By Jelly F. Musico
MANILA, Sept. 14 (PNA) – President Benigno Aquino III on Monday challenged the retired generals to give their own solution if they claimed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) are not the best antidote to the peace and order problem in Mindanao.
President Aquino made statement in reaction to a paid advertisement and manifesto signed by 31 retired generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
”All of us should join this dialogue. We should be mature that this is not a good step, there has to be a better step. This is the better step. Perhaps somebody can even say this is the best step. If it is a good suggestion, why we should not support it? But if you’ll just criticize, what benefit it will bring?,” the President said in a media interview after the inauguration of the Iloilo Convention Center (ICC).
The retired generals, led by Association of Generals and Flag Officers (AGFO) chairman and president retired Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, have expressed alarm over Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro (FAB) and CAB forged with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
They also opposed the passage of the BBL, “in its original form, even as it now undergoes congressional scrutiny.”
The former generals said the two agreements and the BBL’s original form violated the Constitution and “seek to establish a political entity which has all the makings of a state.”
President Aquino said he was surprised by the manifesto of retired officers even as he expressed his readiness to sit down and get their suggestions through an open dialogue.
”I was surprised that they have such strong opposition that came out in this paid ad. I’m open to have dialogue with them. In fact, I know some of those who signed. Some of them I met lately but they have not mentioned about it to me,” the President said.
If the retired generals would agree to a dialogue, the President said he would ask them if they indeed signed the manifesto which was published in whole page by some major Manila newspapers on Monday.
”First I will ask them if they really signed it. Secondly, what’s their specific opposition. Have you really read the proposed law? Have listen only to the so-called experts? What are the agenda of those experts? The real open discussion,” the President said.
The BBL is still being tackled both in the House of Representatives and the Senate where Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. submitted a substitute bill which he called Basic Law on Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR).
The Senate is hoping to pass the Bangsamoro bill before the filing of certificate of candidacy (CoC) next month. (PNA)