Young Moro leaders show support for Bangsamoro deal

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - A bloc of young Moro leaders authored a resolution expressing support to the effort of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to establish an MILF-led Bangsamoro political entity.

The GPH and MILF are trying to bilaterally put up the Bangsamoro entity before 2016, based on the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB), which was signed by both sides last March 27 in Malacañang.

Copies of the resolution drafted by the Young Moro Professionals Network (YMPN) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, stipulating the group’s desire to have the Mindanao peace process made part of the social mainstream, were received on Tuesday by different media outfits in Central Mindanao.  

The resolution was reportedly endorsed by the YMPN to the secretariat of the 10th National Youth Parliament, held last month in Manila.

“We, the youth in the Muslim Mindanao area, want to mainstream the issue of peace process," said Asan Al-Ameen Camlian, 23, of Basilan, a component province of ARMM.

The autonomous region also covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the islands of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Camlian is a senior official of YMPN, the largest group of Muslim professionals in the country, which participated in last month’s 10th National Youth Parliament in Manila. 

Amir Mawalil, director of the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information, said the four-day 10th NYP, which brought all together youth leaders from across the country, provided the region’s youth sector a venue for supporting the on-going government-MILF peace overture.

Mawalil, who is also a member of the YMPN, said the recent 10th NYP tackled the most pressing issues now besetting the country’s youth sector, such as health, employment, education, and involvement in pro-peace and development initiatives. 

The NYP is convened annually by the National Youth Commission, the government's lead agency on youth development.

The ARMM was represented in the 10th NYP by Camlian, Tadzmahar Abdulkadil, Fatimah Jasmeen Alih, Sitti Anieza Darong, Ro-Janna Jamiri, Keith Einstein Pon (Tawi-Tawi), Sittie Fatimah Balt, Mubarak Cabugatan, Roselainie Calil, Lady Hanifah Mindalano (Lanao del Sur), Julamin Paglala, Amenodin Samporna (Maguindanao).

Mawalil said 204 youth parliamentarians from the country’s 17 regions joined the last month's NYP.