COTABATO CITY — Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo, OMI, DD on Thursday reiterated his commitment to continuously support and work for the passage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that will hopefully bring peace to Mindanao.
“I strongly support the inclusive Bangsamoro Basic Law,” Quevedo said in an interview of the BBL that was drafted by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC).
The BBL, an enabling law, will complete the government peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberaion Front (MILF) aimed at ending decades-old Moro issue and the right to self-determination claimed by Muslims in Mindanao.
“For me, the new BBL answers the centuries-old aspirations of the Bangsamoro for self-determination and it addresses the historical injustices against the Bangsamoro,” he said.
The cardinal was one of the speakers of Bangsamoro General Assembly in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao early this week.
Quevedo, the country’s second cardinal and Mindanao’s first and only, said the new BBL “clearly recognizes and supports the fundamental rights of minorities in the Bangsamoro territory, especially Christians and Indigenous Peoples and it declares freedom of religion and freedom of worship.”
Quevedo has been in the forefront of peace advocacy in his diocese and the country having experienced the cruelties of war and the destruction it brought to communities.
He heads the “Friends of Peace,” an umbrella organization of peace advocates in Mindanao composed of leaders from various organizations that worked hard for the success of the government and MILF peace process.
“Friends of Peace” which was convened by the cardinal dreamed of a Mindanao where the universal rights of every Mindanaon are protected and promoted with no discrimination in relation to gender, religious belief or ethnic affiliation.
In one of his speaking engagement as Friends of Peace convenor, Cardinal Quevedo said “We look at the future with hope, we cannot look at the past only with dismay. And see the future with confusion. But we need, as peacemakers, to look the future with hope.”
He repeatedly brought his peace advocacy in many of his homilies when celebrating the Holy Eucharist in Mindanao and elsewhere in the country.
Cardinal Quevedo spent most of his 50 year priesthood serving the people of the Archdiocese of Cotabato, mostly in conflict affected parishes and communities where his advocacies for peace was born.
He also heads the Bishop Ulama Conference, an organization of Muslim, Christians, Lumads and other faith that worked for inter-religious dialogues in conflict communities of Mindanao. (PNA)
