By Ceilito M. Reganit
MANILA, Feb. 10 (PNA) — A senior House leader on Tuesday called on his colleagues not to waver in their resolve to their quest for lasting peace in Mindanao despite the bloody Mamasapano incident and urged them to continue deliberation on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) with urgency and pass it in opportune time.
In a privilege speech, House Deputy Speaker Pangalian Balindong said that he fully supports the policy of President Benigno S. Aquino III to push for peace without let up.
He said that the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is a product of peace negotiation, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Government worked for 17 years to put it together.
“As we all know, obstacles littered the way, but the parties were able to surmount them,” Balindong said.
Borrowing from George Bernard Shaw, the House leader said that “peace is not only better than war, but more infinitely arduous.”
“The passage of the BBL is no doubt a political resolution to the secessionist struggle of the Bangsamoro. But in the wake of the Mamasapano incident, some of our colleagues were stirred into antipathy at the BBL and are pushing for the suspension of its deliberation,” the Lanao del Sur lawmaker said.
He said that he does not wish to locate responsibility for the incident as yet without a thorough investigation.
However, instead of ill-feeling, the lawmaker from the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said that he was moved to be even more determined to work for peace.
“I too felt the shock (at the Mamasapano incident). But instead of antipathy, I was moved with greater resolve to work for peace and mend fences,” Balindong said.
“I want this war to end now,” he said as he noted the losses in terms of lives and economic terms the decades-old war in Mindanao has wrought to the Motherland.
But he added that he has no intention to dwell on the issue on whose fault the ensuing war lies on.
“What I am concerned about is our state of affairs in relation to the Bangsamoro Basic Law,” he said. “Do we stall its passage in view of the Mamasapano incident and wait for what eternity will bring and miss altogether the bus of peace?”
Lastly, the Muslim lawmaker urged the House leadership to resume review of the BBL and not to equate the bill with the Mamasapano incident lest those who want the armed struggle to continue will have won.
“We must not fail to take the chance to make our nation right, or the lives lost for the sake of peace, like those of the fallen in Mamasapano, shall have died in vain,” he said.
“It is now, or it may be never,” Balindong said. (PNA)