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| Southeast Asia |
| BIFF rejects invite to Philippine congressional hearing |
| 2014-09-20 |
| The outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) on Friday again rejected an invitation to participate in congressional hearings on the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). The group's spokesman, Abu Misry Mama, said, "We cannot join in any peace process that falls short of our bid for an independent Moro state." Representative Rufus Rodriguez, chair of the House committee now working on the proposed law, earlier said they want the BIFF's reclusive chieftain, Imam Ameril Ombra Kato and Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front to participate in the BBL deliberations. Mama said, "We better keep on fighting the military in the field than engage in any hearing on that draft BBL. That is purely an initiative of the MILF and the government," adding, "We can only tell Congressman Rodriguez thanks for the invitation. None from the BIFF can join the hearings." Kato, now debilitated, started as chief of the MILF's 105th Base Command, but was kicked out in 2010 due to insubordination and other offenses. Kato, who studied Islamic theology in Saudi Arabia in the 1970's as a scholar of then President Ferdinand Marcos, had issued a communiqué reaffirming their group's firm stand against the GPH-MILF peace initiative. The draft BBL, once enacted into law and ratified, will pave the way for the replacement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a new, more politically empowered Bangsamoro self-governing entity based on the final peace compact between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). |
| Posted by:ryuge |