By John Unson, Philippine Star

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - It was the tragic Mamasapano incident that revealed to the public the deeper intricacies of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and how southern sectors have been longing for a peaceful closure to the Moro issue, the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) said Wednesday.

The new figurehead of IMT, Malaysian Army Gen. Mokhsin Sheik, on Wednesday told Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, during his first official visit to the governor’s office in Buluan town, that the incident also heightened public awareness on how the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are trying to resolve amicably the Mindanao Moro problem.

The Jan. 25, 2015 Mamasapano incident, which left 44 elite police commandos, 17 MILF members and five civilians dead, challenged the two accords between the rebel group and government - the Oct. 15, 2013 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and the March 27, 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

The fiasco also stalled the enactment into law of the BBL, the enabling measure for the replacement of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more politically empowered, MILF-led Bangsamoro government.

Sheik was accompanied by his compatriots, led by his chief-of-staff, Col. Mohd Hakimi of the Malaysian Royal Air Force, in his first ever official meeting with Mangudadatu, where they talked about cooperation in monitoring the enforcement in Maguindanao of the government-MILF July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.

Also present in the meeting were engineers Debualeg Utto and Wahab Tunga, provincial planning director and administrator, respectively, Lea Sagan, chief coordinator of the governor's peace advocacy projects and personnel officer Monina Macarongon.

Sheik, a two-star general in the Malaysian Army, assumed leadership of the IMT just two weeks ago, following the completion of a year-long peacekeeping mission in Mindanao by his predecessor, Major Gen. Abdul Samad Yaakub.

The IMT - comprised of soldiers and policemen from Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Libya, and non-uniformed economists and conflict resolution experts from Japan, Norway and the European Union - has been helping enforce the government-MILF ceasefire in flashpoint areas in Mindanao since late 2003.

“The Mamasapano incident was tragic, but has had positive effects too,” Sheik told Mangudadatu during their meeting.

Mangudadatu, chair of the inter-agency provincial peace and order council, said he wants a peaceful closure to the Mamasapano incident.

Mangudadatu said the incident must not disrupt the ongoing government-MILF peace initiative.

Peace talks between the government and the MILF started on Jan. 7, 1997 and gained headway in 2003 with the involvement of Malaysia as facilitator.

Mangudadatu and Sheik also talked about religious extremism and how the provincial government is trying to address the problem through the Maguindanao Program for Educational Assistance and Community Empowerment, which bankrolls the schooling of more than 4,000 college students from far-flung areas to prevent them from getting veered away from the mainstream by religious extremists.

Mangudadatu had expressed fascination over the Malaysian government’s concept of supervising clerics involved in preaching activities to ensure that they do not indulge in religious extremism, which Sheik explained to him during their meeting.

Sheik said they have an agency in Malaysia that regulates the khutab (Friday sermon) of every cleric to ensure that they cannot stoke animosity among Muslims and non-Muslims and fan religious extremism among Malaysian worshipers.

Mangudadatu immediately directed Tunga and Utto, in the presence of Sheik, to formulate a plan on how to duplicate such program in all of the 36 towns in the province.

Mangudadatu and Sheik also talked about the recent influx of foreign investors, among them Malaysian traders, now putting up viable agricultural ventures in Maguindanao.

Mangudadatu said the foreign-assisted agricultural projects provides employment to Moro peasants and, at the same time, complements the normalization thrusts of the government and MILF.