Former Armed Forces chiefs of staff Victor Ibrado and Alexander Yano expressed support yesterday to the peace process in Mindanao, but said the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law should be scrutinized by Congress, must be acceptable to all, and be implementable.

While BBL was forged between the government and Moro Islamic

Liberation Front peace panels, Ibrado said it is the responsibility of the legislative branch of the government, especially Congress, to look at it.

If there are things needed to amend it, then they should amend it.

Congress cannot be told to pass it whether they like it or not, he said.

Yano, meanwhile, said they are all for peace and any BBL should satisfy constitutionality and acceptability, not only for the MILF but for all other sectors and groups in the country.

It should be also implementable, Yano said, adding although it may be good on paper, but is difficult to implement on the ground, problems will follow.

The MILF wants Congress to pass the BBL without amendments, claiming that a diluted BBL would only fuel radicalism and worsen the problems of Mindanao. Deliberation on it in Congress was temporarily set aside because of the Mamasapano incident that claimed the lives of 44 police commandos who also killed international terrorist Marwan.

As for the call of some lawmakers to replace members of the government panel talking peace with MILF, Ibrado said that while he is not an expert on the matter, and does not know them personally, they should be commended for the way they were able to forge the agreement.

There were so many peace talks in the past, since the start of the problem, it is only now that the problem on MILF has been worked on, but excludes the Moro National Liberation Front,he added.

They should be commended, but they cannot say that the BBL should not be amended, he said.

The legislative branch of the government is duty bound to scrutinize and see to it that the provisions are all within the bounds of the law, said Ibrado, who, along with Yano and other members of the Philippine Military Academy Classes 75,76 and 77, joined the 52-kilometer “Bike Journey for Peace in Negros yesterday, that was a project of Col. Jon Aying.

Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez, head of the Visayan bloc in the Lower Chamber, said the Department of Justice should be given a bigger role in determining which provisions should be deleted.

“Let’s ask the legal opinion of the DOJ for Congress to know what parts of the BBL are unconstitutional,” he said.

As to the Mamasapano incident, Ibrado said “I think the best way is to wait for the result of the investigation and listen to what the investigating body has to say.

“It is very hard to say anything when you were not there,” he added.*GPB

back to top