Commander Bravo good for Bangsamoro Transition Authority —Duterte

President Rodrigo Duterte defended the appointment of Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Abdullah Macapaar, also known as the renegade Commander Bravo, to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA).

Macapaar took his oath of office, along with the rest of the 80-member BTA headed by MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim, on Friday before Duterte in Malacañang.

A feared warrior, Macapaar led in 2008 led deadly attacks on civilian targets in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte after the Supreme Court declared the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) unconstitutional.

“Well, he is a revolutionary. We are talking here of ending a revolution. So you should talk to a revolutionary or a warrior of that war,” Duterte told reporters when asked about his thoughts on Macapaar’s membership in the BTA.

Asked if Macapaar’s presence would be beneficial to the BTA, Duterte said: “Yes of course. He took the brunt.”

“The burden was there. Kagaya ng Army ko, Armed Forces ko, police ko. They do the dying. They do the talking,” he said.

The BTA will govern the new Bangsamoro region until elections in 2022.

The new region, which replaces the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, will enjoy expanded land and water jurisdiction, fiscal autonomy, increased share in national government resources, among others, under the recently ratified Bangsamoro Organic Law. —NB, GMA News