[Manila Times] Leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front gathered in Marawi City on Tuesday to call for passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and to express solidarity with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Over a thousand people joined the Bangsamoro Walk for Peace around the city early Tuesday morning and held a rally to acknowledge peace efforts by the MILF and the Philippine government.MNLF chairman Datu Abul Khayr Alonto said the Bangsamoro people are looking for more peace advocates to support the BBL. He said the BBL may be the last opportunity for the Bangsamoro people to negotiate autonomy for their homeland.
Alonto said, "While we need sincerity to pursue lasting peace in Mindanao, all stakeholders, especially the government, should consider the utmost necessity to settle the Bangsamoro issue and a diluted [BBL] has a price that will be too great."
Participating in Tuesday's events were surviving original MNLF guerillas known in the late 1960s and the 1970s as the Black Shirts, MILF representatives, the government peace panel and the International Monitoring Team.
Alonto said the MNLF and the MILF have put aside their differences and agreed to work together after he and MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim signed a communiqué for cooperation at Camp Darapanan last January.