Cebu youth get to know Bangsamoro law

More than 450 students from various schools and colleges in Cebu City yesterday gathered at the provincial capitol to participate in the first Bangsamoro Peace Festival.

Organized by the Academy of Political Management (AMP), the event aims to educate  people about the purpose and objectives of the  Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and to  expose the non-Muslim youth to Bangsamoro culture. Chao Cabatingan, event organizer, said they chose Cebu because “there is still much resistance here.” “The youth in Manila understand the concept better, probably because that’s where the source of power lies,” he told reporters at the Capitol Social Hall yesterday.

Cabatingan said that some people’s lack of understanding could be because they had no historical  knowledge about the  struggle between the Muslim Filipinos and the Philippine government.

The organizers saw that the proposed law has not been given much value in other parts of the country,  so there is a need to disseminate  information.

“The Bangsamoro Law is a unique piece of legislation.  This event is a way to lobby, and to make the people at Congress know that there is clamor for it even outside the Bangsamoro area,” he said.

Management student Isaac Saguit supports the BBL’s  passage. “It’s the most pragmatic way to attain peace. Too much time and too much innocent lives were wasted just because we aren’t willing to compromise,” he said.

Fairlean Bajarias of Cebu Doctors’ University  shares the same sentiment. “If we’re willing to compromise, there is peace, and if there is peace, there is growth. Let us not let other factors hinder us from uniting,” she said.

The audience was treated to cultural presentations, a presentation on the proposed law, and  a debate on the bill.

Outside the social hall, a photo exhibit featuring the works of professionals from the proposed Bangsamoro areas  was also held. After the event, the audience was treated to authentic Muslim food.

On March 27,  the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) was signed, which was hoped to signal the end of the decades-long armed conflict in Mindanao that posed major setbacks to progress. The bill seeks to abolish the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and establish a new political entity called “Bangsamoro” that will have its own basic structure of government, “securing the Bangsamoro people’s identity and posterity, and allow for meaningful self-governance.”

An explanatory note in the draft BBL states that “the negotiated political settlement outlined the mechanisms, processes, and modalities through which the parties aim to establish and entrench a regime of peace, development, social justice, and the rule of law in the conflict-ridden areas and communities of Southern Philippines.”