A leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said “there will be no peace” in Mindanao until the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region is established before the end of the Aquino administration in 2016.

“That is our concern. If it is not addressed by then, then there will be no peace. The Bangsamoro agreement is the negotiated settlement and was arrived at as a solution to the problem. If there is no Bangsamoro, [there is] no solution and no peace,” Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice-chairman on political affairs, told BusinessWorld in a phone interview.

Malacañang has yet to finalize and submit to Congress the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, the centerpiece of the peace agreement between the Philippine government and the MILF that will put in place a Bangsamoro government in Mindanao.

The Palace said yesterday that executive scrutiny of the draft law continues.

In a news briefing on Sunday, Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma, Jr. said the Office of the Presidential Legal Counsel, headed by Secretary Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa, is in “constant communication” with the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, which is tasked with drafting the proposed law.

Mr. Coloma said the Palace acknowledges the urgency behind its passage at the soonest possible time.

“We are cognizant [of] the intricacies attendant to the drafting of the bill. The review by the Office of the President revealed that there is a need for fine-tuning certain provisions of the draft law,” Mr. Coloma said.

“This is to ensure that all possible questions and issues are addressed adequately and that the draft law will pass congressional scrutiny in both houses of Congress.”

Mr. Coloma would not confirm if the Office of the President had returned the draft bill with many revisions to the Transition Commission.

On March 27 this year, the government and the MILF signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. Both sides affirmed this document as a breakthrough for securing peace in Mindanao, which had been troubled by a secessionist conflict since the 1970s.

The peace agreement should lead to the activation of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a new autonomous government.

The draft law was originally scheduled for submission to Congress on May 5, but Malacañang said it needed more time to review it.

President Aquino said last month the draft law will be ready for Congress when he delivers his State of the Nation Address on July 28. He also expressed the hope that this proposal’s enactment into law will be completed by next year.

The government’s intended timetable is to hold a plebiscite in 2015 and an election in 2016, alongside the general election that year.

Asked how long the MILF is willing to wait for this process, Mr. Jaafar said, “Don’t ask me that question. We should ask the people of Mindanao. Are they willing to wait? How long are they willing to wait?

“We have done and are still doing everything we can to make this a reality. We have talked to people, [and] lawmakers about this.....But the government, up to now, has not submitted the draft to them.”

MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal had expressed concern about Malacañang’s scrutiny of the draft law. He was recently quoted as saying that the Philippine government had “heavily diluted” the original proposal as drafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.

Mr. Iqbal had also expressed doubt that the proposed law can be submitted in time for the State of the Nation Address, unless the Palace reconciles its revisions with the Commission’s draft law. -- Imee Charlee C. Delavin and Alden M. Monzon/BusinessWorld Online