Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — With Mindanao beleaguered by armed conflict, President Rodrigo Duterte urged the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) to create a policy that will promote peace and unity.
“I am urging the BTC to navigate the hindrances and obstructions at hanapin ninyo ang daan patungo ng kapayaan (and find the way to peace),” Duterte said Friday at the launching of the expanded BTC in Davao City.
“It’s going to be a long journey, but if there is a product that is acceptable to all, makikita ninyo ako (you will have my support),” he added
Once approved, Duterte promised to implement the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) crafted by the 21-member BTC .
Duterte even said he will “ask every Filipino to vote for it because it will make us a great nation.”
The BTC is composed of 10 members from the government, and 11 from the MILF.
“I would like to see people from the Moro community really, really crafting laws for their own good,” Duterte said.
“I leave it up to you. You know the history, equation, composition, and religions here. The idiosyncrasies of the tribes,” he added.
Being the first Philippine president hailing from Mindanao, Duterte said he would be “very happy to step down if [he sees] a good law that would govern us all equally.”
The President emphasized the importance of resource control and gaining income of their own land for the Moro people.
“As President, gusto ko talaga mangyari ang kapayapaan (I really want peace to happen), but it must be one country, one nation, one flag,” he said.
Duterte tagged himself as one with the Moro people, and vowed to fulfill his campaign promise of bringing peace to Mindanao within the third year of his presidency.
However, the President also repeatedly warned the Moro people against extremism, saying this would void all efforts to bring peace in the region.
“We must avoid extremism or even entertaining or accommodating them because it will destroy all of us,” Duterte said, talking about the international militant group Islamic State or ISIS.
“Walang patawad (They’re unforgiving)…because they’re driven by insanity, they just kill people for nothing, or there is no reason at all,” he added.
Duterte’s appeal to the BTC followed the collapse earlier this month of the peace talks between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippine. He said he terminated the peace talks due to the communist rebels’ demands for the government to release all political prisoners.
The President also lamented how soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were still attacked, even when the New People’s Army was supposed to be on a ceasefire.
