Ateneo de Davao University and Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) President Fr. Joel Tabora (FILE PHOTO/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — A Jesuit priest who heads the largest organizations of Catholic schools in the country is encouraging members to study the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to better understand it.
Fr. Joel Tabora, president of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), also president of the Ateneo De Davao University, said the BBL is “constitutional” based on the opinion of the university’s College of Law.
The BBL will create the new political entity called the Bangsamoro, in accordance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro signed between the Aquino government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2014. The new political entity will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
“It’s not something that we can make a command and everybody follows, it is something rather that we give them the document, show them the circumstances behind the document and ask them to make their own judgment relative if they can support this bill,” he said.
Tabora will present the document to the CEAP members for study, during its four-day national convention slated here until September 29.
The CEAP says that supporting the BBL is “an essential provision to a new Federal National Constitution” that will promote peace and justice in Mindanao.
Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Secretary Adelino Sitoy told reporters on Tuesday that the BBL might be approved “before the year ends”, at a press briefing in Malacañang.
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez will sponsor the BBL at the lower house and may file it himself, Sitoy said.
MILF Chairman Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim on Tuesday said they will continue to work for the final peaceful settlement of the conflict in Mindanao.
“We will continue to ask government to comply with its unilateral obligation to enact a law that would give life and realization to the letter and spirit of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte agreed to certify the draft Moro law as urgent in a meeting with the Legislative Executive Development Advisor Committee on September 20.(davaotoday.com)
