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However, many may be unable to vote due to fear that violence will disrupt the plebiscites. As families were celebrating the arrival of 2019, an improvised explosive device, more commonly known as IED, detonated in a Cotabato City mall’s baggage area, killing two people and injuring 34 others including young children. Authorities believe the bombing was politically motivated.
The MILF condoned the bombings and blamed a splinter group of their organization, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). The BIFF seeks an independent Moro nation rather than Moro autonomy under the Republic of the Philippines. To ensure that such bombings do not happen on the day of the plebiscite, the AFP and PNP deployed additional forces to ensure peace and order.
Many still fear that violence might disrupt the second phase of the plebiscite though. On the day of the first plebiscite, 66 teachers who were to conduct the voting received threatening text messages which forced them not to show up at their assigned voting centers. 60 PNP personnel who were trained as backup electoral officers took the place of the no-show teachers.
Also, a fragmentation grenade set up as a booby trap was found by citizens on the road leading to a voting center. Thankfully, it was deactivated by PNP bomb disposal before anyone could have been injured or killed.
Voters should not let fear stop them from voting for it is of great importance that enough voters vote to ratify the BOL. As stated, many lives were lost for this chance. Voters should not squander this opportunity to end the conflict.
People nationwide are awaiting the outcome of the plebiscites for the BOL since its ratification in this plebiscite will end the decades-long hostilities between the government and their Moro brethren. All the BOL seeks to accomplish is to give Moros the right to self-determination, a freedom all have rights to. //by Gabe Ulanday
OPINION: The Long-Awaited Finale
There are 2,839,659 registered voters from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Cotabato City and Isabela City. On January 21, they partook in the first phase of the regional plebiscites to ratify the implementation of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) and the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to replace the ARMM.
If BOL passes the first plebiscite, a second plebiscite will be held on February 6 in several cities and towns of Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato to determine their inclusion into the new BARMM.
The ARMM was first established in 1989 through Republic Act No. 6734 which was also known as the Organic Act. Once ratified by a plebiscite, ARMM was inaugurated in 1990. The ARMM’s main purpose is to give freedom of self-determination to Moros.
However, some Moro groups were not satisfied with the ARMM and sought greater autonomy or outright independence from the Philippine government. This led to an increase in armed violence within the region.
Despite the violence, the government and Moro nationalists negotiated to end the violence and bloodshed. The result of these decades-long negotiations is the BOL. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the leading Moro insurrection group, has agreed to government terms. They promised to cease all armed hostilities and surrender one-third of its weapon stockpile to government forces if the government consents to giving the ARMM more autonomy. The BOL is the enabling law for this agreement.
It is then assumed that if BOL is ratified, there should be a decrease in armed violence in the region.
However, there are those who disagree that the BOL will reduce violence. Among these is Cynthia Guiani Sayadi, the mayor of Cotabato City. She has urged her constituents to vote for non-inclusion and stated multiple times in her speeches that the BARMM will not resolve the violence in the region since the ARMM had a similar premise as the BARMM and yet it failed to deliver, so the BARMM will also fail to make good on its promises. This is a negative mindset for it labels the BOL a failure even before it has the chance to enact changes.
While some could say the ARMM has ‘failed’, this is now in the past and the government has learned from the experience and their mistakes. Also, there are many differences between the ARMM and the proposed BARMM.
The largest difference is that in the ARMM, residents vote for their regional governor and the vice governor, as well as three members for the Regional Legislative Assembly which is tasked with passing laws for the region. In the BARMM, residents will instead vote for their representatives in the Bangsamoro Parliament. The elected representatives will then elect a prime minister from their ranks.
This is a tremendous improvement from that of the current ARMM structure as the BARMM has provisions that ensure that residents have more representation.
BOL opposition also claims that under a BARMM that implements Sharia Law, Christians and other non-Muslims will be victims of hate crime and discrimination. This is false as Christians and non-Muslims will be exempt from Sharia Law, and they will still be protected by national law.
Many decades worth of peace talks and negotiations cumulates on the day of the plebiscite. Blood of Moro freedom fighters and government troops has been spilled and taken in needless violence. Their sacrifice should not have been in vain. In the implementation of the BOL, everybody wins and the conflict will end.
If the results ratify BOL, the people will have the chance to end the decades-long violence in the region due to Moro freedom fighters finally achieving their goal of increased autonomy and increased recognition within the Philippines.
That being said, it is essential that people vote for the ratification of the BOL in this historic plebiscite, and that these forms of democratic expressions be conducted freely and fairly while being protected from possible acts of wanton violence perpetrated by those who would seek to disrupt the regional plebiscites.
The MILF condoned the bombings and blamed a splinter group of their organization, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). The BIFF seeks an independent Moro nation rather than Moro autonomy under the Republic of the Philippines. To ensure that such bombings do not happen on the day of the plebiscite, the AFP and PNP deployed additional forces to ensure peace and order.
Many still fear that violence might disrupt the second phase of the plebiscite though. On the day of the first plebiscite, 66 teachers who were to conduct the voting received threatening text messages which forced them not to show up at their assigned voting centers. 60 PNP personnel who were trained as backup electoral officers took the place of the no-show teachers.
Also, a fragmentation grenade set up as a booby trap was found by citizens on the road leading to a voting center. Thankfully, it was deactivated by PNP bomb disposal before anyone could have been injured or killed.
Voters should not let fear stop them from voting for it is of great importance that enough voters vote to ratify the BOL. As stated, many lives were lost for this chance. Voters should not squander this opportunity to end the conflict.
People nationwide are awaiting the outcome of the plebiscites for the BOL since its ratification in this plebiscite will end the decades-long hostilities between the government and their Moro brethren. All the BOL seeks to accomplish is to give Moros the right to self-determination, a freedom all have rights to. //by Gabe Ulanday
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