By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

MAYOR Oscar Moreno was all praises for Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of the city’s 2nd District for leading a House committee  that approved a substitute bill that seeks to create a Bangsamoro region.

Moreno lauded the congressman despite the criticisms and controversy that have been hounding Rodriguez and other members of the House committee who voted in favor of endorsing the proposed measure.

The congressman is the chairman of the House ad hoc committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

Moreno said Rodriguez was fighting not only to end the decades old Mindanao conflict but for the future of the country’s second largest island and nation itself.

“We are fortunate to be in the limelight  again, for having our son leading the  cause for peace to bring a better tomorrow not only for Cagayan de Oro, not only  for Mindanao, but for the entire country,” Moreno told the crowd that came to Divisoria on Friday morning to celebrate the nation’s 117th Independence Day.

He said Rodriguez has a “heart for peace,” and a “vision” similar to former  Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. who authored the Local Government Code, and the late Vice President  Emmanuel Pelaez.

Like Pimentel and Pelaez, Moreno said, Rodriguez stood for principles of  freedom and democracy when he debated in the Lower House in favor of the proposed Bangsamoro law.

Speaking before the Divisoria crowd, Rodriguez said he endorsed the BBL as a step to ending the  Mindanao conflict, and with the future of its people in mind. He said the substitute bill which his committee endorsed was for Muslims, Christians, and Lumads.
“We are in the midst of securing lasting peace in Mindanao, and ensuring that our Muslim brothers and sisters will not be left behind... No one should not be left behind in our island of Mindanao,” Rodriguez said.

He said the proposed BBL had to be amended, and one of the changes was to rename the proposed territory as the “Bangsamoro Autonomous  Region.”

“They are not a nation of Moros but they are an autonomous region  under the Philippine government, and the Philippine Constitution,” he said.