BTC seeks sponsors for consultations
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| President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signs the Executive Order reconstituting the Bangsamoro Transition Commission in Malacañan on November 7. Also in the photo are Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Peace Panel Chair Mohagher Iqbal, Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza, MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, and Government of the Philippines (GPH) Peace Implementing Panel Chair Irene Santiago. Presidential Photo/King Rodriguez |
Marawi City, Lanao del Sur
April 29, 2017
The Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) is still operating without any budget, and is now seeking sponsors for its scheduled field consultative meeting in this city on May 4.
Lawyer FIrdausi Y. Abbas, a Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) representative to the BTC and chair of its justice and peace committee, lamented the sad state of the commission in a letter addressed to Sultans in this city who he asked for help to generate sponsors for the field hearing.
“The Bangsamoro Transition Commission to this day has not received any budget from the Palace and the credit line of the BTC does not extend outside of Cotabato City, so (it) cannot finance outside consultations which I find most lamentable,” Abbas said in a letter dated April 26 and addressed to Sultan of Bacolod Narshrullah Conding.
Abbas, a crowned sultan himself, asked Conding to make representations with Vice Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. and Mindanao State University (MSU) system president Dr. Habib Macaayong for joint sponsorship of the May 4 event.
In a meeting here Thursday, Sultans Conding, Alikhan Diron Sani, Subair Mustapha, and Bryan Marmay told The Manila Bulletin that the offices of the provincial governor and MSU president have agreed to extend assistance in view of their commitments to the Duterte administration’s drive for a peaceful end to the age-old Moro struggle.
Abbas’ letter did not mention any specific agenda for the May 4 hearing, saying only that the event will be a daylong affair tentatively slated at the MSU gym. (agm/mb)
