Speech of Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus G. Dureza during the Launch of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission

As shown in the video, today is another milestone. What had been promised before, what had been the dream of this country has been enunciated very clearly and vividly by the President, who is from Mindanao, is now taking another turn to use the language of Inday Santiago.

We have now a golden opportunity especially for us Mindanaoans. The BTC is going to work and craft a new draft of what could be another enabling law that will implement the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) but more than that it will attempt also to converge all the different laws that we have in order that at the end of the day, we have only one Bangsamoro in a very enlightened Filipino nation.

The opportunities are here. Never before in history that aside from having a President from Mindanao, we also have a Speaker of the House who is from Mindanao; we have a Senate President who is from Mindanao. Unknown to many, we have a Chief Justice who hails from Sulu and whose husband is from Davao city. Now, if we lose this opportunity, fellow Mindanaoans and fellow Filipinos, then it will I think will be forever lost.

There is no other moment in history than now that’s why we have to strike this opportunity that we have. We call on the Bangsamoro, members of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, to come together using their competence, their experience, to craft a new draft law. Hopefully, that Congress is going to approve.

But there are also tasks to meet with a bigger table and the bigger table are the stakeholders who are out there, waiting also to be heard so that at the end of the day, the product of that work will be inclusive and of course will respond to the Bangsamoro aspiration that up to today had not been achieved.

So today, we’d like to welcome all of you and we pray that we continue to stay the course. As I always say, the road to peace is not a smooth road, it has become already my usual incantation, that there are humps and bumps along the way. But if we all stay together and stay the course then definitely we’ll reach the destination that our President has clearly set: his dream, his aspiration for a peaceful Mindanao and a united country, Philippines.