Duterte says he’d stay in Mindanao for 10 days

DAVAO City–President Duterte would stay in Mindanao for 10 days when he returns this week from Malacanang.

“I’ll be spending about 10 days after tomorrow. I’m gonna fix the, firm (up) the structure sa Mindanao issue,” Duterte said.

Since he took his oath as President on June 30, Duterte has been coming home for the weekends in this city where he served as  mayor for 22 years.

“We will be going for the framework regarding the two factions,” he said, referring to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) with whom government signed separate peace agreements.

Duterte was apparently referring to the convergence of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) with the MILF  and the 1996 Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the MNLF, for the drafting of a more inclusive Bangsamoro law.

Under the Duterte peace roadmap, the 15-member all-Moro Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) will be reconstituted to make the seven government nominees in the Commission “more inclusive.”

The BTC will be tasked to draft a “more inclusive” enabling law that will be filed with Congress” in lieu of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL)  that was not passed by the previous Congress, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said.

Duterte said he would stay for 10 days here because “I have to fix the …  Mindanao issue. Tingnan ko ‘yung framework. I have to travel to Cotabato to talk again to (the MILF) to hurry up. And I travel to Jolo to talk to Nur (MNLF founding chair Nur Misuari).”

He said he is going to Mindanao “maybe day after tomorrow and start to look into the firming up of the framework and if I have the time, I’ll just fly to Jolo (to meet Misuari) and to Murad again to talk and I’ll just give them the firm commitments.”

Murad is MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim who is based in Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, near Cotabato City. (carolyn o. arguillas of mindanews)