PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III vowed on Tuesday to work doubly hard to ensure orderly elections in the envisioned Bangsamoro region in 2016.
The Chief Executive made this commitment during his speech at the Japan International Cooperation Agency's International Conference on the Consolidation for Peace for Mindanao held in Hiroshima, Japan.
Aquino cited the importance of the gathering in Hiroshima, as he stressed that by working together to boost the capacities of the people of the Bangsamoro would truly enable them to succeed, and show them that peace, stability, and harmony — whether in Mindanao or in the wider international environment — are both possible and sustainable.
"This can be done if we can harness trust and friendship towards a reasonable, mutually beneficial consensus. I believe that all of us here today are bound by this hope," he said.
"This is why my administration will work doubly hard to ensure that free, peaceful, and democratic elections for the Bangsamoro government will take place come 2016," Aquino stressed.
The creation of a Bangsamoro government that will replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is embodied in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), which the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed on March 27 this year in Malacanang.
The government and the MILF have been eyeing to hold the first election in Bangsamoro simultaneously with the national and local polls in May 2016. (SDR/Sunnex)