PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will use his voice as a "powerful influence" to ensure the successful ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), MalacaƱang said on Monday, January 14.
"The President is a best judge of what will be the outcome of this plebiscite [for the BOL's ratification]. He will make a move if he thinks he should. He won't sit and just watch," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo told Palace reporters in a press briefing.
"Certainly, the voice of the President is always a powerful influence on whatever matter he gives his voice into," he added.
Earlier Monday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana revealed President Rodrigo Duterte's plan to fly to Cobatato City to join a January 18 rally in support of the BOL's ratification.
Panelo said he was not privy to Duterte's plan, but stressed that the President may do that to get the public's support.
"If he feels that there is a need and he will campaign for that. If he feels that it will win, whether even without his calling for voters to support it, he will not," he said.
"But ultimately, it will be the people's call whether they want it or not. What is important and certain is that the President will abide by whatever the will of the sovereign people in that part of this country is," he added.
Panelo made the statement just two weeks ahead of the plebiscite for the ratification of the BOL.
The BOL creates Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), replacing the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). This new region will have wider control over its resources and political power.
The BARMM is composed of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, six municipalities of Lanao del Norte, 39 villages of North Cotabato, and chartered cities of Cotabato and Isabela, based on the Bangsamoro law.
A plebiscite is necessary for the legal creation of the new Bangsamoro region. (SunStar Philippines)