religious harmony,” it added.<\/p>\n

Given the current social climate of “mutual biases and prejudices and mutual charges of injustice,” there lies a demand for “moral consideration.”<\/p>\n

The bishops also specifically enumerated the kind of BBL they want in the same pastoral statement:<\/p>\n

– A BBL that effectively addresses the injustices suffered by the Bangsamoro as well as the injustices suffered by indigenous peoples and various religious minorities within the proposed Bangsamoro area<\/p>\n

– A BBL that concretely achieves the self-determination of the Bangsamoro in an identified area that remains part and parcel of the territorial integrity and under the national sovereignty of the Philippine Republic<\/p>\n

– A BBL that promotes harmonious relationship between peoples of various ethnic groups and of different faiths<\/p>\n

– A BBL that effectively protects the universal human rights, particularly the rights of IPs \u00a0already enshrined in law, and the rights of Christian minorities who fear harassment and further marginalization<\/p>\n

– A BBL that responds concretely to the concerns, hopes, aspirations of all stakeholders, of various Bangsamoro groups, and of non-Moro citizens within the new Bangsamoro autonomous region<\/p>\n

– A BBL whose provisions are clearly Constitutional, without betraying the intent and spirit of peace agreements<\/p>\n

“That is the BBL we envision on the basis of social moral principles of social justice, harmony and peace. It is a vision that goes beyond the proposals now being discussed in our legislature,” the bishops added in the statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — The Catholic Bishops of the Philippines is eyeing for a\u00a0Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that is Constitutional and is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":8962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}