MANILA: Failure is not an option when it comes to the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, Malacañang asserted yesterday.
“Failure should not be on the horizon because this is not for us. This is not for President Aquino personally but it’s for our brothers and sisters in the Bangsamoro,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.
Valte said they were told by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation front (Milf) peace panels that had been meeting since Aug. 1 that “more or less,” they were “70 percent out of the way” on issues and were saving the hardest ones for last.
Hopefully, they would be able to iron out all their differences over issues at the soonest possible time.
“We will continue to push for this...you know the President, when he says he wants to do something, he will really put his weight on it,” Valte said.
“There are two years left...We’ll push as best as we can to deliver the goods at the time that is projected. So the concentration now, really, is working with the Bangsamoro Transition Commission,” she said.
Valte said both panels had been working non-stop to complete the review of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law to be submitted to Congress.
“So now, we’re not thinking of that failure or Plan B, but rather we’re concentrating on what we can do to push this process further,” she said.
Malacañang earlier denied the talks were headed for collapse because the Milf was unhappy with the decision of the government to dilute its proposals. Government officials maintained the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law provisions must conform to the Constitution.
At the same time, Milf leaders called on the media to be more prudent in reporting the peace process to prevent misleading the public.
“Let’s avoid creating scenarios depicting the efforts of both sides to build lasting peace in Mindanao is doomed to fail,” Milf vice chairman Ghadzali Jaafar said.
Jaafar aired his appeal to clarify the Milf had not announced that its negotiations with government is now close to a standoff, due to worsening misunderstandings on the contents of the draft law.
The Philippine star
