CBCP calls for Bangsamoro law guided by the principle of social justice

While making it clear that they were not endorsing any draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) currently pending in Congress, Catholic bishops on Monday called for a BBL that was guided by the moral principle of social justice.

A statement issued by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' Plenary Assembly explained that the Bangsamoro people's aspiration for self-determination in an autonomous region was based on the principle of social justice.

“Social justice implies the other moral principles of just peace and inter-religious harmony... This is the moral framework from which we view the peace process and the draft BBL,” the statement went on to say.

The bishops, thus, did not what to see a BBL that:

• did not effectively address the root causes of social injustice,
• did not achieve the centuries-old Bangsamoro aspiration for self-determination,
• made the proposed Bangsamoro area of self-determination less autonomous than the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao it was going to replace,
• discriminated by not effectively protecting and promoting the rights of minorities, indigenous or not, and
• fostered ethnic, religious, political, and economic discrimination.

Rather, what the bishops wanted to see was a BBL that:

• was rooted in social justice and promoted social justice,
• effectively addressed the injustices suffered by the Bangsamoro as well as the injustices suffered by indigenous peoples and various religious minorities within the proposed Bangsamoro area,
• concretely achieved the self-determination of the Bangsamoro in an identified area that remained part and parcel of the territorial integrity and under the national sovereignty of the Philippines,
• promoted harmonious relationships between peoples of various ethnic groups and of different faiths,
• effectively protected universal human rights, particularly the rights of IPs already enshrined in law, and the rights of Christian minorities who fear harassment and further marginalization,
• responded concretely to the concerns, hopes and aspirations of all stakeholders, of various Bangsamoro groups, and of non-Moro citizens within the new Bangsamoro autonomous region, and
• had provisions that were clearly Constitutional, without betraying the intent and spirit of peace agreements.

However, the CBCP added that their vision for the the BBL was a “vision that goes beyond the proposals now being discussed in our legislature."

Waging peace

The CBCP, meanwhile, pointed out that an all-out war was not the solution, and urged all parties to "transcend the negative emotions of human tragedy and continue on the road to peace by way of dialogue, based on mutual trust, openness, and respect."

The January 25 Mamasapano clash, in which 44 Special Action Force police officers and 18 Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters were killed, should thus not be equated with the BBL as it would leave the peace process in limbo.

"The moral imperative to lasting peace is this: Christians, Muslims, Lumads and members of other faiths have to begin trusting in one another," the statement counseled.

Also, the CBCP prayed that the ad hoc legislative committees in Congress would "seriously and fairly" consider contrary expert opinions on the BBL's constitutionality, "so as not to imperil the requirements of social justice for the Bangsamoro."

The bishops would prefer that such issues were left to the Supreme Court for judicial review. "If left out through substantive revisions, the Supreme Court can no longer re-insert them." — Joel Locsin/DVM, GMA News