Bangsamoro Parliament favors Charter change
By John Felix M. Unson, Correspondent
COTABATO CITY — The 80-member Bangsamoro parliament has passed a five-page resolution favoring Charter change (“Cha-cha”), asserting it can hasten efforts of putting a durable diplomatic closure to the nagging Moro issue hounding Mindanao since the early 1970s.
The resolution that members of the regional lawmaking body, also known as the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, approved the resolution during a deliberation on Wednesday afternoon.
The resolution was principally authored by the region’s chief minister, Ahod B. Ebrahim, Parliament Speaker Ali Pangalian M. Balindong, and Regional Education Minister Muhaquer M. Iqbal. “It is our duty to ensure that our gains in the peace process are cemented in the proposed constitutional changes and not merely a subject of legislative act,” Mr. Balindong said during their session prior to approving the resolution.
On Thursday, parliament member Kadil M. Sinolinding, Jr. told reporters that it is important to “enshrine” into a new Charter the Moro community and the national government’s obligation to work together in keeping the fragile peace now in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Among the peace, security and governance issues that members of the Bangsamoro parliament want stipulated clearly in a new state Charter is the sharing by the regional government and Malacañang of revenues from natural resources obtainable in BARMM’s six provinces and three cities.
iDEFEND OPPOSES ‘CHA-CHA’
Meanwhile, the group In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDefend) said on Thursday that the reason the country continues to contend with poverty and economic woes is not a flawed Constitution but a failure of government in good governance.
“We have yet to begin to fully implement our Constitution in order to see real progress, but self-interests within the government have already betrayed it,” iDefend said in a statement.
It pointed out that the 1987 Constitution already ensures that every Filipino is entitled to sufficient social services, decent employment and standard of living.
“We urge concerned government officials to focus instead on fulfilling their Constitutional obligation to end impunity, implement social justice and achieve human dignity for every Filipino,” iDefend said.
Hilario G. Davide, Jr., a former chief justice and one of the framers of the Constitution, earlier told Senators that Congress should focus on cutting red tape and corruption instead of easing foreign ownership restrictions in the Charter. — with a report from John Victor D. Ordoñez
