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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines, MILF agree on Bangsamoro draft |
| 2014-08-16 |
| After months of review and marathon workshops, the peace panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have finally arrived at a mutually acceptable draft Bangsamoro Basic Law. In a joint statement Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and Bangsamoro Transition Commission head and MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said, "We have concluded discussions on the various issues involving the draft BBL originally drafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission and submitted to the President last April. The parties have agreed that the resolutions arrived at by both parties will be incorporated into the final draft Basic Bangsamoro Law that will be prepared and submitted to President Benigno Aquino III." The draft BBL aims to establish a Bangsamoro political entity that will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Both panels have earlier committed to submit the draft BBL to the Office of the President by August 18. Meanwhile, hardline Filipino Muslim militants said Friday they have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, the extremist jihadis who now control large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Video clips have been uploaded in recent weeks onto YouTube showing both Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Abu Sayyaf militants pledging support to the Islamic State (IS). BIFF spokesman Abu Misry Mama said, "We have an alliance with the Islamic State and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," referring to the group's leader. Misry confirmed that a YouTube video uploaded on Wednesday, showing a BIFF leader flanked by armed men reading a statement of support for the IS, had come from his group. A purported Abu Sayyaf video has also been uploaded onto Youtube showing one of the group's most senior leaders, Isnilon Hapilon, mentioning al-Baghdadi as he read out a statement that pledged allegiance to the IS. He was filmed linking arms with more than a dozen men, some with faces swathed in cloth, as they stood at a forest clearing to pray and listen to his statement. |
| Posted by:ryuge |