On September 10, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III transmitted the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) to House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and Senate President Franklin Drilon of the Congress for review and deliberation.

On September 13, the Lakbay Tribu para sa Karapatan sa Sariling Pagpapasya (Indigenous Peoples’ Journey for the Right to Self-Determination was launched in Upi Agricultural School, Nuro, Upi, Maguindanao, to continue the call for the full inclusion of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) in the BBL.

For seventeen years since the passing of the IPRA in 1997, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which was the product of the struggle of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) fell short in implementing this law that ensures the recognition, protection and promotion of the rights of the indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples.

In the public forum that accompanied the Lakbay Tribu, Timuay Labi Sannie Bello, the supreme chieftain of the indigenous peoples in ARMM shared that this minoritization of the Teduray and Lambangian in the GRP-MNLF peace process continued with the draft BBL to the Congress when IPRA was not mentioned at all after their efforts in engaging both the MILF and the GPH through position letters and meetings to lobby their political demands in the decision-making of both peace panels. Though the recent draft BBL contained provisions that ensure indigenous peoples’ rights in various sections, he insisted that “it still wasn’t IPRA and it is the full inclusion of IPRA in the BBL” as their “maximum demand”.

Meanwhile, one of the forum speakers, Commissioner Froilyn T. Mendoza of Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) stressed the importance of critical analysis of the draft BBL especially with regards to ensuring the rights of the indigenous peoples. As a Teduray herself who was endorsed by the indigenous political structure of the Teduray and Lambangian to the BTC, she recalled the long and tedious process of getting the IPRA in the commission’s draft even if the commissioners from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front told her that the discussion on the said law didn’t form a part of the talking points in the peace negotiations. She recalled that the indigenous peoples created a technical working group for the drafting of their proposed provisions in the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Their serious efforts resulted to a three waves of submission of provisions relevant to the indigenous peoples.

First, they proposed a full chapter, contained in nine articles and one hundred forty five chapters describing the rights of the tribal peoples to differentiate themselves from the Bangsamoro people. However, this was not accepted in the BTC, thus both indigenous peoples’ representatives in the BTC with their respective technical working groups came up with 13 articles with 69 provisions. In the end, the consolidating committee reduced the provisions on the indigenous peoples to thirteen sections.

This did not deter Mendoza to continue to pursue in the negotation because if they will back she was afraid that there’d be no more provisions left for the IPS. Thus, in a meeting with President Aquino on March 13 she presented the predicament of the IPs in the Bangsamoro. She remembered how the President told her to “use the IPRA” which she took to mean that she would continue to push for its inclusion in the BBL in the commission’s draft.

Despite this predicament, the indigenous peoples remain supportive and hopeful on the results of the Congress deliberation of the draft BBL while exhausting all diplomatic and democratic processes in the pursuit of their rights to identity, territory, social justice and human rights and cultural integrity as mandated by the IPRA.