Duterte assures MILF to work hard for passage of Bangsamoro Basic Law

September 5, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte has assured the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front that he will try to convince Congress to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.

In an interview in Taguig City Tuesday, Duterte said he told the MILF leaders during his meeting with them on Monday that "I will husband it (the passage of BBL).

"I said that I hope the BBL would pass Congress," he said.

The MILF-led Bangsamoro Transition Commission has prepared a new draft of the BBL, which was junked during the previous Congress due to alleged unconstitutional provisions.

The passage of a BBL is part of the peace agreement that the Aquino administration signed with the MILF.

Duterte said he would also push for the federal form of government.

"And I'm trying to convince everybody that it is for our national interest that we start changing the unitary type (of government) into a federal type," he said, noting that this was the call from the people of Visayas and Mindanao "for the longest time."

He said they were asking for "an equal sharing of the wealth of the nation, the taxes and all...that's why some of them are rebellious." Celerina Monte/DMS