MILF to reach out to other Moro fronts to support BOL

COTABATO CITY — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) vowed to reach out to more people in Mindanao, including non-Muslims and indigenous peoples, to rally support for the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which will have to pass through a plebiscite before it could be implemented as a law.

Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chair for political affairs, said among the groups they planned to reach out included the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which was founded by Nur Misuari, and the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), which continues to wage war against the government.

“Even the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), we will reach out to them,” Jaafar said yesterday in radio interview.

A breakaway group of the MILF, BIFF was formed by the late Omra Kato after the group became impatient with the delayed peace process with the government.

After it was outlawed, it splintered into different groups, among them were those who publicly pledged allegiance to the ISIS.

Jaafar, who chaired the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) that drafted the proposed enabling law, said the MILF would not claim sole ownership of the success of the Moro struggle in Mindanao.

He said the BOL would include people of various religious beliefs, cultures, and political affiliations in Mindanao to achieve genuine peace in the island.

Misuari whose MNLF had forged a peace deal with Manila in 1996 had earlier appeared lukewarm to the government and MILF peace process.

But Jaafar said a committee had been formed to reach out to Misuari and his leaders.

Misuari was quoted by the media as saying his group would not join the new political entity in Mindanao but would wait for the establishment of federal form of government that the Duterte administration had been pushing in the country.