“Nananawagan [po ako] nawa’y bigyang daan ninyo ang hakbang [na] ito… hinihimok ko po kayo ay tumaya rin sa pag-asa na makakamit natin ang ganap na pagbabago sa ARMM,” Aquino said during his speech at the 2nd ARMM LGU Summit on Good Governance and Development in Davao City.
He issued the statement after the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the last and most contentious of the four annexes to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) last January.
The annexes will be used as guides in the drafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which is expected to result in a Bangsamoro Political Entity that will replace ARMM.
Government peace panel chair Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said they hope to present the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which is being crafted by a Bangsamoro Transition Commission, to Congress early this year.
Aquino, however, had expressed worry that they may have difficulty passing it in Congress.
After Congress enacts the law, a plebiscite will be held for it to be approved. According to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, the plebiscite will be held in the “envisioned core territory of the Bangsamoro.”
It said this includes the current ARMM provinces and Marawi City; the cities of Cotabato and Isabela; the six municipalities in Lanao del Norte that voted for inclusion in the ARMM in the 2001 plebiscite (Baloi, Munai, Pantar, Nunungan, Tagaloan, Tangkal); and the 39 barangays in six municipalities of North Cotabato province that likewise voted for inclusion in 2001 (Labacan, Carmen, Aleosan, Pigkawaya, Pikit and Midsayap).
But it said all other “contiguous areas” where there is a resolution of the local government unit or a petition of at least 10 percent of the qualified voters in the area may also ask for their inclusion in the plebiscite, at least two months prior to its conduct.
Once the law is approved in a plebiscite, the people of the new Bangsamoro entity will elect their officials, which the government hopes to happen before June 30, 2016. — Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News
