PDP-Laban standard bearer Rodrigo Duterte. (File photo)
DAVAO CITY — Presidential aspirant and PDP-Laban standard bearer Rodrigo Duterte will meet with officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front at the rebel group’s main camp in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao on Saturday, February 27.
In a statement, Peter Laviña, chief of Duterte’s media team, said the mayor will visit Camp Darapanan to talk with MILF officials about the Mindanao problem and the Moro people’s aspiration for self-rule and the establishment of a Bangsamoro territory through the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).
During his visit to Danao City, Cebu on Thursday February 25, Duterte criticized the Aquino administration’s failure to come up with a meaningful and long-lasting solution to the Mindanao problem.
“They dribbled BBL,” he said. “Nothing happened under the administration.”
He warned that the Mindanao conflict will continue if the government will not be able to “correct the historical wrong committed against the Moro people.” Danao is the hometown of Duterte’s parents.
‘War will fracture the nation’
“If this will explode, we can only expect for the worst,” he said.
But Duterte warned that war “will only fracture the nation” and that he has been talking to the people in Mindanao to be patient.
“I have been asking our brothers and sisters to wait for a while, to wait for the right time. I promised them that we will come up with something that will solve their problems,” he said.
“People in Mindanao cannot kill each other, he said.
“Ano ang gagawin natin? Magpatayan tayo? And at the end of the day magbilang tayo ng mga patay — ilan ang Muslim, ilan ang kristiyano, ilan ang sundalo?” he said.
Duterte has been offering federalism as an alternative to BBL. Federalism, he said, will not only make the aspirations of the Moro possible, but also of the entire Mindanao, including the indigenous peoples.
He blames the troubles of Mindanao to the current set up of the government where power is concentrated in Manila, at the disposal of those who are in power. (davaotoday.com)
