Moro CSOs to press BTA extension during Marcos BARMM visit

Source: MindaNews

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 26 April) - A roadside rally and caravan will meet President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. when he arrives for a visit next week in the Bangsamoro Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a civil society spokesperson said.

The event, to be attended by various organizations, aims to prod Marcos to accede to calls to extend the term of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority for another three years, pointed out Mahdi Amella, of the League of Bangsamoro Organizations.

Amella told local media, Bandera News TV, on Thursday that Marcos is expected to visit BARMM, particularly Maguindanao del Norte, on Monday, April 29.

Marcos is expected to visit the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat town when he arrives. Details of the visit have yet to be made public.

He will also visit Camp Abubakar, the former MILF camp in Barira town, where 24 years ago, in July 2000, then-President Joseph "Erap" Estrada raised the Philippine flag to mark its fall to government forces.

Estrada came with lechon (roasted pigs) and cases of beer to celebrate the fall of the camp, which now hosts Camp Iranun, the headquarters of the 1st Marine Brigade.

Amella said they expect a huge number of people to join the rally on Monday to insist on their request to extend the BTA until 2028.

Marcos already rejected requests for BTA extension by civil society groups, as relayed to BARMM officials last month by Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Reconciliation and Unity.

Speaking during a grand iftar gathering graced by BARMM officials led by Interim Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, Galvez said the president was firm in having the elections push through in 2025.

"No more extension, the six years the BTA was extended is already enough," Galvez said, apparently relaying the decision of the President.

Amella said the BTA needs three more years, citing there are still many provisions in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) that needs to be implemented.

The scheduled 2025 elections in BARMM, which will coincide with the midterm polls, will end the BTA, the interim lawmaking body of the autonomous region that was created by the CAB in March 2014.

Galvez said the president made it clear that "the elections need to happen to give legitimacy and accountability to officials" who will be chosen by the people.

The elections will allow voters in the region to pick their bets for the first time to serve in the BARMM parliament. Winning parliament members will vote from among themselves who will be the region's Chief Minister.

The Commission on Elections is currently listing new voters in the BARMM for the 2025 polls.

In the same gathering, the BARMM Chief Minister said the President himself told them (in 2022 when they took their oath in Malacanang), that the extension that was granted "will be the last and there will be no more."

Ebrahim said what the president said has always reminded them to prepare for the 2025 elections.

"In keeping with what the president said, we are trying our best to prepare for the elections," he said.

But Ebrahim, who remains chairman of the MILF that forged the CAB with the government, said the civil society organizations "have a point in seeking for an extension" of the BTA.

Like what the CSOs have been pointing out, there are many CAB provisions that remain unimplemented, he said. (Rommel G. Rebollido/MindaNews)